[b-hebrew] Etymology of "Galilee"
Yigal Levin
leviny1 at mail.biu.ac.il
Thu May 1 01:30:00 EDT 2008
Jim,
As you know, I do not accept your identification of biblical Gerar with the
the Ararna Guri and your placeing of the former in northern Canaan. I do
accept (as do most scholars) that the KRR of New Kingdom Egyptian texts is
actually GLL, and that this refers to Galilee. Your suggestion that GLL as a
geographic term comes from the area's hilly terrain is not original and is
certainly possible. The word's connection to "Gilead" is interesting.
However, your assuption that the biblical "Golan" refers to what today is
called the Golan Heights, i.e. the heights just east of the Sea of
Galilee/Kinneret is not correct. The biblical "Golan" is a CITY, not a
region, and it is in the Bashan, which is generally EAST of what is now
called the Golan Heights.
Yigal Levin
----- Original Message -----
From: <JimStinehart at aol.com>
To: <b-hebrew at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 5:34 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Etymology of "Galilee"
>
> Pere Porta is right that GLL in part means “rolling”. But GLL is never
> applied to the rolling hill country of southern Canaan. No, GLL is almost
> always
> found in a northern greater Canaan context. Same with GL.
>
> Isaac Fried has given us many nice GL words. Now let’s see what we can do
> with those GL words.
>
> 1. From the 1st millennium BCE to the present, the Sea of Galilee in
> northern Canaan has been surrounded by three vast tracts of land, all
> three of whose
> names begin with GLL or GL: Galilee/GLL to the west, Golan/the Golan
> Height/GL to the northeast, and Gilead/GL to the southeast. Northern
> greater Canaan
> is GLL/GL country.
>
> 2. Before the southern Hebrews came into being, in the mid-14th century
> BCE,
> this was GRR/GR country. That’s GRR/Gerar at Genesis 20: 1, and
> GR/Gar/Garu
> in the Amarna Letters. GRR is but an earlier version of GLL.
>
> 3. And before there were any Hebrews at all, in the mid-15th century BCE,
> conquering Egyptian pharaoh Thutmosis III picked up, from the west
> Semitic-speaking northern Canaanite locals, the word KRR, which applies to
> this very same
> territory (or some part thereof) in the general vicinity of the Sea of
> Galilee.
> In the days of the “Napoleon of Egypt”, this part of northern greater
> Canaan was KRR country.
>
> 4. So from the mid-15th century BCE to the present, greater northern
> Canaan,
> in the general vicinity of the Sea of Galilee, has either been KRR
> country,
> or GRR/GR country, or GLL/GL country.
>
> Who said things aren’t eternal in the Holy Land?
>
> 5. The new news I am trying to bring to the b-Hebrew list is that
> GLL/Galilee did not come out of thin air, though it is conventionally
> described as being
> a primary root meaning “rolling”. Here is where GLL originally came from.
> Northern greater Canaan, before the Hebrews, was KRR, and then became GRR,
> and
> only then later became GLL. The “missing link” between KRR on the
> Thutmosis
> III list, and GLL/Galilee, is GRR/Gerar. To my mind, it all makes perfect
> sense: linguistically, historically, and textually.
>
> 6. According to the “Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Places” (1995) at pp.
> 137
> and 142, each of “Gerar”/GRR and “Galilee”/GLL has the exact same
> underlying
> meaning: “circle”. That further supports my claimed link between
> GRR/Gerar
> and GLL/Galilee.
>
> Though the northern and northwest border of Galilee fluctuated over time,
> originally it started at Laish/Dan at the foot of Mt. Hermon, and went
> west all
> the way straight across to Sur/“Tyre” on the coast (along Isaiah’s “way of
> the sea” at Isaiah 9: 1). Thus originally Galilee/GLL (like GRR/Gerar
> before
> it) included what we would today call southernmost Lebanon. Today’s narrow
> boundaries of Galilee are basically a product of Roman times. But if one
> adds in
> Golan and Gilead, the GLL/GL country is still a large swath of land in
> northern
> greater Canaan.
>
> 7. As I see it, greater northern Canaan started out as KRR country, then
> was
> GRR/GR country in the Late Bronze Age in the time of the first Hebrews,
> and
> has ended up now for the last several millennia as being GLL/GL country.
> That’
> s the linguistic story, and it’s also telling us the historical story of
> the
> first Hebrews, straight out of the Patriarchal narratives.
>
> If one knows the linguistic origin of the word “Galilee”/GLL (namely GRR/“
> Gerar”), one knows when, and where, the first Hebrews came from.
>
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
>
>
>
>
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