Replies

BTW, I would rather say that it was New Testament Greek which influenced Aramaic. Educated Jews/Christians of that time used Greek, especially outside of Palestine (in ALexandria or Rome). So they used Greek version of Old Testament Scriptures (Septuaginta) and so the New Testament was in Greek.

Educated Jews never used the Septuagint. The Septuagint was written mostly for Jews outside Judea who had forgotten Hebrew.

The word "natsur" has meaning in Hebrew and Aramaic. It appears in Isaiah 48:6. It is translated in English language bibles as "hidden things." Isaiah was written long before anyone in Judea spoke Greek.

The word "nazoraios" has no root in Greek. It is obviously from a foreign root. So it could not have come from Greek into Aramaic. Just the opposite. But it most likely did not come from the town of Nazareth as the New Testament implies.

"Steward of the mysteries of God" is a plausible explanation of what it might mean.

Educated Jews never used the Septuagint. The Septuagint was written mostly for Jews outside Judea who had forgotten Hebrew.

Well. I guess we mean different types of education. Traditionalist Jews if they got education they used Hebrew of cource. But at this time the Graeco Roman civilization was at its appex and many Jews got got classic education. Same way as many Jews today go to Harvard instead of yeshiva.

A large and prosperous professional class of Jews was present in the Roman Empire and they used the lingua franca of educated people - Greek. Even in the Palestine the struggle between Hellenists and Pharisees/Zealots was more or less even.

The process of abandonment of Hebrew was not resticted to the upper/middle class - many from lower class and merchants used Aramaic.

Septuaginta was a translation made for the Jews and by the Jews in the center of the ancient scholarship - Alexandria couple centuries before Christ. The quotes in New Testament agree with Septuaginta in the passages which got modified in the later Hebrew versions. The good example is the famous prophetic quote:
"For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."

In the late Masoretic version (VIIIc adopted later by Luther and Protestants) ) the passage reads:
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
(Isa:40:3)

The difference in meaning is substantial - as the wilderness can be understood as being outside. Saint Johns while being an outcast calls for the repentence in the center - among Jews. Masoretic passage can be interpreted as the applying to change of the world outside (making streight) done from inside.

This is true - and so the word Holy Sacraments is unprecise echo of Greek term Holy Mysteries as the later derives from Hebrew through the Septuaginta.