Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Jeffery1938: »This sole occurrence of the word is in a passage descriptive of John the Baptist. Sprenger, Leben, i, 125,¹ noted that the word was probably of foreign origin, and Mingana, Syr Influence, 88, claims that it is the Syr ḥnānā. / The primitive verb [Ar] ḥanna does not occur in the Qurʔān. It may be compared with Sab ḥn used in proper names,² Hbr ḥānan ‘to be gracious’, and Syr ḥnan, Aram ḥᵃnan with the same meaning. It is to be noted, however, that the sense of ‘grace’ is the one that has been most highly developed in NSem, e.g. Akk annu ‘grace, favour’, Hbr and Phoen ḥēn, Aram ḥnā and ḥynā, Syr ḥnānā, and this ḥnānā is used in the Peshitta text of Lk. i, 58, in the account of the birth of John the Baptist. / Halévy, JA, viiᵉ ser., x, 356, finds ḥn-ʔl ‘grace de Dieu’ in a Safaite inscription, which if correct would be evidence of the early use of the word in NArabia.«

1. See also i, 581, and ii, 184, n. 2. D. H. Müller, Epigraphische Denkmäler aus Arabien, 40, gives ḥnmsbrrhm which he translates ‘die Liebe des Frommen’, and compares with Hbr Ḥannî-ʔēl and Phoen Ḥn-Mlqrt. Cf. Rossini, Glossarium, 150.

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