Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

In my opinion you go out of a false premise. The updating of the text  
in later times was done to cover up the pagan origin and meaning of  
these names, not to account for a changing phonology. Then some  
improbable "etymology" (ABRAHAM and SARAH "laughed" and thus they  
called their son by the bizarre name of YICXAQ) was added, to thicken  
the fog.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Nov 28, 2010, at 5:48 PM, jimstinehart AT aol.com wrote:

> 1.  You wrote:  “Updating of the text at a later time to reflect  
> later phonology.”
>
> That is to say, the names of two of Jacob’s sons were originally  
> spelled $M(N and ZBLN, but centuries later, a 1st millennium BCE  
> editor put a vav in those two names, to reflect how those two names  
> had come to be pronounced.
>
> But on that theory of the case, why are 40% of the personal names  
> in the Bible that have a vav nun suffix in the Patriarchal narratives?