Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Randall Buth wrote:

“The -wn suffix is more commonly 'abstract, abstract result' than referring 
to a doer, "he who . . .". (It does occur in proper names fairly frequently 
[e.g. Shim`on, Hebron], but that doesn't make any common nouns an "agent, 
doer, patient" with a "+human" attribute, to speak semantically.)”

Both of those examples occur in the Patriarchal narratives, which may be 
older than the rest of the Bible.  In the Bible the only place where the vav 
nun suffix is routine in proper names [other than geographical place names] 
is the Patriarchal narratives, even though the Patriarchal narratives have 
less plene spelling than most of the rest of the Bible.  In the Patriarchal 
narratives we see (PRWN, GR$WN, $M(WN and ZBLWN [which is probably the best 
spelling, though there are two other spellings], )YLWN at Genesis 26: 34 and 
two other places, CBYWN at Genesis 36: 2, and XBRWN.  The above six personal 
names all have a non-Semitic connection.  Three men who likely are 
non-Semitic [since they are stated to be either XTY or XWY, rather than being 
Canaanites or Amorites or Hebrews or any other known west Semitic-speaking 
people] have that interior vav prominently in their names:  (PRWN and )YLWN 
and CB(WN.  $M(WN and ZBLWN are portrayed as being born and named in the 
non-Semitic heartland of eastern Syria at Haran in Naharim [which I see as 
being the original homeland of the non-Semitic XTY and XWY in a Late Bronze 
Age historical context], whose mother who named them had to that point never 
lived anywhere else [and as such presumably was familiar with the non-Semitic 
language of the XTY and XWY and the -WN ending that is ubiquitous in that 
non-Semitic language], and the father of GR$WN was born there, too.  XBRWN, 
whose interior vav is not easily explainable on a west Semitic basis [note 
XBRN on the LMLK seals of later date], explains itself on a non-Semitic 
basis.  XBR-W-N is the expected defective Hebrew spelling of the well-known 
non-Semitic word xavurunne, whose non-Semitic meaning beautifully 
encapsulates the Patriarchs’ heavenly view of the place where they most often 
sojourned.

Perhaps you yourself might even agree that Biblical linguists, who know 
Hebrew and all the cognate Semitic languages extremely well, but who 
generally ignore entirely the non-Semitic language that was important 
throughout Late Bronze Age Canaan, have been unable to come up with a 
convincing explanation of the interior vav in the above 7 proper names in the 
Patriarchal narratives.  How can you hope to convince the rest of us that the 
Patriarchal narratives are late and fictional if you have never even  
a-s-k-e-d  if the above 7 proper names in the Patriarchal narratives that 
feature a -WN ending may reflect the prominence of the non-Semitic language 
throughout Late Bronze Age Canaan that likewise featured that -WN ending?

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois