Bible Lexicons

See F. C. Burkitt Syriac Forms, pp. 5, 9.

(cf. See exerts below from F. C Burkitt The Syriac Forms of New Testament Proper Names. London: Oxford University Press, 1912.)

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Burkitt, Syriac Forms, p. 5

The name Caiaphas (Καιάφας or Καΐφας) is transliterated קיפא ; Cephas (Κηφᾶς) on the other hand, is כאפא. At first sight it seems irregular that the Syriac equivalent to Κηφᾶς should begin with כ instead of ק. But what we have to recognize is that כאפא is not a transliteration at all, but the Syriac for 'stone': the translator, or possibly Syriac Church custom, recognized that S. Peter's name was Simon Stone, and they called him, where necessary, by this appellative1.

1 It is the name in Arabic, where S. peter is commonly called ﻥﻮﻌﻤﺷ (or ﻥﻮﻌﻤﺳ ) ﺎﻔﺼﻟﺍ.

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Burkitt, Syriac Forms, p. 9

I have left out of consideration hitherto a number of the most interesting and controversial proper names in the Syriac New Testament, because we ought to examine them with reasonable ideas of the kind of rules or information from which the Syriac translator worked. So far as we have gone, I venture to think we have found nothing pointing to a special or extraordinary knowledge. The translator is familiar with the Old Testament in Syriac, and he has a good knowledge of ordinary geography, which he shews by giving the native names of the coast towns.

But he does not always recognize Semitic names in their Greek dress, and there is no sign that he is specially familiar with the towns of Judaea or Galilee, or with the forms of Jewish names apart from those in the Old Testament.

I begin with the name Caiaphas, about the spelling of which the 'authority of the Syriac' has frequently been invoked1. This name is spelt ΚαιαΦαϲ in most Greek MSS. in agreement with Josephus (Ant. xviii 2), but D and the Latins have ΚαιΦαϲ. Syriac has קַיָּפָא, and this is often supposed to be a definite pronouncement in favom" of the first over the second Greek reading. I doubt this: it is, of course, an indication of the way the Syriac translator thought the word was spelt in Palestinian Aramaic, but I do not think it gives us any information of the way the word was spelt in the Greek MS. from which the Syriac was translated. The Syriac translator thought βηθσαιδά (or βηθσαιδάν) meant 'Fisherman's Town' : well and good. But if he turns βηθσαιδά into Bçth Ṣâyyâddy as he does, it is fairly obvious that his Ḳâyydphâ may stand for Καΐφας as well as Καιάφας.

1 See e. g. Encly. Bibl. 172, note 1.