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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] the C-V theory

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: jimstinehart AT aol.com
  • To: nir AT ccet.ufrn.br, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] the C-V theory
  • Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:09:11 -0400 (EDT)


1. Nir Cohen wrote: “while i agree with jim that final Y may represent -YA
or -YAH in both ancient hebrew and hurrian, …the NWS endings -WT,-YM used for
plural and -H,-Y,-AH,-W etc used as verbal suffixes (assuming they were also
used so in biblical times hebrew) cannot be easily interpreted as
"consonants" followed by a vowel.”

Let’s use that insight to try to solve the 3,000-year-old Biblical mystery of
who is being referenced by the following 6 names at Genesis 15: 19-21 that
have baffled scholars: QYNY/Qa-a-ni-ya; QNZY/ Qa-ni-zi-ya; XTY/Xu-ti-ya;
PRZY/Pi-ri-zi-ya; GRG$Y/Ge-ra-ge-$e-ya; YBWSY/A-bu-u-se-ya. Note first
that the classic -YM west Semitic ending is suspiciously absent in all 6
cases. Rather, in all 6 cases the ending is -Y, which can be the Hebrew
rendering of the standard Hurrian theophoric suffix -ya. Starting with that
key insight, then on the C-V theory that we’re discussing, it turns out to be
child’s play to match these 6 names on a letter-for-letter basis to attested
Hurrian personal names with vintage Late Bronze Age spellings. We then
realize that these 6 Hurrian personal names are being used to reference the
Hurrians [just like the personal name “Knickerbockers” is used as a colorful
reference to Manhattanites].

2. Many 3,000-year-old Biblical mysteries can be solved using the C-V
theory. Here’s an important example of that. If the original spelling of
the name of the Patriarchs’ favorite place to sojourn in Canaan was what we
still see in the received unpointed Masoretic Text today, namely XBRWN, then
on the C-V theory we would expect that 5-letter name to be a 5-syllable name.
In fact, it’s the expected Hebrew spelling of the Hurrian word for “heaven”
or “the heaven”: xa-bu-ru-u-ne. Syllables 1, 2, 3 and 5 are C-V, with
Hebrew rendering only the consonant. The 4th syllable is, as is so often the
case in Hurrian, a vowel as its own separate syllable [essentially unknown in
Hebrew common words]. The modern Hebrew mispronunciation of this ancient
name is as bad as the KJV mistransliteration of this name. It’s not a
2-syllable name, with two closed syllables. No way. Rather, it’s 5
syllables, per there being 5 Hebrew letters, with the rule being that there
is one Hebrew letter per foreign syllable. There’s no closed syllable in
sight. Just as Karl’s C-V theory posits.

As everyone already knows, XBRWN can also, with quite a bit of stretching, be
stretched to mean “united” in Hebrew. But the interior vav/W is not plene
spelling!!! No, it’s a vowel as its own separate syllable in the primary,
Hurrian meaning of this name. The meaning, then, of XBRWN is: “Being United
[Is] Heaven”. Now look at Genesis 14: 13. One of the best things about the
Patriarchs’ “Hebron” was that not only was it a rural nirvana, but very
importantly Abram was in covenant relationship with both the ruling Amorite
princeling there, whose Patriarchal nickname was Mamre the Amorite, and also
with such ruler’s fellow princelings, the Hurrian princeling A-ni-ra and the
Canaanite princeling Eshcol. Historically that checks out perfectly, as the
Amorite princeling ruler of the place which is the opposite of east of Bethel
[Genesis 13: 9, 11] indeed allied with tent-dwellers like the Hebrews and
with Hurrian princelings and Canaanite princelings as well.

All analysts have missed the key textual fact here that whereas Abram [before
his name change] had a valuable alliance with the Amorite princeling ruler of
the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, nevertheless after the name change to Abraham no
Patriarch is ever reported as being in alliance with any ruler of the
Patriarchs’ Hebron. The “good old days”, whose passing was much lamented by
the early Hebrews [and whose passing was also the catalyst, in my opinion,
for the historical birth of Judaism, which would soon find the Hebrews moving
a few miles east from the Ayalon Valley, up to the secure hill country north
of Jerusalem], were precisely when the first Hebrew, Abram, had had a close
alliance with the Amorite ruler of the place west of Bethel. Indeed, that
grand old man Amorite ruler was so revered by the first Hebrews that (i) the
first Hebrews called the place where that Amorite princeling ruled by the
following Patriarchal nickname: “Being United [Is] Heaven”/XBRWN; and (ii)
the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives paired the root of
XBRWN, namely XBR, with the Hebrew version of the historical name of “Mamre
the Amorite”, the Amorite princeling ruler of the Ayalon Valley west of
Bethel in Year 12, namely Milk-Ilu: MLK – Y - )L, at Genesis 46: 17 [where
the interior yod/Y there is a name divider].

If one is willing to a-s-k if the 5-letter name XBRWN may originally have
indicated a 5-syllable name, per the C-V analysis of how the Hebrew language
originally operated, and then consider that such is the expected Hebrew
rendering of the Hurrian common word for “the heaven”, namely xa-bu-ru-u-ne,
in addition to being able to be stretched to mean “united” in Hebrew, then
all of a sudden one comes to an amazing revelation. It a-l-l checks out!
The p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t historical accuracy of the Patriarchal narratives in
describing south-central Canaan in Year 12 is absolutely stunning. We even
have the e-x-a-c-t historical name of the Amorite princeling ruler in Year
12 [one year before the reference to “Year 13” in the second half of Genesis
14: 4] of the Ayalon Valley west of Bethel, where tent-dwellers are attested
as recording their thoughts in writing at the time [Amarna Letter EA 273]:
Milk-Ilu.

3. As I was saying, many 3,000-year-old Biblical mysteries can readily be
solved, if we’re willing to a-s-k if early Hebrew writing was done on a C-V
basis, as verified by the unchanged Hebrew renderings of Late Bronze Age
Hurrian names.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois







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