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[b-hebrew] Akhenaten and Joseph: Linguistic Connections
- From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
- To: if AT math.bu.edu, nebarry AT verizon.net
- Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
- Subject: [b-hebrew] Akhenaten and Joseph: Linguistic Connections
- Date: Tue, 28 May 2013 15:58:20 -0400 (EDT)
Here is another possible
linguistic connection between historical Akhenaten and Biblical Joseph.
The
Canaanite/pre-Hebrew/Hebrew word for “arm” is used in describing both (i)
Akhenaten in the Amarna Letters, and (ii) Joseph in the Patriarchal
narratives. We see the west Semitic gloss
zu-ru-ux at Amarna Letter EA 287: 27
from Hurrian princeling IR-Heba of It is important to note in
this connection that cuneiform cannot distinguish one guttural from
another. Accordingly, the heth/X at
the end of the Amarna Letter gloss may be an attempt to denote Canaanite
ayin/(. [Likewise, the last letter
in the name of the high priest of Ra from On who is Joseph’s Egyptian
father-in-law is ayin/( in the received alphabetical text. But if the Patriarchal narratives are an
ancient text that was originally recorded in cuneiform, then that final letter
was Akkadian cuneiform heth/X, which can be any guttural, and it may likely have
been actually intended to be Hebrew heth/X here, rather than Hebrew ayin/(. So that Biblical name actually ends with
RX [though the received alphabetical text has R(], which is rx in Egyptian,
meaning “to know” in Egyptian. As
such, contra the scholarly view, the name “Potipherah” is a completely different
name from “Potiphar”, with both such names exemplifying words and concepts from
Akhenaten’s Great Hymn. Similarly,
the last letter in “Pharaoh”, which in the received alphabetical text is he/H,
may actually have been intended in the cuneiform original to be heth/X, since
cuneiform cannot distinguish those two gutturals. If so, then “Pharaoh” is PR (X, which
would represent the Egyptian words pA ra ax. That would be directly comparable, once
again, to the name “Akhenaten”, which is ax-n-itn, where itn = pA ra, that is,
Aton = the Ra, in Akhenaten’s way of thinking. PR (X : pA ra ax : “Spirit of God” :
RWX )LHYM : ax-n-itn : “Akhenaten”. They’re all slightly different ways of
saying basically the same thing:
“Spirit of God”. Thus the
Egyptian-based Hebrew word “Pharaoh” may intentionally be a play on the name
“Akhenaten”, further supporting the view that the Pharaoh being portrayed at the
end of Genesis is Akhenaten.] Returning now to the
Canaanite/Hebrew word for “arm”, both in the above Amarna Letter and at Genesis
49: 24, the Canaanite word for “arm” is used in connection with describing the
strength of a powerful monotheistic person in And as previously noted, the
name “Akhenaten” can be viewed as meaning “Spirit of God”, which is exactly how
Joseph is described by Pharaoh at Genesis 41: 38. Note that in all of these various cases,
the s-a-m-e nomenclature is used to describe
Akhenaten and Joseph, who are the two most famous early monotheists in
Jim Stinehart |
-
[b-hebrew] Akhenaten and Joseph: Linguistic Connections,
JimStinehart, 05/28/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Akhenaten and Joseph: Linguistic Connections, Antonio Garcia, 05/29/2013
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