Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 07/11/2004 21:52, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:

> 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.
I assume that "baHr" is not a rather crude attempt at phonetic spelling 
of Aramaic "bar" = "son", but rather the H is a het and this is Hebrew 
"baHur" (or perhaps "baHir") = "chosen one" or "young man". I note that 
the Samaritan pronunciation given has a U sound, but maybe this is not 
represented in the spelling.

So perhaps the meaning is "one chosen by Karnaim". I assume the K is in 
fact a qof. Could Karnaim be a divine title? This would be a likely 
development from the common use of QEREN = "horn" as a symbol of divine 
strength. But then it could be a place name as in Amos 6:13 (referring 
there to a place in Bashan, cf. Gen 14:5), hence perhaps "a young man 
from Karnaim".


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/