Biblical Hebrew Forum

["leviny1 AT MAIL.BIU.AC.IL" <leviny1 AT MAIL.BIU.AC.IL>]

Dear Jack,


I would fully agree with Dr. Rendsburg on this. The etymology of Ephraim is
spelled out - a form of PRH, meaning "to be friutful". 

In any case, it is often assumed that Ephraim was originally a geographic
term, referring to the northern part of the central hill country of Israel
(later called "Samaria"). There is a question as to whether there may have
even been a town by the same name. In time, the Iron Age settlers in the
region began calling themselves "sons of Ephraim" - and to develop the
etiological traditions about Ephraim son of Joseph. You can see a similar
process with the term "Gilead" - originally a geographic term, eventually
identified with a phratry within the tribe of Manasseh, and then a "Son" of
the tribal patriarch.


Yigal Levin


Original Message:
-----------------
From: Jack Edelstein jyed AT yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 21:38:44 -0700 (PDT)
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] Etymology of Ephraim: RA theophoric?



 
Greetings friends and teachers!  I have been reading
this list for almost a year, and have learned much
from you all.  This is my first post, and I thank you
in advance for your input.

Have scholars considered the name Ephraim as a RA
theophoric.  After all, he is the grandson of Poti
Phera, high priest of RA.  Is there a parallel between
the fey and raysh in Ephraim with the fey and resh in
Phera?  Could the ayin (originally the third letter in
Ephraim) have been expunged at some later point to
obscure the Egyptian source?

I have posed this question of Dr. Gary Rendsburg, an
expert in this area and author of "The Egyptian
Sun-God Ra in the Pentateuch".   He feels that there
is very little possibility of Ephraim carrying the RA
element, primarily due to the absence of the ayin .  
Other problems, according to Dr. Rendsburg, are the
'aleph at the beginning of Ephraim and the nominal
dual suffix -ayim at the end.

I wonder if the ayin could not have been lost over
time?  I’m not sure about the other issues.  

Thanks, again, for considering this question.  Your
thoughts and speculation are appreciated.

Jack Edelstein
Ann Arbor



Jack Edelstein, Ph.D.
734-355-3764

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew



--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .