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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] MKL MLK
  • Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:42:15 EST


1. YKL can mean “to overcome, vanquish, attain victory”. Genesis 32: 28

CDQ can mean “righteous victory”. Isaiah 41: 2

So YKL and CDQ can have similar meanings.

2. KWL means “to protect, nourish”. Genesis 45: 11

$LM means “peace, safety”, and can have the connotation of “protection”.

So KWL and $LM can have similar meanings.

3. A Late Bronze Age temple and stele at Beth Shan honor an obscure
Canaanite god whose name is MKL/Mekal. Some scholars think the etymology of
this
west Semitic divine name is M + YKL = MKL and M + KWL = MKL.

Given that etymology, a high priest of the pagan god MKL might expect to
have a double name that reflects the concepts of YKL and KWL, perhaps using
the semi-synonyms CDQ and $LM. If the high priest’s name said that the deity
MKL was a “king”/MLK [where MLK transposes the last 2 consonants in MKL]
with those two characteristics, then that priest’s name might be expected to
be:

MLK-Y-CDQ MLK-$LM.

That’s exactly how the received text of Genesis 14: 18 begins. [I see the
interior yod/Y in the first half of this double name as being optional. For
example, the same person in the Bible at one place has an interior yod in
his name, ’B-Y-$LWM at I Kings 15: 2, 10, but elsewhere in the Bible this
same person’s name is spelled without the yod: ’B-$LWM at II Chronicles 11:
20, 21.]

Perhaps the priest usually referred to as “Melchizedek” was a high priest
of the Canaanite god MKL/Mekal at Beth Shan, whose double name means “(Mekal
is) king of righteous victory, king of peace”. Given the above etymology
of the divine name MKL, that would be a perfect name for a high priest of MKL.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois



  • [b-hebrew] MKL MLK, JimStinehart, 01/26/2011

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