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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: uzisilber AT gmail.com, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] asherah (purim???)
  • Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:54:11 -0400 (EDT)


Uzi Silber:

1. You wrote: “If Ba'al was widely used in Eretz Yisrael, then it
wouldn't be surprising if a name such as Asher, a masculinized form of
Ashera,
Baal's consort, might be too.”

It’s all a question of dating. My assertion is that the Patriarchal
narratives were composed in, and accurately reflect, the troubled times of
the
mid-14th century BCE. Abdi-Ashirta, whose name honors the pagan goddess
Asherah, is one of the most high profile princelings in the Amarna Letters.
His
successor, Aziru, the Amorite ruler of Amurru in northern Lebanon,
iniquitously sold out the Amorite state of Amurru to the dreaded Hittites in
or about
Year 14. That was the historical “iniquity of the Amorites”, because
giving northern Lebanon on a silver platter to the expansionist-minded
Hittites
under their great military leader Suppiluliuma [Biblical “Tidal” at Genesis
14: 1] potentially threatened the Hebrews’ beloved Canaan. There’s no way
that a Hebrew composition in that time period would honor the pagan goddess
Asherah.

By sharp contrast, when you get to the state of Israel in the 1st
millennium BCE, anything goes in that pluralistic society. My point is that
the
Patriarchal narratives are truly ancient, and date all the long way back to
the
Amarna Age, to an era when the first Hebrews would never have considered
using the name of a goddess [Asherah] who was honored by an iniquitous
Amorite.


2. You wrote: “You think Terah Haran and Nahor are indigenous to Canaan?
I agree they werent from southern Mesopotamia (a later gloss)….”

There’s no “later gloss”. Molodet appears 9 times in the Patriarchal
narratives and always has the identical meaning: “one’s father’s descendants”
. That’s the logical interpretation of Genesis 11: 28, which accurately
tells us that Haran died in the presence of his father and in the presence of
his father’s descendants [molodet] in Ur of the Kassite-country-people.

3. You wrote: “…but more likely from NE Syria, around, well, the Haran
area.”

If that were the case, why are Terah, Haran, Nahor and Abram west Semitic
names? Why is Haran portrayed as dying in Ur? Why does old Terah leave Ur
and try to make it to Canaan, getting stuck en route in Harran? The
nomenclature “Naharim” and “Paddan Aram” is redolent of the 14th century BCE,
and
indicates that the Hebrew author well knew who the primary ethnic group was
in eastern Syria/northern Mesopotamia during the Patriarchal Age, at the
time when the Kassites ruled southern Mesopotamia. The names in the received
text support my view that there was a single early Hebrew author of the
Patriarchal narratives, who lived way back in the 14th century BCE, and who
knew
exactly what he was talking about when he reports the first Hebrews as
living in the troubled times of the mid-14th century BCE.

In my opinion, the Hebrews are accurately portrayed in the Patriarchal
narratives as being indigenous to Canaan, hence all those west
Semitic/Canaanite
names.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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