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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: jimstinehart AT aol.com, tomasek AT etf.cuni.cz, yishalom AT sbcglobal.net
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] a mystery regarding gen14:24?
  • Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:52:55 EDT


As I noted in my prior post, since (NR/Aner is specifically stated at
Genesis 14: 13 to be a “brother” of Mamre the Amorite, the context seems to
confirm that (N-R is a generic name for an Amorite princeling. But now let’s
explore why the Masoretic text, which is likely the more accurate text, has
that mysterious –R suffix, whereas the Septuagint has a –N suffix. [It may
be relevant that historically, at least one of the Amorite princelings in the
Shephelah had a non-Semitic father-in-law, whose non-Semitic name was “Tagi”
. If scholars are right that chapter 14 of Genesis is much older than most
of the rest of the Bible, we must remember that Canaan back then had a
largely non-Semitic ruling class.]

The only Amorite word in the Bible, per se, is $N)-R, at Deuteronomy 3: 8,
which is stated to be the Amorite name for Mt. Hermon, the towering mountain
that divides Lebanon from Syria. From the standpoint of Amorites living on
the coast of Lebanon and Canaan, Mt. Hermon was the beginning of the
homeland of the non-Semitic people. So it is not so surprising that the west
Semitic-speaking Amorites, who had very close contact with these non-Semitic
people for centuries [much longer than the Hebrews did], may have used a
non-Semitic loanword to mean Mt. Hermon. As a non-Semitic word, $N)-R would
be
the root $N)/$ena, meaning “brother” or “non-Semitic princeling”, and –R is
a standard non-Semitic comitative suffix, meaning “together with”. $N)-R
would literally mean “together with the non-Semitic ‘brothers’/princelings”
, but its actual meaning is “the homeland of the non-Semitic people”, or to
use modern parlance: “Syria”. The Amorites were thus familiar with, and
sometimes used, the non-Semitic standard comitative suffix –R, literally
meaning “together with” [being a suffix not found in Hebrew, which is a purer
west Semitic language than Amorite]. (N + R features a non-Semitic suffix,
and the name literally means “together with the Amorite sky-god Anu”, but
it actually means: “Amorite”. As such, (N + R has the same meaning as
MMR), namely: “Amorite”. The Greek-speaking Jews later changed this
inexplicable non-Semitic –R suffix in the name of the west Semitic-speaking
(NR/Aner
to the familiar west Semitic –N suffix, which indicates a noun and in a
sense has a roughly similar meaning. So both (N + R in the Masoretic text,
and
(N + N in the Septuagint, have the same meaning: “Amorite”.

But the Septuagint unfortunately loses the point of the story, which is
that the west Semitic-speaking, tent-dwelling Hebrews were offering a United
Front against the dreaded Hittite threat from the north. The Hebrews were
willing to ally with Amorite princelings with all-west Semitic names [MMR(
and
)$KL], and Amorite princelings who had non-Semitic influence and whose names
could have a non-Semitic suffix [(N + R], and non-Semitic princelings with
non-Semitic names [BR(]. [Scholars err badly in claiming that Abraham is
portrayed in the text as turning over his nephew Lot and Lot’s family to a
ruler whose name allegedly is a west Semitic name meaning “In Evil”. In
fact,
such ruler properly opposes the Hittites in chapter 14 of Genesis, he
graciously accepts the return of Lot and Lot’s family, even if no loot would
be
returned, and he is notably absent by the time his city-state l-a-t-e-r
turns to the dark side in chapters 18 and 19 of Genesis. The scholarly view
that this ruler has a west Semitic name that means “In Evil” simply cannot be
right. Rather, this non-Semitic princeling ruler has a non-Semitic name
whose non-Semitic meaning is, appropriately: “non-Semitic princeling”].
Note that Abraham plus 3 named Amorite princelings is an anti-Hittite
league/BRYT (per Genesis 14: 13) of 4 individuals, just as Genesis 14: 2
likewise
sets forth an anti-Hittite league of 4 rebellious individuals (with the 5th
rebellious party being a city-state that, historically accurately,
temporarily
had no princeling ruler, yet still joined with 4 non-Semitic princelings in
the monumental historical struggle against the vaunted Hittite war machine).

If we can understand the peculiar proper names in this text, and in
particular recognize and appreciate the non-Semitic elements in many of those
proper names, we can understand the truly ancient Patriarchal narratives.
Historically, when the Hebrews lived in tents, most of the princeling rulers
in
Canaan at that time were non-Semitic, and those non-Semitic princelings did
not have west Semitic names meaning “In Evil”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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