Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

This thread will explore the original meaning of TMR at Genesis 14: 7, a 
section of the Bible that many mainstream scholars see as dating back to the 
Late Bronze Age.  By the 1st millennium BCE, centuries after the composition 
of Genesis 14: 7, TMR had come to have the narrow literal meaning of “date 
palm tree”, and an alternate, figurative meaning of “column”.  But the 
question on this thread is whether originally, at Genesis 14: 7, TMR had a 
different meaning than “date palm tree”.
 
The conventional etymologies of the word TMR do not support a pre-1st 
millennium BCE meaning of “date palm tree”.  Strong’s says that TMR comes 
from “
an unused root” meaning “to be erect”.  But as we shall now see, no 
language pre-dating the 1st millennium BCE seems to have any such word or 
root TMR 
with that meaning.  BDB asks if the root of TMR may be an Arabic verb 
meaning “be erect, stiff (e.g. of lance)”.  But Arabic is not attested as 
being 
in existence until about a thousand years or so after the date that scholars 
generally view as being when Genesis 14: 7 was composed.  That Arabic word 
likely derives from the 1st millennium BCE Hebrew meaning of TMR, rather 
than such Arabic word providing a valid etymology for the original Late 
Bronze 
Age meaning of TMR.  TMR appears as a proper name in Ugaritic, but the 
best-known Ugaritic dictionary, by Lete and Sanmartin, sets forth no meaning 
for 
that name in Ugaritic.  Most revealingly, despite spending 3½ long pages on 
the subject, the best that HALOT can come up with as an alleged “cognate” 
for TMR is this:  “Akk. gi$immaru…the Sumerian loanword gi$immaru(m)”.  Yes, 
the Akkadian/Sumerian word gi$immarum has the meaning that scholars want, “
date palm tree”, but it’s not a cognate to TMR.  Since when does g$ = T?
 
So let’s now consider an alternative west Semitic etymology for TMR in a 
Late Bronze Age context.  We will not restrict our search to words that mean 
or imply “date palm tree”, as the above standard sources do, because that 
defeats the whole purpose of doing an historical etymology in the first 
place. 
 We are trying to find out what TMR meant in the Late Bronze Age, at 
Genesis 14: 7, realizing that back then TMR could well have had a different 
meaning than “date palm tree”.  
 
1.  In Ugaritic, tmr means “Thou shalt bless (lit. ‘fortify’…)”.  Baruch 
Margalit, “The Ugaritic Poem of Aqht:  Text, Translation, Commentary” 
(1989), at p. 190.  Another scholarly source confirms that tmr in Ugaritic 
can 
mean “to strengthen”.  Stanislav Segert, “A Basic Grammar of the Ugaritic 
Language” (1985), at p. 193.
 
True, when one thinks of a date palm tree, one does not think of strength, 
that is, the concepts of “fortify” or “to strengthen”.  But those concepts 
would apply quite nicely to the cedars of Lebanon, whose  s-t-r-o-n-g  wood 
was famously used to build all those  s-t-r-o-n-g  ships that made Ugarit 
rich.
 
2.  Now let’s move on to Biblical Hebrew itself.  TMR could actually be 
T-MR, or [T] + MR.  That is to say, the root of TMR could actually be MR, as 
we 
will now see.  TMRWR-YM (which only occurs in plural) means “bitterness”, 
and comes from a long line of many Hebrew common words that mean “bitter” 
and feature MR, such as the adjective MR, which means “bitter”.
 
A date palm tree is certainly not “bitter”, but rather is known for its 
sweet fruit:  dates.  But by sharp contrast, a cedar tree is definitely 
bitter.  It has no edible fruit.  The Egyptians used the bitter resin from 
the 
cedar tree in the mummification process.  Even today, one can find current 
ads 
touting how very bitter cedar is, such as the following pet ad for how to 
keep a dog from chewing your furniture:  “Pet Botanics:  Five of the world's 
most bitter herbs (Agrimony, Dragon's Blood, Cedar, Gentian Root, Tansy) are 
used to discourage chewers.”  When “cedar” is considered as bitter as “
dragon’s blood”, you know that’s bitter!  In fact, some people refuse to cook 
over cedar wood, because it makes the food taste bitter:  “Though I don't 
like to cook on cedar, too pitchy/bitter.”
 
So if you’re talking the world-famous cedars of Lebanon, then (i) you’re 
talking a very “strong” wood, that was used to make all those strong ships 
for wealthy Ugarit, and (ii) you’re talking “bitter”, as the resin from 
cedar is bitter, cooking over a cedar wood fire makes food taste bitter, and 
there’s no sweet fruit to be had from cedar.  “To strengthen” is tmr in 
Ugaritic.  “Bitterness” as a Biblical Hebrew common word is TMRWR, or TMR-WR, 
featuring TMR (though with the actual root being just MR, which is what has 
disguised the etymology of TMR).
 
In my view, in the Late Bronze Age TMR originally signified a tree that was 
“strong” and “bitter”, namely the cedars of Lebanon.  The TMR at Genesis 
14: 7 are the cedars of Lebanon.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois