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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: kevin AT bombaxo.com, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] $XR = black?
  • Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:43:07 EDT


Kevin Edgecomb:

In #3 below, I agree with you as to $WR. But I continue to disagree with
you, as do most scholars, as to $XR.

1. You wrote: “Shi-Hor in Egyptian and in those references to it in the
Bible (clearly $XR in Hebrew…) all refer to the same entity: it was the name
of
the Pelusiac branch of the Nile….”

You yourself, in the portion of your own blog that I quoted in my prior post,
specifically note that (and lament the fact that) the vast majority of
scholars explicitly reject your claim that $XR at Joshua 13: 3 and I
Chronicles 13:
5 refers to “the Pelusiac branch of the Nile”. The Pelusiac branch of the
Nile is located on the northwest corner of the Sinai, 150 miles too far west
of
Gaza to be the southwest corner of the Promised Land. As such, $XR cannot
possibly refer to “the Pelusiac branch of the Nile” at Joshua 13: 3 and I
Chronicles 13: 5.

Here is Joshua 13: 1-3 (per the JPS1917):

“Now Joshua was old and well stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him:
'Thou art old and well stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much
land to be possessed. This is the land that yet remaineth: all the regions
of
the Philistines, and all the Geshurites; from the Shihor [$XR], which is
before Egypt, even unto the border of Ekron northward--which is counted to
the
Canaanites; the five lords of the Philistines: the Gazite, and the
Ashdodite,
the Ashkelonite, the Gittite, and the Ekronite; also the Avvim”

Certainly you are not suggesting that YHWH told Joshua to try to fight his
way 150 long miles west from Gaza across the entire northern coast of the
Sinai
to “the Pelusiac branch of the Nile”, to try to bring in the entire northern
Sinai as part of the Promised Land, are you? That would have been both
suicidal and totally pointless. Everything else in the Bible contradicts
that
strange idea completely. The southwest corner of the Promised Land was
somewhere
in the general vicinity of Gaza (or south of Gaza), and was nowhere near “the
Pelusiac branch of the Nile” in the northwest corner of the Sinai! Thus $XR
cannot possibly mean a geographical locale at or near “the Pelusiac branch of
the Nile” at Joshua 13: 3.

The Hebrew concept of the geographical boundaries of the Promised Land does
not extend 150 miles west of Gaza.

2. You wrote: “[N]ot every word in the Hebrew Bible is Hebrew, you know….”

There are very few words in the Bible that are Egyptian, and almost no
Egyptian phrases whatsoever, outside of the Patriarchal narratives. Later
Biblical
authors copied some Egyptian words from the Patriarchal narratives, such as “
pharaoh” most obviously, and, as discussed in #3 below, $WR as well (but not
&WR or $XR).

Indeed, one of the linguistic problems with the Book of Exodus’s theory that
the Hebrews were in Egypt in bondage for 400 years is that Biblical Hebrew is
a virgin pure west Semitic language, showing almost no Egyptian influence
whatsoever (especially after the Patriarchal narratives). That indicates
that the
Patriarchal narratives are right (contra the Book of Exodus) in saying that
Joseph’s surviving brothers would return to Canaan from Egypt almost
immediately upon Joseph’s death. Genesis 50: 24-25 Whether that story is
literally
true or only symbolic, its basic point is historically accurate. Some early
Hebrews were in Egypt for some years as guest workers, during part of one
generation, but that’s it. The presence of Egyptian words and phrases in the
Patriarchal narratives, in conjunction with the nearly total absence of any
new
Egyptian words or phrases in the Bible thereafter (other than proper names),
confirms it.

$XR does not appear in the Patriarchal narratives as a geographical
reference. $XR is a perfectly good Biblical Hebrew word that often means
“black”.
The Egyptians called their own country “Black”/Kemet, so it makes sense for
the
Bible, on rare occasions (the 4 cases I cited in my prior post), to make an
overtly positive reference to prosperous Egypt as $XR/“Black”.

$XR is not an Egyptian phrase referencing “pond of Horus”, as you and HALOT
would have it. The geographical location of Shi-Hor -- being over 150 long,
grueling miles west of Gaza and Canaan -- does not fit a single Biblical
reference to $XR. Not one.

The Hebrews’ concept of the Promised Land did not extend 150 miles west of
Gaza across the entire northern coast of the Sinai.

3. You wrote: “Egyptian sources unanimously place the border of Egypt at
the Shihor and the series of forts nearby which were referred to by the
Egyptians as ‘The Walls of the Ruler’. …This is very likely the source of
the
$WR/Wall in the Biblical phrase MDBR $WR.”

One thing I really like about your posts is that I learn so much from them.
I myself had noted in my prior post that the geographical location of Shi-Hor
(the northwest corner of Sinai, being the northeast edge of the Nile Delta
and
the northeast edge of Egypt proper) matches nicely to 5 Biblical references
to $WR.

Now, based on what you say here, we can figure out that the super-brilliant
author of the Patriarchal narratives created $WR as a triple-threat pun in
Hebrew and Egyptian. No other person in 5,000 years of human history could
do
such a thing, but the author of the Patriarchal narratives does it as if
there’s
nothing to it.

Pun #1 is as you say. $WR means “wall” in Hebrew. The Egyptians referred
to the forts on the northeast edge of the Delta as “The ‘Walls’ of the Ruler”
, hence the pun on “wall”/$WR in Hebrew.

Pun #2 is the Samaritan pronunciation of the Hebrew word “black”, namely $XR
or $XWR. “Black” is how the Egyptians referred to their own country: “Black
”/Kemet. Many Canaanites dropped the heth/X, so $XWR came out as $WR. Thus
HALOT observes, regarding $XR meaning “become black”: “Samaritan $RYR
(develops from


$XRYR)”. Thus per HALOT, the heth/X could drop out in the “Samaritan”
pronunciation of $XWR, leaving us with $WR. The southern Hebrews were well
aware
of Samaritan pronunciations, though such a pronunciation would not be good
form in the southern Hebrews’ sacred scripture, which (almost uniquely among
Semitic speakers) adamantly refused to drop heths. The “Samaritan”
pronunciation
of $XWR, namely $WR, is non-deferential toward Egypt, as it is not the proper
southern Hebrew pronunciation. But it’s not insulting. It’s just
non-deferential.

In pun #3, we finally get to the Shi-Hor you keep talking about. $WR is a “
Samaritan” pronunciation of the Egyptian phrase Shi-Hor. As just noted, most
Canaanites, unlike the southern Hebrews, frequently dropped a heth/X in
pronunciation.

So $WR, referring to the northeast corner of Egypt proper, being the
northwest corner of the desolate Sinai, is a nifty three-way pun, in Hebrew
and
Egyptian, that is first seen in the Patriarchal narratives: (1) $WR vs. $WR
(“wall”
) in Hebrew; (2) $WR vs. $XWR (“black”) in Hebrew; and $WR vs. Shi-Hor (“
pond of Horus”) in Egyptian. Nice!

But why? Why is the author of the Patriarchal narratives going to such
heroic efforts to create the foregoing triple-pun, so that Egypt can be
referred to
by the non-standard $WR, instead of just using $XWR or $XR, which is the
standard spelling of both “black” and, arguably, “Shi-Hor”? The reason is
pun
#4. The other great power with whom the Patriarchs have to deal is the
troublesome, super-wealthy, super-famous island city-state of Tyre/Suur/Sur.
The
standard spelling of Tyre is CWR, with a ssade. But &WR with a sin/& sounds
almost the same, as ssade is merely an emphatic S, whereas a sin/& is a
regular S.
So &WR works beautifully as a non-standard reference to CWR/Sur/Tyre. In
unpointed text, all we see is sin/shin-vav-resh. So those three unpointed
Hebrew letters mean either $WR or &WR, depending on the context. At Genesis
16: 7,
$WR references Egypt. At Genesis 20: 1, &WR references Tyre. Then at
Genesis 25: 18, the third time around, $WR references Egypt again, with the
meaning
being clarified only in this third case, where the regular word for “Egypt”
appears at Genesis 25: 18.

Thus the author of the Patriarchal narratives refers to both of the
semi-hostile/semi-friendly great powers with which the Patriarchs had to deal
by the
same name! It’s sin/shin-vav-resh in both cases. That’s why the author
makes
the great effort of using the Samaritan pronunciation and spelling of $XWR
and
Shi-Hor, coming out with $WR, precisely so that he can also generate pun #4,
which is &WR as a pun on CWR for Tyre/Sur. Sin/shin-vav-resh is both $WR and
&WR, with the actual geographical reference being dependent on the context in
which sin/shin-vav-resh is used in the Patriarchal narratives. Yes, I
realize
that the later Biblical authors used sin/shin-vav-resh exclusively as $WR,
consistently referencing the northeast corner of Egypt/the northwest corner
of
the desolate Sinai: the Wilderness of Shur. But originally, pun #4 of &WR
vs.
CWR at Genesis 20: 1 was a key reason why the author of the Patriarchal
narratives came up with sin/shin-vav-resh.

Only the author of the Patriarchal narratives could pun in both Hebrew and
Egyptian, and create a brilliant 4-fold pun like $/&-W-R. In my
controversial
opinion, there’s no way that the author of the Patriarchal narratives is the
same as the authors of the rest of the Torah. There’s no J, E or P in the
Patriarchal narratives. No other part of the Bible could come up with
super-brilliant puns in both Hebrew and Egyptian like that.

4. Thank you so much for your helpful insight on $WR. Perhaps we should
just agree to disagree as to $XR. $WR is used 5 times in the Bible where a
location in the northwest corner of the Sinai makes perfect sense. (At
Genesis 20:
1, a reference to Egypt or the Sinai does not make sense, so
sin/shin-vav-resh should be read there as &WR, meaning Sur/Tyre/CWR/CR.) By
sharp contrast,
$XR is n-e-v-e-r used in the Bible in a context where a locale in the
northwest corner of the Sinai would make sense. Thus Shi-Hor matches nicely
to $WR,
but in a Biblical context Shi-Hor does not match $XR at all. The sound may
be
similar, but the geographical location, in the context of how $XR is used in
the Bible, is all wrong.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

**************Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or
less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood00000001)




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