[B-Greek] Enough already! ( etymology of Abraham)

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Oct 3 19:31:15 EDT 2006


If list-members want to go on discussing the purported etymology
of Hebrew names from the Hebrew Bible, I suggest they carry it
off-list. I know that the current issue was raised as an illustration
only regarding the utility of etymological associations, but the
ongoing discussion has concerned Hebrew text from the Hebrew
Bible -- and now a hermeneutical declaration that is clearly
out-of-place in this forum has been urged.

On Oct 3, 2006, at 4:39 PM, Harold Holmyard wrote:

> George F Somsel wrote:
>>
>> 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.
>
> HH: You evidently did not fully read my post,
> since you did not mention the possibility that I
> gave, the idea that the name is to be divided as
> "ab raham," where raham has a meaning like
> "multitude" that a similar word in Arabic
> apparently does.
>
> HH: By the way, it is not silly to investigate the
> etymology of the word, since God Himself made a
> point that the name was meaningful.

While there can be no doubt that the Biblical text
in many places uses word-play and suggests
etymological linkage between names and meanings,
let's please keep list-discussion free from overt
hermeneutical declarations such as this.


> HH: It may be that the particular word was archaic
> and has been lost to Hebrew. And Abraham may not
> have even spoken exactly what we consider biblical
> Hebrew. He lived more than four hundred years
> before Moses left Egypt.
>
> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard
>
> ---
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Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





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