Waves from the West: Uncovering some Greco-Roman Undercurrents in the Sea of Talmud
Waves from the West: Uncovering some Greco-Roman Undercurrents in the Sea of Talmud
Some facets of Hellenistic and Roman influence in the Talmud
Based on these previous pieces of mine, available at Academia.edu (requires registration), see there for citations: “List of some Greek loan-words in Hazalic writings” ; “From Abba to Zebedee: A Comprehensive Survey of Naming Conventions in Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic in Late Antiquity”, sections “Greek and Latin names - Jews” and “Non-Jews”.
In this piece I’d like to give an accessible overview of some intriguing facets of Ancient Greek and Roman influence in the Talmud.
To provide some background: The Hellenistic period refers to the era and culture associated with the spread of Greek influence and power from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE to the emergence of the Roman Empire as signified by the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE and the subsequent conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt in 30 BCE. This was a time when Greek culture, language, and ideas had a significant impact on the areas under its influence, including the Eastern Mediterranean region and the Near East.
The Roman Empire, established in 27 BCE, was the post-republican period of ancient Rome. It had a large influence on the laws, customs, and even languages of the territories it conquered, including the land of Israel, where much of the Talmud is set.
The Hellenistic and Roman periods had considerable influence on Judaism. From language, philosophy, to legal concepts, these cultures affected Jewish thought and literature, including the Talmud.
The scholarly literature on all these topics is vast. For now, I’ll suffice to mention Saul Lieberman’s magisterial books on the topic, Greek in Jewish Palestine (1942) and Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (1950) . See also the recent work of Richard Hidary on Greco-Roman influences.
In this piece, I’ll discuss these aspects: well-known Hellenistic and Roman figures mentioned in the Talmud, Jews who carry Greek and Latin names, and Greek loanwords found throughout these texts. We will also dive into the linguistic curiosities, from the prosthetic Aleph to transliteration nuances, from pronunciation deviations to the hard and soft variations of specific letters.
Names
Some known Greek or Roman figures mentioned in the Mishnah and Talmud by name
Examples (the spelling is as it appears in the Mishnah and Talmud, with the conventional English way of spelling it): אדריאנוס (Hadrian), אלכסנדר מוקדון (Alexander of Macedon), אספסיינוס (Vespasian), דיקליטיאנס (Diocletian), טוריינוס (Trajan), טורנוסרופוס (Tineius Rufus), טיטוס (Titus), נירון (Nero), קיטוס (Quietus), קליאופטרא (Cleopatra), תלמי המלך (Ptolemy).
Some Jews with Greek and Latin names who appear in the Mishnah and Talmud
In both the Mishnah and Talmud, we encounter a number of Jews, including many sages, bearing Greek and Latin names, including אבדימי (Eudemus), אגריפס (Agrippa), אלכסא (Alexa), אלכסנדרי (Alexandri), אנדריי (Andrei), אנטיגנוס (Antigonus), אריסטובלוס (Aristobulus), בייתוס (Boethos), דוסא (Dosa), דוסתאי (Dostai), הורדוס (Herod), הורקנוס (Hyrcanus), וולס (Valens), זונין (Zeno), יוסטיני (Justin), לוליינוס (Lulianos), מרייה (Maria), מרינוס (Marinus), ניקנור (Nicanor), נקדימון (Nakdimon), סומכוס (Symmachus), and פפוס (Paphos).
Greek loan-words that appear in the Mishnah and Talmud
Some Greek loanwords were misunderstood, and they are often used, until today, in the misunderstood way:
1. אנדרולומוסיא (Androlempsia): The term "androlempsia" is of Greek origin. Its literal meaning is "man-catching" or "man-seizing," and it is typically used in a military context to refer to a punitive measure where the innocent are held hostage or collectively punished to pressure someone into surrendering or complying with demands. However, it this term was misunderstood in its later usage in Jewish literature, and its use today does not align with the original Greek connotation.
2. טמיון (Tameion): The Greek word "tameion" refers to a treasury, storeroom, or chamber. In ancient Greece, it was often used to denote the part of a temple where the offerings and public treasure were kept. However, this word was often misinterpreted.
Prosthetic Aleph
The linguistic phenomenon of "prothesis" - the addition of a sound at the beginning of a word - can be observed in several Semitic languages, including Arabic and Hebrew. This occurs particularly when words are imported from other languages that start with a two-consonant cluster, which is uncommon in Semitic language phonetics. To make pronunciation easier, a prothetic Aleph is inserted. This adjustment aligns the foreign words more comfortably with the phonetic rules of Hebrew.
In the Talmud, this process can be seen in words adopted from Greek, such as 'Aplaton' for Plato or 'itztadion' for stadium.
Further examples include: 'אסטרטיגוס' for 'strategos', 'אצטבא' for 'stibas', 'אצטלה' for 'stole', 'אסתרא' for 'stater', 'אלכסון' for 'loxos', אפרכסת for ‘próchoos’, and 'אכסניא' for 'xenia'. For Latin, there's אספקלריא for ‘speculum’.
Original Pronunciation
Pronunciation ambiguities are particularly prevalent in Hebrew due to the lack of precise letter correspondences for sounds such as patach/kamatz (represented by א in Yiddish and occasionally in classical and modern Hebrew), or for segol (notated as ע in Yiddish).
In general, it is typical to encounter uncertainties in phonetic representation within writing systems. It was in response to this linguistic complexity that the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was developed. While English is known for its pronunciation inconsistencies, abjads like Hebrew and Arabic are even more challenging, unless diacritical markers (nekudot) are applied.[1]
Bear in mind that all suggested pronunciations are conjectural, being proposed as possibilities based on the original Greek pronunciation . It's very possible that, in individual cases, the word's pronunciation had already adapted to Hebrew phonetic patterns during the era of the Mishnah and Talmud.
In the below, the headers describe my conjectured pronunciation, based on the original Greek, versus the typical popular pronunciation. In the body of the text, the corresponding original Greek words are shown.
Segol instead of kamatz/patch:
אפיקומן (epì kômon), אפיקורוס (epíkouros), אפוטרופוס (epitropos).
Should be patach, instead of merging consonants:
פרקליט parakletos
Patach in wrong place:
פנקס pinax
Should be segol, instead of merging consonants:
פולמוס polemos
הגמון hēgemṓn
בלדר beredarios
Transliteration of “X” sound (=Greek letter xi - Ξξ) - כס
In the Hebrew of the Mishnah and the Talmud, the norm is to transliterate the “X” sound (as in the English word “tax”) with כס. Contrastingly, Modern Hebrew generally employs קס for transliteration, as exemplified in these Hebrew Wikipedia entry names: 1) קסנופון, which corresponds to Xenophon (Ξενοφῶν); 2) the transliteration of the letter xi itself as קסי in the Hebrew Wikipedia entry.
This tendency in the Talmud can be evidenced by the transliteration of the name "Alexander" (Ἀλέξανδρος):
אלכסנדר
See also the transliteration of "paradox" (παράδοξος):
פרדוכס parádoxos
This transliteration leads to the letter כ often being pronounced as khaf, instead of as a kaf.
Other examples of X transliterated with כ (Kaf) include: אלכסון (loxos λοξος), פרכס (frixos φριξος), אכסדרה (exedra εξεδρα), and אכסניה (xenia ξενία).
An interesting deviation from the כס transliteration pattern is found in the term 'גזוזטרא' which corresponds to 'exostra'. The reason behind this divergence is unclear to me. This also stands as an anomaly to the prosthetic Aleph principle mentioned earlier, making this word quite distinctive.
Yet another exception can be noted in the case of:
פנקס pinax πίναξ
Transliteration of “th” - ת
קתדרא (kathedra), תיאטרות (the'atron), תריס (thyreós), קיתון (kothon), פיתום (Pithon). With the exception of פרוזדור which translates as (prothuron).
Hard/soft ב, פ
קוביא kubeia
פנס phanos
אפריון phoreion
Greek loan-words as verbs
Usually loan words are nouns, but sometimes they are turned into verbs:
גלף, זוג, טגן, לסטם, סמן, ספג, פיס, פרכס, פרנס, פרף, קלס, קנטר.
List of Words
Many of these have been discussed by David Curwin over the past few years on his linguistics blog Balashon. [2]
Hebrew - Greek (transliterated) - and for some, English cognate
אבטומטוס - automatos
אויר - aḗr
אוכלוסין - okhlos
אוקינוס - Okeanos
אורלוגין - hōrologion
אזמל - smī́lē
אטליז - katálusis
איסטניס - asthenḗs - calisthenics
איקונין ; דיוקן - eikon - icon
אכסדרה - exedra
אכסניא - xenia - xenophobia
אלונטית - léntion
אלכסון - loxos - balance
אנדרוגינוס - androginos
אנדרולומוסיא - androlempsia
אנדרטה - andrata - andrias
אנלגין - analogion
אסטרטיגוס - strategos - strategy
אסימון - asemon
אספלנית - splenion
אסתרא - stater
אפוטרופוס - epitropos
אפותיקי - apotheke - apothecary
אפיקומן - epì kômon - comedy
אפיקורוס - epíkouros - Epicurus ; epicurean
אפריון - phoreion - pheromone
אצטבא - stibas
אצטדיון - stadion
אצטומכא - stómakhos
אצטלה ; איצטלית - stole
ארכיון - arkheion - archive
אתליט - athletes
בורסי ; בורסקי - burseus
בימה - bema
בלדר - beredarios
בליסטרא - ballístra
בלמוס - boulimós
בלן - balaneus
בסיליקי - basilica
בסיס - basis
גזוזטרא - exostra
גימטריא - geometria
גלוסקמא - glôssokomos
גלפ ; גילופין - glyphein - glyph
דורון - doron
דיוטא - diaita
דלפקי - delphikos
דפוס ; טופס - tupos - type
הגמון - hēgemṓn - hegemony
הדיוט - idiṓtēs - idiot
המנון ; הינומא - Hymnos
זוג - zeûgos
טגן - tagenon
טמיון - tameion
טקס ; טכס - taxis - tactic
טרקלין - triklinos
כי - khi - chi
לבקן - leukon
ליטרא - litra
ליסטים ; לסטיס - leistes
מטרופולין - metropolis
מיכני - mekhane - machine
מסתורין - mystērion
נומורון - numeros - number
נטל (ידיים) - antlia
נימה - nema
נימוס - nomos
נמל - limen
נרתיק - thronothexe
סודר - sudarion - sweat
סטיו - stoa - stoic
סיטונאי - sitones
סילון - solen
סימן - semeion
סיקרין - sikarios
סנדל - sandalon - sandal
סנהדרין - sunédrion
סניגור - sunegoros - agoraphobia
סיסמא - súnthēma
ספוג - spongos
ספסל - sypsellion
עוגן ; הוגן ; הגה - ogkinos
עמילן - amylion
ערכי - arkhḗ
פדגוג - paidagogos - pedagogue
פולמוס - polemos - polemic
פומבי - pompe - pomp ; pompous
פונדק - pandocheío
פיס - peîsis
פיתום - Pithon
פלסתר - plastos
פנס - phanos
פנקס - pinax - pinax
פסיפס - psefos
פרגוד - paragaudos
פרדוכס - parádoxos
פרהדרין/פלהדרין - parahedron
פרהסיה - parrhēsíā - parrhesia
פרוזבול - pros bule (see recently, Josh Waxman, “Prosbol vs. Prozbol“)
פרוזדור - prothuron
פרכס - frixos
פרנס - phernizo
פרף - porpao
פרצוף - prósōpon - Prosopon
פרקליט - parakletos - paraclete
פרקמטיא - pragmateya - pragmatic
פתק - pittakion
קברניט - kybernetes - cyber ; govern
קוביא - kubeia - cube
קולמוס - kalamos - calamari
קונדס/קונטס - kontos
קטיגור - kategoros - category
קיתון - kothon
קלמר - kalamarion
קלס - kalos - calligraphy
קלפי - kálpi
קלת - kalathos
קנטר - kentro
קתדרא - kathedra - cathedra
תיאטרות - the'atron - theater
תיק - teke
תריס - thyreós
כרוב - krámbē
אורז - óryza
מלפפון - mēlopépōn
אזמרגד - smaragdos
אטריות, אספרגוס, סופגנים.
איריס, הרדוף, שזיפים.
ברדלס - pardalis
דולפין - delphînos - dolphin
דרקון - drakōn - dragon
פנתרין - pánthēr - panther
[1] There exist scholarly resources focusing on the pronunciation of Hazalic texts, such as the works by Morag. Krauss's reconstruction of pronunciation is another worthwhile reference. Also, Guggenheimer's translation of the Jerusalem Talmud provides a useful index in each volume for Greek/Latin words. Sokoloff's dictionaries are notably useful, particularly for Palestinian/Yerushalmi dialects.
[2] Here’s a list of the relevant Balashon entries: