Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Mishkan

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: jimstinehart AT aol.com
  • To: Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Mishkan
  • Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 17:22:26 -0400 (EDT)


Prof. Yigal Levin:

1. You wrote: “[D]oes anyone know of any other place in the Bible in which
the noun mishkan is used to refer to a human dwelling?”

Per Gesenius:

(1) “Surely such [are] the dwellings [M$KNWT] of the wicked, and this [is]
the place [of him that] knoweth not God.” Job 18: 21

(2) “The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings [MSKNWT]
of Jacob.” Psalms 87: 2

And figuratively here:

(3) “What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee
out a sepulchre here, [as] he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, [and]
that graveth an habitation [M$KN] for himself in a rock?” Isaiah 22: 16

2. Numbers 16: 24 that you reference features )BYRM, Ab-i-ram, a west
Semitic name that is well-attested non-biblically in the ancient world, and
that is easy for native Hebrew speakers to say. By contrast, the famous )BRM
of Genesis has a birth name that is rarely attested, if attested at all, as a
west Semitic name non-biblically in the ancient world. And as a west Semitic
name, isn’t it a tongue-twister for native Hebrew speakers who cannot
pronounce consonant clusters? Why does Abraham have such an unusual birth
name?

Whereas )BYRM is like “Joe Smith” in English, a well-attested west Semitic
name that is generic and easy to pronounce, )BRM is like “Joes-Mith” in
English: an unattested tongue-twister as a west Semitic name.

Don’t you find the birth names of Abraham and Sarah ultra-exciting? In my
opinion, they’re utterly redolent of the Bronze Age, being incomprehensible
to 1st millennium BCE authors like JEP.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page