Friday, February 14, 2025
Sonny's Coming
Josephus, Jewish Wars 5.272 (tr. H. St. J. Thackeray, with his note):
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Watchmen were accordingly posted by them on the towers, who gave warning whenever the engine was fired and the stone in transit, by shouting in their native tongue, "Sonny'sg coming"; whereupon those in the line of fire promptly made way and lay down, owing to which precautions the stone passed harmlessly through and fell in their rear.
g Probably, as Reland suggests, ha-eben ("the stone") was corrupted to habben ("the son"); compare similar jocose terms, such as "Black Maria," "Jack Johnson," used in the Great War.
σκοποὶ οὖν αὐτοῖς ἐπὶ τῶν πύργων καθεζόμενοι προεμήνυον, ὁπότε σχασθείη τὸ ὄργανον καὶ ἡ πέτρα φέροιτο, τῇ πατρίῳ γλώσσῃ βοῶντες "ὁ υἱὸς ἔρχεται." διίσταντο δὲ καθ' οὓς ᾔει καὶ προκατεκλίνοντο, καὶ συνέβαινε φυλαττομένων ἄπρακτον διεκπίπτειν τὴν πέτραν.
