>> By the way, the spelling of Christ is χριστος; certainly in biblical and >> classical Greek, and by the look of it also in Modern Greek (a quick >> glance at a Modern Greek Bible translation tells me). χρηστος is a >> different word meaning (at least in Koine Greek) generally 'useful' or >> 'beneficial' (in a concrete, or an abstract moral sense). > > Well, χρηστος is the classical, pre-iotacism spelling of a word which > used to mean "anointed" (as does the Hebrew Mashiakh, transliterated as > Messiah in the Gospels) and is related to the word "chreme" (χρημα) > which means the consecrated oil used for pouring over a new priest's or > king's head. In Modern Greek, and already in Biblical Greek, the vowels > eta and (when used as a vowel) upsilon, and the diphtongs epsilon-iota > and omicron-iota have all become homonyms of the vowel iota (when used > as a vowel), which has led to hesitation about the correct orthography > of many words.
What is your source for this, Tony? I can find no reference to any earlier or alternative spelling in the Koine Greek lexicon A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature, 3ed., Ed. Frederick William Danker, 2000. for which I have an electronic text; nor in the Classical Greek lexicons Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940. Liddell and Scott. An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1889. which are browsable here (albeit transliterated): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/perscoll_Greco-Roman.html http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058 and to my knowledge are all very reputable/'standard' texts which would note such a variation were it generally accepted. So it seems to me your spelling is speculative at best, and we are getting pretty early to claim iotacism has a big influence here, and certainly asserting the spelling changed simply based on such a general trend is a big claim anyway. > Many words have also changed meaning between Classical and Modern Greek. > For instance, the ideal of the classical Greek hero was the καλος > καγαθος ανθρωπος, the "beautiful and good man", where καγαθος is a > contraction of και αγαθος; but then I was surprised to learn that in > Modern Greek, καλος means good rather than beatiful, and αγαθος stupid > rather than good! So a modern Greek would feel insulted rather than > complimented if named a "good and stupid man", unless maybe he had > pursued classical studies. This is true. But I know that where the Modern Greek Bible uses the word Christ, it means the same thing as in the earlier texts, to the comparison is perfectly valid. Of course, the prime example of the reverse effect is the English word 'nice' and its Latin predecessor. Ben. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
