Koine and Biblical and Medieval Greek • Re: ανα μεσον

The Greek parallel that comes to mind for me is: "καὶ κατὰ γῆν καὶ κατὰ θάλατταν". But the double-καί is necessary there.

I see that when quoting these verses, many of the Greek writers like to drop the second ἀνὰ μέσον.

For example, the non-Semitic Julian the Apostate quotes it as "καὶ ἔσται ἐν σημείῳ διαθήκης ἀνὰ μέσον ἐμοῦ καὶ σοῦ καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον ἐμοῦ καὶ τοῦ σπέρματός σου." Similarly Clement.

But Semitic authors like Philo and the anonymous 1st century author of the Apocalypse of Moses also drop the second ἀνὰ μέσον. So maybe instead of calling this a Semitism, a language feature of Greek-speaking Jews, it might be better to think of it as a Hebrew-influenced translation artifact, one with no real life outside of the Septuagint itself, although common there.

Statistics: Posted by jeidsath — Sat Dec 30, 2023 3:10 pm


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