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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 October 2009
In Le muséon 82 (1969): 85–86, and 89 (1976): 311–12 James Drescher, in a series entitled “Graeco-Coptica,” discussed the word 
(and 
, showing that in late Greek and in Coptic it bears the additional meaning of “alms, charity.” To his discussion should be added the remarks of Saul Lieberman, in an article entitled “
, Charity, Alms,” Journal of Biblical Literature 65 (1946): 69–72. There Lieberman brings considerable evidence for in this special usage in early Christian literature. He also shows there that a similar semantic development took place in the case of the Hebrew word (and its Aramaic equivalents), which came likewise to mean “alms, charity.” (See further his note apud Leviticus Rabba, ed. Mordecai Margulies [Jerusalem, 1958], pt. 4, p. 870 to line 56.)
01. See, e.g., Souter, Alexander, A Glossary of Later Latin (Oxford, 1949) col. 134a, s.v. “exceptor”.Google ScholarSee also Berger, Adolf, Encyclopedic Dictonary of Roman Law (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s. 43 [1953]): 461, s.v. “exceptor.”Google Scholar
02. Bohmer, Israel, Kezad Maarichin, oder Beitrdge zur Chalddisch-Rabbinischen Lexicographie (Berlin, 1885), p. 4.Google Scholar We should mention that the correct etymology was alread noted by most of the major rabbinic dictionaries. See Levy, Jacob, Neuhebrdisches und Chalddisches Worterbuch uber die Talmud und Midraschim, 4 vols. (Leipzig, 1883)Google Scholar, 3: 582a, Aruch Completumed. Alexander, Kohut, 8 vols. (Vienna, 1878–92; reprint ed., New York, 1955), 6: 120bGoogle Scholar; Jastrow, Marcus, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Mid rashic Literature (New York, 1903), col. 1020aGoogle Scholar; Krauss, Samuel, Griechische und Lateinische Lehnworter im Talmud. Midrasch und Talmud (Berlin, 1899; reprint ed., Hildesheim, 1964) 2: 410b.Google ScholarSee also Brull, Nehemiah, Jahrbuchfur Judische Geschichte und Literatur 1 (1874): 178.Google Scholar However none of these authorities remarked on this specific form SKEPTOR and EXCEPTOR, a contracted form of 
or 
(exceptor), nor did they note the specialized meaning of the word (see below). See further Sachs, Michael, Beitraege zur Sprach- und Alterthumsforschung (Berlin, 1852), 1: 170, who suggests reading 
(read: )=speculatoresGoogle Scholar; Furst, Julius, Glossarium Graeco-Hebraeum (Strassburg, 1890) pp. 159–60Google Scholar and 197, citing, inter alia, Moritz Gudemann's suggestion to read 
and Benyamin Dov Schonhak, Yosef ben, Sefer ha-mashbir ('o he-'Arukh he-hadash) (Warsaw, 1868), 2: 38b, suggesting 
These may all be readily rejected.Google Scholar
03. Drescher, James, Le muséon 89 (1976): 320.Google Scholar
04. Ibid.: Pilate took the apologia of the Saviour written by the sceptores as for a robber.
05. Lieberman, Saul, “Roman Legal Institutions in Early Rabbinics and in the Ada Martyrum, ” Jewish Quarterly Review, n.s. 35 (1944): 13.Google Scholar
06. Parallels: B.T. Shabbat 119a; Pesiqta Rabbati, chap. 23, ed. Meir Friedmann (Vienna, 1880), fol. 119b; Yalqut Shime'oni 1: 16.
07. See Julius Theodor and Chanock Albeck's notes ad loc.
08. MS Munich 97 of Genesis Rabba; 'Arukh, ed. Constantinople, 1512; Venice, 1525, s.v. 
09. See Krauss, Samuel, Griechische und Lateinische Lehnworter im Talmud, Midrasch und Targum (Berlin, 1899) (=LW) 2: 209ab, s.v. 
1.Google Scholar
10. Samuel Krauss, LW 2: 278a, s.v. 
.
11. See above, n. 1.
12. Drescher, , Le museon 82 (1969): 98.Google Scholar
13. Ibid., p. 99.
14. Ibid.
15. Theodor-Albeck, ad loc, citing a manuscript commentary to Genesis Rabba.
16. I have discussed the problem of parallel recension with alternative readings at length in a study entitled “Greek and Latin Words in Rabbinic Literature” in Bar-llan (Annual of Bar- Ilan University-Studies in Judaica and the Humanities) 14–15 (1977): 34–38.Google ScholarSee further my comments in “Melilot 2, ” Sinai 79 (1976): 55–59Google Scholar and “yiqrei millim ve-girsa'ot, ” Leshonenu 40(1976): 58–61.Google Scholar
17. Drescher, , Le Muséon 89 (1976): 100.Google Scholar
