holies again

[John Dingley]

Hi,

Sorry but I lost the thread of Jules Levin's question concerning
"svyataya svyatykh". I believe it is agreed that it is a neuter
plural form, which faithfully reflects the forms found in the Latin
and Greek bibles, but not in the Russian bible where we find 
"svyatoe svyatykh". Knowing no Hebrew (I hang my head in shame!), does
the original Hebrew "qodhesh ha-qodhashim" encourage the plural or
the singular translation?

HOLY OF HOLIES

(qodhesh ha-qodhashim, Ex 26:33, debhir, 1 Ki 6:16, etc.; in the New 
Testament, hagia hagiwn, Hebrews 9:3)
 
Hebrews 9:3

Russian
Za vtoroyu zhe zavesoyu byla skiniya, nazyvaemaya svyatoe svyatykh,

Latin
post velamentum autem secundum tabernaculum quod dicitur sancta 
sanctorum

Greek
meta de to deuteron katapetasma skEnE E legomenE agia agiwn,

For what is worth, Google (in Russian) gives 34,500 hits for "svyatoe
svyatykh", 366,000 for "svyataya svyatykh".

Also, Google has hits treating "svyataya svyatykh" in Russian as a 
feminine singular, a neuter singular, and a plural.

Google also has 190,000 hits for Latin "sanctum sanctorum", but I have
not sifted through them to see when and where this occurs.

John Dingley

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http://dlll.yorku.ca/jding.html

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