Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

1.  My assertion that GLYL/GLL/Galilee ultimately derives from KRR in the 
mid-15th century BCE Egyptian rendering has drawn a varied response.  Chris 
Weimer wrote:  “…certainly Mr. Stinehart's new etymology is unfounded.”  But 
Yigal 
Levin is one of the leading experts in the world on the geographical 
boundaries of the tribes of Israel, and his comment was quite different:  “I 
do accept 
(as do most scholars) that the KRR of New Kingdom Egyptian texts is actually 
GLL, and that this refers to Galilee. Your suggestion that GLL as a 
geographic 
term comes from the area's hilly terrain is not original and is certainly 
possible.”  What is original and new here is my idea that GRR/Gerar is an 
intermediate stage.  My original, new view is that KRR first went to 
GRR/Gerar, and 
only later, or alternatively, went to GLL/GLYL/Galilee.
 
Isaac Fried wrote:  “You are right that GL, 'mound, swell, encompass', and 
GR, 'aggregate' are used both for elevated land, but we do not need the 
Egyptians to
 remind us of this. In Genesis 31:47 Jacob refers to the pile of stones they 
erected as GAL and Laban calls it YGAR.  Now GAR, in its variant HAR, is used 
for a full fledged mountain, while GAL is but a small mound or a wave.”  
O.K., 
but I am not trying to credit the Egyptians with KRR.  The Egyptians simply 
passively recorded an ancient west Semitic word that pre-dates the first 
Hebrews.
 
2.  Just for the record, I agree with most of the other things that Yigal 
Levin wrote.  
(a)  “The word's connection to "Gilead" is interesting.”  Give Isaac Fried 
an assist on that one.  (b)  “However, your assumption that the biblical 
"Golan" refers to what today is called the Golan Heights, i.e. the heights 
just east 
of the Sea of 
 Galilee/Kinneret is not correct. The biblical "Golan" is a CITY, not a 
 region, and it is in the Bashan, which is generally EAST of what is now 
 called the Golan Heights.”  O.K., I’m fine with that.  The point is that 
all of those place names are GL place names, and they’re all in northern 
greater 
Canaan, somewhere in the general vicinity of the Sea of Galilee.
 
3.  But now let’s get to what’s really on my mind.  Could Beersheba of 
GRR/Gerar in the Patriarchal narratives be a reference to some place like 
historical Beersheba of GLL/GLYL/Galilee?  Linguistically, if GLL is related 
to GRR, 
then the name “Galilee”/GLYL/GLL would be linguistically related to “Gerar”
/GRR.
 
There are two historical Beershebas in Canaan.  One is in northern Canaan, in 
Galilee, and the other is the more famous Beersheba in the Negev Desert.
 
There is a lovely tourist promo for “Beersheba of the Galilee” in northern 
Israel here:
 
http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/khirbetbeersheba.html
 
Beersheba of Galilee/GLYL/GLL goes back to the Persian period, in the mid-1st 
millennium BCE.
 
Moreover, well-known historians, in their published works, have sometimes 
gotten confused about these two very different Beershebas in different parts 
of 
Canaan:
 
 “The place referred to by Josephus (Jewish Wars 2.573 and 3.39), which 
Winckler wanted to identify with the Beersheba of the Old Testament, was a 
village 
in lower Galilee (Josephus Life 5.188).”  W.J. Martin and A.R. Millard at p. 
64 of “Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Places” (1995)
 
So when Sarah bears Isaac at a Beersheba, and when Isaac later gets rich 
growing crops at a Beersheba, we cannot blindly assume that such Beersheba 
must in 
all events be the more famous Beersheba in the Negev Desert.  No one ever got 
rich growing crops at the Beersheba in the Negev Desert.  Isaac is reported 
to get rich growing crops at Beersheba of GRR/“Gerar” at Genesis 26: 12-14.  
Note that it would be very possible to get rich growing crops at the lesser 
known, but historical, Beersheba of GLYL/GLL/Galilee.
 
So then what about the Beersheba of GRR in the Patriarchal narratives?  Is 
that related to historical Beersheba of GLL?  Both GLL and GRR mean “circle”, 
according to the “Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Places”.
 
4.  Now let’s get down to brass tacks and discuss chapter 21 of Genesis.  
Hagar is exiled from GRR/Gerar.  Hagar is no longer in GRR/Gerar when she 
almost 
dies of thirst.  Then Hagar finds a fully-functioning, pre-existing well at 
the famous Beersheba in the desolate Negev Desert.  Genesis 21: 14, 19  
 
But just several verses later, Abraham digs a  n-e-w  well, and Abraham names 
the place where he has just dug a  n-e-w  well “Beersheba”.  Can that 
possibly be the same Beersheba where Hagar and Ishmael are almost dying of 
thirst?  
Remember, Hagar has been exiled from GRR/Gerar, whereas Abraham has remained 
behind in GRR/Gerar, where Abraham is still dealing with Abimelek, Abimelek’s 
herdsmen, and foreign mercenaries called “philistines”.  Can Abraham and 
Hagar 
see each other when Hagar and Ishmael are almost dying of thirst?  Of course 
not.  Hagar has been exiled from GRR/Gerar, whereas Abraham has stayed behind 
in GRR/Gerar.
 
So we know that Abraham is not at the famous Beersheba in the Negev Desert at 
that time, when Abraham is still at GRR/Gerar, and Hagar is almost dying of 
thirst far from there at the famous Beersheba in the Negev Desert.  Is 
Abraham 
at GLL/GLYL/Galilee?  It would make perfect sense for Abraham to have taken 
Sarah up to Galilee to have the baby.  And it would make perfect sense for 
Isaac 
later to get rich growing crops in Galilee.  There is an historical Beersheba 
in Galilee.  GLL may derive linguistically from GRR.  GLL and GRR both mean “
circle” as one of their essential meanings.  Are we starting to make sense 
out 
of this?
 
5.  As to the traditional view that the GRR/gimel-resh-resh/Gerar of the 
Patriarchal narratives is in the Negev Desert, consider the following sober 
assessment by fine scholar Anson Rainey at p. 114 of “The Sacred Bridge” (who 
might 
be characterized as being a thinking man’s Biblical Maximalist of sorts):
 
“Gerar is never mentioned in any non-biblical source and its role as the 
principal city in the western Negeb during the ‘ancestral period’ is fraught 
with 
difficulties”.
 
6.  The key issue, you see, is the b-Hebrew list issue.  Exactly what does 
the Biblical Hebrew word GRR/gimel-resh-resh/Gerar mean?  Is GRR/Gerar 
related, 
both linguistically and substantively, to GLL/Galilee?  That is the new idea 
I 
am proposing.
 
Whether the Patriarchal narratives make perfect sense, rather than being 
nonsensical, is in part riding on the key issue of whether the Hebrew word 
GRR/Gerar is a reference to GLL/GLYL/Galilee loosely defined, namely:  
“northern 
Canaan”.  All of those GR, GRR, GL and GLL words in northern greater Canaan 
that 
Isaac Fried and I have identified may be telling us something:  “Gerar” is “
greater Galilee”.  
 
As I see it, “Gerar” has nothing whatsoever to do with the Beersheba in the 
Negev Desert or anything else in that part of the world.  “Gerar” is not 
attested down there in the ancient secular historical record.  The 
Patriarchal 
narratives make sense only if “Gerar”/GRR is referencing northern 
Canaan/greater 
Galilee/GLL.  I see the Hebrew words GRR and GLL (GLYL) as being closely 
related, both linguistically and substantively.  If GLL/GLYL/Galilee came 
from 
Egyptian KRR, as Yigal Levin has affirmed, then GRR/“Gerar” may well have 
been 
an intermediate stage in that process.  If so, then “Gerar” may well mean “
greater Galilee”.
 
That is my new idea.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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