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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: George Athas <george.athas AT moore.edu.au>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Kush
  • Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 03:55:22 -0400

George,

My reasoning is based on the following assumptions:

1. Every Biblical name is meaningful and has an inherent etymology. In fact, the Bible itself spends an inordinate amount of time on the etymology of its names, starting with those of our forebears ADAM and XAVA.

2. At times these etymologies are obscure, and at times these etymologies are clear, or at least they appear to be so. It stands to reason that the name of a country is descriptive of a prominent feature of the land, say the "land of the two rivers". I think that the name MICRAIM, Egypt, for instance, originates in the Hebrew Root CR, 'narrow', with the dual referring to the two narrow strips of inhabited land along the Nile. I may be right, or I may be wrong, but I am being surely reasonable.

3. The letters G-X-K-Q, B-F-P-W, C-S-$-Z are designed to shift in Hebrew (biblical and post-biblical) to vary and enrich its root stock by slight shifts of meaning. Consider for instance such root families as: GFF-XFF-KFF, GZZ-XCC-QSS-KCC-K$$, GLL-XLL-QLL-KLL, KSH-Q$H, GZM- QSM, KR)-QR), SGR-SKR, and so on. Vowel shifts are also used for this purpose, for instance, KOS=KIS, OR=UR, and so on. Hence my argument that GUSH = KUSH (=GUC), and GOSHEN=GUSHEN=KUSHEN. We are pretty sure that KUSH is a mountainous (GUSHI) region. We are also being told that Moses took a native woman for wife, and she was a KUSHIT (one may of course argue that she was an immigrant or a slave etc, etc.) So why, one may ask, did the Bible not use GUSH in the first place? I think in order to slightly deceive the eye and the ear. A good example for such phonetic trickery is the pair ZIB-ZIV.

4. I know that common wisdom places the land of GOSHEN somewhere in the Nile delta, but as far as I know there in no scientific evidence whatsoever for this location. The geography of the bible is vague, imprecise, and often downright misleading due to its use of generic names like KUSH.

Isaac Fried, Boston University


On Mar 21, 2007, at 8:32 PM, George Athas wrote:

Hi Isaac!

It appears to me that KUSH is but a variant of GUSH, 'clod, lump,
mass' (see Job 7:5), and may thus refer to any mountainous region...

What exactly is the connection that brings KUSH and GUSH together? The
reasoning here appears to me to be somewhat random.


I believe the land of Goshen (=Gushen?) to be likewise situated in a
mountainous area.

Actually, conventional wisdom says quite the opposite. Goshen is generally
identified as a region in the N/E Nile Delta region -- very flat land.


Best Regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney)
1 King St, Newtown, NSW 2042, Australia
Ph: (+61 2) 9577 9774




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