I'd like to preface my remarks by thanking Bill East for the effort he's
shown in unfolding these liturgical texts for us. He writes:
> I offer this suggestion with some diffidence; after all, a romphea is not a
> gladius; but then neither is it St Paul's tela. The couple of instances of
> romphea in the Vulgate (Ecclus. and Rev., noted above) are not to the
> purpose. Perhaps Adam has deliberately chosen a neutral word for a weapon.
I don't have the resources to hand to confirm this, but I suspect that rompea
is a Latin borrowing of the Greek word rhomphaia. The normal Greek word for a
sword would be machaira, but the Thracians are spoken of as employing a
particularly fearsome edged weapon called the rhomphaia. I do not know the
current status of research on the subject, but, absent strong evidence, it
was thought to be similar to the Dacian falx. If memory serves me, no known
visual depiction of a rhomphaia exists, and the identification of the
rhomphaia with the falx was based mainly on a conjectured continuity between
the Thracians and Dacians. Biblical usage of the term seems to be in places
where the translator or author sought to evoke a sense of dread (LXX Gen.
3:24, LXX 1 Ki 17:51, Rev.).
Phil Feller
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