Re: Tychicus (St. Fortunato)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "andelkod" <andelkod@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
> <piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "george knysh" <gknysh@...>
> > To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Monday, April 14, 2003 5:45 PM
> > Subject: [tied] Tychicus
> >
> >
> > > Jerome wrote his Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians

(in

> three books) ca. 388 AD. In the Introduction to the Third Book
> thereof, he explains that the epistle was brought to Ephesus by
> Paul's collaborator Tychicus, and then casually states: "Tychicus
> enim 'silens' interpretatur". I have consulted the Commentary in

the

> Migne edition (it is in vol. 26 of the Patrologia Latina).

According

> to the note in the Migne apparatus, Jerome relied for this (and
> other etymologies) on a LIBER DE NOMINIBUS HAEBRAICIS, allegedly
> composed by Origen. Here is the text of the note: "Hujusmodi
> etymologias nominum Graecorum mutuatus est Hieronymus ab Origene,
> qui Lexicon Hebraicorum nominum condidit e novo Testamento, quique
> satis absurde Graeca et Latina quasi essent Hebraea interpretari
> voluit. Consule librum Hebraeorum Nominum tomo

III."/.../ "Caeterum

> nemo, opinor, Graecum hoc, non Hebraicum esse nomen, et sonare in
> Latino, fortunatum, ignorat."
> >
> > > So Brian and Piotr are quite right as to the etymology. And
> Jerome (erroneously) gave what he thought was a Hebrew sense.

There

> is nothing Slavic here.
> >
> > Many thanks for this thorough checking job. It shows what should
> be obvious anyway: factoids circulated on the Internet have no

value

> unless they can be verified.
> >
> > Piotr
>
> One problem solved.
> Many thanks from me, too.

*********
There seems to me to still be a problem. Jerome, who was
familiar with a number of languages, did interpret 'Tychicus'
as 'silens' rather than (or in addition to?) the obvious
Greek "fortunate'. Why?
Migne's footnote, which George dug up, appears to assume that
this is a Hebrew interpretation, simply because Jerome did write a
book LIBER DE NOMINIBUS HAEBRAICIS, based on (lost) works by Origen
and Philo. From what I gather from the Web without going to a
theological library, "Tychicus " is not one of the names considered
in this book, and the book may be entirely irrelevant. Jerome could
easily have written "'silens' Hebraice", but conspicuously didn't,
because he knew perfectly well there was no such word for silent in
Hebrew.
My guess is he had Latin 'tacitus' in mind. "Interpretatur" does
not mean "etymologically derived from." I'll speculate that he
regarded it as obvious that the literal meaning of "Tychichus"
was "fortunate", but he made a long stretch for a supplemental
interpretatio because "Tyche" was an uncomfortably Pagan concept to
one relying wholeheartedly on the Grace of God.
Dan