Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

Hello Ted,

On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 8:23 PM, Ted Brownstein wrote:


> Could you please elaborate on this? I don't see any hierarchy at all in
> these verses, just different names for the same deity, as used throughout
> the poem and the tanakh as a whole.
>
> CHELEQ signifies a sacrificial portion especially dedicated to God. There is
> no implication that other portions are dedicated to other deities. Where is
> there evidence of multiple deities in these verses, as opposed to multiple
> names for the One Deity?

Hello,

XLQ is a "portion" including one in an inheritance, and not
specifically related
to sacrifice.  See for example Num 18:20.

The words "bny )l[whym]" means "children of )lhym" and it is one way to view
the Canaanite pantheon -- as a parent-child hierarchy.  So the idea of an
hierarchy is implicit in these words.

Further, the combination of bhnxl (lyn with xlq Y' suggests that Elyon is 
giving
Y' his share.  This does not seem to suggest they are the same god.  Various
ways have been suggested to do that in this thread.  But the simple meaning
of these two taken together is that Elyon is giving a different god Y'
his share.

Perhaps Elyon and El are the same, although I like the idea of each 
parallelism
speaking of  a different level in the hierarchy - Elyon, El, Y'.

It is important not to make prior assumptions about what the Biblical writer
would do.  I think it is best to try to read this poem and let it
speak for itself,
taking into consideration the various allusions that it makes and suggestions
it evokes.

Yitzhak Sapir