Subject: An sample from Sinai Arabic 71

From: Jean VALENTIN <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 97 23:05:19 +0200

TC-ers,

Here's a sample translation of a few verses from Sinai Arabic 71, the 
manuscript about which I posted some notes before. I remind you that (1) 
this version is from the Xth century - very early for Arabic, as the 
first mss (but they have another version) appear in the IXth), (2) it is 
most probably translated from Greek as many mistakes of the translator 
make it apparent, and (3) it's in an unliterary arabic showing traces of 
aramaic vocabulary and constructions.

Here's a rough English translation of the beginning of Mark :

1 Beginning of the Gospel: Jesus Christ (is) the Son of God. 2 As it (is) 
written in the prophet: behold, I send my messenger before your face, so 
that he (may) prepare your way before you. 3 A voice calls in the desert: 
Prepare the way of the Lord, and straigth make his ways. 4 John was 
baptizing in the desert, and was preaching the baptism of repentance, for 
the forgivenness of the sins. 5 And all the region of Judea and all 
Jerusalem were coming and were being baptized by him in the Jordan, 
confessing their sins. 6 And John used to clothe (himself) with camel's 
hair, and a belt of leather at his waist. And his food was the locusts 
and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying: he comes after me, the one who 
is mightier than me, of whom I am not worthy to untie the thong of his 
shoes. 8 As for me, I baptized you with water. And he, he will baptize 
you with the Holy Spirit.

What are your reactions about its text? If you like it, I could, from 
time to time, send you such samples from other Arabic mss as well.

Thank you.

________________________________________________________________
Jean Valentin - 58/7 rue Van Kalck - 1080 Bruxelles - BELGIQUE
________________________________________________________________
email : [email-masked]   ***   netmail : 2:291/780.103
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Ce qui est trop simple est faux, ce qui est trop complique est 
inutilisable.
What's too simple is wrong, what's too complicated is unusable.
Wat te eenvoudig is, is verkeerd; wat te ingewikkeld is, is onbruikbaar.

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From: Maurice Robinson <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 01:53:43 -0500 (EST)

On Thu, 3 Apr 1997, Jean VALENTIN wrote:

> written in the prophet: 

Prophet -- singular, not plural?  Sort of a halfway house between "Isaiah
the prophet" and "the prophets"?  Couldn't have been because someone might
be trying to make the Muslims think Muhammed said that, could it?  Just
curious on what influences there might have been here, or whether this was
simply a scribal error, leaving off the final -in.

_________________________________________________________________________
Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.           Professor of Greek and New Testament
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary     Wake Forest, North Carolina
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