Bible Lexicons

This word, which is quoted in Luke 3:5; Luke 23:30 from the LXX = ";hill,"; ";eminence,"; is thought by Mayser Gr. p. 8, to have entered the Κοινή through Doric influence. Hatzidakis (Einl. p. 157) quotes Phrynichus (p. 355), who says it was Sicilian, and not intelligible in Athens in the time of Philemon. But could not the Athenians of the late fourth century read Herodotus? (He seems to imply that the word came from Cyrene—see iv. 199 with Blakesley’s Excursus. With claimants almost as numerous as those for Homer’s birth, we can sympathize with Thumb’s scepticism, Hellen. p. 224. But Herodotus, if rightly understood, is a much better witness than Phrynichus.) The literary Κοινή had the word in common use before Polybius, who uses it and βουνώδης . It is found in a Ptolemaic papyrus of ii/B.C. in Archiv i. p. 64.15, ἀπη [λιώτο ]υ βουνοὶ τῆς κώ [μης , in BGU IV, 1129.14 (B.C. 13) ἀπηλιώ (τῃ ) βουνός , and bis in P Amh II. 68.29 (late i/A.D.) again marking locality. A village called Βουνοὶ Κλεοπάτρας appears in P Flor I. 64.27 (iv/A.D. init.) and by supplement in 50.32 (A.D. 268). The word is common in inscrr., e.g. Priene 37.169 (ii/B.C.) εἰς τὸν ἀπεναντὶ βουνὸν τὸν λεπρὸν ἐθήκαμεν ὅρον : cf. ib. .168, 42.10, .51, .65, (after B.C. 133). The diminutive βουνίον occurs bis in this last inscr. : cf. Magn 122 (d).12 f. (iv/B.C.). See also P Flor I. 58.12 (iii/A.D.) βουνὸν σείτου —presumably a ";heap,"; but context is imperfect. Both βουνός and its diminutive survive in MGr, βουνό and βουνί .