When a word is capitalized in biblical greek,does that mean it is a name, or a noun, or just the begininng of a sentence. What I am specifically asking about here, is the word/name Talitha/Taliqa from Mark 5:41. In the origianl greek, it is capitalized (as it is in the KJV) which would, i beleive, indicate it is a name, not jst a word. Yes, i know Talitha means “maiden” etc, but it also could have been a name. Is there any biblical usage of this as a name? Is there a Hebrew equivilant?
I don’t have a bible at hand, so can you write out the sentence? Context will be helpful.
I don’t know biblical Greek (Koine), but in classical Greek, the first word of a sentence is not generally capitalized. Capitalization is for proper names, the first word of a paragraph, or the first word of a quotation.
Mark 5:41 “And He took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel I say unto thee, arise”. You can find the greek pretty easy by doing a searc on the word “Taliqa”, it is pretty rare, and is only in the greek Mark, or as a Middle eastern Name.
Hebrew knows no capitalization, and I believe the same is true for ancient Greek texts. Any capitalization (as well as punctuation) was added later by those interpreting the texts.
Daniel,
Unfortunately, I don’t know Greek. In addition, I’m unfamiliar with the verse in Mark.
It is true, however, that Hebrew does not have capital letters.
As to the equivilant word in Hebrew:
The hebrew word betula means virgin.
The hebrew word almah (at least according to Jews) means young woman (whether a virgin or not).
Zev Steinhardt
I do know koine and classical Greek. And there is typically no capitalization in either.
What edition are you reading? Can you read Greek script or has the text been transliterated in English?
MR
maeg: I just did a search on the word “taliqa”, it is so rare, that it only shows up in Mark5, and a few Muslim news notes. Try searching taliqa, and you will get a couple sites for the greek Mark. One is in all caps, so no help, the others cap the word “Taliqa” (No, I do not read greek, but I go to verse 41, and there in the right place is “Taliqa”.
zev: Yes, oddly enuf i did know that- but as Aramaic/syriac is close to Hebrew, does “talitha/taliqa” mean anything? And is it a Hebrew name?
Daniel:
Closest I can say is that “Talitha” sounds a bit like tallith – you know, the Jewish prayer shawl (although the word seems to refer generically to any cloak back in the era you’re reading about).
I can’t think of anything Hebrew that even approximates “Taliqa”.
The phrase “Talitha cumi” is capitalized in the King James Bible because it is the first word of a quotation. It is neither a Greek nor a Hebrew phrase, but an Aramaic phrase. (Aramaic is the language Jesus and his disciples spoke.)
Nestle’s Novum Testamentum Graece does not capitalize tabitha. (Interestingly enough, it does indicate that there are a whole bunch of variants on the passage. Most look to be the sort of error that would occur when a copyist was unfamiliar with the word, and none of them make real changes to the text–usually they can’t agree whether the verb should be choûm or choumi.)
None of the variants include taliqa–not surprising since the q is an English transliteration of a Hebrew character–but no Greek version has tabicha or tabika, either.