Biblical Hebrew Forum

[TedBro AT aol.com]

Yigal:
 
Thanks for your detailed response and my apologies to the group for sending 
 out the unreliable link.
 
Ted
================
 
 
In a message dated 12/27/2009 10:39:04 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il writes:

Dear  Ted,

In general, Wiki articles are not a good source of information.  While most
tend to be informative, they often have small mistakes or  disinformation,
which someone who is not knowledgeable will not notice. And  since Wiki
articles are anonymous, there is no way of knowing whether  "unconventional"
views are those of a reputable scholar or of whatever  quack wrote of edited
the article.

In this case, while the general  idea of theophoric names is of course
correct and well known, there are not  a few errors in the details. For
example, Samuel ("Shemuel") does NOT mean  "heard by God". That would be
Shama'el, with an Ayin, similar to  "Yishma'el" - Ishmael. "Shemuel" means
"his name is God", or as Samuel's  mother says in 1 Sam. 1:20, "asked from
God" (although that etymology  actually reminds us of Shaul - Saul, and
actually invokes YHWH, not  El).

There are other mistakes in the article, but I won't list them  all.


Yigal  Levin