Karl: 1. You wrote: “Where in Genesis does it say that they were ‘magnificent’ oak trees?”
Genesis 13: 18, 14: 13, and 18: 1. The reference to oak trees three times, in close succession, to identify the Patriarchs’ X-BR-W-N implies that these oak trees were notable, and indeed magnificent. If one approached the northern Shephelah from the east [that is, from Bethel], going the opposite direction as Lot did in leaving Bethel, then what would have been the most impressive aspect of the lovely, low-lying verdant valley [that in modern times is called the “Aijalon Valley”] that one comes to? Why of course, it would be the magnificent “oak trees” that surrounded that valley. 2. You wrote: “That is something that you made up. They could have been the dry land oak trees, like what grow in the deserts of the American South West.” Let’s assume then that there were a few dry land oak trees on the towering mountains that surround the walled fortress city northwest of the Judean Desert [which city in the early 1st millennium BCE began to be called XBRN, though not XBR-W-N, and not until many centuries after Moses’ day]. Why on earth would the Hebrew author (i) explicitly refer to those few, non-magnificent oak trees on three separate occasions, while (ii) never once mentioning, even in passing, either the truly massive fortifications of that Early and Middle Bronze Age city, or the mountains that utterly dominate the non-urban area away from the city itself where Abraham would have sojourned in tents? By contrast, if the early Hebrew author wanted to reference a valley in the northern Shephelah that had no formal name in the ancient world [the place we call today the “Aijalon Valley”], for a person like Abraham who had started out at Bethel, then the very three words that we would rightly expect are all right there in the text: a “valley” that is the opposite of “east” of Bethel, and that is surrounded by magnificent “oak trees”. All of the common words in the text describe the Late Bronze Age Aijalon Valley perfectly, while not fitting the city northwest of the brutal Judean Desert at all well. [As to the proper name X-BR-W-N, see #3 below.] Karl, what common words in the Hebrew text do you see as being inconsistent with my view that the Patriarchs’ X-BR-W-N is the Aijalon Valley? Karl, you do realize, don’t you, that the Shephelah is part of the Promised Land of Canaan? There’s nothing remotely blasphemous about the idea that the Patriarchs sensibly chose to sojourn in the lovely Shephelah, west of hill country. I don’t quite understand why you’re fighting so hard here against what the Hebrew text says. It says “valley” and the opposite of “east” of Bethel and “oak trees” and “Amorites”, all of which describe the Late Bronze Age Aijalon Valley perfectly, and none of which fit the towering mountains that surround the city just northwest of the Judean Desert. The words “up” and “mountains” are very conspicuous by their complete absence in the text’s description of the Patriarchs’ X-BR-W-N. Why fight the text? Why not go with the text, and relish its pinpoint accuracy? There’s nothing wrong with the text! The problem, rather, is with the longstanding erroneous interpretation of the text. 3. In response to my assertion that “QRYT )RB( is a Patriarchal nickname for the historical city of Rubutu”, you wrote: “There is no where in the text that can support this idea. How can you expect us to agree with you that the patriarchal narratives are historical, when you yourself treat it as fiction?” The adroit use of apt nicknames does not make a text fictional. The text portrays Sarah [and the Patriarchs and Rebekah and Leah, but not Rachel] as being buried in a cave in a field just outside of the historical Late Bronze Age city of Rubutu, which is close to, but not identical with, where the Patriarchs sojourned in the Late Bronze Age Aijalon Valley. The early Hebrew author was forced to come up with a Patriarchal nickname for the northernmost valley in the Shephelah, because such valleys had no formal names in the ancient world, as we know from the Thutmose III list. [By contrast, every single city, including very small towns, had historical names.] The author chose to use a Patriarchal nickname for Rubutu. “Rubutu” itself is a west Semitic name meaning “Great City”: RB + T. But in the Patriarchal Age, although most of the Aijalon Valley was dominated by Amorites [especially Milk-Ilu/“Mamre”], the city of Rubutu was dominated by Hurrian lords like Tagi and Suwardata, per the Amarna Letters. So the early Hebrew author brilliantly came up with a nifty Patriarchal nickname that (i) means “(Hurrian) lords” in Hurrian, and (ii) is based on the two key consonants R-B, just like RB-T, and hence the reference to historical Rubutu is clearly there. Neat! [In the Hebrew rendering of Hurrian names, the aleph and the ayin need to be in )RB(/ir-bi, in order to show the syllable division. But they are prosthetic in nature, being vowel indicators, not true consonants. The only two true consonants in )RB( as a Patriarchal name are R-B.] Meanwhile, no place named “City of Four” [the west Semitic meaning of )RB(] or anything remotely like that is attested in Canaan, either during Moses’ time or in the Late Bronze Age or in any other time period. And there’s no XBRWN, using five letters, attested in non-biblical sources prior to post-exilic times, to the best of my knowledge, and there’s no XBRN, using four letters, referring to the city northwest of the Judean Desert, to the best of my knowledge, until the early 1st millennium BCE. The nomenclature that the Patriarchal narratives use is consistently Late Bronze Age in nature [except for a mere handful of the inevitable post-exilic added comments], never Early or Middle Bronze Age in nature, and not Iron Age or later in nature either. For example, X-BR-W-N/xa-vur-u-ne in Hurrian [a Late Bronze Age language] means “heaven on earth”, and its root [before adding Hurrian suffixes] is XBR. Compare XBR as the name used for King Keret’s ideal kingdom in Ugaritic mythology. Everything here is Late Bronze Age in nature, including Rubutu, the RB city or Great City, QRYT )RB(, in the Late Bronze Age Aijalon Valley, w-e-s-t [not south!] of Bethel. Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
