To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Re[2]: End of Malachi: Kherem.
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 21:45:46 -0500
On 21 Feb 00, at 22:26, Peter Kirk wrote:
> This may be true, but I am concerned about your first example. The
> English "harem" is derived via Turkish from the Arabic "haram", which
> is also a Muslim religious concept. A colleague of mine recently did a
> comparative study of the Hebrew XEREM and the word "haram" as borrowed
> from Arabic into another language under Muslim influence. My colleague
> found some quite significant differences between the concepts, e.g.
> that the Arabic "haram" is to be rejected because it is unclean,
> whereas the Hebrew XEREM is to be destroyed because it is holy. So
> pork is "haram" (forbidden by religious laws) to the Muslim, but I
> don't think XEREM would ever be used of anything like pork in the
> Hebrew Bible.
I agree, but what do you think of Deut. 7:25, where it's talking about
something more odious than forbidden food, viz., idols, herem is
used? The idols aren't to be regarded as holy, in fact the word
to'evah is used.