Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Joe Baker <joebaker AT cygnus.uwa.edu.au>]

ON 7 JUNE BANYAI MICHAEL SAID IN REGARD TO A SUGGESTION OF MINE
<quote> Joe Bakers proposition to see in Herodots story about the
Phoenician migration from the Erithrean sea (this is the Red sea too!) a
story about the Hebrews, falls under Occams rasor. It fails to explain how,
otherwise Herodot totaly ignores the Hebrew, why he should call them
Phoenicians and so on.
The Senacheribos story is overtly in all late antique sources an Egyptian
tradition, not a hebrew one. <quote>
++++++++++++++++++

I RESPOND
Well I did say it was a long shot.

But Herodotos did not totally ignore the Hebrews. Who were the Syrians of
Palestine?

As for King Sanacharibos of the Arabs and Assyrians - where else would the
name come from? Sanacharibos is a perfect Greek translation of Hebrew
"snHryb" even better than the LXX's Sennakheros.

Certaintly it didn't come from Egyptian sources as royal inscriptions
invariable do not name foreign rulers. Nor do they call the people of this
region Arabs and Assyrians. Instead they use anachronistic generic names
such as Kharu, Amu, etc. Indeed, given Egyptian spelling of foreign names
and Herodotos' attempts at reproducing many Egyptian names, if they had
told Herodotos a name I can not imagine how mangled it would have been.

It is also unlikely it came form a Babylonian source (or Assyrian source)
as the initial divine element of the name would have sounded like Sin-
rather than the western form San- (as in Sanaballat).

So what other people retained the name of an Assyrain king who invaded
Egypt sometime around the seventh century BC? How about the people of
Judah? And if Herodotos did have a Hebrew source then what other people had
a legend of coming from the Persian Gulf?


Regards
Joe Baker ===========\
Perth                |
Western Australia ===/