Ross G Caldwell
Hi Kwaw, Mark,
Besides the Zohar, Sefer Yetzirah and Talmud, there was a contemporary Christian tradition for the meanings of the Hebrew letters. For instance Teth meant "The Good" and Lamed meant "Discipline" (easy to see how it derived from "ox-goad"). These meanings were the "standard" Christian tradition throughout the middle ages.
Here is a post from another thread on this subject [edited for relevance]-
"Stephen Langton was the author of a list of Hebrew words and names in the Bible, with definitions of their meanings. It is included in many manuscripts of the Vulgate. Look up "Aaz vel apprehendens" and "Interpretationes hebraicorum nominum". Here is a good example of a 13th century bible with this text (and the names of the Hebrew letters with an interpretation of their meaning)-
http://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/d...Number=HM+26061
(scroll down to folio 348v - second image from bottom - and pick the medium or large size)
There are other examples of this book on the web, but I don't know of an English translation.
The Latin bible transmitted the names of the Hebrew letters in many places, that most English translations have omitted. Of particular importance is Psalm 118 (119 in English bibles), with 22 verses, which in the Hebrew and Latin versions names the letters before the verse. Many manuscripts of the Vulgate give the meaning of the letter after the name, such as -
(see http://www.valenciennes.fr/bib/comm...LE=Ms0008.tif images number 204 and 205)
Aleph, doctrina (teaching)
Beth, domus (house)
Gimel, plenitudo (fullness, plenty)
Deleth, tabula (table)
He (meanings vary)
Vau, (and)
Zain, (himself)
Heth, vita (life)
Theth, bonum (the good)
Yoth, principium (beginning)
Caph, manus (hand)
Lamed, disciplina (discipline)
Mem, ex quo (from which)
Nun, foetus vel piscis (foetus or fish)
Samech, firmamentum, erectionem (prop or frame)
Ain, oculus (eye)
Phe, os (mouth)
Sade, justicia (justice)
Coph, vocatio (calling)
Res, caput (head)
Sin, dens (tooth)
Tau, signa (sign)
You can see that a lot of them are actually "correct" by today's standards. This was the Christian tradition (if you google "aaz" and "hebraicorum" you'll get a few other examples).
There are eleven places in the Vulgate where the letters of the alphabet are named.
It's spelled out completely 12 times, six times alone
in Lamentations, all in acrostic contexts - but you wouldn't know
this from reading English translations, especially the venerable
King James, which seems to have gone to great lengths to hide it
(except in psalm 119). The Psalms are numbered according to the
Vulgate and Septuagint - Hebrew and English Bibles use the number in
(parenthesis).
1) Psalm 36 (37)
2) Psalm 110 (111) - 10 verses/22
3) Psalm 111 (112) - 10 verses/22
4) Psalm 118 (119) - 176 verses/8
5) Psalm 144 (145) - this one is missing the NUN, so only 21 verses
6) Proverbs 31 - verses 10-31 are an acrostic
7) Lamentations 1
8) Lamentations 2 - Fe and Ain transposed
9,10,11) Lamentations 3 - 66 verses, each verse three lines
beginning with a letter, and this is spelled out each time in the
Vulgate; Fe and Ain transposed again
12) Lamentations 4 - Fe and Ain transposed
Scholars also point out that Lamentations 5 has 22 verses.
In any case, we can assume that Langton, as a Churchman bound to study the bible and recite the psalms daily, knew as much as any Christian about Hebrew; and since he wrote a dictionary of Hebrew words in the bible, we can bet he was probably one of the most knowledgeable of his age.
So maybe the Hebrew alphabet did have something to do with his numeration of Revelations' chapters; I would have thought the letters of Greek alphabet would have been more appropriate, however, since Jesus says "I am the alpha and the omega" (not Aleph and Tau)."
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=46008
I would suspect that if the order and iconographical content of the TdM or any other trump order were influenced by the Hebrew alphabet, and assuming that a born Christian and not a Jew designed it, it is these traditional meanings that would have been portrayed.
kwaw said:The quote from the Talmud uses what it considered the original non-Hebraic linguistic meaning of Lamed as 'ox goad' for the purpose of exegesis. The close relationship between Hebrew and the semitic language in which the names of alphabet originated is testified too by the fact that most of the names do have meaning, and frequently the same meaning, in Hebrew. Even where it doesn't, the relationship is often still there as in the fact that though Lamed does not mean ox-goad in Hebrew, it is the root of the word for ox goad mLMD, as Teth is the primary consonant of the word for staff MTH.
I pointed out in my initial post that your method restricts you to the literal Hebrew meanings of the names as can be found in a Hebrew dictionary, and that I have no objection to that. I only wanted to clarify that:
1) Such meanings though not in the dictionary are to found at the time in other sources such as the Talmud, kabbalistic texts and commentaries thereon;
Besides the Zohar, Sefer Yetzirah and Talmud, there was a contemporary Christian tradition for the meanings of the Hebrew letters. For instance Teth meant "The Good" and Lamed meant "Discipline" (easy to see how it derived from "ox-goad"). These meanings were the "standard" Christian tradition throughout the middle ages.
Here is a post from another thread on this subject [edited for relevance]-
"Stephen Langton was the author of a list of Hebrew words and names in the Bible, with definitions of their meanings. It is included in many manuscripts of the Vulgate. Look up "Aaz vel apprehendens" and "Interpretationes hebraicorum nominum". Here is a good example of a 13th century bible with this text (and the names of the Hebrew letters with an interpretation of their meaning)-
http://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/d...Number=HM+26061
(scroll down to folio 348v - second image from bottom - and pick the medium or large size)
There are other examples of this book on the web, but I don't know of an English translation.
The Latin bible transmitted the names of the Hebrew letters in many places, that most English translations have omitted. Of particular importance is Psalm 118 (119 in English bibles), with 22 verses, which in the Hebrew and Latin versions names the letters before the verse. Many manuscripts of the Vulgate give the meaning of the letter after the name, such as -
(see http://www.valenciennes.fr/bib/comm...LE=Ms0008.tif images number 204 and 205)
Aleph, doctrina (teaching)
Beth, domus (house)
Gimel, plenitudo (fullness, plenty)
Deleth, tabula (table)
He (meanings vary)
Vau, (and)
Zain, (himself)
Heth, vita (life)
Theth, bonum (the good)
Yoth, principium (beginning)
Caph, manus (hand)
Lamed, disciplina (discipline)
Mem, ex quo (from which)
Nun, foetus vel piscis (foetus or fish)
Samech, firmamentum, erectionem (prop or frame)
Ain, oculus (eye)
Phe, os (mouth)
Sade, justicia (justice)
Coph, vocatio (calling)
Res, caput (head)
Sin, dens (tooth)
Tau, signa (sign)
You can see that a lot of them are actually "correct" by today's standards. This was the Christian tradition (if you google "aaz" and "hebraicorum" you'll get a few other examples).
There are eleven places in the Vulgate where the letters of the alphabet are named.
It's spelled out completely 12 times, six times alone
in Lamentations, all in acrostic contexts - but you wouldn't know
this from reading English translations, especially the venerable
King James, which seems to have gone to great lengths to hide it
(except in psalm 119). The Psalms are numbered according to the
Vulgate and Septuagint - Hebrew and English Bibles use the number in
(parenthesis).
1) Psalm 36 (37)
2) Psalm 110 (111) - 10 verses/22
3) Psalm 111 (112) - 10 verses/22
4) Psalm 118 (119) - 176 verses/8
5) Psalm 144 (145) - this one is missing the NUN, so only 21 verses
6) Proverbs 31 - verses 10-31 are an acrostic
7) Lamentations 1
8) Lamentations 2 - Fe and Ain transposed
9,10,11) Lamentations 3 - 66 verses, each verse three lines
beginning with a letter, and this is spelled out each time in the
Vulgate; Fe and Ain transposed again
12) Lamentations 4 - Fe and Ain transposed
Scholars also point out that Lamentations 5 has 22 verses.
In any case, we can assume that Langton, as a Churchman bound to study the bible and recite the psalms daily, knew as much as any Christian about Hebrew; and since he wrote a dictionary of Hebrew words in the bible, we can bet he was probably one of the most knowledgeable of his age.
So maybe the Hebrew alphabet did have something to do with his numeration of Revelations' chapters; I would have thought the letters of Greek alphabet would have been more appropriate, however, since Jesus says "I am the alpha and the omega" (not Aleph and Tau)."
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=46008
I would suspect that if the order and iconographical content of the TdM or any other trump order were influenced by the Hebrew alphabet, and assuming that a born Christian and not a Jew designed it, it is these traditional meanings that would have been portrayed.