The "Son of Man" and Simon Bar Giora

[Secret Alias]

Why isn't esi = is

[DCHindley]

Why isn't esi = is

Vot Iss?!? <says mamma Katzenjammer before spanking Hans und Fritz>

Because b'esi is not "is". Or "is" it?

The best I can figure it is one of the Ge'ez words for "a man", but not generally "a man among men" or "mankind", which would norbmally be sab'e. I do not know how you could prove that b'esi was used at any time to represent a "heavenly man". By the time that kabala was being developed (about 10th century CE, as I understand it), with "Adam kadmon" type speculation, the Ethiopians were using Amharic.

I know, you are arguing that "heavenly man" speculation extended back at least to 1 century CE, at least in Aramaic or Syriac speaking areas, but I remain unconvinced by your arguments to date. You seem to be making speculations upon speculations, which exponentially reduces the probability of accuracy.

Picking apart those three Ge'ez forms for "son of man" a bit, "walda" would be the Ge'ez word for "Son (of)", and "'eguala" has a similar meaning, "offspring". Even though he does not think the Parables were originally written in Aramaic, thus invalidating any comparison to the three Ge'ez forms for "son of man", I think Charles discusses this in a little more detail in his stand-alone edition of The Books of Enoch, or 1 Enoch (1912). I'll have to look.

For what it's worth, the preface to the translation of 1 Enoch in Charlesworth's Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (1985?) says very little about this issue, as if to imply that it is a "non-issue" to him. Unfortunately the translator (his name escapes me at the moment), unable to create an eclectic text as Charles did (based on several variant mss of 1 Enoch), he chose one of the better known variant mss, which he had already digested, as the basis for his "diplomatic" translation. That means he may not have had enough time to research issues such as this. In the other portions of 1 En. where there are corresponding passages in the Aramaic mss among the DSS, Charles' eclectic text was much closer it seems to me. It could have been better ...

DCH (off to get some pies and apple-crisp for Thanksgiving dinner, then do some housecleaning - what fun!!)