Rev. Bryant J. Williams III: 1. You wrote: “For you to say there were no oak trees in Hebron is directly contradict the text that repeatedly says so in several different contexts.”
Yes, magnificent oak trees surrounded the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, just as the text says. But the Patriarchs’ Hebron was the Aijalon Valley, whose Patriarchal nickname was X-BR-W-N. The text is perfect, as is. The Aijalon Valley was surrounded by magnificent oak trees. In approaching the northern Shephelah from Bethel to the east, one would surely notice two things about the Late Bronze Age Aijalon Valley: (i) the magnificent oak trees that surrounded the low-lying valley, and (ii) the fact that the Aijalon Valley at that time was dominated by Amorite princeling rulers. On three separate occasions the Biblical text identifies X-BR-W-N by noting those two prominent features, neither of which historically applied to the mountainous city of XBRN/Hebrn. 2. You wrote: “The text in no way indicates that Kiriath-Arba means ‘City of Four’." I agree 100%. 3. But then you continued: “It clearly states in four places that Kiriath-Arba was the former name of the present day ‘Hebron’; no more, no less.” No. As I noted in my previous post, the word “formerly” does not appear in the Biblical text. Rather, HW) means “that is”, and does not mean “formerly”. The text does n-o-t say that the “former” name of the Patriarchs’ Hebron had been Kiriath Arba, any more than it says that the former name had been “Mamre”. As to Mamre, Genesis 23: 19 has this phrase: MMR) HW) XBRWN. Does that mean that “Mamre” is a former name of Hebron? Genesis 35: 27 has the same phrase, except that Kiriath the Arba follows Mamre: MMR) QRYT H)RB( HW) XBRWN. Genesis 23: 2 has the same phrase, except this time leaving out Mamre [and also leaving out the word “the” in the middle of Kirath Arba]: QRYT )RB( HW) XBRWN. Genesis 13: 18 clarifies the meaning as to Mamre, where the phrase is: MMR) )$R B-XBRWN. Rather than Mamre being the former name of Hebron, Mamre is at, or near, Hebron. Likewise, rather than Kiriath Arba or Kiriath the Arba being the former name of Hebron, Kiriath [the] Arba is at, or near, Hebron. QRYT )RB( is a Patriarchal nickname for the historical city of Rubutu, on the southern edge of the Aijalon Valley. [The key consonants in both cases are R-B.] X-BR-W-N is a Patriarchal nickname for the east end of the Aijalon Valley. Mamre usually refers to the Aijalon Valley generally, though it can also refer to the western half of the Aijalon Valley, whose major city was Gezer, which at that time was ruled by an Amorite princeling, Milk-Ilu, who dominated the Aijalon Valley in the Amarna Age. The literal meaning of Mamre is “from the Amorite”. HW) means “that is”, and does not mean “formerly”. The text at no point says in Hebrew how you quote it: “near Hebron (formerly Kiriath-Arba)”. There is no non-biblical support for the proposition that Kiriath-Arba was the prior name of the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, nor does the text of the Patriarchal narratives make that erroneous assertion. Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
