Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ruthy & Baruch" <alster AT comandcom.com>]

Shalom again!

I thought I'd add to my clarification on "mitaslem", that although the word
itself cannot be BH, the usage of the hitpa'el form for religious
conversion does have its roots in Tanach. Esther 8:17 reads in Hebrew:
"ve-rabbim me-'ame ha-aretz *mityahadim*", which means (to those who accept
the MT version here) some sort of conversion to Judaism (as I have no
translated Bible at home, I don't know how most of you read this verse).

Therefore we have "mityahed" as converting to Judaism (as opposed to the
later "mitgayer", from "ger", which is the common term in modern Hebrew);
"mitaslem" to Islam; and "mitnatzer" to Christianity.  The last two, of
course, are based on the form of the Biblical first.

Baruch Alster