Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

> Subject: Phoenetic Similarities
> From: "Tony Costa" <tmcos AT hotmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 22:48:51

> I don't want to argue semantics or commit the phoenitic fallacy but
> I couldn't help notice the close phoenetic similarity between
> MASHIACH (annointed one; messiah) and MOSHIYAH (deliverer; saviour).
> Could this similarity in words have developed the idea of the
> Messiah as a deliverer?

The short answer is "no".  When doing a phonological (or "phonetic"
comparison), you have to bear in mind that characters which are often
not transcribed at all when rendering the Hebrew alphabet into
English, or are often only transcribed with little easy-to-overlook
apostrophes and such, are actually real sounds in Hebrew, which can be
etymologically quite important; similarly, Hebrew sounds that are
transcribed identically or similarly when using the Roman alphabet
(depending on the strictness or scholarliness of the transcription)
are quite distinct within Hebrew itself, where they are written with
completely separate letters.  A system of transcription that only
notates the sounds of the modern Israeli pronunciation of Hebrew is
fine for modern Israeli itself, but is of very little use for
comparative Semitic purposes.

The root _mem-shin-h.et_ seen in _mashiah._ ("messiah") means "to
spread a liquid, to annoint", so that _mashiah._ means "annointed
one", often referring to kings that were annointed as part of the
coronation ritual (though crowns were not very symbolic of royalty in
ancient Israel, so "coronation" is not quite the right word...).  And
in fact, _mashiah._ does not really ever mean "future savior" within
the Hebrew text of the Old Testament itself.

By contrast, the word "savior" _moshia`_ comes from root
_waw-shin-`ayin_ (though in some dictionaries you will find some of
the forms listed under _yad-shin-`ayin_, due to the effects of an
early w- to y- phonological change in word-initial position).  So you
see that the roots _mem-shin-h.et_ and _waw-shin-`ayin_ actually only
have one single consonant in common (a middle _shin_); in both roots
the _shin_ is followed by a pharyngeal (_h.et_ is a voiceless
pharyngeal, while _`ayin_ is a voiced pharyngeal), but that's not
enough to found any kind of solid etymology on...

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