Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Will:

Let me address your two points in reverse order.

1.  You wrote:  “This seems less reasonable if we consider the Egyptian form of this name, 3ḫ-n-ỉtn (i.e., divided Akh-en-Aten, but note the different consonants).”

3ḫ = ax = Egyptian ayin – Egyptian heth = (X = Hebrew ayin – Hebrew heth.  Why are you saying “different consonants”?  Those two consonants are identical.

As to -n- in Egyptian, that’s a generic connector, which has no precise meaning, and which would not be expected in a Hebrew version of this name.

itn is the name of the deity that Akhenaten favored in his early and middle years, as his first four daughters have itn in their names.  But his last two daughters’ names have Ra, not itn.  So an updated Biblical version of Akhe-n-Aten would substitute ra or pA ra for itn.  pA ra ax works perfectly and, as I have previously shown, could well be one of the intended meanings of the Hebrew word PR(H in the Patriarchal narratives. 

Word order was a bit funky in Egyptian.  In the cartouches, the deity name usually seems to come first, regardless of the English transliterations of the names of the pharaohs.  But instead of “word order”, you say “different consonants”, so I don’t follow your drift.  As to word order using Egyptian hieroglyphs, let me cite this basic explanation:

“Hieroglyphic script conforms to certain artistic and linguistic standards and rules which seem to have been established very early in Egyptian history. A hieroglyphic inscription is arranged either in columns or in horizontal lines. When the script is arranged in a column, it is always read from the top down. However, if script is written horizontally, the signs can be written right to left, or left to right. The key is to check which way the animals and/or Gods are facing. If the figures face right, the script reads right to left. To further complicate translation, no punctuation marks or spaces to indicate the divisions between words, which are sometimes arranged unconventionally for artistic effect or to adapt to restricted space.”  http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/hieroglyphs-word-order.html

That’s what I mean when I say that in a pharaoh’s name, word order was “negotiable”;  it could be, and often was, manipulated for artistic effect, etc.  Per the above quotation, hieroglyphic words [such as in a pharaoh’s name in a cartouche] “are sometimes arranged unconventionally for artistic effect or to adapt to restricted space.”  So I don’t think it makes too much sense to purport to require “normal” word order here for a name referencing a pharaoh, especially in such a name created by an early Hebrew author, who was not an Egyptian native speaker [but who did know a fair amount of Egyptian and was a true genius, especially with languages].

Let me add that what distinguishes Akhenaten’s name from that of his first four daughters, and from all other Egyptian names with which I am familiar, is ax [A-khe].  The last two letters in PR(H can be interpreted as being ax or (X, since the Akkadian cuneiform letter from which he/H would derive is Akkadian cuneiform heth, which can also render Hebrew heth/X.  If all you’re saying is that the consonants in the deity’s names differ, that’s because they are two completely different deity names.  itn was the old favored name, but by the time of the Patriarchal Age, the new favored name was ra, or pA ra, just as we see at the end of the name of Joseph’s first Egyptian master:  P W+  -Y-  P R.

Since this is a big deal to me, I am disappointed that I don’t seem to be getting the gist of your point here.

2.  You wrote:  “I don't see p3-rʿ-ʿḥ as being possible in Egyptian.  If I were to try to translate “Palace of The Ra” back into Egyptian, I'd probably come up with something like ʿḥ-n-rʿ or  ʿḥ-n-p3-rʿ.  Nor does assuming that it was formed in Hebrew seem to help.”

Are you focusing on the -n- in Egyptian?  As noted above, that is a generic connector showing some ill-defined relationship between what goes before and what comes after.  In fact, it’s something like ’n’ in English, where in theory the meaning is “and”, but it’s actually just an all-purpose connector.  We would not expect to see that -n- in the Hebrew version of any of these Egyptian names.  Otherwise you may be pointing out the difference in word order, but (i) word order was often negotiable in Egyptian, per the quotation above, and (ii) I believe that in the hieroglyphs in cartouches, the deity name customarily is put first [or at least often that is the case], even if the English transliteration of the pharaoh’s name puts the deity name last. 

There is no problem with the consonants here, as aH in Egyptian, even if it is not the same as (H in Hebrew [as you rightly pointed out in your prior post], nevertheless is an equally plausible rendering based on the original Akkadian cuneiform, where the last letter is Akkadian cuenform heth, which could render heth or he or emphatic H.

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois