Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>]

Dear Jim,

These are Hebrew names. Get off the Hurrian name kick. All you have done is
given speculation. This is a Biblical Hebrew list NOT a Hurrian list.

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <JimStinehart AT aol.com>
To: <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>; <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 7:11 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] to jim, isaac on patriarchal names


>
> Nir Cohen:
>
> You’re pouring oil on the fire when you start listing those names ending in
> -WN:  “AYLWN, MXLWN, KLYWN, QDRWN, GV(WN, LBNWN, GD(WN, (PRWN etc etc etc.”
>
>
> (PRWN must be e-pi-ri-en-ne, meaning [in Hurrian] “the [Hurrian] lord”.
> [Note that in this 5-syllable Hurrian name, -WN represents a 2-syllable
> Hurrian ending, -Vn-ne, where the vowel/V can be A, E, I or U.]   Heavens,
> Genesis 23: 10 flat out tells us he’s a XTY, which must be Xu-Ti-Ya, the 
> most
> frequently attested Hurrian name at Nuzi, which means “Praise Teshup”.  
> He’s a
> Hurrian landowner at Rubutu in the southeast Ayalon Valley, known from the
> Amarna Letters to be associated with the Hurrian princeling Tagi.
>
> AYLWN is even worse!  Once again, Genesis 36: 2 flat out tells us he’s a
> XTY, that is, a Hurrian.  But worse is the fact that one of Zebulun’s sons 
> has
> the same name!  Genesis 46: 14.  Heavens to murgatroid.  The Hebrew author
> seems to be going out of his way to let us know that one of Jacob’s
> descendants had a name that sounded like, and was spelled the same as, the
name of a
> bona fide Hurrian.  [But then again, if the ending of the Hurrian name “
> Uriah” can be Semiticized by adding a west Semitic -H at the end, then the
> ending of the Hurrian name of a Hurrian )YLWN at Genesis 36: 2 can be
> Semiticized by dropping that interior vav/W, as at Genesis 26: 34.  Can you
see what’s
> coming down the pike as to the Hurrian-sounding Hebrew name ZBLWN?  See the
> end of this post.]
>
> Machlown is not quite so bad, but isn’t he a foreigner as well?
>
> And Chilion is his brother, so these names are seeming pretty foreign to
> me.  Don’t you ever cite Hebrew names?
>
> “Lebanon” doesn’t count, because that’s not a personal name of an
> individual.  Besides, it’s a foreign country anyway.  Where are the Hebrews 
> in
your
> list?
>
> Gibeon doesn’t count either, as it’s a city name.  Come to think on it, it’
> s a XV-Y city, per Joshua 11: 19, where XV is the chief Hurrian goddess
> Xeba, pronounced Xeva.  Don’t be citing Hurrian city names!
>
> Kidron doesn’t count as a personal name, because it’s the name of a
> stream, although at least it’s near Jerusalem.
>
> Gideon, at long last, is a Hebrew name.
>
> My own view is that all 11 of Jacob’s oldest sons have Hebrew names.  It’s
> just that two of those names -- Simeon and Zebulun, $M(-WN and ZBL-WN -- 
> have a peculiar -WN ending [just like the Hurrian common word/name
> e-pi-ri-en-ne/(PR-WN above].  That odd ending was specifically designed to
remind
> everyone that those 11 sons were born in the heart of Hurrianland, in
> Naharim/MDYN/Mi-da-a-ni/Mitanni on the upper Euphrates River in Late Bronze
Age eastern
> Syria.  But the names are still Hebrew names, as vouchsafed to us by no
> less than Leah and Rachel themselves.  And No, there were never any Hebrew
> tribes, or any other tribes, with those 11 names, prior to the composition 
> of
> chapters 29 and 30 of Genesis.  The first Hebrew was the sole author of the
> Patriarchal narratives, and he created those 11 names at the same time that 
> he
> came up with all those charming etymologies.  They’re Hebrew names!
>
> For further proof, just look at how fast that Hurrian-sounding ending -WN
> in the name ZBLWN is dropped once Jacob’s family gets back home to beloved
> Canaan.  The name of Jacob’s 10th son is spelled ZBLWN at Genesis 30: 20 out
> in eastern Syria in the Hurrian heartland.  But the minute Jacob’s family
> gets back to Canaan, the funky Hurrian-sounding ending -WN in that name is
> dropped like a hot potato.  It’s gone at Genesis 35: 23, at Genesis 46: 14,
and
> at Genesis 49: 13.  Don’t let university scholars tell you that’s a long
> series of “scribal errors”.  No way!  Rather, that’s the received text
> letting us know that although the birthname ZBLWN had a bit of a Hurrian
ambience
> [reflecting the backdrop of Laban’s Hurrian-speaking neighbors], in fact
> that name is a fine Hebrew name all the way.
>
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
>
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>


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