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  • From: James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>
  • To: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] MLK (LM
  • Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:36:07 +0100

Hi Jim,

you've lost me a bit here. The text specifically mentions the salt sea and Sodom and Gomorah. I've been looking at a map of Isreal and have been unable to find a salt sea in the north anywhere.

James Christian

Quoting JimStinehart AT aol.com:


Karl:

A. You wrote (in part): “Eylam (YLM [is]…a proper noun, i.e. a name,
referring to various people….”

Those “various people” are Hebrews. That suggests that (YLM is a west
Semitic word, being used as a west Semitic name for west Semitic-speaking
people, namely various Hebrews. For example, I Chronicles 26: 3 refers to a man
named (YLM as being a Levite who was a contemporary of King David. Wouldn’t
a Levite in that time period be portrayed in the Bible as having a west
Semitic name?

If (YLM is a west Semitic word, a Hebrew word, rather than being an exotic
non-west Semitic foreign loanword, then isn’t the yod/Y a matres lectionis?
Doesn’t (YLM clearly derive from the Biblical Hebrew verb (LM, which is the
root?

If so, then (1) (YLM is a west Semitic word, and (2) the “defective”
spelling of (YLM would be (LM. If scholars are right that defective spelling
preceded full spelling in Biblical Hebrew, then Genesis 14: 1, 9 originally
likely referenced MLK (LM as Chedorlaomer’s title (using defective spelling).
That is i-d-e-n-t-i-c-a-l, letter for letter, to the grand title that was
unique to kings of Ugarit.

That linguistic analysis strongly supports my view that Chedorlaomer is
presented in chapter 14 of Genesis as being a king of Ugarit, not a king of
far-off, irrelevant Elam.

B. Outside of Genesis, there is no reference in the Bible to Elam as a
country, prior to Isaiah. Why would the Patriarchal narratives reference
far-off, irrelevant Elam, east of southern Mesopotamia, when there is no
reference to that irrelevant country in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
Joshua, Judges, Samuel or Kings? No ruler of Elam ever came to the Northern
Negev Desert! (You and the scholars interpret Genesis 14: 7 as referencing
the Northern Negev Desert, despite the fact that none of the five proper names
at Genesis 14: 7 are attested in ancient secular history as being located
anywhere near that locale, as opposed to all five such names being attested
in northern Canaan in the Bronze Age.) Why on earth would chapter 14 of
Genesis be telling a story about a king of far-off Elam ravaging the Northern
Negev Desert? Is that a sensible theory of the case? Is it just a “
coincidence” that (i) Chedoralomer’s title, MLK (LM, is the unique title of kings of
Ugarit, and (ii) the name “Chedorlaomer” can easily be analyzed as being
comprised of three common Ugaritic words? KDR and L and (MR are all common
Ugaritic words, as well as being common Hebrew words, too. I see KDRL(MR and
MLK and (LM [or (YLM] as all being virgin pure west Semitic words or names,
with no exotic non-west Semitic loanwords being involved.

If chapter 14 of Genesis is not late [that is, 8th century BCE or later],
why would the Patriarchal narratives be talking about far-off, irrelevant
Elam, a country with which the pre-8th century BCE Hebrews had no contact
whatsoever? And if Genesis 14: 1, 9 is trying to refer to
NIM/hatalmtu/hatamtu/atamtu/KUR Elammatum/Elamtu, as scholars assert, then where oh where is that
yod/Y coming from in (YLM? Those foreign names have no yod/Y. Using your
knowledge of Biblical Hebrew, you can see that (YLM appears to be a form of
the virgin pure Hebrew verb (LM, so (YLM itself is a virgin pure Hebrew
noun/name. (YLM is not an exotic non-west Semitic word. [I agree with you, by
the way, that (LM in Ugaritic had a slightly different meaning than its
cognate (WLM in Biblical Hebrew. (LM means “eternity” in Ugaritic.] When later
Biblical authors use (YLM to refer to a country, they use it in the sense
of “a distant place”, based on the fact that one meaning of the Biblical
Hebrew verb (LM is “to be distant”. (LM, (YLM and (WLM are all virgin pure
west Semitic/Biblical Hebrew words, in my opinion, having no hint whatsoever
of foreign-ness.

The later Biblical authors did not know that the phrase MLK (LM [(YLM] had
been the unique title of Ugaritic kings.

C. In 5,000 years of human history, there was only one event comparable to
the “four kings against the five” at Genesis 14: 9, where all four of the
following key elements apply:

(1) There were four (4) attacking rulers.

(2) The four (4) attacking rulers utterly destroyed a league of five (5)
defending rulers [“four kings against the five”].

(3) The names of the four attacking rulers follow this precise pattern:
(i) one is a Hittite kingly name, (ii) one is a Hurrian princeling name, and
(iii) the other two names each make perfect sense as being composed of west
Semitic words. [All of these names are apt nicknames, not formal historical
names, in chapter 14 of Genesis. But the precise ethnicity of each
name/nickname is exactly right.]

(4) One of the west Semitic-speaking rulers had the unique historical
title MLK (LM.

It only happened once in secular history, and west Semitic-speaking Ugarit
was a key player. It’s nicely recorded, for eternity, right there at
Genesis 14: 1-11.

Why accept the view of university scholars that this is a tall tale about a
fictional king of Elam fictionally rampaging through the Northern Negev
Desert? There’s nothing in secular history or linguistics to back up that
strange, unconvincing view of the case.

But if we match the defective spelling MLK (LM to the unique, historical
title of Ugaritic kings, MLK (LM, then we can quickly discern the solid
secular historical basis for the “four kings against the five” at Genesis 14:
1-11. No scholar has ever looked to Late Bronze Age northern Canaan in
analyzing the Patriarchal narratives. That’s why all scholars have missed this
key, letter-for-letter match:

MLK (LM.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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