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  • From: "Loren Crow" <lorencrow AT earthling.net>
  • To: "Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>
  • Cc: "B-Hebrew List" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Bull of Jacob
  • Date: Fri, 5 May 2000 12:26:01 -0500

Hi Walter,
 
The Hebrew translated "bull" or "strong one" here is ryb) -- )abyr.  In the MT the text is pointed as bqo(jyA rybi)j -- abir ya(aqov -- which means "strength of Jacob."  The consonants, however, allow the pointing bqo(jyA rb@i)j -- abbir ya(aqov -- "bull."  The reason I opt for "bull" rather than "strong one" is that this would be the only case in the HB of rybi)a -- abir, an abstract substantive -- being used as an epithet.  And, as you say, the bull is a rather common image for a storm god.
 
It is worth pointing out, though, what was set up in Dan and bethel were "golden calves" (bhfazF yl'g:)e -- egley zahav, 1 Kgs 12:28), which could well be something altogether different.
 
Cheers!
Loren
(I used Scholars Press' SPTiberian font for the Hebrew.  It's available from the SBL web site.)

 



Loren D. Crow, Ph.D.
Department of Religion
Wiley College
711 Wiley Avenue
Marshall, Texas 75670
VOX: (903) 927-3219
FAX: (903) 927-3336
lorencrow AT earthling.net
http://www.texramp.net/~lorencrow

The unexamined life is not worth living.

- Socrates

 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: "Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 11:49 PM
Subject: Bull of Jacob

> Professor Cumming translates Psalm 132:2 thusly-
>
> "How he sware unto Yahwe,
> And vowed to the Bull of Jacob."
>
> I note the RSV and JPS Tanakh render instead of  Bull, Mighty One. My
> question to the scholars who frequent this list, where is Cumming getting
> the notion "Bull of Jacob" rather than "Mighty One of Jacob" ?  I note that
> the Bull was associated with various gods as a symbol of great strength,
> power, and might. Does "his translation" have any merit ?
>
> Cumming:
>
> "In the hymns proper, there is no crass representation of Yahwe, but it is
> well to recall that Yahwe was not only represented by Bull images at Bethel
> and Dan, but is referred to as the 'Bull of Jacob'."
> (p.115, Professor Charles Gordon Cumming, The Assyrian and Hebrew Hymns of
> Praise, New York, NY, AMS Press, [1934], 1966)
>
> Any comments or observations ?
>
> All the best,
>
> Walter
>
> Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
> Walldorf by Heidelberg
> Baden-Wurttemburg
> Germany
>
>
>
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