RABBANAH
| Lehite PN | 1. | Title of king LAMONI, “which is, being interpreted, ‘powerful’ or ‘great king’” (Alma 18:13 (x2)). |
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Etymology
This word does not occur in biblical Hebrew, even though it likely is composed of the Hebrew root...
From Hebrew rāb “great, magnate,”[1] and rabbâ “much” (Proverbs 28:12), “heavy” (Numbers 11:33; Isaiah 30:25),[2] from which are derived Hebrew GN rabbâ “great city” (Joshua 13:25; Jeremiah 49:3),[3] and verb “be numerous, increase, become powerful.”[4]
The same Semitic root also appears in cuneiform Akkadian rab, rabû , rabbû “great, chief, senior, majestic, noble,”[5] rabânu “mayor, headman,”[6] rab, rabi “chief overseer of,”[7] Mari rabbu “influential people,”[8] and Emarite rabba “great.”[9] Especially interesting is the neo-Assyrian and neo-Babylonian term rabbani, rabbānû “high functionary, foreign official, chieftan; administrator of temple property,” which is written syllabically (in Sumerian) as LÚ.GAL “king,” or LÚ.GAL.DÙ “King who acts,”[10] which John Gee points out is equivalent to EGYPTIAN Nb-ir-ḫt “Lord who performs ritual” (a royal epithet).[11]
In very late Jewish antiquity, Aramaic Rabbana was an honorific title for the heads of the central Jewish academy or of the Sanhedrin after Hillel, including Simeon ben Gamliel III.[12] It was the title of Rab Ashi, the most celebrated amora of his day and head of the Sura Academy, living ca. 335 - 427/428 C.E.[13] The exilarchs and scholars of their families were called “Mar” or “Rabbana.”[14] John Tvedtnes suggests that RABBANAH here corresponds to Ribbono “Master/Great-One,” in late Hebrew in Bet ha-Midrasch, ¶ 29,[15] and to Aramaic Rabbouni, Rabonni “teacher,” in John 20:16 (Greek transliteration) (JAT).
Bibliography
Black, Jeremy, Andrew George, and Nicholas Postgate, eds. A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, SANTAG 5. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999/2000.
CAD = Chicago Assyrian Dictionary = Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the Univ. of Chicago (Chicago: Oriental Institute/Glückstadt: J. J. Augustin, 1956-2010).
Encyclopedia Judaica, ed., Cecil Roth. Jerusalem: Keter/N.Y.: Macmillan, 1970-1971. EJ
Jellinek, Adolph. Bet ha-Midrasch, 5 vols.?? 1853/reprint Jerusalem: Wahrmann, 1967. Hebrew.
Koehler, Ludwig, and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 5 vols., revised by W. Baumgartner & Johann J. Stamm. Leiden: Brill, 1994. HALOT
Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef. An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological- Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents with Supplement on Biblical Aramaic. Jersey City: Ktav, 2009.
Tvedtnes, John A., Brian M. Hauglid, and John Gee, eds. Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham, Studies in the Book of Abraham 1. Provo: BYU/FARMS, 2001.
Variants
Deseret Alphabet:
Notes
- ↑ Koehler & Baumgartner, HALOT, III:1170-1172.
- ↑ HALOT, III:1171-1172.
- ↑ HALOT, III:1178.
- ↑ HALOT, III:1175.
- ↑ W. von Soden, AHw, 483.63; Tawil, Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebew, 354; CAD “R” 16-17 (verb forms 37-50).
- ↑ CAD “R” 17-19.
- ↑ Black, et al., Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 293.
- ↑ H. ben Yosef Tawil, Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew, 355.
- ↑ Tawil, Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew, 355.
- ↑ CAD “R” 9, 19 (5-6 rab-banûtu = LÚ.GAL.DÙ-ú-tú/tu); Black, et al., Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 4-5 (participle).
- ↑ Caroline Rutledge, doctoral dissertation.
- ↑ Encyclopedia Judaica, IV:1163.
- ↑ EJ, III:709.
- ↑ EJ, II:873.
- ↑ A. Jellinek, ed., “The Story of Abraham Our Father from What Happened to Him with Nimrod,” and “A Study (Midrash) of Abraham Our Father,” in Bet ha-Midrasch, I:34, V:40-41, English translation in Tvedtnes, Hauglid & Gee, eds., Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham, 173 (n. 15), and 179 (n. 9).
