Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

george, jim,

jim's suggestion is to see in hebrew YRW the analogue of the sumerian URU.
the problem is that there is a much more likely candidate for the same term
in hebrew, namely, (YR. note that the final sumerian -U was gradually 
omitted in the NWS languager, so that the phonetic relation UR(U)-(YR
is quite straightforward. more so, if jim himself provides the hurrian
analogue as IR, probably both borrowed from sumerian, the first urban 
language.

so, in order to translate YRW$LM as the city of ... (say, piece) 
one has to assume that some early canaanite dialect used YRW=city 
[rather than (YR, QRT etc] and that this name was preserved by 
the hebrews although they might have easily perturbed it to (YR $LWM.

i must admit that i find jim's reasoning a bit difficult to accept, 
as (i) no such dialect is known and (YR or QRT is used in all existing
dialects; (ii) 
a city name usually did not start with the word "city"; (iii) the same
etymology does not work for YRWB(L; (iv) piece was not preached by 
any of the ancient canaanite cultures (unfortunately, and ironically,
this half-joking remark is still valid today).

so, i tend to accept george's "outdated theory". but i also suggest an
alternative: if the hebrew verb YR)=fears, which refers also to a follower of
a religion, had started originally from the biradical YR, we might reach 
the following translation: "you should fear $LM", "you should fear B(L" etc.

nir cohen



>> jim: Although it may be dismissed by some as allegedly being a “folk
etymology”, the most straightforward etymology of “Jerusalem” is that it means
“City of Peace”.  YRW in Hebrew originally was úru, meaning “city” in
Sumerian/Akkadian in the Amarna Letters.  $LM is the west Semitic word for
“peace”.  I myself do not see Canaanite warawa as ever having been part of
this city name [with Jerusalem not being in the Execration Texts], nor do I
see any evidence that anyone at Jerusalem ever knew of the pagan god Shalem. 
Rather than meaning “Founded by/for [the pagan god] Shalem”, I see the city
name “Jerusalem” as meaning, from day #1:  “City of Peace”.

 

Jim Stinehart