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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr, George.Athas AT moore.edu.au, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] a mystery regarding gen14:24?
  • Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:54:16 EDT


Dr. Arnaud Fournet:

David Kolinsky is asking whether Anir/Aner/(NR in the unpointed Masoretic
text of chapter 14 of Genesis is a “mistake”, since it makes no sense in
west Semitic. Since I have been asked to “desist”, could you complete the
Hurrian analysis of this name?

Start with your website, which says: “*[Øinarγa] (Essive) ‘looking or
acting like a god’[;] CA <e-na-ar-xa>.” That attested Hurrian common word
is
the root ena + two suffixes, R + xa, which looks like (NR plus an
additional suffix.

Then go to the exciting attested Hurrian name at Nuzi: Anir$e. That’s
Anir + $e, likely being the same as the entry on your website, except a
different second suffix is used: root ena + R + $e. [Here’s the cite for
Anir$e
at Nuzi: 468 SMN 2071, at p. 131 of “Nuzi and the Hurrians”, by David I.
Owen and Ernest Rene Lacheman (1995).]

Then go back to your website (p. 34), and explain that -$e [like -R] is a
standard Hurrian suffix, and that Hurrian words and names sometimes have two
suffixes: “-š(š)e-/-š(š)i-: used to create abstract nouns: šarrašši- ‘
kingship, royalty’ (cf. šarri- ‘king’[of Semitic origin]). Note ewri-šš
i-xi ‘royal’ with two suffixes. In Proto-Indo-European, *-s was an extremely
common suffix and had various usages.”

A simplified version of that attested Hurrian word and that attested
Hurrian name would be to leave off the second suffix, and only have one
Hurrian
suffix: -R. That would give us ena + R, or Anir or Aner, which in Hebrew is
what we see in the received Masoretic text of Genesis 14: 13, 24: (N-R.
That’s no “mistake”. No, it’s bona fide Hurrian.

If David Kolinsky may be wondering whether a Hebrew ayin could be used to
represent a Hurrian vowel, please mention the key example of (LM at Genesis
14: 1 (the original version of Chedorlaomer’s kingly title) being a dead
ringer for Hurrian Elami, where Hebrew ayin represents a Hurrian vowel.

I’ve said far too much, and I must desist. But please let David Kolinsky
know that (NR/Anir makes perfect sense in Hurrian, per the attested Hurrian
name Anir + second suffix $e at Nuzi, while making no sense at all in west
Semitic. Guys, let’s not abandon the Masoretic text here!

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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