Here is a question you should ask the next Greek NT scholar you meet. If Luke was written in Greek, why does the Aramaic word for "Strong Drink" (Shakira) appear in the Greek manuscripts as "Sikera"? (Lk 1.15) Is it not because Greek lacks an original word for "Strong Drink"? So, they just transliterated the Aramaic word? The frequency of this type of thing is astounding, to say the least. And then, people ask why there is a handful of Greek words in the Peshitta. How about the 5-fold quantity of Aramaic words in the Greek manuscripts? How about the Aramaic loan-word in Greek texts, "Sabbata" (Mt 12.10), as if the Greeks had no word for Saturday… Then there is "Pascha" (Lk 2.41), as if the Greeks couldn't make up a word like the English people did – "Passover". Then there are the following Aramaic words in the Greek manuscripts: And then of course “Amen”, which appears about 100 times in the Greek text of the Gospels.
|