Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Stoney Breyer" <stoneyb AT touchwoodcreative.com>]

Karl:

You are confusing four things:

* the origin and meaning of the name Asher, which is a question for
philologists knowledgeable in historical and comparative linguistics, but
has no necessary connection with
* Leah's understanding of the name's meaning, which may reflect the real
meaning, or folk etymology of Leah's or some subsequent time, or a graceful
authorial pun, or a calculated authorial false etymology designed to obscure
a connection between Asher and Asherah, but in any case has no necessary
connection with
* the historical truth of the account, which is absent Leah's own memoirs
not recoverable, but in any case has no necessary connection (particularly
if you regard the text as divinely inspired) with
* the date at which the account was composed, whether in Moses' time or
Ezra's or Judas the Hammer's

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of K Randolph

If one accepts that Genesis is true history and contains an accurate account
of why Leah name one of her sons Asher, then no way. The story records that
the name is based upon the expectation that she would be counted as happy
because she bore a son.

On the other hand, if one accepts the modern mythology that Genesis was
first penned over a millennium after the events were recorded to have
happened, then I suppose that anything goes. But this is speculation that
has no basis in the text.

Karl W. Randolph.
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