Dedicated to the writings of Saint Luke.

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Why two different Greek words for Jerusalem III?

In Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity: The World of the Acts of the Apostles by Hans-Josef Klauck and Brian McNeil, we read our 1st insight into the use of two different Greek words for Jerusalem. “Besides this, Luke employs two forms of the name of the city. He uses the indeclinable word Jerusalem, which is to be considered Biblical Greek and more strongly evokes the Old Testament Jewish horizon; he also employs a Greek version of this, the declinable noun Hierosolyma, which would suggest to a Greek reader the word hieron, i.e., the temple at the heart of the city, and perhaps even the name Solomon, the builder of that Temple.”

Luke’s use of the Greek word Ἰερουσαλήμ for Jerusalem 26 times must mean that Luke is the most Jewish of the four gospels since Matthew and Mark only use Ἰερουσαλήμ once while John does not use the Greek word Ἰερουσαλήμ for Jerusalem.

More importantly, the declinable noun Hierosolyma, which would suggest to a Greek reader the word hieron, i.e., the temple at the heart of the city, and more likely remind people not about the temple built by Solomon but of the temple built by Herod the Great. Thus when Luke uses the Greek word Ἱεροσόλυμα in verse Luke 23:7 which says “And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time” he is alluding to the temple built by Herod the Great.

However Luke uses the Greek word Ἱεροσόλυμα for Jerusalem on three other occasions in his gospel for which an explanation is wanting.

This is a work in progress.

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