Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] nevi

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] nevi
  • Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:17:05 +0100

On Thu 18 Aug 2005 (21:51:08 +0000), yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com wrote:
> I had considered the idea that Ro)eh and Xozeh refer both to
> astrologers. There's not much data behind it, but both Amos and Isaiah
> seem to contain astrological references and both are referred in roots
> of XZH when describing their acts of prophecy in the first verse of each
> book respectively. Also, Samuel appears to be Saul's Ro)eh while Gad
> appears to be David's Xozeh. This would suggest a very close
> relationship to the king, and an astrologer might very well have had
> such a relationship, especially in a lunisolar calendar society of
> that period. Also, if you look above, you will note that the titles of
> different personalities are relatively constant. Iddo is constantly a
> Seer, especially 1 Chron 9:29, where the words XZWT Y(DY HXZH is used.

Thank you for that, Yitzhak. You mean of course 2 Chronicles 9:29.
I had not considered XZH in my brief response to James' inquiry, and
a complete reply must include it. Astrology was an important science at
the time, even though any form of occultism was a big No-no for the
children of Israel (Isaiah 8:19). Root XZH would seem to include the
utterances of a medium in an ecstatic state; although its use of the
activities of Isaiah and Amos render it 'kosher' to use of the prophets
of YHWH.

> This includes a distinction between XZH and R)H that is maintained
> appropriately and separately for each personality. This would suggest
> to me that if the distinctions had become blurred, it was by the time
> of Samuel (the book) and not Samuel (the personality). Let's keep this
> thread focused on the semantics of this various words though, and not on
> the date or historicity of Samuel (the book or personality).

I did mean the time of writing of the Books of Samuel, whenever that was.
But no, let's not go there...

Ben
--
Revd Ben Crick, BA CF ZFC Hf
<ben.crick AT NOSPAM.argonet.co.uk>
232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
*Acorn RPC700, RO4.03+Kinetic Card, 126MB, 4.3GB HD, x32CDROM
*Castle Iyonix X100, RO5.06, 600MHz XScale processor, 512MB DDR RAM,
114GB HD, CD-RW, etc. *Ethernet networking.







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page