Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Bill,

Firstly, could I ask that you please sign your posts with your full name. An 
indicator of where you are or which institution you might be affiliated is 
also encouraged, but purely optional.

Secondly, to answer your question, no. It doesn't really seem plausible. The 
term ba`al has a few nuances, including 'master', 'owner', and 'husband'. It 
does not seem to derive at all from the word 'father', )ab. You have what I 
think are four major questions to ask:

(1) Why has the aleph of )ab disappeared?
(2) Why has it accrued an ayin?
(3) Why has it accrued a lamed?
(4) Why is there no other seeming evidence of this morphological development?

Too many difficulties there to make the suggestion sound reasonable. It seems 
highly unlikely to me.


Regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au


________________________________
From: Bill <wrschmidt2 AT comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:36:52 +1000
To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [b-hebrew] Ba'al Bel Etymology

Greetings,

I was just wondering if it would be at all reasonable to hypothesize
that Ba'al and/or Bel were derived from an earlier 'Ba 'father'
+  'L  followed by the loss of the initial glottal stop.

Thanks very much in advance for any help anyone can give me with this.

Bill

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