Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] Hebron: The Linguistic Search for the Patriarchs' "Hebron"

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Hebron: The Linguistic Search for the Patriarchs' "Hebron"
  • Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:32:11 EDT


Gabe Eisenstein:

It is nice to hear from someone who recognizes that names in the Patriarchal
narratives often are deliberate puns, even when those puns are not openly
disclosed.

On that basis, we can figure out that the very first sentence of the
Patriarchal narratives, Genesis 11: 26, divinely foreshadows much of what
subsequently
happens in the Patriarchal narratives, based on the divinely-inspired puns on
the three names of Terakh’s sons.

1. “Haran” is a pun on the Akkadian word harannu, meaning “road, caravan”.
That neatly foreshadows that Terakh’s firstborn son will die on the “road”,
on a long “caravan” trip way out to Ur (to buy lapis lazuli). As such,
Haran suffers the notable misfortune of predeceasing his own father, which
nicely
foreshadows that each and every firstborn son in the Patriarchal narratives
will get the shaft, and rightly so: Haran, Ishmael, Esau, Reuben. Even more
obviously, the fact that the name of a younger son, Abrum, is set forth first
at
Genesis 11: 26 likewise foreshadows that the winning son in every generation
will always be a younger son, never his father’s firstborn son: Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Judah.

2. “Nahor” is a pun on nahar (river, that is, the Euphrates River) and
Naharim (Genesis 24: 10). That neatly foreshadows both that (i) Nahor
himself
will stay behind at Harran near the nahar/river/Euphrates River in Naharim to
take care of Terakh, after Abraham and Lot leave for Canaan, and that (ii)
Nahor’
s descendants, including Rebekah, will live near the nahar/river/Euphrates
River in Naharim. Abraham will have to send his trusted servant all the long
way
out to Naharim near the nahar/river/Euphrates River in order to obtain Nahor’
s descendant Rebekah as Isaac’s ideal bride.

3. “Abrum” is Ab/)B + r(u)m/RM. “Ab” means “father”, and “rum” means “up
”. (See Genesis 14: 22, where the first form of “up”/RM features
resh-mem/RM. Often a yod appears between the R and M, and the root word is
said to be
RWM. Yet the true root is simply RM, being the last two letters of the name
)BRM/“Abr(u)m.) The first third of the Patriarchal narratives primarily
features Abraham having to look “up”/rum to YHWH in order to be able to
become a “
father”/ab of a son by Abraham’s long-barren, beloved main wife #1, Sarah.
This also foreshadows that Isaac likewise will have to look “up”/rum to YHWH
in order to be able to become a “father”/ab of a son by Isaac’s beloved main
wife #1, Rebekah, who is barren for many years (though not as long as Sarah).

Finally, in the third generation, Jacob too will need to look “up”/rum to
YHWH in order to be able to become a “father”/ab of a son by Jacob’s favorite
main wife, Rachel (who is frustratingly barren for almost 7 years).

Thus the names of Terakh’s three sons divinely foreshadow, by means of these
deft puns, the bulk of what happens in the Patriarchal narratives.

How people can deny that each important person’s name in the Patriarchal
narratives is a brilliant, divinely-inspired pun is beyond me. These
ultra-brilliant puns confirm, rather than undercut, the divinely-inspired
nature of the
truly wondrous, historically based, ancient Patriarchal narratives.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

**************New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination.
Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out
(http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000002)




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page