Biblical Hebrew Forum

["clayton stirling bartholomew" <c.s.bartholomew AT worldnet.att.net>]

>From: "Bryan Rocine" <brocine AT earthlink.net>


> I suggest that the construction B`L <....> has the idiomatic
> sense "the epitomy of <....>," something like we say
> (borrowed from Sadaam?), "the mother of all <....>" as in
> "the mother of all wars."  See Gen 49:23, 2 Ki 1:8, Pro
> 18:9, 22:24, 24:8, 29:22, Ecc. 12:11.  The polysemy is
> definitely worth mentioning!


Bryan,

This is an angle which I had not considered. Blinded by my agenda to
find literary allusions to cosmic combat myths it had not occurred to me
that this construction might be functioning adjectivally. It does make
sense now that you point it out. I think this is similar but not
identical to what Peter Kirk was driving at:

>From: peter_kirk AT sil.org

> The phrase BA(AL X"MFH appears in Proverbs 29:22 in parallel with
> )IY$-)AP, whereas BA(AL )FP appears in Proverbs 22:24 in parallel with
> )IY$ X"MOWT. There are several other such phrases with BA(AL,
> especially in the Wisdom Literature - se BDB. I think that makes it
> clear that the meaning in Proverbs is simply "one given to anger".


Ben,

Thanks for both our posts.

>From: ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)


> 2 Kings 19:35-37 tells how YHWH destroyed
>  the Assyrian army, and how Sennacherib met his death whilst worshipping the
>  idol Nisroch. So yes!  there is a spiritual dimension indeed. YHWH is LORD
>  of all the earth, not just of Judah only: and all the gods of the nations
>  are but idols, whether carved (wood) or cast (metal), Nahum 1:14.


I think I have caused some confusion by not stating more clearly what I
am up to in this study. My purpose is to explore intertextual links
between the OT and the cosmic combat myths. I am not trying to isolate
mythological substance in the OT text. I do not consider the presence of
cosmic combat imagery which was very very old and wildly distributed in
the first millennium BC  as evidence that the authors of the Psalms or
Prophetic books accepted the substance of these myths,  any more than I
would consider allusions to Achilles in Hemingway to be an indication
that the he had some particular view on the historicity of Achilles.
What I am doing is a literary thing, looking at how the cosmic combat
imagery is used.

The main point that several of you have clarified is that B(L is often
used as just a plain old ordinary word and that finding anything more
needs to be justified by the context. I thought that the presence of YM
and NHR in Nahum 1:4 was adequate justification but after reading  your
posts and looking at the adjectival function which fits the context very
well I now think I was chaseing ghosts.

Thanks for all the help.

Clay

--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062