Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Michael,

The problem with quoting Sanchiunaton via Philon of Byblos via Eusebius, is
that all we have of this so-called "Phoenician cosmogony" is a third-hand
account related by a Christian living Palestina and heavily influenced by
Jewish traditions. Assuming that Eusebius did have a real "Phoenician "
source, I would suspect that any similarity between what he tells us and
anything "biblical" is mostly wishful elaboration on Eusebius' part.

Yigal
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Banyai" <Banyai AT t-online.de>
> I would like to point to the Phoenician cosmogony according to
Sanchiunaton as related by Filon of Byblos and Eusebius of Cesarea,
mentioning a certain pair of rival has brothers, one of whom being called
Usoos (like Esau), a hunter, who has invented fur clothes. This cosmogony
seems to be confirmed as genuine by its recognisable Ugarit parallels. There
existed thus an independent semitic tradition concerning Esau/Usoos, who was
assimilated by the bible writers with Edom.
>
> The way how this story slipped into the Bible may have been the
identification of some Edom - a historical brother of a proto-Israelite king
(we may call him for conveniency Jacob) - with the eponymous ancestor of the
Edomites Esau.
>
> There exists an Egyptian inscription concerning a certain Abdi-damu (or
later Hebrew: Obed-Edom) brother of the "prince" of Retenu, taking part into
a mining expedition into the Sinai, just on the wake of the massive (and
apparently friendly)immigration of Semites into the Delta under Amenemhat
III during the late 12-th dynasty.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Banyai Michael
> Stuttgart
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