Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Let me respond to the posts of Stoney Breyer and Karl in a single post.

1.  Stoney Breyer wrote:  “Does any language other than English known to
members of this list employ the metaphor ‘rolling hills’?”

In Aramaic, GLL primarily means “to roll”, but GLL can also mean “round,
rotundity, valley”.  Note that the meaning “valley” entails that GLL/rolling
can apply to a landscape in Aramaic.

Likewise, in Aramaic GLGL means “to roll” as a verb, but as a noun,
although the primary meaning is “wheel”, GLGL can also mean “hill”.

See here, for gll and glgl in Aramaic:  _http://cal1.cn.huc.edu/_
(http://cal1.cn.huc.edu/)

Thus it is clear that in Aramaic, GLL and GLGL could be used to refer to a
landscape of “rolling” hills, in that GLL can mean “valley”, and GLGL can
mean “hill”.

Aramaic uses GRGR to mean “berry”, but Aramaic is not known to use GRGR or
GRR for “rolling” hills.

So as I see it, the problem is not the concept of “rolling” hills.
Aramaic seems to confirm such a concept in ancient Semitic languages.  
Rather, the
problem is whether GRR in early Biblical Hebrew could have a meaning
similar to GLYL in fully-developed Biblical Hebrew, akin to GLL and GLGL in
Aramaic.  Gesenius sees GRR as being a “kindred root” to GLL, with both of 
them
sometimes meaning “roll”.  I previously noted that Akkadian has karku [with
an R] for “rolled”, and kerku [with an R] for “a roll”.

In my view, GRR and GLL may have at times been essentially interchangeable
in early Biblical Hebrew, since each could mean “roll”.  Later, GRR largely
lost the meaning of “roll”, except that GRGR continued to mean a “berry”,
being something that is “round” and can “roll”.  As GRR lost the meaning
of “roll”, whereas GLL kept the meaning of “roll”, it should be no great
surprise that many centuries later, as Gesenius notes, the Talmud uses GLGL
for “berry”, since it was only GLL that had retained the meaning of “roll”.

All of that perfectly fits my view that GRR as a common word is an archaic
Biblical Hebrew word as to its earlier meaning of “to roll”, and GRR as a
proper name is an archaic Biblical Hebrew word for the “rolling”/GRR/GLL
hills of the northern edge of Upper Galilee, between QD$ of Upper Galilee and
Ssur/Tyre.

2.  Karl wrote:  “The action most often done to olives is that they were
crushed for their oil, hence the reference to crushing in Isaiah 17:6.”

But how were the olives crushed in the earliest times in ancient Israel?
Check out this website:  _http://www.gemsinisrael.com/e_article000008705.htm_
(http://www.gemsinisrael.com/e_article000008705.htm)

“Olives were crushed by rolling an elliptic stone back and forth, or by
treading by foot….”

So an olive berry is “round” and it “rolls”, and the olive oil is later
extracted from the olive berry by “rolling” an elliptic stone back and forth.

Thus in terms of “action” regarding an olive berry, I see “roll” as being
at least as fundamental as “crushed”.

I often disagree with Gesenius myself, but here I think Gesenius makes a
rather compelling argument.  GRGR and GLGL and GRR and GLL all seem to have as
one of their meanings the concept of “rolling”.  Perhaps Gesenius is wrong
about that, but perhaps he is right about that.  Karl, I don’t see that you
have set forth a compelling argument to the contrary.  It is hard for me to
believe that the literal meaning of olive berry is “crushed”.  Maybe you’
re right, but Gesenius seems more convincing to me on this particular point.
The literal meaning of olive berry/GRGR, per the analysis of Gesenius and
with the help of the above website, is “something that is ‘round’ and that ‘
rolls’, and that will eventually be crushed by the action of ‘rolling’ an
elliptic stone back and forth”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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