" האסטו" ו" אגיסטון"—הילכו שניהם יחדיו?

This article attempts to clarify the meaning of a hapax, the word agiston, which appears in b. Sanh. 26a. This paper responds to an earlier discussion of this term by Aaron Amit (Lešonenu 72 [2010]), who claims that this expression is synonymous with another hapax, haesto, which appears in y. Sanh. 3:3. According to Amit, the word agiston is a combination of two Greek words, and means 'it is sacred'. This article rejects that identification and interpretation, and presents the textual evidence pertaining to this word based on all direct and indirect text-witnesses to the sugya in b. Sanhedrin. The author evaluates the various interpretations of the word agiston offered in both traditional and scholarly literature based on this evidence. Likewise, the author considers the implications which the interpretation of this word has for a proper understanding of the talmudic sugya.