Looking at Acts 21:20 in Aramaic

This is a continuation of How big was the early community of believers in Jesus that was in Jerusalem?


I have occasionally looked at some New Testament texts in Aramaic.  I don't know Aramaic at all, but with some online resources and by comparing the Aramaic text with Hebrew text I generally have some idea what is going on.  I don't go as far as to advocate Aramaic primacy— the view that the New Testament and/or its sources were originally written in Aramaic rather than Greek— but I do think that the New Testament texts are the product of a Semitic culture and at the very least are best understood from a Semitic/Hebraic perspective.  (I will have more to say on this topic at a future date.) One does not have to believe that the (Aramaic) New Testament Peshitta is an "original" language text to consider it valuable; it as at the least a very early witness to the Greek text.

Acts 21:20 is an interesting text to look at in Aramaic.   The text in parenthesis after "many myriads" are the Hebrew and English character transliterations of the Aramaic text.

Acts 21:20 NKJV And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many myriads (כמא רבון - k'ma reb'wan) of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law;...

The key words in this analysis are "k'ma`" and "reb'wan".  

Following is an image captured from the Peshitta Tool at Dukhrana Biblical Research.  This tool lets us look at the Peshitta New Testament in the Syriac (Aramaic) language.  The text is from Acts 21:20 and is represented in six different ways.  The first section is Syriac (Aramaic) text; the second section is the Syriac transliterated in Hebrew characters; the third section is the Syriac transliterated into Latin (i.e. English) characters; the fourth is a translation of the Syriac into English; the fifth and sixth sections are Latin (language) and Greek.

 

The part of the text that means many myriads in Syriac is on the second line down about one third of the way across the line, starting from the right.  (The second image immediately above shows the same text with many myriads highlighted.)


In the second section is the Syriac/Aramaic text tranliterated into Hebrew characters.  The first two words on the second line (reading from the right), are the words that mean many myriads (כמא רבון – but with vowel points).

In the third section, is the Syriac/Aramaic text transliterated into Latin characters.  The words "kəmā rebwān" means many myriads.


In Latin section, the words quot millia mean many thousands.  The ποσαι μυριαδες in the Greek section means many myriads.



The Latin Vulgate "quot millia", meaning many thousands, is very likely the origin of the very common translation of this text with thousands rather than tens of thousands.


Here are some links to the Peshitta Tool analysis of Acts 21:20 and the words k'ma` and reb'wan.  There are links on the word analyses pages to lexicons that define these words.  On the reb'wan page, the links to the Jennings and Payne Smith lexicons both provide the following definition: "a myriad, ten thousand".  An additional link on the reb'wan page shows  all the Peshitta verses that use the word reb'wan.  In addition to Acts 21:20, the word reb'wan also occurs in Revelation 5:11 and Revelation 9:16.

Rev 5:11 NKJV Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, ...

In the image above, the red text in Revelation 5:11, is reb'wan.  Imediately to the right of it is a word that shares three of the four characters of reb'wan; it is the word reb'uw and the same word in the singular form.  The two words, together, mean myriad myriads or ten-thousand ten-thousands.

This links to texts in the Peshitta New Testament that use the singular form, reb'uw.  

Rev 9:16 NKJV Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.

In Revelation 9:16, the two hundred million is represented as two myriad myriads or two ten-thousand ten-thousands in its Aramaic form.

Now for the most interesting part.  These words reb'wan and reb'uw are in the Old Testament.   The text where they are found is Daniel 7:10, which is in one of the small sections of the Old Testament that are written in Aramaic.

Dan 7:10 NKJV A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand (‏ורבו רבון - w'ribo rib'wan) stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.

Here is a link to the Blue Letter Bible page that defines ribbow, the word that is used in Daniel 7:10.  It is Strong's number H7240, and it means "myriad."

Here is the text again, but with the Greek words from the Septuagint rather than Aramaic.

Dan 7:10 NKJV A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand (μυριαι μυριαδες – muriai muriades – G3463 G3461) stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.

I looked at the Latin Vulgate to see how it translated some of these other verses.  All the verses that I looked at consistently translate muriades as mille (i.e. thousands).   The Vulgate translates Daniel 7:10 using the phrase millies centena millia, which results in the same total value of 100,000,000 by adding an extra 100 (centena) to the phrase. 


So, we have come full circle.  We started with Acts 21:10 and the Greek word muriades which means ten thousand.  We then looked at the same text in Aramaic and found the word reb'wan which also means ten thousand.  We then looked at Daniel 7:10 which also uses the reb'wan and then we looked at the Greek word used in the Septuagint to translate the reb'wan in Daniel 7:10— the Greek word muriades that we started with.

The Aramaic is consistent with the Greek, unlike the English translations that use thousands rather than ten thousands in Acts 21:20.

I am not sure that this analysis has any deep significance, but it is interesting to find language connections going through so many interesting parts of the Bible.