Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Bill:

Lighter colored hair, even blue eyes, were known in the Mid-East from
ancient times. Both Esau and David were listed even in the Bible as red
heads.

I read many years ago, I don’t remember where, that ancient Israel was known
from ethnographic materials as having had more hair color variety than some
of its surrounding peoples. The speculation that I read considered that
there may have been rather extensive intermarriage with the Saracens, who
were known for their lightness of color.

Secondly, the age issue is valid for all peoples that I know of, even
Africans.

Therefore my objection is valid for ancient Israel.

I am considering a study on the word $XR to see exactly what its meaning may
have been, as far as the color issue is involved. At least some of its uses
has nothing to do with color, such as in Song of Song 1:5.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 4:33 AM, Bill Rea <bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:

> Karl wrote:-
>
> > Secondly, not everyone has black hair. What about those with red hair,
> > blond, or their hair has whitened with age? To insist that ?black? is
> > correct makes this text nonsense.
>
> This text is set in the Middle East. If you look at people's hair colour
> from different regions around the world you ought to notice that, with a
> few
> rare exceptions, its only Europeans who have hair colour other than black.
> For whatever reasons people of European descent have a range of hair
> colours, far more than the rest of the world does. I work in an institution
> with students from over 50 countries. Its easy to tell which students are
> not of European descent from a distance when they are facing away from you
> and their clothes cover most of their skin, which is common in winter. You
> just look at their hair. In the region where these texts were written you
> would get a rare albino and older people whose hair has greyed. But the
> vast
> majority will have black hair. So Jim's not off the wall in citing other
> scholars in understanding the adjective which qualifies hair to mean black.
> As usual, I don't want to engage with his other speculations.
>
>
> Bill Rea Ph.D., ICT Services, University of Canterbury   \_
> E-Mail bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz                         </   New
> Phone +64-3-364-2331, Fax  +64-3-364-2332               /)  Zealand
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