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  • From: "Banyai Michael" <banyai AT t-online.de>
  • To: b-hebrew
  • Subject: Israel
  • Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 17:34:24


Dr. L.M. Barre schrieb:
> What does "Israel" literally mean, please?

Current explanation "fighter of El".

Mine after droping the opening Y, as done in the Assyrian rendering
Sirilai, "bull of El". Maybe we have to consider the name of the Syrians
too (missing the theophoric element), who were after all, according to the
Israelites their very next relatives.

We have to ask first, on reading Genesis 22,31-32, which is the image one
has to make himself of Jacob in this story. He is certainly taking some
zoomorphic form, being the cause for the taboo of eating the thigh muscle
(probably presented as a sacrifice to gods). Probably no chicken (snip),
but rather a bull, since we frequently have Israel called in the HB "the
bull of El", however never as in Genesis, only as an inadequate conclusion
of the story, "fighter of El". Could anybody illustrate this last (highly
esotheric) reading with any other occurence in the HB? Instead we have
frequent occurences of Israel being called bull of El.

I see in Jacobs fight with the angel, a parallel to Enkidus and Gilgameshs
fight
with the "Himmelsstier", GU.AN.NA, the bull of Anu, following which fight
Gilgamesh droped its thigh as a mock sacrifice to Ishtar.

The bull of El is probably to be identified with the west-semitic Baal,
both in
his relationship with Ishtar, but also as turtanu of El, fighting with
Gilgamesh (identified as a god with Nergal, the lord of the Underworld),
which story is paralleled by the Ugaritic myth of Baals fight with Mot.

Best regards,




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