Dear Philip, Usually the Hebrew name of the books of the Bible is:
-either the name of the main person/persons, the protagonist. And so, "Esther", "Judges", "Qohelet", the books of the prophets (Isaiah, Ezekiel....)... -or one fo the first words at the beginning of the book. And so, "B'reshit" (1st word) for Genesis; "Shemot" (2nd word) for Exodus and so on. -as concerns the book of Deuteronomy, "debarim" is the 2nd word at the beginning of the text. In fact the Hebrew has "ha-debarim", "the words". But custom has turned it to only "debarim" (without the article "ha" = the) --------- Compare with: United States versus The United States. Any doubts? Hearty, Pere Porta (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) 2011/3/26 Philip <[email protected]> > Dear Listees, > > The OT Book of Deuteronomy is called "debarim" in the Hebrew Old Testament. > > Please does anyone know specifically why? > > Many thanks, > > Philip Engmann, > > > > > _______________________________________________ > b-hebrew mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew > -- Pere Porta _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
