Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Noam Eitan <noameitan AT yahoo.com>]

>That's why "Sharru-kin" is spelled "Sargon" in the Bible - 

the Hebrew scribe recorded what he heard the Assyrians say

 I believe every word in the Hebrew Bible is there to promote a 
Yahwist-cult-agenda. There is no evidence its writers were even able to grasp 
the concept of unbiased reporting of the “truth”, i.e., historical facts; 
they were trying to assert “THE” (Yahwist) truth. There is plenty of evidence 
they weren’t even able to entertain alternative viewpoints – when such are 
mentioned it is in derision. I feel this applies as well to foreign names in 
the Bible. Am I the only one to suspect that the Bible routinely distorts 
foreign name to reflect their significance in events relating to the people 
of Israel, or in derision? For example, in the case of Sanherib, the form of 
the name used in the Bible contains the root for the word that means 
destruction (Het-Resh-Bet). This can apply either to what Sanherib did to 
Jerusalem, or what will happen to him (as a curse or prophesy). I also 
suspect that some, if not all of the Philistine cities’ names are distortion 
for the purpose of derision or a
 curse (some contain roots related to various forms of loss; the rest - the 
point is lost on us.) I suspect the Bible approximates foreign names the way 
children do, approximating a foreign name to the nearest sounding words in 
their own language, often in a way the expresses the subject’s attributes,  
often in mockery. This touches on the question of whether there is humor in 
the Bible – I’d like to quote from this web-site:

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/economic/friedman/bibhumor.htm

 

“The Talmud believes that some names in the Hebrew Bible are not real names. 
For example, the Talmud has a tradition that the names of the spies are not 
their real names but they were named in the Bible after their (bad) deeds 
(Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 34a). Also, there is an argument in the Talmud over 
whether Nimrod’s real name was Amraphel or vice versa. One opinion is that 
his real name was Amraphel but he was called Nimrod because he led the whole 
world in rebellion against God (Eruvin 53a). The Hebrew word for rebel is 
morod which sounds like Nimrod. 

Thus, it is quite possible that many other names in the Hebrew Bible are not 
real but describe attributes of the individual. Radday (1990) takes this view 
and claims that the Bible often distorts an individual’s name in order to 
ridicule it. The Talmud and Midrash occasionally take the approach that the 
Biblical name is not real as noted above, but more often work with the 
assumption that the name is real but quite fitting. Indeed, in 
Talmudic/Midrashic literature, a very common device is to show how someone 
truly deserved his/her name because of some action performed. 

For example, Balaam signifies balah am (he destroyed the people), i.e., 
Balaam’s advice (Numbers 22) resulted in the plague that killed thousands of 
Israelites (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 105a). The Talmud states that 
Ahasuerus signified the fact that everyone who knew him said ach la-rosho 
(woe for my head) (Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 11a). Delilah’s (Judges 16) 
name, was very befitting according to the Talmud, and "even if her name would 
not have been called Delilah, it would have been appropriate to call her 
Delilah. She weakened (dildalah) Samson’s strength, weakened his heart and 
weakened his deeds" (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 9b). The Hebrew word dildul 
which sounds like Delilah means to weaken or deplete. The Talmud asks: "Why 
was he called Korach? Because he created baldness [i.e., defoliation] in 
Israel" (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 109b). The name Korach (Numbers 16) is 
very similar to the Hebrew word karchah which means baldness. This is just a 
very small sample of the
 Talmudic approach with respect to names.

In the Five Books of Moses:

The verse (Genesis 14:2) states: "They waged a war against Berah king of 
Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinav king of Admah, and Shemever 
king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela." Berah sounds like ben rah which means 
evil son in Hebrew. Birsha sounds like ben rashah which means wicked son. 
Shinav sounds like soneh av which means he hates his Father (in Heaven) ( 
Midrash Genesis Rabbah 42:5 and Midrash Tanchuma 8). It is possible that 
these names are real names but it is also possible that their names have been 
distorted in order to disparage the kings--evil kings who ruled over wicked 
kingdoms. 

In Genesis 31:42, Jacob refers to the "God of Abraham and the Dread (Pachad) 
of Isaac." Later on (Genesis 31:53), Jacob swears by the "Dread of his father 
Isaac." Referring to God as a "Dread" is quite unusual. It is not 
inconceivable that Isaac after being bound and almost sacrificed, had a 
tremendous fear of God and therefore referred to Him as his Dread. 

Shechem, the son of Chamor, raped Dinah, the daughter of Jacob (see Genesis 
34). Chamor means donkey in Hebrew. Was Shechem’s father’s real name Chamor 
or is the Bible purposely corrupting the name in order to make fun of 
Shechem? It is not inconceivable that the Bible is telling us that Shechem 
was a son-of-a-jackass. 

In the Writings:

Orpah, the daughter-in-law of Naomi, turned her back on her mother-in-law and 
left her after her husband died. Ruth, on the other hand, stayed with her 
mother-in-law and traveled with her back to Israel (Ruth 1). The word oreph 
means the nape of the neck. One Midrash states that she was called Orpah 
because she turned the nape of her neck (i.e., turned her back) on her 
mother-in-law (Midrash Ruth Rabbah 2:9). “

 Noam Eitan, Brooklyn, NY


                
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>From villandra AT austin.rr.com  Sun Apr 18 20:14:38 2004
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] changes in 'th'
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 19:14:05 -0500
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Welsh has th as in the - and Engilsh must have gotten it somewhere.

Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, Texas
villandra AT austin.rr.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bet_yaakov" <bet_yaakov AT paradise.net.nz>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2004 7:31 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] changes in 'th'


> Hi
>
> There are many changes in Euro linguistics!
>
> Spanish, English and I think partly Swedish have 'Th' all the other euro
> lingo's did not! Jews which have travelled through certain countries kept
> the 'th' like some Sephardics in old Synagogues, like in the phrase
> 'Miswath' instead of 'Mitzvah' or 'Mitsvah'. But when Israeli was
Euro'ised
> it became simplified and the tenses where change to three instead of two
> like there is in the Torah Hebrew. So 'th' 'dh' and 'gh' have there place
> also the other interesting points are Shewa which has been traditionally
> done in Ashkenazi Synagogues where Sephardic is more linguistically
> practiced. Ayin and Aleph have both changed, when I looked into Yemenite I
> did not find the answer to help, I found that Yemenite was too Arabic in
> form. You have to look at other Semitic linguistics for help sometimes.
>
>
>
> With the Unicode it would be good to have a pronounced Shewa (Sheva) and a
> Distinction on the Kametz!
>
> Shalom
>
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