Persian cake in Isaiah

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Ethan
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Persian cake in Isaiah

Post by Ethan »


Plutarch, Artaxerxes 3
Into this sanctuary the candidate for initiation must pass, and after laying aside his own proper robe, must put on that which Cyrus the Elder used to wear before he became king then he must eat of a cake of figs (σύκων παλάθης), chew some turpentine-wood, and drink a cup of sour milk.


Isaiah 38:21
For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs (παλάθην ἐκ σύκων, דבלת תאנים) and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.

Ethan
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Re: Persian cake in Isaiah

Post by Ethan »

παλάθη דבלה
a cake of preserved fruit

The physician and historian of Artaxerxes II was Ctesias who as a similar function as Isaiah, the physician of Hezekiah and an Historian, as author of Kings.

Ctesias is the historical Isaiah.

Isaiah used a remedy to perform the healing rather then "God" magically doing the actual healing, alike Jesus rubbing spittle in the patients eye. This contradicts Christian faith healing.
Ethan
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Re: Persian cake in Isaiah

Post by Ethan »

Unfortunatelly they are no cakes in the New Testament proving them to be false.

The usual word translated cake is חלה which derives άρτος "bread". חלה probably from κενός/κοίλος for it's hollowness.
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