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  • From: Will Parsons <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>
  • To: bjwvmw AT com-pair.net
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org, b-greek AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Esdraelon
  • Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2011 11:23:21 -0500 (EST)

Bryant,

On Fri, 4 Mar 2011 23:27:38 -0800, "Bryant J. Williams III"
<bjwvmw AT com-pair.net> wrote:
> Dear List,
>
> My apologies in advance for the cross-posting, but a colleague of mine is
> presently in Israel on tour. He asked me to check with you all to find the
> following information. He is beginning to think that what we have is very
> poor transliteration (intervening delta between sigma and rho). Does anyone
> know the derivation of the "Esdraelon"? It seems that "Valley of Esdraelon"
> is synonymous with the "Valley of Jezreel."

Apart from the final ων/on, I don't think this would be a particularly bad
transliteration. Note that the sequence /zr/ in Hebrew is represented by
Greek σδρ/sdr also in Εσδρας/Esdras for Hebrew `Ezra. Although it might be
thought that the most natural Greek spelling for /zr/ would be σρ/sr, the
pronunciation of this sequence in Greek probably freely varied between [sr]
and [zr], so the introduction of the delta serves to enforce the voiced Hebrew
[z] sound. (And who knows, but the Greeks may have heard a slight
transitional [d] sound in the Hebrew sequence /zr/.)

> I think also that it is also synonymous with the "Valley of Megiddo, but I
> could be wrong. It is found 4x in Judith (1:8; 3:9; 4:6; 7:3) and is spelled
> ESDRHLWN (with the "WN" place signifier equivalent to the Hebrew "ON"
> suffix).

--
William Parsons


  • [b-hebrew] Esdraelon, Bryant J. Williams III, 03/05/2011
    • Re: [b-hebrew] Esdraelon, Will Parsons, 03/05/2011

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