Σίκερα

Notes

1. cf. Hebrew שֵׁכָר šēkhār, strong drink.
   This is an Aramaic word (see M. Sokoloff, Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, pp. 1145-46 [it does not seem to occur in any extant sources of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic]), not Hebrew, although the Greek word is used to translate a similar Hebrew word in the Greek Bible: (Leviticus 10.9, Numbers 6.3, Deuteronomy 29.5, Judges 13.4, 7, 14, 1 Samuel 1.15). The Septuagint has si/kera for this word in every place except 1 Samuel 1.15, which has instead me/qusma. (The B text of the Judges verses has me/qusma in the first two occurrences, the second has si/kera me/qusma [a textual intrusion from a marginal note?].) Philo Judaeus quotes Leviticus 10.9 in On Drunkenness 127 and 138 and so the word si/kera occurs there too. The occurrence of the word at Luke 1.15 in the New Testament is similar to but not an exact quotation of Numbers 6.3 or Leviticus 10.9.
   The Suda's opening definition, skeuasto\n po/ma, occurs also in ps.-Herodian, Partitiones 123-4. The common Semitic root behind this Aramaic word is ultimately the source, via Arabic, of English 'sugar'.