Had Rahab learned the Hebrew language? or the spies the Canaanite? Either [would be] judged to be no way remote from the truth by [one] who has either read, in Athenaeus bk. 13, [that] some harlots — so as to be more refined by the wit of their words, more charming, and furnished with every allurement — devoted effort to philosophy, to music and mathematics; or has considered [that] it could come about that in the camps of the Israelites there were some Egyptians knowing Canaanite, from whom some of the Israelites learned that language. But the easier and truer answer is [that] the Hebrew and Canaanite language were either entirely the same, or certainly so bordering and similar that Canaanites and Hebrews could conveniently enough speak and deal with one another.
For first, from those [things] which have elsewhere been said about paradise and the expulsion of men thence, it is agreed [that] the first of mortals dwelt in these places. And [that] these used the Hebrew language, their proper names — explained by the Holy Spirit from their proper etymologies — teach: Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Enos, Lamech, Henoch, Cainan, Tubal, [and] Cain, Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and very many others. And after the division of languages, [that] the use of the same Hebrew language remained in that place [Canaan], all the names of the regions, cities, villages, rivers, mountains, and men also show — and the Hebrew title of the covenant which Jacob fixed [in] Genesis 31, namely Galeed. And thereafter [that] the same language was carried into Egypt by Jacob and the other Patriarchs, and there guarded even to the exodus, the very names imposed there [are] witnesses — Aaron, Miriam, Joshua, Caleb, and so many like [them] recorded in Numbers and Chronicles [Paralipomenon]; witnesses too [are] the Jews themselves, among whom [there] is a tradition [that] their ancestors in Egypt did not change three [things] which they had received from their own elders — [their] names, language, and garments.
Secondly, Isaiah ch. 19 v. 18 says: “In that day there were five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan.” But that this [language] is Hebrew, all the Interpreters — Latin, Greek, Hebrew — affirm with concordant voices and pens; so much so that (as Jerome relates on Zephaniah ch. 2) the Jews think [that] all the Gentiles who will be converted to the Messiah will speak Hebrew, and indeed as purely as the Hebrews were wont to speak before the Babylonian captivity. This indeed is a fable, and too crass an opinion of the Rabbins; it indicates nonetheless what they understand by the “language of Canaan” in the Prophet.
Thirdly. Jerome, on that place of Isaiah [ch.] 1[9] v. 7, says: “The Canaanite language is midway between Egyptian and Hebrew, and in great part bordering on Hebrew.” St. Chrysostom, on 2 Tim. ch. 2 hom. 4, says [that] the Hebrew and Syriac languages have the utmost consonance with one another. Again Jerome, on Jonah ch. 3 [4], shows [that] Syriac and Punic are akin to Hebrew. For what the Hebrew calls Kikaion [gourd], those [Syrians] call ἑλκετον [elketon]. And [in] bk. 1 of the Commentary on ch. 2 of Galatians, fol. 168: “Peter does not signify one [thing], Cephas another; but [that] which we in Latin and Greek call ‘rock’ [petra], this the Hebrews and Syrians, on account of the nearness of [their] languages to one another, name Cepha.”
Fourthly. The Punic language is either Canaanite, or [derived] from it—
(col. 374)
—but the same [Canaanite] is either Hebrew, or [derived] from it. The same, therefore, is Canaanite and Hebrew, or [derived] from it. The same, therefore, is Canaanite and Hebrew, or between them there is very little difference. That former assumption is clear from those [things] which I shall say below about the Maurusii [Mauretanians], and from St. Augustine in the exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, where he mystically interprets that Canaanite woman who, [in] Matth. 15, begged the safety of her daughter from the Lord [as] the Phoenician Dido, who built Carthage, the royal seat of the Carthaginians; then he subjoins: “Our peasants, when questioned what they are, answering in Punic, ‘Chanani’ — corrupted, namely, as is wont [to happen] in such [words], by one letter — what else do they answer than ‘Canaanites’?” This, however, is to be understood of a corruption with respect to the Latin language, in which (as he explains) — one diphthong or letter being interposed — they are called Chananaei [Canaanites]; otherwise [it is] Chananaeus [Canaanite] without any corruption in the primeval — that is, the Hebrew — language, [where] the letter is Chanani. And of the common citizens [he speaks] in the same [way], serm. 24 On the words of the Apostle ch. 3: “There is a Punic proverb, which indeed I will tell you in Latin, because you do not all know Punic.” And toward the end of the preface in bk. 2 of the Commentary on Galatians: “The Africans [Afri],” he says, “have changed the Phoenician language in some part.”
The latter assumption is proved: 1. from St. Jerome, [in] the Traditions on Genesis: “The Punic language,” he says, “is bordering on Hebrew.” And on Jeremiah ch. 25: “The Poeni [Carthaginians] are named, as it were, ‘Phoeni’ by a corrupted speech, whose language is in great part akin to the Hebrew language.” St. Augustine, quaest. 16 on Judges: “These languages,” he says, “Punic and Canaanite, do not differ much between themselves.” And serm. 35 On the words of the Lord: “These languages, Hebrew and Punic, are joined to each other by a certain nearness of signification.” 2. From the many words of the Carthaginians which are nearly the same as [those] of the Hebrews. For “Carthage,” in Solinus, [is] Chartada — as if, namely, חַרְתָּא קַרְתָּא [chartha kartha] — which, says the same author, in the Phoenician mouth expresses “new city.” And likewise “Hadrumetum” there [is], as it were, הֲצַר מָוֶת [chatsar maveth], that is, “the court of dying,” or of death, or of Pluto. For, as [it is] in Philo of Byblos, among the Phoenicians and their offspring, the Poeni [Carthaginians], μῶθ [mōth] is θάνατος καὶ Πλούτων [thanatos kai Ploutōn, “death and Pluto”]. And Dido herself, says Modius (whom, after various errors at last of body and mind, I rejoice [to have] returned to the Catholic mother — Servius [says] her true name was earlier “Elissa”; but, after [her] death, she was called “Dido” by the Poeni, that is, “virago,” in the Punic language — or “beloved,” and perhaps even before [her] death from דּוֹד [dôd], whence “David,” and that [phrase] in Psalm 67 [68]: “the King of hosts, of the beloved, of the beloved”; “Hannibal” חַנִּיבַעַל, “Hasdrubal” חֲצְרֻבַעַל. For “Baal,” says Augustine in the cited book, “the Punic seem to say [for] ‘Lord’; whence ‘Baal-samen’ they are understood to say as ‘Lord of heaven.’ For ‘samen’ among them is called ‘heaven’”: in Hebrew שָׁמַיִם [shamayim]. In the Plautine Poenulus [there] are more [examples], for example’s sake:
Mi. Hauo. Of what country are you? or from what town? P. [Hanno]: “Hanno, Muthumballe be Chaedreanech.” Ag. What does he say? M[ilphio]: He says [that] he is Hanno, a Carthaginian of Carthage, son of Muthumbal.
Behold: Hauo — from חָוָה [chavah], as it were “live,” χαῖρε [chaire, “hail”], ὑγίαινε [hygiaine, “be well”] — whence also among us Ave, or Have (as not only the more recent [authors], but St. Augustine too has [it], epist. 43). Hanno, moreover, from חָנַן [chanan, “to be gracious”], is “Eucharius,” and almost “Johannes.” Muthumbal, “lord of the death of certain [men]”; Be, as it were Ben, that is “son” — or, if it be joined with what follows, in the former [it] will be understood [as] “son,” as when it is said, “Solomon of David, James of Zebedee”; and the sense will be, “in Chadreanech,” or (as someone corrects [it]) “in Catsicanech,” that is, “in the courts of Anech.” And through—
(col. 375)
—[through]out, “P[oenulus/Hanno]: Hauo. M[ilphio]: he greets [you].” Likewise:
Ag. He greets this [man] again in Punic with my words. Mi. “Haudoni.”
Now this last [word] is, as it were, חָא־אֲדוֹנִי [chā-ʾadonî], that is, “O my Lord” — the word, namely, of one greeting; as today [it is] frequent in the parting of departing Germans, “Mein Herr,” etc. — for which Punic word there crept into Gellius “Eupsoner,” though it be “Eudones” or “Audonis.” And the Greek Anthologist beautifully expressed it, in [the epitaph on] Meleager of Tyre, bk. 3:
“If indeed you are a Syrian, [I say] Σαλάμ [Salam] — שָׁלוֹם [shalom, “peace”] — but if a Phoenician, [Naidios/Audonis]; but if a Greek, Χαῖρε [Chaire, “hail”]; and do you say the same.”
There are, in the aforecited St. Augustine, these Punic [words] too: “Mammon” (serm. 35 On the words of the Lord); “Edom,” that is, “blood,” in Psalm 136; “Salus,” that is, “three” or “triad,” in the exposition of the Epistle to the Romans — for which the Hebrew [words] are אֱדוֹם, דָּם, שְׁלֹשָׁה, שָׁלוֹם [edom, dam, sheloshah, shalom]. Accomplished, therefore, by one and the same language — or [one] very closely bordering — [were] the discourses held to and fro between the spies and Rahab.
There is one [objection] which someone might perhaps raise from Psalm 80 [81] v. 6: “He placed [it as] a testimony in Joseph, when he went out from the land of Egypt; he heard a language which he knew not.” Therefore the [language] of the Canaanites — to whom he came in the exodus from Egypt — was quite other and different; since Joseph (that is, the Israelite people) is said not to have understood that language. I answer [that] this [refers] to the ignorance of the language [as] pertaining to Egypt, not to the regions to which they journeyed thence — whether [it was] Canaanite itself, or others lying between that and this. For it is a description of a pilgrimage, and a most troublesome one, since he was not skilled in the Egyptian language. For [it is] a great trouble to live continually with those whom neither they [understand] you, nor you them — as the exile Ovid complains, bk. 5 of the Tristia, eleg. 8, [speaking] of the Getae and the Sarmatians:
“They ply the commerce of a shared tongue [among themselves]; by gesture must a matter be signified by me. Here I am the barbarian, understood by no one; the stupid Getae laugh at my Latin words. And openly, in my presence, they often speak ill of me; perhaps they cast up my exile against me.”
And eleg. 13 [10]:
“[There is] here no [free] book, no one to lend me an ear and signify what my [word] is that he may know; all places are barbarous, and the voices savage.”
The sense, therefore, is: “when he went out from the land of Egypt, where he heard a language which he knew not” — that is, where he was a foreigner. There are in the Hebrew other [things] to be observed, but now only these two. First, [that it] is most frequent in that idiom [Hebrew] that particles of this kind — “where,” or “in which,” namely, “land” — be understood [supplied]. Secondly, [that] in the same Hebrew it is thus: “a language which I knew not, may I hear,” or “hear.” But the 70 (who are rendered [reflected] in our Latin version of the Psalms), so as to turn the obscure third person into the first, always retained the third person. And thus [in] Psalm 113 v. 1 it is said, “the going-out of Israel from a barbarous people” — that is, a people of another language, as the Hebrew word shows.
But so that a comparison of these languages among themselves may better be set up, I will enumerate a few Egyptian words which occur from various Authors:
(col. 376)
- Ambas, that is, Abbas [Abbot]. In the testimony of St. Ephrem… [a] testament: Vossius tom. 3 fol. 302.
- Ambrēs — a certain book of the sacred scribes [hierogrammateis]; Horapollo bk. 1 ch. 38.
- Amoum — hidden, or an invocatory cry; Plutarch, On Isis.
- Arimanios — evil; ibid.
- Astabores — Pliny bk. 5 ch. 9: “a branch of water coming from the darkness.” And to the Germans [it is] ramus [a branch], bor or born, a spring or well.
- Astapus — Pliny ibid.: “water flowing out from darkness.” Astusapes, ibid.: water likewise, but hidden.
- Bal — myrrh; Caelius Rhodiginus bk. 13 ch. 22 — [that] which signifies “dissection.”
- Baiēth — a hawk; Horapollo bk. 1 ch. 7 [Greek: ψυχὴ ἐγκάρδιος, psychē enkardios, “soul in the heart”]. Bai — soul; ibid.
- Casas — felted garments; Agatharchides [Greek: Καφάκ]; Lipsius epist. 45, cent. 2, to the Belgians.
- Chenosiris — ivy, which [is] Bacchus’s; Plutarch, On Isis.
- Chatzir — a pig; Baronius tom. 9 of the Annals, in the translation [passing] of St. Mark.
- Chnoue [Greek: χοῦν] — a trumpet; Eustathius bk. 10 on the Iliad; Lipsius bk. 4 On Military [matters] d. 10.
- Cori — Horapollo ch. 8 bk. 1.
- Chuni — the name of a demon, in Origen Against Celsus bk. 7 or 8.
- Eccori — Horapollo bk. 1 ch. 8.
- Hesiris — the same as Osiris; [see] below.
- Ēth — the heart [Hebrew: חֵת, heth]; Horapollo bk. 1 ch. 7.
- Iri — the eye; Plutarch, On Isis.
- Isis — a swallow, and [Greek: ἐγχέλυον?]; and therefore also the moon, in Plutarch, On Isis; and [Greek: παλαιά, “ancient”] in Diodorus bk. 1; and the year, in Horapollo 1 ch. 3.
- Kacheis — bread; Strabo bk. 17. Whether as if Hebrew lechem? and lacham?
- Kicha — in Herodotus bk. 1, Strabo bk. 17: fruit.
- Meis — Horapollo bk. 1 ch. 56; but Scaliger (bk. 3 On the Emendation of Times) thinks Neisi [is] to be read. Is [it] because [of] the month Nisan? Indeed, in Josephus bk. 2 (he says ch. 5) it is written [Greek: κισάν].
- Meroe — that is, a woman; Strabo bk. 17.
- Mitras [Greek: μολπις?] — Plutarch, On Isis. And more about him [in] St. Jerome epist. 7 and on Amos; likewise the Tripartite History bk. 6, [and] Martianus Capella.
- Mitra — Venus; Herodotus bk. 2. For the Egyptians call a woman who obeys [her] husband “Venus” — sometimes, [but] not other women — as Horapollo says, ch. 8 bk. 1.
- Mo — water; Josephus bk. 2 Antiq. ch. 5, and bk. 1 Against Apion; likewise the notes on the Life of St. Romaricus.
- Noun — the Nile; Horapollo bk. 1 ch. 21 — [that] which is [Greek: ῥέος, rheos, “a stream”].
- Ouai — a distant cry; Horapollo bk. 1 ch. 29.
- Omouis — a he-goat; St. Jerome on Isa. 46.
- Ouraios — a serpent [Greek: ὄφις, ophis]; perhaps [Greek: ὡραῖος, hōraios], as if Hebrew נָחָשׁ [nachash, “serpent”]; Horapollo bk. 1 ch. 1.
- Onuphis — Plutarch, On Isis.
- Os — many [much].
- Osiris — ibid.: that is, “beneficent,” “many-eyed” [Greek: πολυόφθαλμος, polyophthalmos].
- Ozamazus — a good God; ibid.
- Paximacium — a tiny loaf, scarcely having the weight of one pound; in Cassian bk. 4 of the Institutes ch. 14, Collat. 2 ch. 19. But [it] is called [Greek: παξιμάδες, paximades] and paximadion — from this [author’s] Scholiast, a Roman word — which signifies twice-baked bread; [that] which in the Code of Justinian is called buccellatum, and is there distinguished from [ordinary] bread.
- Pharao — that is, “King,” says Josephus bk. 8 Antiq. ch. 2; but elsewhere—
—others give other significations.
- Piromis or Picormin — good, excellent; Herodotus bk. 2 [Greek: καλὸς κἀγαθός, kalos kagathos, “noble and good”].
- Remobath — the worst kind of feigned monks; St. Jerome, to Eustochium, On the guarding of virginity.
- Sairi — joy and festival; Plutarch, bk. On Isis.
- Sanses — cenobites [monks]. 1. St. Jerome, to Eustochium, On the guarding of virginity.
- Sbō [Greek: παιδεία, πλήρης τροφή, “education, full nourishment”]; Horapollo ch. 38 bk. 1; Pierius bk. 38.
- Saphaneth-phance, or Tzophnath-pahaneach [Zaphnath-paaneah] — the name imposed on Joseph, Gen. 41 v. 45; and, to Josephus (Flavius) bk. 2 ch. 3, [Greek: κρυπτῶν εὑρετής, kryptōn heuretēs] — that is, “finder of hidden things,” or “interpreter and revealer.” To the Chaldee, “[one] to whom hidden [things] are revealed.” To the ancients — in their opinion, [and] to our Interpreter — “Saviour of the world”; and to this there is a beautiful allusion in Horapollo bk. 1 ch. 60. But faultily, in the book On Hebrew Names, it is written “somtonphane,” and, in Isidore (Orig. bk. …), “cephaneth,” [as] “finder of hidden [things].” “Aphane” seems to some to be drawn from the Greek φαίνω [phainō, “to show, appear”], but itself [rather] to be drawn from the Hebrew צָפַן [tzaphan], “to hide,” or צָפָה [tzaphah], “to look, to observe.” For [in] Judges 11 v. 39, where in ours [it] is “Mizpah,” in the Hebrew it is מִצְפָּה [mitzpah], in Greek σκοπιά [skopia, “lookout”], or “from the lookout”; and ch. 12 v. 1, tzaphah, which plainly agrees with mitzpah. In the Greek [it is] σκοπιά, in Josephus σκοπή [skopē, “watch”]. Drusius could be consulted, bk. 9 Obser. ch. 5.
- Sōthis — Horapollo bk. 1 ch. 3: the Dog-star [Canicula]; [Greek: “…which also seems to rule over the others”].
- Thephis — knotgrass [proserpinaca]; ch. 18, Apuleius On herbs.
- Titothos — cyclamen; Apuleius ch. 16 On herbs.
- Thuis — a he-goat; St. Jerome on Isa. 46.
- Typho [Typhon], who [is] also Sethe [Seth] — in Diodorus bk. 5, and, to Suidas, Priapus.
- Hyc — in German [Hirt], a shepherd; in Josephus, bk. Against Apion; Horapollo bk. 1 ch. 59.
Many more could be gathered — especially proper names of men, as Potiphar; and of herbs, in Apuleius bk. On herbs, ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 14, 15, following, and the like. “Seb” — [that] which are agreeable to him, he will seek out; [those] which [are] disagreeable, these too he will spit out. The Egyptian names of the months only — from Ptolemy’s Almagest and others — I cannot but likewise adjoin, on account of their frequent use:
- Thot — beginning from the rising of the Dog-star, while the sun enters Leo.
- Paophi.
- Athyr.
- Choiak.
- Tybi.
- Mechir.
- Phamenoth.
- Pharmuthi.
- Pachon.
- Payni.
- Epiphi.
- Mesori.