From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 437
Date: 1999-12-06
----- Original Message -----From: Mark OdegardSent: Monday, December 06, 1999 5:15 AMSubject: [cybalist] 2 IE words in the Old Testament.I've found examples of borrowed Indo-European words in the Old Testament. Unfortunately, they are not in proper Hebrew but in Aramaic, which of course means, they are from the book of Daniel, chapter 3.This post is cribbed from an article in the current issue of Bible Review (BR is the twin of Biblical Archaeology Review, and is quite respectable). It speaks of musical instruments.
Biblical pesanterin (breve over the 1st e, macron over the 2nd e, circumflex over the i, with or without filled underdot under the t) is translated as 'psaltery' by the King James. The Book of Daniel takes it from Greek psalterion (from the verb psallein, 'to pluck), and is a kind of lyre.
Qayteros looks to be borrowed from Greek kitharis, and is also a lyre.
The presence of these borrowings add to the pressures regarding Daniel's true date of composition. The standard view is that Daniel dates from the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, ca 170 BCE, and not that of Nebuchadnezzar (early 500s BCE).
Mark.
Mark, how do you establish the direction of borrowing in the case of kitharis? It's a widespread "word of culture" for stringed instruments, found from Greece to India. Our guitar is one of its guises, and zither and sitar are further avatars of the same. Any suggestions about the origin of the name?Piotr