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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Just a footnote, and a little nit to pick, on the following: On 10/28/2011 10:05 AM, Terri Morgan wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > > Today, October 28, is the feast of: > > Simon Zelotes/Cananaeus . . . Simon was called either the Canaanite of > [sic, or] the Zealot (because of his zeal for the Jewish law before > his conversion) in the gospels. > Apparently the Hebrew qana (thus "Canaanite") means "zealous" (thus "zealot"), which suggests that these attributions stem from the early tradition in Aramaic or Hebrew being brought over into Greek (transliteration and translation). It might also mean that the "Zealot" political movement in Palestinian Judaism which appears later in the sources (e.g. Josephus) was also called "Canaanian" or the like in the Semitic speaking world by the time these gospel traditions became fixed in the present form. Interestingly, Jerome -- who had learned some Hebrew -- didn't make this connection but took "Canaanite" as a location identifier, from the town of Cana. That's the footnote. The nit is that using the term "conversion" in this context is quite anachronistic, since becoming a follower of Jesus at that stage, before "Christianity" had emerged as an option over against "Judaism," is historically misleading. And if "zealot" described Simon's energy -- perhaps even if it referred to a political position -- it probably also continued to describe him as a follower of Jesus, who is depicted as somewhat of an apocalyptic rabble-rouser in some of the sources. Bob Kraft, UPenn ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html