Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Karl, you wrote:


”If you can’t even get people who agree with you that the Bible is not 
historic to agree with your theories, how do you expect to get people who 
believe that the Bible is accurate history to agree with you?”
 
A few key issues needed to be clarified before Prof. Yigal Levin can give us 
his considered opinion about Ur Kasdim.  Prof. Levin had been expecting 
“Kassim” for a reference to the Kassites.  But I showed that such would be 
impossible, because such a word would instead refer to the Cushites in 
Africa.  Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem refers to the African Cushites as “Kasites” 
[ka-$i-yi] at Amarna Letter EA 287: 33.
 
So now we know that we need to focus, rather, on the Kassite name for their 
own country.  At  Amarna Letter EA 200: 9, it’s Ka-ra-du-ni-a$, and at Amarna 
Letter EA 255: 21, it’s Ka-ra-du-ni-ia-a$.
 
The first three consonants in the Kassite name for their Late Bronze Age 
country appear to be K-R-D.  If we compare the phrase at Genesis 11: 30, we 
see K%DYM, which may likely be K%D + YM, with the final –YM being a standard, 
west Semitic suffix.  If so, then only one letter seems to be the sticking 
point:  that second letter.  But in that regard, and of critical importance 
to the linguistic analysis (which is the long suit of the b-hebrew list), 
Kevin P. Edgecomb once made the following fascinating comment about “Kasdim”:
 
“Kasdim is…considered to derive from the Kassite word for Akkad/Babylonia…:  
Karduniash.  The presentation of that second consonant alternately as 
/r/l/s/sh/ indicates that it was a lateral fricative, represented in 
different ways depending upon convention.”
 
No one knows how the Kassite letters actually sounded, because they were 
written down in Akkadian (similar to the situation with Hurrian).  Could the 
R alternatively be represented by %?  Moreover, there may also have been some 
confusion here with the name of the ruler of the Kassites at this time, whose 
name featured a $, not an R:  Kadashman (at Amarna Letter EA 1: 1).  Both the 
country name and the leader’s name featured K and D, which we see in K%D-YM.  
The country name had R, whereas the leader’s name had $, and we see % or $ in 
K%D-YM.  Finally, use of % suggests Kassite, a word featuring K and S (or $ 
in Akkadian).  All in all it’s pretty darn close, in my opinion, considering 
that we are dealing with the very strange, little known language of Kassite.
 
Let’s see what Prof. Levin’s view of Ur K%DYM is after he has had a chance to 
consider this additional information.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois



-----Original Message-----
From: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thu, Jun 3, 2010 12:03 pm
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Terakh


Jim:
If you can’t even get people who agree with you that the Bible is not
istoric to agree with your theories, how do you expect to get people who
elieve that the Bible is accurate history to agree with you?
On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 7:02 AM, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:
>  Karl:



 1.  You wrote:  “Where was Ur of the Chaldeans?”


igal answered that quite well. I read years ago that the Ebla tablets also
isted Ur of the Chaldeans (K%DYM) as a separate place from Ur of the
umarians.
>

 Jim Stinehart

 Evanston, Illinois


n order for your theory to stand, you need an early date for the Amarna
eriod, which contradicts both the Bible and the findings of archaeology,
nd a late date for Abraham which is your way of saying that the Bible is
historical, that it is but myth.
Karl W. Randolph.
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