From: "Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr>
To: <JimStinehart AT aol.com>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Seir and El Paran
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:20:40 +0100
From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
1. $e-e-ir-ri at the Mitanni Letter IV: 115-118 is the same Hurrian word as
$e-e-ri in Amarna Letter EA 288: 26. Each of $e-e-ir-ri and $e-e-ri is
close to Biblical $(-R or $(-YR. Thus Genesis 14: 6 says that the
XR-Y/Hurrians lived at a place with a Hurrian name:
$e-e-ir-ri/$e-e-ri/$(-R/$(-YR.
Your comments about the allegedly Akkadian origin of the Hurrian word for
“king” have no relevance to this discussion.
***
It's fully relevant on the contrary.
Among all the words that are attested in Hurrian the ones you pick up to
"explain" these Biblical words are nearly always the Semitic borrowings.
This is a clear indication that the phonetics naturally embedded in these
names is Semitic and not Hurrian.
You keep choosing the Semitic words.
A.
***
The point is that the Biblical word $(-R, which is presented as being the
name of a place where Hurrians/XR-Y live, appears in the Mitanni Letter
written in Hurrian.
***
That place so far south cannot have a Hurrian name, unless Hurrians would
have created it, which sounds beyond believable.
I still do not understand why and how Hurrians would have massively occupied
these places so far south.
In addition, it's absurd to state that this place appears in the Mitanni
Letter.
A.
***
2. Likewise, your claim that “eli is not a Hurrian word but a borrowing
from Akkadian” is also totally irrelevant. What’s relevant is the fact that
Genesis 14: 6 tells us that the XR-Y/Hurrians lived at )L P-)R-N, a Biblical
name that matches beautifully to the following word [regardless of its
ultimate origin] used by the Hurrians: “eli pu-ur-ni”.
***
That place could just as well be Egyptian you know.
Cf. Hurrian purni, puruli "house"
Cf. Egyptian pr "house" hence )L P-)R-N "the house is built".
All these crazy etymologies lead nowhere.
You can try English, Latin or French, I suppose it would also work.
For example, Ol' Barn sounds nice (vit dscherman akzent).
Chinese would be harder.