Biblical Hebrew Forum

["R. Lehmann" <lehmann AT uni-mainz.de>]

> The traditional analysis of YGR %HDWT) at Genesis 31: 47 is that it? 
> s an
> Aramaic phrase consisting of two Aramaic words.  But is it?  If  
> scholars are
> right about that, the historicity of the Patriarchal narratives is  
> lost.

So what?
The advantage of this text is not its pretended historicity, but its  
play with literary code switching.
In this text, two (fictitious) persons are introduced as belonging to  
two different languages and cultures only by means of how they (try  
to) say the same thing in different languages. Already from Gen  
31:20-34 Laban is introduced as an Aramaean. But in v. 47 the switch  
to a characteristic of a foreigner, i.e. Aramaean, reminds  
emphatically that despite the contractual settlement of differences,  
and in spite of all guarantees for the future, there is something  
that separates Jaqov and Laban forever: Language (cp. Gen 31:53 and  
Jer 10:11) and Religion!


> 3.  If scholars are right that Genesis 31: 47 is mid-1st millennium  
> BCE
> fiction, then why didn?t the Hebrew or Jewish author use the  e-x-a- 
> c-t
> equivalent of GL(D in Aramaic?  That would be GDR SHDWT, not YGR % 
> HDWT).
>
> Whether Genesis 31: 47 is fictional or not, and regardless of its
> composition date, if YGR %HDWT) is Aramaic, as scholars insist,  
> then why isn?t YGR
> %HDWT) either (a) the exact equivalent of GL(D, and/or (b) an  
> attested Aramaic
> phrase for Gilead?  Why is it neither?  Shouldn?t we then wonder  
> whether it?
> s even Aramaic at all?

Quite simple:
Foreignness in relationship is the main notion of the Gen 31. Thus,  
the Aramaic wording and the possibilities of rendering are no device  
for a dating of the text. Of course, עד and עדין in the meaning  
"treaty" is well attested also in Aramaic (as seems to be in Hebrew,  
Num 23:18), but the author missed, or, what is more, deliberately  
avoided the pun with גלעד and choses שהדו to stress  
foreignness besides any good will to deal with one another as far as  
possible.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Reinhard G. Lehmann
Academic Director
Research Unit on Ancient Hebrew & Epigraphy
FB 01/ Faculty of Protestant Theology
Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz
D-55099 Mainz
Germany
lehmann AT uni-mainz.de
http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de
http://www.ev.theologie.uni-mainz.de/297.php
http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/182.php
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~