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  • From: Chavoux Luyt <chavoux AT gmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] b-hebrew Digest, Vol 117, Issue 24
  • Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:07:49 +0200

For once I am in total agreement with Jim! :-)

> From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
<snip>
>
> George Athas wrote: “[T]he etymology of Jerusalem is usually based on a
> form of the verb ירה, which has within its semantic domain the concept of
> 'putting up' or 'founding' (cf. Gen 31.51; Job 38.6). On this basis, it is
> concluded that ירושׁלםmeans 'founded by/for Shalem'. The proper noun Shalem
> is the name of a deity known from cognate cultures (eg. Ugaritic).”
>
<snip>
>
> With the name “Jerusalem” first appearing in the Amarna Letters, at about
> the time that the Hebrews emerge as a distinct people, one suspects that
> the Canaanite name of the Amarna Age city of Jerusalem had been “Peace”,
> spelled $LM. $LM [Hebrew shalom] appears in various forms in many west
> Semitic languages, and is thought to derive from proto-Semitic $alam and to
> pre-date the Amarna Age as a west Semitic common word in Canaan. “The root
> $lm is attested since the earliest times in all branches of Semitic….”
> Helmer Ringgren, Heinz-Josef Fabry, “Theological Dictionary of the Old
> Testament, vol. 15” (2006), p. 15. Whereas there is no evidence whatsoever
> that the Ugaritic god $lm [one of a pair of minor Ugaritic deities] was
> known in Late Bronze Age Canaan, we know that some form of $lm, meaning
> “peace”, was known by all the various west Semitic-speaking Canaanites
> throughout Canaan at the time. Moreover, many Israelites have a name
> spelled $LM in unpointed text, so we’re sure that the common word $LM was
> very suitable to be used as a proper name.
>
>
>
> Although it may be dismissed by some as allegedly being a “folk etymology”,
> the most straightforward etymology of “Jerusalem” is that it means “City of
> Peace”. YRW in Hebrew originally was úru, meaning “city” in
> Sumerian/Akkadian in the Amarna Letters. $LM is the west Semitic word for
> “peace”. I myself do not see Canaanite warawa as ever having been part of
> this city name [with Jerusalem not being in the Execration Texts], nor do I
> see any evidence that anyone at Jerusalem ever knew of the pagan god
> Shalem. Rather than meaning “Founded by/for [the pagan god] Shalem”, I see
> the city name “Jerusalem” as meaning, from day #1: “City of Peace”.
>

Shalom
Chavoux Luyt



  • Re: [b-hebrew] b-hebrew Digest, Vol 117, Issue 24, Chavoux Luyt, 09/26/2012

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