Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

isaac, david, jim

one can have as many theories as one wishes as to the word SULAM
(strong 5551: ladder). as it only appears once (gen 28:12),
we shall never be sure exactly what it meant and how it was derived.

however: we know for sure that it referred to a portable object
[due to the word MUCAV], was pretty much vertical [due to the word 
RO)$O] and was used for climbing or moving up. 

i cannot imagine any other object, except a wooden ladder, which would 
suit this description and be within the technology at that time. perhaps
a ramp; but ramps were mostly used in later periods and were not 
portable nor mostly vertical.

in this connection i recall that solomon temple workers used SLYM to go 
up and down. is "baskets" a reasonable translation? perhaps "ladders"
or even "ramps" would make more sense?

i accept david's semitic hypothesis as viable, without necessarily 
agreeing with each of his items. but the linguistic evidence such 
as brought by jim and isaac is very shaky. with the same logic i 
can derive SULAM(H) from COLUMNA(latin)...
http://etimologias.dechile.net/?columna

nir cohen