Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] B vs. P

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] B vs. P
  • Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:25:34 EST


1. Should the second half of the name of Jerusalem’s ruler in the mid-14th
century BCE be spelled with a B or a P? Wm. Moran, the editor of the Amarna
Letters, spells it with a B: “Abdi-Heba”. So does Anson Rainy, though he
adds
a K: “Abdi-Kheba”. But this is the name of a Hurrian goddess, and the
Hurrians spelled it “Hepa” or “Khipa” or “Khepa”, with a P. Here is
Wikipedia’
s nice explanation of B vs. P: “The mother goddess of the Hurrians. Hebat
also Kheba or Khepat….The name can be transliterated in different versions;
Khebat with the ending -t is primarily the Syrian, and Ugaritic version. The
name
written in cuneiform script allows the name to be pronounced with either /b/
or /p/, though in the Hurrian language Hepa is the most likely pronunciation.
The sound /h/ in cuneiform is in the modern literature sometimes
transliterated
as kh.” _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebat_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebat)

Prior to the Hebrews, B and P were often interchangeable in the ancient
languages.

2. The Hebrews inherited, then perfected, their language. Because their
predecessors often had not distinguished between B and P, some Hebrew words
with
B seem closely related to other Hebrew words with P.

Consider the following 8 words. 6 are Hebrew, one is Ugaritic, and one is
Canaanite. In each case, the 2nd and 3rd letters seem to reflect an archaic
2-letter root, PR, which juxtaposes (i) ground or meadow and (ii) water, in a
positive way. The P could soften to B, and the R could soften to L, so the
2-letter archaic root here could alternatively be PR or BR or PL or BL. The
first
letter varies, but the 2nd and 3rd letters are PR or BR or PL or BL, and the
meaning always juxtaposes (i) ground or meadow and (ii) water, in a positive
way.

1. )BL at Daniel 8: 3, 6: “stream”, or “land” that features a “stream”

2. )BL at Judges 11: 33: “meadow”, or “meadow” that has a “wadi”

3. YBL: “well-watered meadow”; Isaiah 44: 4

4. prgn in Ugaritic [which, if a prosthetic aleph were added, is arguably
comparable to: )PR + G + N]: “meadow
sheep”, or sheep who pasture at a “well-watered meadow”

5. PLG [which, if a prosthetic aleph were added, is arguably
comparable to: )PL + G]: “a stream
that has been dug in the ground to provide
water for irrigating a field”, or “stream”; Proverbs 21: 1

6. XPR: “to dig in the ground to find water or a water well”; Genesis 21:
30; 26: 15, 18, 19, 21, 22, 32

7. JBR at item #99 on the mid-15th century BCE Thutmosis III list: “tract
of land that is a meadowland with a wadi”, namely the Aijalon Valley.

8. XBR + WN = XBRWN/“Hebron”

On the foregoing analysis, the Patriarchs’ “Hebron” should be a meadowland
through which flows a wadi, 17½ miles west of Beth-el, not the austere city
of
Hebron on the northern edge of the Northern Negev Desert, which had neither a
meadowland nor a wadi.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

**************One site has it all. Your email accounts, your social networks,
and the things you love. Try the new AOL.com
today!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212962939x1200825291/aol?redir=http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp
%26icid=aolcom40vanity%26ncid=emlcntaolcom00000001)



  • [b-hebrew] B vs. P, JimStinehart, 11/20/2008
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • [b-hebrew] B vs. P, JimStinehart, 11/21/2008

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page