From: Mark Goodacre (M.S.GOODACRE@bham.ac.uk)
Date: Thu Jan 14 1999 - 06:57:01 EST
On 12 Jan 99 at 15:22, Edward Hobbs wrote:
> Mark Goodacre, who has put us in touch with many valuable sites, has
> in this instance demonstrated the perils of using a search engine to
> produce a concordance for texts in which fixed spelling does not exist.
Or, one might say, he has demonstrated the perils of using a search engine
lazily and hastily. As always with computer resources, there is much onus on
the researcher to know how to use them effectively and accurately and this is
something I failed to do here. While I am not on commission, I would like to
point out that the problem here was with me and not the machine. Literature
On-Line remains a super resource, but one that needs to be used with care.
That resource, when used more carefully, does indeed confirm Edward's fine
exposition, and provides more details on it.
For what it's worth, here is a little more nuancing now that I have had time to
return to it:
West Saxon I (c. 990) uses the term "baptista" of John the Baptist (Matt. 3.1
and Luke 9.19); and at John 3.22 we have "baptizabat": "...eius in iudeam
terram. & ibi demorabatur cum eis & baptizabat". But as Stephen pointed out,
the word for baptism is fulluht, e.g. Matt. 3.7: "SoÝlice ßa he geseh manega
ß¾ra sunder-halgena & ß¾ra riht-wisendra to his fulluhte cumende."
So too West Saxon II (c. 1175), which does not even have John as "baptista" in
Matt. 3.1 but rather "fulluhtere" ("On ßam dagen com iohannes se fulluhtere &
bodede on ßam westene iud‘‘"), the usual term for baptist in West Saxon I.
And so we get to Wycliffe (Early, c. 1384), where we have "Joon Baptist", and,
as Edward pointed out, the first occurrence of the noun "baptism", spelt
variously, for example here in Matt. 3 "bapteme":
[1]...1 In thilke days came Joon Baptist, prechynge in
the desert of Jude, 2 sayinge, `Do...
[7]...seeynge many of Pharisees and of Saducese
commynge to his bapteme, saide to hem,
Generaciouns of eddris, who shewide to...
[11]...whos shon Y am not worthi to bere; he shal
baptise, `or cristen, yow in the Holy Goost and fijr....
Or at Matt. 21.25 we have baptem:
25 Of whennes was the
baptem of Joon; of heuene, or of men?
Or in the introductory matter to Mark we have baptyme and baptym
...Mark, the euangelist, of God chosun, and Petris sone
in baptyme, and in Goddis word disciple, presthod in
Israel ledynge,... ...in hym silf the word, `that is,
Crist, of the Baptist, that in consonantis, `that is,
in forme fadris, he... ...the work of the fulfillid
gospel entringe, `and fro the baptym of the Lord
bigynnynge to preche God, ne trauelide... ...seruaunt of
God, and the goostli sone of Petre in baptym, and the
disciple in Goddis word; he mynystride preesthod...
...and to Crist. Mark bigynneth at the sendyng of Joon
Baptist, and tellith not the natiuite of Crist bi
fleissche,... ...not the natiuite of Crist bi fleissche,
but fro Cristis baptym, whanne he was ful man, he
tellith of his...
So too Tyndale (1530-4), as Edward points out, uses the noun baptim, baptime,
baptyme.
So the machinery tells us that Edward's sharp eyes are right, or it does
when its operator lets it!
Mark
--------------------------------------
Dr Mark Goodacre mailto:M.S.Goodacre@bham.ac.uk
Dept of Theology tel: +44 121 414 7512
University of Birmingham fax: +44 121 414 6866
Birmingham B15 2TT United Kingdom
Homepage: http://www.bham.ac.uk/theology/goodacre
--- B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:40:14 EDT