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July 2, 2005
A Man from Qeriyot But Not a "Liar"
The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament claims1 that Judas Iscariot's last name means "liar" based on the supposed Aramaic word shiqray meaning "liar." But there are good reasons not to believe this. Edward Cook explains on Ralph the Sacred River why Iscariot only means "man from Qeriyot." Here is the bottom line.
First of all, there is not, as far as I can tell, any Aramaic word shiqray, sheqarya that means "liar. . .[snip]
Secondly, you can't just tack on a prosthetic aleph any place you want to; it occurs primarily on words that begin with consonant clusters (which shiqray does not).
[snip]
. . . tombstones and ossuaries from the first century CE bear (such) names in both Hebrew and Aramaic. Plus, names with ish + city name are quite common in the Mishnah.
His second point is fairly technical but certainly correct.
The mistake likely goes back to an error in Jastrow's Dictionary2. Cook does a good job of explaining the reasons for rejecting the Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament interpretation and staying with the traditional one.
Notes:
1) M. Limbeck, "Iscariotes," Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by Horst Balz, Gerhard Schneider, p. 201.
Posted by Duane Smith at July 2, 2005 11:45 AM | Read more on Religion |
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