.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

רחב (Rahab / Ραάβ):

The letter heth
in the middle of a Hebrew proper name:
Should it be transcribed in Greek
with the letter chi? /

Το γράμμα χαιθ
στο μέσο ενός εβραϊκού κυρίου ονόματος:
Μεταγράφεται με το γράμμα χι;







רחב



Ῥαχάβ

—Matthew / Ματθαίος 1:5.


Ῥαὰβ

—Hebrews / Εβραίους 11:31.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A "he" is not a "chet", and only the sound of the "chet" is similar to "chi".

digiSapientia said...

Thank you for your comment.

The Greek "chi" had not a unique sound during its history. It has been covering sounds from "kh" to "h".

The writer of the Greek Matthew chose the Greek "chi" for transcripting the Hebrew "he"--a choice not followed by the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I am surprised, I have to admit, I just checked the hebrew writing, and indeed, the name "Rahab" is written with chet. I sometimes wonder, why the transkription of names is so inconsistent in languages. I expected Rahab to be written with a he.

Anonymous said...

and just right now I read, that in some sources the name is written with he. Of course with a different meaning. So it seems, that the Greek is as inconsistent as the Hebrew. I hate it, when people neglect orthography. :(

digiSapientia said...

Thank you for your comments, I got your point.

The situation is depicted as well in the name itself of this leter:
Ḥet or H̱et (also spelled Khet, Kheth, Chet, Cheth, Het, or Heth)!