Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Revdpickrel AT wmconnect.com]

In a message dated 12/23/2004 8:10:49 PM Central Standard Time, 
Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu writes:


> For what it's worth, one explanation that is often given for the use of the
> term "great lights" in Genesis 1--rather than "sun" and "moon"--is that its
> author (whoever that might be) wanted to "demote" the sun ($M$) and moon
> (YRX) in the minds of the readers (whoever they might be) from the status of
> (potential) deities to the status of mere timekeepers. According the KB
> lexicon, $M$ is attested as the name of a sun-god in Akkadian, Phoenician,
> Punic, and Old South Arabic (in the latter, KB says that $M$ appears as a
> theophoric element in personal names). As for YRX, KB says that YRH (the H
> there should have a rocker underneath, the letter is three wedges in a
> vertical line, corresponding to Arabic kha') is attested in Ugaritic texts
> as a divine name. I haven't the resources ready to hand to track down
> references and look at the primary sources with my own eyes just now.

Chris,

"...term "great lights" in Genesis 1--rather than "sun" and "moon"--is that 
its
author (whoever that might be) wanted to "demote" the sun ($M$) and moon..."  
       Isn't this speculation as well - to assume why the writer didn't use 
the names of the sun and moon is skirting the issue.  I would like to see us 
do 
something useful here.  If we can identify colophons in Genesis we may be 
able to establish when each part was written and then maybe who may have 
written 
it.  It's a long short but it's worth the time.  B.Hebrew list is the perfect 
place to have such a project.  I think it very reasonable to assume that 
Moses 
may have edited Genesis but I don't think he wrote it.  There is no record in 
Scripture where God ever told Moses what to write yet there is a record where 
God instructed Moses to write down an event and rehearse it in Joshua's ears. 
 There must be clues somewhere if we just look.  The closer to the original 
the better, and there is enough Hebrew text on this list to at least make an 
effort.  It has already been established the colophons exist on the clay 
tablets 
found in Iraq and ancient tablets found prior to the flood.  
       Tablets are to big to carry a great amount of information so at the 
end of a tablet are key words that are repeated on the beginning of the next 
tablet.  These are called colophons.  It is unlikely that translators kept 
these 
colophons in order so it's useless to search in KJV and other versions.  
Maybe 
Adam kept a diary and we call it Genesis, maybe even Seth kept it one.  What 
does the Hebrew word for Genesis mean?  


Doug Pickrel
Tejas Valley
San Antonio, TX