Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Charles David Isbell" <cisbell AT cox.net>]

Dave wrote: "If the names originated as compounds of the Canaanite deity, I
would suspect that by the time of Ezra (and perhaps even of David?) such
meanings would have been lost."
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So why not assume that the names in the later writings are faithful
representations of names that indeed originated at an earlier time?  This
would indicate that they are not made up out of whole cloth, non?  Or
perhaps they are permutations of an earlier positive name in the same way
that several Baal names are changed to boshet compounds.
Charles David Isbell