Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>]

Ian wrote:

>Sorry I can't find any previous use of 'heykal' before
>the one in discussion - 1Samuel 1:9, but does that
>matter? I can neither find a Heb, Aram, Eth, Akk,
>Sumarian, Syr, Assy, or Swahili word where 'heykal'
>means pavilion, but that wasn't the point either.
>George and I were only trying to give an answer to the
>question posed by James, ie:
>"Why in 1 Sam 1:19 is there a reference to the Lord's
>"temple" (heykal) when the temple has not been built
>yet?"

I understand what you were trying to do.  My point is that I wouldn't expect 
this word to be used with reference to a tent.  I realize its royal 
connotations, but that still doesn't remove the overwhelming evidence that it 
was used with regard to fixed structures.
>
>George was quite right to state that "whether a temple
>or pavilion is in mind is irrelevant." He and I were
>both trying to explain (I believe) that this passage
>is referring, when using 'heykal', to the residence of
>the King, ie. God, the king of the universe.

Then would you also say that the shift in use from bet to hekal over time (as 
hekal becomes more common in later Bib. Heb.) reflects a shift in thinking 
about God's royal role?
>
>Heykal means palace/temple yes, but surely it implies
>a reason why a palace/temple is called thus. The
>Arabic, I understand, gives a sense of loftiness of
>spaciousness. Which would apply in this case if
>referring to the tabernacle.

Arabic also uses it to refer to the chasis of a car.  Perhaps Arabic's use is 
too far developed to tell us much about what it meant earlier and in other 
Semitic languages.
>
>You also wrote:
>
>"Are you suggesting that this Sumerian loanword (got
>any proof?) was not associated with fixed buildings in
>any language until sometime in the first millennium,"

None of the dictionaries attempt to derive it from a Semitic root (contrary 
to 
normal practice in, for example, BDB).  In Akkadian, it's written E(2).GAL, 
which are common Sumerian signs for "house" and "big."  It would be quite a 
coincidence if the word were not originally Sumerian.

[snipped]

>I may refer to my house as; my home, my house, my
>dwelling, the terrace property of Mr. Goldsmith, my
>habitation etc, etc.

Perhaps, but if your house is a tent, and you call it a fortress, someone 
might question whether you've used the correct term.  The passage doesn't 
strike me as going out of its way to make a point through figurative language.

[snipped]

>Perhaps you feel that this passage refers to some
>other building other than the tabernacle tent.

I don't know what it refers to.  I'm just trying not to stretch the terms if 
we don't have to.

[snipped]

>The fact that in this verse it is also called a
>temple/palace may mess up some pre-conceived ideas,
>but surely it doesn't mean that the writer could not
>have been using another adjective for the home of God.

What about the preconceived idea that there was not a temple at Shiloh?

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics