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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: nir AT ccet.ufrn.br, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] the last hurrian
  • Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:46:22 -0400 (EDT)


Nir Cohen:

You wrote: “in my opinion, you fall victim, willingly and unwittingly, to
the most basic of all linguistic errors: the false cognate. if you BELIEVE
the name is hurrian, you PROVE it is hurrian. If you BELIEVE the other name
is hebrew you PROVE it is hebrew. all, by producing close cognates from the
chosen language of the spur of the moment.”

You make a good point there. Let me first briefly clarify what my prior
post showed in that regard, and then go on to some exciting implications of
what you say.

1. My prior post showed that if we look at the 9 names associated with XTY
in the Bible, we find the following: 9 of 9 make good sense as Hurrian
names. Only 5 of 9 make sense as west Semitic [“Hebrew”] names. My post
focused on the 4 such names that do not make good sense as west Semitic
names.
[I did not mean to imply that linguistically, the other 5 names could not
work as west Semitic names.]

2. 2 of the 9 names that work either as Hurrian or west Semitic names are
particularly fascinating:

(i) We see )YLWN at Genesis 36: 2, featuring both an interior yod and an
interior vav, as the name of a Hurrian/XTY. Zebulun’s son in fact has a
slightly different name, not having the interior yod: )LWN, at Genesis 46:
14.
That spelling is confirmed at Numbers 26: 26. Centuries later, a
descendant of the line of Zebulun has a similar name, but sometimes spells it
with an
interior yod, )YLWN at Judges 12: 11, though in the very next verse that
interior yod is missing: )LWN at Judges 12: 12.

To me the -WN ending in the name of Zebulun’s son has a Hurrian ambience,
and Zebulun’s son is given this name in remembrance of the fact that Zebulun
was born in the heartland of Hurrian country, in eastern Syria. The
spelling of Zebulun’s own name that his mother Leah used in eastern Syria
featured
that Hurrian-like -WN ending, though Jacob later Semiticized the spelling of
that son’s name by dropping the interior vav.

We also see the Hurrian version of this name Semiticized at Genesis 26: 34.
The -WN Hurrian-style ending is dropped in favor of a -N standard west
Semitic ending: )YLN. This may be a scribal error, for as discussed below,
the listing of Esau’s in-laws embodies varying traditions. But it could also
show that some of the Hurrians in Canaan at times used Semiticized versions
of their names. Thus for example many scholars see “Uriah” as being a
Hurrian name that features a Semiticized ending.

(ii) Also interesting is the female name Bashemath. On the one hand, she
is said to be a Hurrian/XTY at Genesis 26: 34. On the other hand, she is
said to be a daughter of Ishmael at Genesis 36: 3. In fact, the daughter of
Ishmael whom Esau married was Mahalath, per Genesis 28: 9. It appears that
one of the few aspects of the Patriarchal narratives where the received text
has alternative traditions are the in-laws of Esau.

The 5 names associated with XTY that work both as Hurrian names and as west
Semitic names are all names of Esau’s in-laws, and this is precisely one of
the least trustworthy aspects of the Patriarchal narratives, because it
embodies varying traditions. To me, the three important names in this regard
are (PRWN, XTY and “Uriah”, being the XTY names that are not Esau’s in-laws.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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