Thread:Superdadsuper/@comment-1777104-20151223183315/@comment-1777104-20151225041309

We discussed it, a little, but I need to correct your misconception about Latin.

Latin did not "develop" after Biblical times. It is an ancient language, spoken widely in the Roman Empire. It only overcame the prominence of Greek as the common language of the people later.

When I use language "from the Latin" in explaining an English word, it is to demonstrate that English borrows words from many languages. To simply "state what a word means" without authority is a bit irresponsible. The original languages HAVE to be our source of authority, for they come to us from God himself.

Etymology is personal to me, for my first name is James, the English translation of "iakobos", a Greek translation of Yakob (not the ending). First, there was no "J" (introduced by the Normans in the 11th century) in the ancient languages. Nor was there a "c" specifically. The letter in Greek was the iota ("i") and the Hebrew letter was the yod ("y").

Simply stated, James came from started out as "Jacobos" when taking changes in alphabets into account. It seems a bit strange to see the "me" replace "cobo." What happened? It is a long twisting road having to do with a large turn through Latin. "Iakobos" became "Iakomus"! It turns out that the letters "b" and "m" are very similar phonetically. THEN in later Latin, the ko disappeared, leaving "Iamus." This late Latin was Anglicised to become "James" -- three sylables into ONE. Heb: to Greek: to Latin: to Late Latin: to English:.

Yes, languages are fascinating, as is phonetics (remember "Hooked on Phonics"?). But I ramble. The point is, "Judas" was not a "bad" name. It was as revered as "Jacob" was. But in translating, this gets lost. When the Greek writers provided examples of "Jacob" and "Jacobos," translators decided to distinguish between the two. No reader of English can tell that all the James's were actually Jacob's. It got even crazier with the Greek "Ioudas" sometimes being "Judah" sometimes being "Judas" and finally, the "Jude" of the epistle.

There they are together, "ioudas" brother of "jacobos" becomes "Jude, brother of James." Too very Jewish names becoming unrecognizable.

Wow... Sorry about that. Most names don't matter too much. But those two need to be explained to English readers.

The happiest of celebrations of the birth of Yeshua, called Meshiach. ;-)