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  • From: jimstinehart AT aol.com
  • To: jkilmon AT historian.net, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The Names "Abram" and "Abraham"
  • Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2011 09:25:06 -0400 (EDT)


Jack Kilmon:

You wrote: “I think we need to look at Northwest Semitic for an L/R shift
which was not uncommon.”

That seems to have been the suggestion as well of Andronic Khandjani on this
thread. But how does L help in analyzing )B-R-HM? )B-L-HM might mean
“father to a multitude”, I suppose, but that leaves out the role of the
divine entirely. The Biblical name does not just mean that Abraham is going
to have a lot of descendants, which after all is quite commonplace. Rather,
Genesis 17: 5 is telling us that the name “Abraham” means that Abraham will
be the father of a multitude pursuant to specific divine intent. To me, the
name “Abraham” works much better if there’s an express reference to the
divine in there, and the only hope for that is the R in the middle of the
name.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois











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