ravrevan

רַבְרְבָן is a Biblical Aramaic substantive built with the productive -ān nominal suffix on רַבְרַב, the reduplicated quadriliteral expansion of רַב "great" (Rosenthal, Grammar of Biblical Aramaic, on quadriliteral and suffixed nominal formations). It is attested only in the Aramaic of Daniel, and only in the plural with a pronominal suffix: רַבְרְבָנוֹהִי (Dan 5:1, 2, 3, 9, 10; 6:18 MT = 6:17 EVV), רַבְרְבָנַי (4:33 MT = 4:36 EVV), רַבְרְבָנָךְ (5:23). BDB's Biblical Aramaic section and HALOT's Aramaic volume both gloss it "lord, noble," with no competing sense proposed; DCH treats the Aramaic material similarly. The formation is well paralleled in later Aramaic (Targumic rabrəḇānayyā, Syriac rabrḇānē) for magnates and grandees, which supports the court-elite reading rather than any technical office. The term stands apart from Daniel's inventories of named offices (אֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנַיָּא, סִגְנַיָּא, פַּחֲוָתָא and the rest in 3:2-3, 27; 6:8), functioning instead as a collective for the king's grandees, and in 4:33 (MT) it is paired with הַדָּבְרַיָּא, the counselors. Both Greek versions of Daniel render it with μεγιστᾶνες, the word BDAG documents for a ruler's great men and which the New Testament uses at Mark 6:21 and Revelation 6:15; 18:23. Commentators on Daniel 5 (Collins, Hermeneia; Goldingay, Word Biblical Commentary) treat the presence of the רַבְרְבָנִין at the banquet and in the indictment of 5:23 as a deliberate widening of guilt from the king to the court, and the joint sealing in 6:18 (MT) as a narrative device that makes the decree irreversible. There is no live lexical dispute about the word's sense.