Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uzi Silber <uzisilber AT gmail.com>]

Uri:

 

I will be writing an article on the hillarious state of affairs regarding the names of the Arab countries surrounding Israel: at least three of four have Hebrew names!  Mitzrayim, Yarden (Ever HaYarden or TransJordan), and Levanon -- all Hebrew....Obvious, since they were named by the Colonial powers.   

What this implies about the supposed nationhood of the respective Arab states surrounding Israel is a very interesting discussion, though not for this group.  Suffice it to say the Arab 'Spring' and its aftermath says enough about the topic.

 

On Syria though, I have a question -- is this a name with a Tanakh origin (Sirion?) or Greek or Latin?

 

Uzi Silber

 

On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 12:26 PM, Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com> wrote:

 During the brief discussion here of the etymology
 of the name Misr ( Egypt in Arab.), nobody seemed
 to remember that in the Hebrew bible this name
  occurs only in the dual -Micrayim (or Mitzrayim).

 Any theory about that? Is that a diachronic marker,
 namely that the name was first used by Hebrew scribes,
 when there was a division between upper and lower Egypt?
 George, any opinion?

   Uri Hurwitz


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