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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Etymology of "Galilee"
  • Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 16:46:44 EDT


Isaac Fried:

You wrote: “Yes, and not to forget, not only KARMEL….”

I am beginning to follow your reasoning now. You keep coming up with one
great idea after another.

Mem-resh/M-L (alternatively spelled with an optional vav or a vav-aleph
between those two consonants) means “precipice”.

KRR in the Thutmosis III list means G-R-R/Gerar/G-L-L/G-L-Y-L/Galilee.

KRR could easily be KR, meaning “Galilee”.

So, (i) K-R means “Galilee”, and (ii) M-L means “precipice”.

Put those two words together, and what do you have? K-R + M-L = K-R-M-L =
kaf-resh-mem-lamed = Carmel = Mt. Carmel, in Galilee.

That is, K-R (Galilee) M-L (precipice) = Galilean precipice = Mt. Carmel: a
precipice/mountain in Galilee.

Is that nifty or what?

Yes, Isaac Fried, you’re definitely on to something here.

And when we are dealing with historical place names (as opposed to names such
as “Kadesh-barnea”), we’re also likely to find them in the Amarna Letters as
well. Amarna Letters EA 288: 26, 289: 18-19 and 290: 28 all have a town
named “Ginti-kirmil”. Note the “-kirmil/K-R-M-L. Wm. Moran (editor of the
Amarna Letters) at p. 389 says “town, perhaps near Carmel”, and Anson Rainey
at p.
85 of “The Sacred Bridge” also relates this place to Mt. Carmel.

Note the pattern. Historical place names like Carmel, and all 12 cities near
which the Patriarchs are portrayed as sojourning in the Patriarchal
narratives, including Sur and the region of Gerar (Galilee), are splattered
all over
the mid-15th century BCE Thutmosis III list and the Amarna Letters. They’re
documented in secular history to the nth degree. But by stark contrast, the
name
“Kadesh-barnea” at Numbers 34: 4 is nowhere to be found in the secular
history of the ancient world. Why try to make the Patriarchal narratives
non-historical, retroactively, by reading “Kadesh-barnea” from Numbers 34: 4
back into
the Patriarchal narratives? Not only does that improperly import a fictional
geographical place name into the historically-accurate Patriarchal
narratives, but it also misleads everyone as to the accurate geography of
Galilee in
northern Canaan that is being referenced in the Patriarchal narratives. If
we
stick with what is documented in secular history, instead of importing
non-historical place names like “Kadesh-barnea” that appear in later books in
the
Bible (and which do not appear in the historically-accurate Patriarchal
narratives), the last 40 chapters of Genesis make perfect sense.

So let’s agree to stay with attested place names in secular history, and what
the text of the Patriarchal narratives actually says, and then we won’t go
astray. If those attested place names inexorably lead us to northern Canaan,
to
Galilee, there’s nothing wrong with that. Galilee is a fine place. In
particular, Galilee is a fine place for the locale at which the Covenant is
fulfilled with Isaac’s birth. It’s the fine land of Galilee, not the arid
Negev
Desert, which, according to the Patriarchal narratives, is the geographical
focus
of YHWH’s promises of the Promised Land. That makes logical sense (Galilee
is much better land than the Negev Desert). And that is what the text of
Genesis says, if we stick to secular history and do not start importing into
that
accurate text non-historical geographical place names like “Kadesh-barnea”
that only appear in later books of the Bible.

Who said G-R-R/Gerar was located in the Negev Desert, anyway? No way. We
have got K-R-R/K-R/G-R-R/G-R/G-L-L/G-L everywhere we look in northern Canaan,
with secular history backing us up all the way. Carmel, and Gilead and
Golan,
and Y-G-R and G-L-E-D, and Galilee and Gerar, and 12 historically-attested
cities in northern Canaan where the Patriarchs are portrayed as sojourning,
many
of which are in Galilee (and not a one of which is south of Beth-el).
There’s
a lot of historical action in Galilee. Galilee is where it’s at.

Thanks much for the great tip on “Carmel”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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