Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal-Levin AT utc.edu>]

Of course it is - you don't need the inscription, look at 2 Kings 3:4 (in
Hebrew, of course). Mesha (mem-yod-shin-'aiyn) is derived from the root Y$(
("saved/will save"), and is similar in meaning to Joshua (YH saves) and Jesus.
The precise etymology of Moses, M$H (Mosheh - mem-shin-he) is not clear.
Ex. 2:10 gives a Hebrew etymology - "ki min hammayyim MESHITIHU", "for out
of the water I [Pharaoh's daughter] have drawn him."  But I doubt if
Pharaoh's daughter spoke Hebrew. It has been suggested that the source is
Egyptian, "mose" meaning "born of", like in the names Thutmose and Ahmose.

In any case, Mesha' and Moses are totally different.

Yigal




At 11:15 AM 6/19/2003 -0400, Trevor Peterson wrote:
>>===== Original Message From "Walter R. Mattfeld" <mattfeld12 AT charter.net> 
>=====
>>Just curious, is Moabite Mesha a dialectal form of Hebrew Moshe ?
>
>I don't have the inscription handy, but isn't Mesha spelled with a final 
>'ayin?
>
>Trevor Peterson
>CUA/Semitics
>
>_______________________________________________
>b-hebrew mailing list
>b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
>
>
Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.