Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Henry Churchyard" <churchh AT usa.net>]

>> From: Walter Mattfeld [SMTP:mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com]
>> Subject: Locating Ai

>> I note that the Septuagint renders Massoretic Ai as Gai. Perhaps
>> the Greek rendering preserves the site name ?

> Subject: RE: Locating Ai
> From: Niels Peter Lemche <npl AT teol.ku.dk>
> Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 19:22:47 +0200

> Well, the Hebrew is 'ayin-yod, so the Greek transliterates the
> unusual laryngal (from the view point of Greek) 'ayin with a 'g',
> which is certainly not a surprising solution to the dilemma of
> having to render Ai from Hebrew into Greek.  There is therefore no
> reason to assume that the 'Vorlage' of the LXX in this case was
> different from the Hebrew.

Actually, for info on the survival of `ayin vs. ghayin and h.et
vs. khet in Hebrew, as reflected in Septuagint transcriptions of
proper names, see Joshua Blau, "On Polyphony in Biblical Hebrew",
_Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities_, Volume
6 No. 2 (1982, Jerusalem); the following is definitely plausible from
the strictly phonological point of view, at least (don't know anything
about the specific proposed etymology):

| Subject: Locating Ai
| From: "Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>
| Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 10:31:05 +0200

| Ziony Zevit, "The Problem of Ai," Biblical Archaeology Review,
| March/April 1985, Vol. XI, No.2, proposes that Ai does not mean
| "ruin," he suggests the word was originally "ghay" noting the
| Septuagint renders Hebrew ha-`Ai as Aggai or Gai :

| "Etymologically, Ai does not refer to a ruin. In antiquity the name
| would have been pronounced ghay (gutteral gh) which would not have
| been associated by an Israelite with his Hebrew word for "ruin," `iy.
| Arabic cognates suggest that the name ghay may have referred to some
| topographical feature of the city.

(However, a connection between "Gh" and Arabic "J" is not plausible,
as Peter pointed out.)

--
Henry Churchyard   churchh AT usa.net   http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/