Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

Rolf,

1. Hebrew etymology is a crystal clear business. See my website  
www.hebrewetymology.com [it may, of course, depend on what one  
considers as 'etymology'].
2. I agree with you, though, that the etymology of personal names is  
indeed a very very risky and uncertain business.  It could be a grave  
mistake, methinks, to see a name as being a grammatically structured  
word, for instance considering the name NIMROD as being from the root  
MRD, 'vigorous, fierce, alert, unruly, rebellious', and with the  
prefixed personal pronoun NI- and the infixed personal pronoun -O- in  
their exact rolls acquired in the process of grammaticalization. Is  
it not also possible that NIMROD = NIM-ROD, the land, or valley, of NIM?
The fact of the matter is that even secular Hebrews nowadays rarely  
give their children the beautiful name NIMROD as it is being frowned  
upon for its homiletically conceived negative connotation.
3. All others are possibly names of adopted ancient deities. Who  
borrowed from whom and who exported to whom is not clear, but deity  
names and their worship have the tendency to travel far and wide. How  
the Akkadians rendered a borrowed name and how the Sumerians minced  
an imported name is also uncertain.
4. It is indeed possible that the name Marduk is the the compound  
MARD-UK from the root MRD and the personal pronoun UK, as in ANOKYI  
and -AKEM, or it may be the compound MAR-DUK, with MAR being, what it  
in now, 'sir'.
5. Yet, I can not help myself but see in BL)ADAN of Isaiah 39:1 the  
Hebrew compound BA(AL-ADAON, which in Greece would have been Apollo- 
Athen.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Mar 25, 2008, at 3:56 AM, Rolf Furuli wrote:

> Dear Isaac,
>
> Etymology is tricky business, and we cannot be certain about the
> origin and meaning of old names. However, there is one way to connect
> the name Nimrod with that of Marduk  (Merodak)- but again, this is
> just one possibility.
>
> The Akkadian cuneiform signs were adopted from the Sumerians, and
> each sign could be used as a logogram (representing one word) or it
> could be used as a syllable. The Akkadian name Marduk was written
> with the Sumerian signs AMAR and UD. The Sumerian genitive marker
> occurring at the end of a word is ak.  We may therefore get the word
> AMAR.UD.ak, and if the last "a" was assimilated by the previous "u",
> we would get AMAR.UD.uk, which could have been the basis for the name
> Marduk (a middle vowel in Akkadian often is lost).
>
> If we go back to logograms representing Marduk, namely, AMAR.UD we
> have most of the name Nimrod, namely m-r-u-d. When foreign names are
> written in the Tanakh, they are adopted to the Hebrew stock of
> phonemes, and the writer of Gen 10:9-10 could have added an "n" to
> the Sumerian/Akkadian word, thus depicting the first  ruler of Babel
> as a rebel (the word can be viewed as a Niphal participle of MRD).
> Interestingly, both Marduk and Nimrod are said to be the
> founder/first ruler of Babel. But we should keep in mind that there
> are several other possible explanations of the name Nimrod.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rolf Furuli
> University of Oslo
>
>
> > Is not the name NIMROD a variant of the names MRODAK [see Isaiah 39:1
> > and notice that BAL)ADAN is possibly BA(AL-)ADAN], MORDKAY [or
> > MARDKAY of Esther 2:5] and the present day names of MURAD, MORDUK and
> > MARZUK? I can hardly see MORDKAY as meaning 'the rebel'.
> >
> > Isaac Fried, Boston University
> >
> > On Mar 24, 2008, at 4:23 PM, thebodyofjesusthenazoraion AT juno.com  
> > wrote:
> >
> > >  First, what does the name Nimrod mean? It comes from the Hebrew
> > >  verb marad, meaning "rebel." Adding an "n" before the "m" it
> > >  becomes an infinitive construct, "Nimrod." (see Kautzsch 1910: 137
> > >  2b, also BDB 1962: 597). The meaning then is "The Rebel." Thus
> > >  "Nimrod" may not be the character's name at all. It is more likely
> > >  a derisive term of a type, a representative, of a system that is
> > >  epitomized in rebellion against the Creator, the one true God.
> > >  Rebellion began soon after the Flood as civilizations were
> > >  restored. At that time this person became very prominent.
> > >  go to
> > >  http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/nimrod.html
> > >  My question is, is this true?
> > >  Eva Ritsema
> > >  _____________________________________________________________
> > >  Click here for free information on starting a business from your  
> > > home.
> > >  http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2111/fc/
> > >  REAK6ZpO8dRi3lZPnrO0tWw1cSMgSFP4sYpPoVS6zH1X2eMGTTFYJc/
> > >
> > >
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