Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Numberup AT worldnet.att.net]

Salaam alaykum!  Oops, wrong language.  The reasoning behind this appears
irrelevant.  The Hebrew Bible uses the "waw" or "vav" as both consonant and
vowel, and the Masoretic text vowel-points the word to read "shalom."

Solomon Landers
Memra Institute for Biblical Research
http://www.memrain.org

gs02wmr AT panther.Gsu.EDU wrote:

> Shalum Achshaav!
>
> I was perusing a web page of a local cult in my area, and on one of their
> pages they make the claim that the word "Shalom" is really suppoed to be
> "Shalam." Their logic is as follows:
>
> -----------
> The word SHALAM means peace. The reason why we spell the word SHALAM
> with an "A" instead of an "O" (SHALOM), is because when you look at the
> Hebrew alphabet there is no "O". The using of the letter "O" is incorrect!
> This is how the word is written in the Ancient Hebrew(Shalam), and in the
> Assyrian Hebrew(ShAlAm). The Hebrew Israelites spoke and wrote in
> the ancient Hebrew dialect.
>
> The reason why so many of our records today are written in the Assyrian
> Hebrew, is due to, when we were in captivity under the Assyrian Empire.
> Read II Kings Chapter 17, verse 23 says, "Until the Lord removed Israel
> out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was
> Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day." In
> the process of time, as we were held captives by the Assyrians (for
> approximately 200 years), we began to speak and write in a different
> form/dialect of the ancient Hebrew language."
> -------------------------------------
>
> They give us 2 pictures, HEBREW1.GIF is supposed to be the original
> Biblical Hebrew alphabet, and HEBREW2.GIF is the "false" Assyrian Hebrew
> alphabet.
>
> So according to their logic, are they correct? Is the word "Shalom" really
> supposed to be pronounced "Shalam" ?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Wondell M. Rachman
>
>   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  [Image]