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Does Elymas really mean "Wise" in Arabic? I thought it meant "sorcerer" ("magus") in Greek.
The Greek "magus" is from the Persian meaning "Great or Wise One", which is pluralised to Magi, which was used to refer to the High Priestly Caste of Persia (See Matthew 2:1). This is the sense that the Greek Historian Herodotus (484-425 BCE) gave to the Greek "magus". The Greek Philosopher Plato however used "magus" to mean deceiver or seducer, although no one has yet been able to specify why he did so, nor how "magus" came to mean this so early. Although Arabic isn't the same as Ancient Persian, the Enhanced Strong's Lexicon does state that [Elymas is] the Arabic name of the Jewish magnus or sorcerer Barjesus (Strong's #G1681); and The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament states that Elymas, meaning sage, is the Arabic designation of his name. (CWSD:NT G1681). There is however some doubt that Elymas is from the Arabic root 'alim meaning wise, learned (see L. Yaure (Journal of Biblical Literature issue 79 (1960), pp. 297–314)), due to the fact that why would a Jew in Cypress ... be called by an obscure Arabic nickname? (The Beginnings of Christianity - F.J. F. Jackson and K. Lake, London 1920-33 4:144). According to C. K. Barrets A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Volume 1, there has been other attempts to see Elymas in the Aramaic חלמא Helema' meaning An interpreter of dreams (ACECAA Vol 1 pp. 615) (Stephen Walch (talk) 14:14, 21 November 2009 (UTC))[reply]
Personally I think these cartoon pictures detract from the article. They are rather childish. It would be better to omit them. Kanjuzi (talk) 19:52, 11 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
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