Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Hi David!

There are many issues with your proposal for פרדס.


  1.  If the underlying root is פרד, where did the samekh come from? This is 
completely irregular in Hebrew.
  2.  The concept of פרד usually indicates division into dispersion or 
spreading out. How does this fit your proposed etymology? And again, whence 
the samekh?
  3.  I think you'll find that פרדס is unattested in any other Semitic 
language before a late date.
  4.  It's much easier to explain the vocalisation shifts from Persian into 
Aramaic and then into Hebrew, than to propose a Hebrew original that moves 
into the other languages.
  5.  If the word is originally Hebrew, how did it disseminate into Persian? 
What's the connection there?

As for your proposal on ברזל:


  1.  The root ברז means to make a hole. I'm not sure how this is explicitly 
related to iron. I'm guessing you're seeing iron as a tool for making holes, 
but this is somewhat oblique in my opinion. But that's just my opinion.
  2.  The ברז theory does not have many subscribers in the scholarly world, 
probably because the word just doesn't look Semitic. And if it doesn't look 
Semitic, and it can be explained as a loanword, then we have to consider 
seriously the likelihood that it's actually a loanword.
  3.  It has been argued (thought I can't remember by whom) that there is an 
underlying Hittite word. This would make sense historically, since knowledge 
of working iron probably came from the northern regions where the Hittites 
were.


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au