Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dear Eva,

"Nineveh" does not mean anything in Hebrew. It is the English 
transliteration of the Hebrew pronounciation of an Assyrian name. I'm not 
sure anyone knows what the name means in Assyrian - it may actually be 
pre-Semitic, taken over by the early Assyrians.

As for Ninus, as Joel has already written, this is probably a Greek 
back-formation from the way they heard the name, something like "Ninueh".

In general, since Assyria had been totally destroyed by the Babylonians and 
the Medes before Greek travlers became familiar with the area, they knew 
very little about the Assyrians and their history, and made up a lot to fill 
in the gaps. Even the name "Assyria" - the Greeks had no idea that the 
ancient Assyrian homeland was in what we would call northern Iraq - they 
attached the name to the Assyrians' last, brief stand at Harran and 
Charchemish - in what the Greeks, and hence we, call (As)Syria to this day.


Yigal Levin


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <thebodyofjesusthenazoraion AT juno.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 3:59 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Nineveh what it means in Hebrew?


> My question is
> Nineveh is the abode of Ninus. Is Ninus the same as the Greek Ninuei = 
> offspring of ease?
> Eva Ritsema
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Try Juno Platinum for Free! Then, only $9.95/month!
> Unlimited Internet Access with 1GB of Email Storage.
> Visit http://www.juno.com/value to sign up today!
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew