Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Peter,

The author actually gives very few details about Egypt that are not generic 
and general. But in any case, what he did or did not know is irrelevant. 
What's important is what he wished to convey. In that sense I agree with 
you. So assuming that the names are semitic, which is it?

Yigal

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Kirk" <peter AT qaya.org>
> I don't want to defend Karl's Hyksos idea. But your alternative picture 
> seems to be that the author of Exodus knew little about the real Egypt was 
> writing from imagination about conditions there. That speculative position 
> would have significant implications on the names - although possibly in 
> either way: one might argue that an author ignorant of real Egyptian names 
> would have given Hebrew names to Egyptian as well as Israelite characters; 
> or that he or she would have given clearly foreign looking names (even if 
> not real Egyptian ones) to non-Israelites and so the Israelite names imply 
> that the midwives were Israelite.
>
> --
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/