Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Nir Cohen:

On your theory of the case, did the author of Genesis 17: 5 err in saying that the meaning of the name “Abraham” is as follows?

“Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham;  for a father [)B] of many [HMWN] nations have I [God] made thee.”

In order for )B R HM to mean what Genesis 17: 5 says it means, we need the following three elements:

(1)    “ [Human] father”.  That’s )B, here not meaning “divine father” [per Genesis 17: 5].

 

(2)    “Many nations” or “multitude”.  -HM in “Abraham” is a short form of HMH, which in turn is a short form of the HMWN that we see at Genesis 17: 5, all meaning “many” or “crowd”, etc.

In fact, I believe that every detailed examination of the name “Abraham” has pointed out the foregoing two items, because they are so very, very obvious.

So then what’s missing?

(3)    We need a reference to “God”, who is the one who is making Abram into a “human father”/)B of “many/HM [nations]”.  That’s the  o-n-l-y  thing missing, and all we have in that regard in this name is -R-.  Please note that the last letter in the name “Potiphar” at Genesis 39: 1, namely P W+  -Y-  P R, is -R, and it’s a divine reference.  The same author who came up with the name “Potiphar” also came up with the name “Abraham”.

The solution to this age-old problem, which has defied conventional Hebrew-only analysis for three millennia now, is to cut the Gordian knot and see both the -R at the end of “Potiphar”, and the -R- in the middle of “Abraham”, as being divine references.

That’s the  o-n-l-y  way to square )B R HM with what Genesis 17: 5 says this name means.

For thousands of years Hebraists have been creative with the -H- and a hypothetical raham regarding this name.  Yet that approach, regardless of how creative or even fanciful it may be, never leads to a meaning for the name “Abraham” that fits with what Genesis 17: 5 tells us the meaning is.  In my opinion, the early Hebrew author of Genesis 17: 5  c-r-e-a-t-e-d  the name “Abraham”, and Genesis 17: 5 is telling us  e-x-a-c-t-l-y  what the name )B R HM means.

Moreover, the  s-a-m-e  analysis applies to the meaning of the name “Sarah” at Genesis 17: 16.   S-a-m-e .  The early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives created these two names, “Abraham” and “Sarah”, and he is flat out telling us what they mean.  Where ssade/C is emphatic sin/%, the first syllable of Sarah’s divinely-changed name is sA [meaning “son”], and the first syllable of Joseph’s Egyptian name at Genesis 41: 45 [another name created by the early Hebrew author] is likewise sA [meaning “son”].   S-a-m-e .  The second syllable of the name “Sarah” is ra, just like the end of the name “Potiphar”, and the middle of the name “Abraham”, in all three cases being a divine reference.   S-a-m-e .  In addition, sA ra as a phrase in Sarah’s name also has the additional meaning of being directly comparable to sA pA nTr, spelled C P NT, in Joseph’s Egyptian name, in both cases literally meaning “son of God”, but effectively meaning:  “king”.   S-a-m-e .  These names in the Patriarchal narratives are so very, very old that they go all the long way back to the Bronze Age, before Egypt had done anything wrong to the Hebrews.  That’s  o-l-d !

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois