Additional data on El and Jacob
barre at access1.com
barre at access1.com
Tue Feb 8 05:01:40 EST 2000
1) The name "Jacob" is most probably a contraction of Jacob-El, the name appearing in the
list of places (!) conquered by Thut-mose III in Canaan, in Akkadian of in the 18th century
as Yah-ah-qu-ub-il and the similar name of a Hyksos chieftain as Ya 'aqob-har. Jacob-El is
though to mean "May El protect."
2) The phrase in Gen 49:24, 'abbir ya'kob may be translated as the "Bull of Jacob," an
epithet commonly ascribed to El in the Ugaritic tablets, here appearing in a context that also
mentions El Shaddai.
3) Jacob took Shechem between almost certainly before Joshua and sometime after Lab'aya
since no conflict is recorded in Joshua that would explain their possession of the city.
Otherwise we must presume that Jacob took the city before Lab'aya, lost it and then some
unknown Israelite regained it again before Joshua. This would also force Hamor, the
contemporary of Jacob, into a pre-Lab'aya time frame. This position is strained and without
support.
---------------------------
L.M. Barre
http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/AncientIsrael
Point Loma, California
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