Revelation 8:11

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At 01:11 PM 4/29/99 -0500, Jason Filley wrote:

>> Ed

>> 

>> Chernobyl doesn't translate into "wormwood" in English, I can tell you that

>> for certain.  The "Chern" bit translates to "black" and the "obyl"

>> signifies locality, like "-burg" or "-ville" does in English.  No worm, no 

>wood.

>

>JASON

>Well, I'll be jiggered.  It DOES mean wormwood.

>

>'Chernobyl' is a Ukranian word that refers to the black grass growing in

>the steppes of the southern part of Russia.

>

>Cherni = black

>o = <just a connector-not sure of the technical linguistic term>

>byl = an event

>

>Chernobyl, for some reason I don't fully understand, is associated with

>the Mongol Yoke in the same way that the guillotine is associated with

>the French Revolution.  From what I gather, when the Mongols extracted

>tribute they frequently killed Russians in the steppes, where the

>Russians would die on a bed of chernobyl.

>

>I asked a Russian co-worker about it, and she wrote:

>

>"The grass i was talking about is called wormwood, or absinth.

>BTW, chernobyl is a Ukranian word. "

>

>http://www2.truman.edu/ll/flfaculty.html - What say the Russian

>professors?


Ed

It seems that the Greek word apsinthos in Rev. 8:11 designates Artemisia
absinthium, which is a species of what English speakers call "wormwood;"
it's best known for its use in the production of absinthe, which is one
nasty wake-up.  Overdo it and it's toxic.  Artemisia absinthium, however,
is not black, but actually rather light in color, both in leaves and
flowers.  Whether it's the stuff growing around present-day Chernobyl or
not is anyone's guess, and I for one wouldn't care to go out and take a
sample without full-MOPP regalia.

The Russian profs to whom I spoke agreed that "Chern"="black," and "o-byl"
comes from the Slavic root "bili" signifying "to become" or "to happen,"
indicating in place names the site of an event. So the etymology of the
name suggests that it means "the place of a dark or sinister event."  Both
profs suggested to me that because of the "byl" morph in the name, if the
grass is called "chernobyl" in the local dialect, the name probably derives
from something sinister having happened on the grass rather than from the
color of the grass itself.  That would makes sense if the stuff is in fact
Artemisia absinthium.

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