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b-hebrew - Re: [b-Hebrew] Elohim

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: "Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-Hebrew] Elohim
  • Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 03:37:42 -0800

On 28/01/2004 22:47, Jonathan D. Safren wrote:


On 28/01/2004 14:33, Trevor Peterson wrote:


Well, is there any evidence from early non-Jewish Aramaic, I wonder?
King Darius uses 'elaha in his letter in Ezra 6:3 and would hardly have
been influenced by Hebrew, but some would argue of course that that
letter as we have it was composed or redacted by Jews. What word for
"god" would the real Darius have used in his letters? Is there any
evidence from Imperial Aramaic?



The Deir "Ala Plaster Inscription immediately comes to mind. In the first or
second line, Balaam is called "xzh 'lhn".- a seer of the gods.


Thank you. Clear evidence for the he as a root letter in a context unaffected by Hebrew. Well, you might like something clearer.

You can also check HALOT.


I did. Trevor rejected the evidence as probably derivative from Hebrew.

Anyway, there should be a good phonological way of determining whether Aramaic 'elah(a) and Arabic ilah, allah are dependent on Hebrew 'elohim/'eloah as Trevor alleges. I note that the long o in Hebrew (with furtive patah in the singular) corresponds to a long a in Aramaic and Arabic. Is this the correspondence that would be expected if the words have a common origin in proto-(NW)Semitic? Is this the correspondence that would be expected if the Aramaic and Arabic are loan words from Hebrew? From a first glance the former looks likely, as Hebrew long o often corresponds to Aramaic and Arabic long a (e.g. shalom/shelam/salaam) - is this the Canaanite vowel shift? - but the latter looks unlikely. A phonological expert would probably be able to confirm this one way or another (or possibly answer Yes to both questions, which leaves us no further forward). GKC 9q quotes 'eloah/'elah/ilah as an example of the vowel shift, which makes it clear that those editors did not consider this a loan word situation.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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