[B-Greek] The etymology of Abraham (was: " of SKOLIOS)
George F Somsel
gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 3 15:49:32 EDT 2006
Harold,
Whether you wish to derive it from (aM or from HaMoWN, it still doesn't work, does it? Let's put aside this silliness of etymologies.
george
gfsomsel
_________
----- Original Message ----
From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard at ont.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tuesday, October 3, 2006 3:30:08 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] The etymology of Abraham (was: " of SKOLIOS)
George F Somsel wrote:
> I think it is fairly safe to say that
> etymologies are more often abused than not.
> When we find etymologies, even in the Bible
> itself, these are not infrequently of
> questionable validity. I think of Abram /
> Abraham as an example. While Abram may well be
> understood as "exalted father", Abraham cannot
> really be understood as "a father of many
> nations / people" as given in Genesis since the
> word for "people" or "nation" contains an ayin
> whereas Abraham has a heh. It seems that the
> tendency is to resort to etymological thinking
> when it suits one's purpose or when one has
> nothing more profound to say.
HH: It's true that there are several suggestions
for the meaning of "Abraham." The NET Bible says:
The name “Abraham” is a dialectical variant of the
name Abram. But its significance is in the
wordplay with אַב־הֲמוֹן (’av-hamon, “the father of a
multitude,” which sounds like אַבְרָהָם, ’avraham,
“Abraham”). The new name would be a reminder of
God’s intention to make Abraham the father of a
multitude. For a general discussion of renaming,
see O. Eissfeldt, “Renaming in the Old Testament,”
Words and Meanings, 70-83.
HH: I find this extremely dubious, and I am not
the only one:
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Arie/Names/Abraham.html
The Abarim Publications Editorial Team looked on
dozens of web sites and countless hard-copies and
all but a few merrily report that the name Abraham
comes from the words ab and hamon and means Father
Of A Multitude. That these two words contain no R
seems not to bother anyone.
The verbal explanation of Genesis 17 is hard to
trace etymologically, as the new element (rhm)
does not exist in Hebrew. Perhaps God is
suggesting that something unique is happening to
Abram. There are some other words in Hebrew that
are used only once, and are often highly significant.
The phrase "father (of) many nations" reads
(ab-hamon-goyim), and that doesn't sound like
"Abraham" at all (as mentioned, no R).
Whatever the name Abraham may mean, it certainly
is not a compound of ab and hamon and certainly
does not mean Father Of A Multitude.
JewishEncyclopedia.com states, "The form
'Abraham' yields no sense in Hebrew," but that
displays boldness of the other side of the
spectrum. The change from Abram to Abraham is
accompanied by the initiation of the covenant of
which the Messiah is the final result. It's
impossible to defend that God would link a sign of
no sense to an event that profound.
HH: BDB suggested that the word break, as George
says, was after the first three Hebrew letters אַבְרָ
הָם , with an idea like "chief of a multitude," but
the word "multitude" is not attested.
HH: Keil thought that the break was after the
first two letters: אַבְ רָהָם, so that it is "father
of a multitude." The word "multitude" would not be
attested in Hebrew but matches an Arabic form of
the word (ruham). I do not know Arabic, however,
so cannot verify his claim.
HH: Modern Arabic also understands the meaning of
the name that way, so it may be right:
http://www.2muslims.com/cgi-bin/dictionary/csvsearch.pl?search=raham
Ibrahim
Father of a multitude; a Prophets name (Abraham)
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
---
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