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ArchivesRFC: On the Biblical name Elymas
Elymas is mentioned once in the Bible in Act 13,8 (see https://www.bibleserver.com/search/ESV/Elymas/1 ). According to the Bible verse the name means "sorcerer" (or "mage", Greek magos). There is a theory floating around in theological works that the original form of the name was some Aramaic word with the same meaning. However, trying hard to find this Aramaic word in dictionaries turned out to be a complete failure—it wasn't there.
Here is my preliminary resumee of the sources I have inspected yet:
The whole Aramaic-Arabic idea was a nice try, but it is void.
Etymology was a big hype in 19th century, and spectacular successes (like the reconstruction of proto-indogermanic) were achieved. This let someone to take a try on the dark and obscure name Elymas on the basis of etymology, and shortly before 1880 the Arabic word ulema was noted as a possible cognate of the unknown Aramaic word behind Elymas. Someone with better knowledge of Arabic brought it down to the root علم (ʿalima) "to know" (also covering "to learn" and "to teach"), see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%85#Arabic
The Arabic word has no connotation ever to secret lore or sorcery, it is just about plain knowledge. There is a different Arabic word for sorcerer: سَاحِر (sāḥir)
They then reconstructed an Aramaic cognate for it. Since it is a (re)construstruction, it is absent from Aramaic dictionaries where I tried hard to find it. Someone with more knowledge of Aramaic came up with the Aramaic word for "dream" (KHLaM), see
http://www.atour.com/cgi-bin/dictionary.cgi?string=dream&Search_Field=Meaning
Merging "dream" with "sorcerer" gives the fantasy meaning "interpreter of dreams" for Elymas. I consider this kind of fantasy
lacking any attestation in Aramaic dictionaries just a fantasy, not a name fact.
So we are back at square one. Luke does not explicitly name the source language, it might be something else than Aramaic.
At this moment, we just don't know.
What do you think?
--elbowin
P.S. I found the suspiciously similar name Ailymas for a (probably Berber) king of Libya in the 4th century BCE.
Here is my preliminary resumee of the sources I have inspected yet:
The whole Aramaic-Arabic idea was a nice try, but it is void.
Etymology was a big hype in 19th century, and spectacular successes (like the reconstruction of proto-indogermanic) were achieved. This let someone to take a try on the dark and obscure name Elymas on the basis of etymology, and shortly before 1880 the Arabic word ulema was noted as a possible cognate of the unknown Aramaic word behind Elymas. Someone with better knowledge of Arabic brought it down to the root علم (ʿalima) "to know" (also covering "to learn" and "to teach"), see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%85#Arabic
The Arabic word has no connotation ever to secret lore or sorcery, it is just about plain knowledge. There is a different Arabic word for sorcerer: سَاحِر (sāḥir)
They then reconstructed an Aramaic cognate for it. Since it is a (re)construstruction, it is absent from Aramaic dictionaries where I tried hard to find it. Someone with more knowledge of Aramaic came up with the Aramaic word for "dream" (KHLaM), see
http://www.atour.com/cgi-bin/dictionary.cgi?string=dream&Search_Field=Meaning
Merging "dream" with "sorcerer" gives the fantasy meaning "interpreter of dreams" for Elymas. I consider this kind of fantasy
lacking any attestation in Aramaic dictionaries just a fantasy, not a name fact.
So we are back at square one. Luke does not explicitly name the source language, it might be something else than Aramaic.
At this moment, we just don't know.
What do you think?
--elbowin
P.S. I found the suspiciously similar name Ailymas for a (probably Berber) king of Libya in the 4th century BCE.
This message was edited 3/31/2017, 2:46 PM
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Replies
Not commenting on the specific case, but knowledge to magic is a very common semantic shift. I haven't checked the possible Afroasiatic etymology of proto-semitic *ʕlm or possible borrowing from arabic into berber.
Dream to magic is less common, but note that epigraphic evidence points to the South Arabian cognate of the KHLam root meaning oracular dream, and the feminine form meaning seeress, though in most semitic branches cognates just means dream or concepts related to wet dreams, puberty, virility and strength (Of course, some of this could indicate two different proto-semitic stems).
Dream to magic is less common, but note that epigraphic evidence points to the South Arabian cognate of the KHLam root meaning oracular dream, and the feminine form meaning seeress, though in most semitic branches cognates just means dream or concepts related to wet dreams, puberty, virility and strength (Of course, some of this could indicate two different proto-semitic stems).
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