Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>.
>
> In this we ought to be careful. The stated reason for a name may not be
what the name actually means. For example, Samuel comes from the root $YM
(sin yod mem) while his mother commented that God had heard her prayer. At
the time the events happened, the shin and sin were the same letter, and the
concept that God placed him [ $MW and )L ]  because God heard her prayer
fits the context.
> >

Actually, Karl, Shin and Sin were NOT the same letter. They are two distinct
sounds in most Semitic languages and were in Hebrew as well. However they
were not in Canaanite, and since the Israelites "took over" the
Canaanite/Pheonecian alphabet, they used the same letter for both sounds.
The same was true for Het and Khet, Ain and Ghain and maybe some others.
(That the Ghain was pronounced as late as the Second Temple period is shown
by the fact that the LXX knew to use a Gamma in such words as Gaza and
Gommora). The fact that the Mesoretes knew to invent a diacritical mark to
differentiate between Shin and Sin is somwhat of a wonder in itself.

As for the name Shemuel - whatever the original etymology (I would go with
"El is His name", but there are other possibilities), the explaiantion that
the writer attributed to Hannah - "for I have asked him of the Lord" does
not fit. The Hebrew "asked" or "requested" is $)L - "sha)al". This would be
perfect, as an explanation for the name "Shaul" - Saul. I have long
suspected that there is a tradition about the birth of Saul "hiding" under
the Deuteronomistic version of what we now call I Samuel.

Yigal