Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Marianne,

> I am busy with the Samaritan chronicles right now and want to ask about
> something.  I came across a Samaritan ketubah in which the bridegroom was
> described, among other things, as "baHr karnaim" (the Samaritans 
> actually pronounce the
> first as "bakur"--but their dialect is another matter).  The footnote stated
> that the scribe had probably made an error for "kohanim"--but I find this
> rather spurious.  The Samaritans, being led since the collapse of 
> the Israelite
> kingdom by a series of High Priests, are very conscious of their 
> kohanim.  Ever
> since the time of Moses, they had a high priest from the line of Eleazar, but
> this line died out at some point in the Middle Ages and then the Levites took
> over, a situation that prevails to this very day.
> Anyway, don't we encounter this "karnaim" business in connection with Moses? 
> Moses, one supposes, didn't actually have horns and any Samaritan capable of
> writing a ketubah is not going to be ignorant of how to spell "kohanim". 
> Anyone have any ideas about this "karnaim" matter?


HH: If "baHr" mans "son," then the horns could be part of a phrase 
indicating a man of strength. Presumably a groom in a marriage would 
be a person of strength. Horns are a symbol of strength in the Old 
Testament.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard

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