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Etymology of the Nickname ’IskariOt(h):
the “One Who Saw a Sign” [(’i)sqar(i)’6t/yisqar(i)’6t] or the “One Who Slandered/Betrayed a Sign” [(’i)sqar(i)’6t/yisqar(i)’6t]?
I. R. Tantlevskij St. Petersburg State University, Russia tantigor@mail.wplus.net
Abstract. The article derives Judas’s nickname 'Iskaridt(h) from the Hebrew/Aramaic verb saqar/seqar, and the noun 'ot/'ot (widely used in Biblical Hebrew and attested in the Talmud [^Aramaic 't/'t']), and interprets it as the “one who saw/gaze upon a sign” (cf., e.g., John 2:23, 4:48, 6:2,14,30 mentioning those who «saw signs» and came to be Jesus’s followers; the verbs thedred and ‘orao used in these passages correlate with the verb saqar/seqar, “to look (at), gaze, see”, and the noun semeion (pl. semeia) correlates with the term 'ot/'ot, “sign”). The ex hypothesi “positive” character of Judas’s nickname possibly explains the evangelists’ renunciation of its interpretation. As an alternative etymology of Judas’s nickname 'Iskaridt(h), one can derive it from the Hebrew/Aramaic verb saqar/S qar (“to lie, deceive, slander”, sc. “to violate (a treaty, etc.)”, “to betray” [the latter meaning is attested in Samaritan Aramaic]) and the same noun 'ot/'ot: the “one who slandered/resp. betrayed a sign”, i.e. the one who brought false evidence against Jesus (cf.: Matt. 26:59 ff.; Mk. 14:55 ff.). In Jn. 6:70, Jesus himself defines Judas with the term diabolos; this word can be interpreted as “slanderer”, “accuser”.
Keywords: The Gospels; etymology of Judas’s nickname Iskariot(h).
* The author acknowledges Saint-Petersburg State University for a research grant 23.38.96.2012.
Unlike some other Hebrew and Aramaic phrases and designations (including some of the apostles’ nicknames), rendered in Greek transliterations in the New Testament, the nickname of the betrayer Judas — Iskariot(h) — has been left without any interpretation in all four Gospels. Possibly it was done by the evangelists deliberately, for the nickname Iskariot(h) could arise before Judas’s betrayal — yet before “Satan entered into Judas” (Lk. 22:3; Jn. 13:2,26-27; cf.: Matt. 27:3-5) — and therefore not necessary bear negative character. On the other hand, the figure of Judas must evoke none other than negative associations from the very beginning. (Probably we meet with the same approach in the case of the high priest Joseph named Caiaphas in the Gospels without any further interpretation of this designation.1) Judging by Jn. 6:71, 13:2,26, Judas’s nickname was patrimonial: ’IouSaq
1 In connection with this nickname see, e.g.: Cotton et al. 2010, 481-487; Zissu-Goren 2011, 74-95; Rollston 2012, 233-243.
ZXOAH Vol. 8. 2 (2014) © Igor Tantlevskij, 2014
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Sl^qvoq ’IoKapLQxou2, “Judas, (son) of Simon Iskariot”. In any case, in the Gospels this nickname was applied to Judas before his betrayal, and thus its content could be neutral or even positive. The designation Iskariot(h) is attested in two forms: ’IoKapiroB and (o) ’IoKapirornq3 (vv. ll.\ SKapiroB, XKapirornq4, resp. Peshitta: sekar-youta’). As was noted by J. E. Taylor, “Judas was designated by a Hebrew or Aramaic name transliterated as ’IaKapiroB and rendered in Greek form as ’IoKapirornq”, but “the manuscripts show more of a tendency to standardize the epithet in Greek form rather than to retrieve or preserve the Hebrew or Aramaic form”.5 In the main manuscripts of the earliest Gospel — According to Mark— only the spelling loKapiroB is attested (3:19, 14:10; also: Lk. 6:16).
The present paper derives Judas’s nickname Iskarioth (’IaKapiroB) from the Hebrew/Aramaic verb IpD, saqar6/seqar7, “to look (at)”, “to gaze”, “to see”,8 and the noun n(l)s, ’ot/’6t, “sign”, widely used in Biblical Hebrew and attested in the Talmud9 (=Aramaic ns, sns): ms ij?o, saqar/seqar ’6t, resp. mxonpo^), (’i)sqar(i)’6t, i.e. the “one who saw/gaze upon a sign”10.11 This could be one of those signs (orieia12), about which it was written or “not written” (cf.: Jn. 20:30) in the Gospels. A sign (especially, in heaven) was one of the most important confirmations of a prophet or a soterological, Messianic figure mission verity for the Jews at that time (see, e.g.: Matt. 16:1, 24:24-26,30; Mk. 13:21-22; Lk. 11:16, 21:11,25; Acts 2:19; Rev. 12; cf., e.g.: Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, II, 259; ibid., 261 ff. and Acts 21:38).
John (e.g.: 2:23, 4:48, 6:2,14,30; cf. also: 6:26)13 mentions those who «saw signs» (e9e«pouv xa orieia; 6:2) and came to be Jesus’s followers. The verbs Bsropsro and oparo used in these passages correlate with the verb IpD, saqar/seqar, “to look (at, on), gaze, see, watch”, and the noun o^psiov (pl. o^psia) correlates with the word n(l)s, ’ot/’6t, “sign”. One can assume that Judas was possibly the one who “saw” a special “sign”, “believed” in Jesus as Christ, and hereupon came to be his disciple and got the nickname “Iskarioth”, i.e. the “one who (proclaimed that he) saw a sign”. The hypothetical usage of just the verb ipo, saqar/seqar in this designa-
2 In some manuscripts (K, A, n, /1, and others) Jn. 6:71 reads ’IoKapirox^v instead of ’IoKapiroxou.
3 The spelling with definite article (o ’IoKapirox^^) is attested in Matt. 10:4; Jn. 12:4, 14:22. The spelling o IoKapiroG in Mk. 14:10, attested in some manuscripts (xc, L, 0, ¥, 565, 892), should probably be considered as a secondary one.
4 The Bezae manuscript (D; V cent.).
5 Taylor 2010, 368.
6 Bibl.: ipto (attested in pi ’el).
7 Attested already in Targ. Job 20:9, 28:7.
8 Yastrow 1926, 1021; Sokoloff2002, 388.
9 Yastrow 1926, 36.
10 See also: Tantlevskij 2011, 163, n. 259.
11 In connection with the spelling ’IoKapirox^^ let us note that “Greek could transliterate
Hebrew and Aramaic (soft) tau with a teth. Gennesareth (cf. Hebrew mu) in the Gospels is rendered with a final Greek tau rather than a theta for Hebrew taw: Tevv^oapex (Matt 14:34; Mark 6:53; Luke 5:1), and by Eusebius in declinable form: npo^ x^ Tevv^oapixiSi X^v^ (Onom. 58.11) andx^v rsvv^oapix^v (Onom. 120.28)”. (Taylor 2010, 381).
12 This term is often used in the meaning “miracles” in the New Testament.
13 Cf., e.g.: Lk. 19:37.
I. R. Tantlevskij / 1ХОЛИ Vol. 8. 2 (2014) 547
tion possibly implies the heavenly character of the sign; NB: the noun rnpo, saqor, “astronomer”14, attested in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, is derived from this very verb. For instance, Judas’s vision of a sign could be like that described in the apocryphal Gospel of Judas15 (Iskariot): “ ‘Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star.’ Judas lifted up his eyes and saw the luminous cloud, and he entered it. Those standing on the ground heard a voice coming from the cloud...”. As was noted above, the ex hypothesi “positive” character of Judas’s nickname could explain the evangelists’ renunciation of its interpretation (and possibly that is why John carries it over Judas’s farther, Simon).
The addition of a prosthetic aleph (this phenomenon was not uncommon in Aramaic and Mishnaic Hebrew) to a stem can be explained by the inordinate length of the compound word; this gave rise to elision of the vowel farthest from the accent, thereby “creating a clash of syllables which necessitated its addition”.16 Let us also point out that in the Hebrew and Aramaic names and designations, composed from two words, a paragogic yod could be used for their combination in the united term; in particular, this phenomenon took place in the names of some leaders of the fallen angels in the Qumran Aramaic fragments of the Book of Watchers (=1 Enoch 1-36), dated paleographically to the II-I centuries BCE (4QEna~c ar), e.g.: Vsnn^, Sahari’el, “Moon of God”; VxniD, Turi’el, “Mountain of God”; Vx’»’, Yomi’el, “Day of God” (var.: Yammi’el, “Sea of God”); rnn’»№, Semihazah, “The Name saw” or the “One who saw The Name”; Vxm, Dani’el, “God has judged” or “Judge (from) God” (in Ezek. 14:14,20, 28:3, the spelling without a yod is attested— Vxn)17; Vxnn’, Thadi’el, “God will guide”, and others. The spelling of one of the fallen angels name Zeq(i) ’el, “Lightning flash of God” or “Shooting star (from) God”, is attested both with a conjunctive yod — Vx’pn and without it —Vxp’T. In Greek transliterations of the fallen angels names a conjunctive yod is rendered by a yota (e.g.: VxniD — Tupi^/Toupi^); in some cases a conjunctive yod, missing in Hebrew-Aramaic names, is reproduced in Greek and Ethiopic renderings of these designations (e.g.: — Pa^i^, Rami’el, “Thunder of God”; and others).18
Let us also note that in the Washington Codex of the Four Gospels (V century), in Mk. 3:19, the spelling of Judas’s nickname without a yota is attested: Такарют^.
If the imperfect form of the verb19 was used in Judas’s nickname — про’, yisqar (cf., e.g., the Masoretic vocalizations of the Biblical Aramaic verbs inpe’al, imperfect 3 m. sg.: чзо’ (Dan. 7:25); abti’ (Dan. 5:7); nati’ (Dan. 4:24)), then the reconstruction of an initial prosthetic aleph is unnecessary at all, for the Hebrew/Aramaic -o’, yis- can be rendered in Greek as io- (cf., e.g.: Vxnw’, yisra’el — ’Iopa^). Thus, the designation mx(’)ij?o’ can be precisely transliterated by the Greek letters as ’IoKap(i)ro0, i.e. Iskar(i)oth.
14 Sokoloff 2002, 387.
15 On this composition see, e.g.: Kasser et al. 2008.
16 Cf.: Taylor 2010,377.
17 According to Jub. 4:20, Enoch was married to Daniel’s daughter. The Ugaritic epos contains a cycle of legends about Daniel.
18 Cf. a comparison table of the fallen angels names in the Book of Watchers in: Dacy 2011,31-37.
19 Cf., e.g.: Jn. 6:2.
Co-existence of Aramaic and the Hebrew vernacular in Judea at the beginning of the Christian era allows one to admit a “mixed” Aramean-Hebrew character of certain designations, phrases, passages, etc. (especially those of the religious content) at that period (cf., e.g.: Ps. 22:2 and Mk. 15:34, Matt. 27:46; a variation of koü^/koü^i in different manuscripts in Mk. 5:41), including possibly the nickname “Iskariot(h)”.
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On the other hand, if the nickname Iskarioth bore a negative content, then it could be derived from the Hebrew/Aramaic verb n¡?w, saqar/seqar (“to lie, deceive, slander”, sc. “to violate (a treaty, etc.)”, “to betray” [the latter meaning is attested in Samaritan Aramaic20]) and the same noun n(l)x, ’ot/’ot: Iskarioth is the “one who slandered/res^. betrayed a sign”,21 i.e. the one who could bring false evidence against Jesus (cf.: Matt. 26:59 ff.; Mk. 14:55 ff.). In Jn. 6:70, Jesus himself defines Judas with the term Siá(3oA,o¡;; this word can be interpreted as “slanderer”, “accuser”.22
References
Cotton, H. et al., eds. (2010) Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Vol. 1: Jerusalem.
Part 1: 1-704. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Dacy, M. (2011) “The Fallen Angels in the Book of 1 Enoch Reconsidered,” Henoch 33.1. Kasser, R. , Meyer, M. , Wurst, G. , with Ehrman, B. D. eds. (2008) The Gospel of Judas.
2nd ed. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.
Rollston, C. A. (2012) “Epigraphic Notes on the Ossuary of Mariam, Daughter of Yeshua: Limning the Broad Tableau,” Israel Exploration Journal 62.2.
Sokoloff, M. (2002) A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period. 2nd. ed. Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University Press; Baltimore; London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Tal, A. (2000) A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic. Leiden: Brill.
Tantlevskij, I. R. (2011) Riddles of the Dead Sea Scrolls: History and Teaching of the Qum-ran Community. St. Petersburg: RChGA Publishing House (repr.: 2012; in Russian). Taylor, J. E. (2010) “The Name “Iskarioth” (Iscariot),” Journal of Biblical Literature 129.2. Yastrow, M. (1926) A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Jerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. London: Luzac & Co.; New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Zissu, B., Goren, Y. (2011) “The Ossuary of ‘Miriam Daughter of Yeshua Son of Caiaphas, Priest [of] Ma’aziah from Beth ‘Imri’,” Israel Exploration Journal 61.1.
20 Tal 2000, 929.
21 See also: Tantlevskij 2011, Ibid.
22 Cf. the figure of “the Man of Lies” (’is ha-kkazab) who seems to have slandered and betrayed the Qumran Teacher of Righteousness. (Cf., e.g.: Tantlevskij 2011, 129-131.)
