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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] b-hebrew Digest, Nimrod?
  • Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:07:48 -0400

Rolf,

1. Hebrew etymology is a crystal clear business. See my website www.hebrewetymology.com [it may, of course, depend on what one considers as 'etymology'].
2. I agree with you, though, that the etymology of personal names is indeed a very very risky and uncertain business. It could be a grave mistake, methinks, to see a name as being a grammatically structured word, for instance considering the name NIMROD as being from the root MRD, 'vigorous, fierce, alert, unruly, rebellious', and with the prefixed personal pronoun NI- and the infixed personal pronoun -O- in their exact rolls acquired in the process of grammaticalization. Is it not also possible that NIMROD = NIM-ROD, the land, or valley, of NIM?
The fact of the matter is that even secular Hebrews nowadays rarely give their children the beautiful name NIMROD as it is being frowned upon for its homiletically conceived negative connotation.
3. All others are possibly names of adopted ancient deities. Who borrowed from whom and who exported to whom is not clear, but deity names and their worship have the tendency to travel far and wide. How the Akkadians rendered a borrowed name and how the Sumerians minced an imported name is also uncertain.
4. It is indeed possible that the name Marduk is the the compound MARD-UK from the root MRD and the personal pronoun UK, as in ANOKYI and -AKEM, or it may be the compound MAR-DUK, with MAR being, what it in now, 'sir'.
5. Yet, I can not help myself but see in BL)ADAN of Isaiah 39:1 the Hebrew compound BA(AL-ADAON, which in Greece would have been Apollo- Athen.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Mar 25, 2008, at 3:56 AM, Rolf Furuli wrote:

Dear Isaac,

Etymology is tricky business, and we cannot be certain about the
origin and meaning of old names. However, there is one way to connect
the name Nimrod with that of Marduk (Merodak)- but again, this is
just one possibility.

The Akkadian cuneiform signs were adopted from the Sumerians, and
each sign could be used as a logogram (representing one word) or it
could be used as a syllable. The Akkadian name Marduk was written
with the Sumerian signs AMAR and UD. The Sumerian genitive marker
occurring at the end of a word is ak. We may therefore get the word
AMAR.UD.ak, and if the last "a" was assimilated by the previous "u",
we would get AMAR.UD.uk, which could have been the basis for the name
Marduk (a middle vowel in Akkadian often is lost).

If we go back to logograms representing Marduk, namely, AMAR.UD we
have most of the name Nimrod, namely m-r-u-d. When foreign names are
written in the Tanakh, they are adopted to the Hebrew stock of
phonemes, and the writer of Gen 10:9-10 could have added an "n" to
the Sumerian/Akkadian word, thus depicting the first ruler of Babel
as a rebel (the word can be viewed as a Niphal participle of MRD).
Interestingly, both Marduk and Nimrod are said to be the
founder/first ruler of Babel. But we should keep in mind that there
are several other possible explanations of the name Nimrod.


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo


Is not the name NIMROD a variant of the names MRODAK [see Isaiah 39:1
and notice that BAL)ADAN is possibly BA(AL-)ADAN], MORDKAY [or
MARDKAY of Esther 2:5] and the present day names of MURAD, MORDUK and
MARZUK? I can hardly see MORDKAY as meaning 'the rebel'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Mar 24, 2008, at 4:23 PM, thebodyofjesusthenazoraion AT juno.com wrote:


First, what does the name Nimrod mean? It comes from the Hebrew
verb marad, meaning "rebel." Adding an "n" before the "m" it
becomes an infinitive construct, "Nimrod." (see Kautzsch 1910: 137
2b, also BDB 1962: 597). The meaning then is "The Rebel." Thus
"Nimrod" may not be the character's name at all. It is more likely
a derisive term of a type, a representative, of a system that is
epitomized in rebellion against the Creator, the one true God.
Rebellion began soon after the Flood as civilizations were
restored. At that time this person became very prominent.
go to
http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/nimrod.html
My question is, is this true?
Eva Ritsema
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