Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Jim:

It appears you have just given a proof against your Hurrian hypothesis…

On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 6:58 AM, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:

… 

I see Genesis 28: 12 as being 100% Hebrew imagery, which happens to use a Hurrian loanword SLM, but is definitely not Hurrian imagery.  The Hurrians imagined a tunnel/a-a-pi to the netherworld.  By stark contrast, chapter 28 of Genesis gives us this glorious all-Hebrew image of a “gateway”/SLM up to the gate of heaven.

Form is insufficient to indicate loanwords, even in cognate languages. E.g. “Boot” in English indicates footwear, but in German watercraft. You need to show similarity in meaning, and here you have told about opposition in meaning.

Further, other posters have pointed out that this form has an unusual but shared by other words derivation from its Hebrew root, making the hypothesis of a Hurrian loanword unnecessary and irrelevant. It’s from a Hebrew root indicating raising above, other derivatives include ramp, trellis for holding up plants, raised highway, and this derivative indicating a ladder or, as I have always pictured this, a stairway leading upwards. And yes, Jacob had seen both stairways and ladders.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois  

Karl W. Randolph.