Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Jerusalem - spelling, in historical perspective
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2011 11:26:09 -0500
You are right that "common wisdom" sees YERU$ALAYIM as the
composition YERU-$ALEM, but what this $ALEM is is still open to
conjecturing. It is possibly a deity (I suspect that every Hebrew
root was a name fit for one deity or another), possibly a sun-god, or
it may mundanely mean 'whole, entire' in the sense of being enclosed
by a wall.
What do you think, does the MEY- in MEYDBA, Nu. 21:30, or the M- of
MGIDO, Jud. 5:19, stand for MAYIM, 'water'?
Isaac Fried, Boston University
On Feb 6, 2011, at 10:44 AM, Uri Hurwitz wrote:
The name probably originated, in part, with the name $LM,
a Ugaritic deity. This can be supported in Gen. 14:18 in
the reference to Malchizedek, king of Shalem.