Biblical Hebrew Forum

[kenneth greifer <greifer AT hotmail.com>]

Jim,
 
If TMR in Hebrew meant "date palm" even though it has a sweet fruit, can you 
explain the etymology of why that word was used in Hebrew when you say it 
comes from the word "bitter" in Hebrew?
 
Also, are you sure that the place in Gen 14:7 was named after the cedar tree 
because you think the word means "bitter" (in Hebrew or Ugaritic?) and 
"strong"? Can anything else be bitter and/or strong? How do you know that a 
place could not be named after a date tree if that place had date trees too, 
if it really was not in Lebanon?
 
I think your proof is a little on the weak side, although I have never ever 
ever studied linguistics. If you want to convince scholars, I think you might 
need more proof than saying an ancient word in Ugaritic meant cedar tree 
based on what sounded like the Hebrew word bitter and the Ugaritic meaning 
strong, if I understood you correctly. Did you use the Hebrew word bitter as 
part of your etymology of the Ugaritic word or are you using Hebrew and 
Ugaritic to figure out the etymology of a Hebrew word TMR? If my questions 
don't make sense, I am sorry, but I could not understand how you jumped from 
Hebrew to Ugaritic when you worked on the etymology.  
 
I think B-Hebrew is the perfect place for you to discuss your etymologies of 
different words (some of the people seem overjoyed sometimes), but I still 
think you should put together a book or a site with your ideas because 
scholars, who I am sure can learn much from you, can't be expected to read 3 
years worth of emails to learn your way of doing etymologies of words. 
 
I am not saying I agree with you or even understand what you are saying, I am 
just saying 
that it is nice that you have new ideas on an old subject and you are forcing 
experts to reconsider everything they believe by sending them so many emails 
with your ideas. I have also been working on something like that, but I don't 
quote scholars or try to come up with new word meanings and etymologies. I 
just am amazed at how you have gotten so many scholars to answer you. They 
won't give me the time of day.
 
Kenneth Greifer