george, jim, jim's suggestion is to see in hebrew YRW the analogue of the sumerian URU. the problem is that there is a much more likely candidate for the same term in hebrew, namely, (YR. note that the final sumerian -U was gradually omitted in the NWS languager, so that the phonetic relation UR(U)-(YR is quite straightforward. more so, if jim himself provides the hurrian analogue as IR, probably both borrowed from sumerian, the first urban language.
so, in order to translate YRW$LM as the city of ... (say, piece) one has to assume that some early canaanite dialect used YRW=city [rather than (YR, QRT etc] and that this name was preserved by the hebrews although they might have easily perturbed it to (YR $LWM. i must admit that i find jim's reasoning a bit difficult to accept, as (i) no such dialect is known and (YR or QRT is used in all existing dialects; (ii) a city name usually did not start with the word "city"; (iii) the same etymology does not work for YRWB(L; (iv) piece was not preached by any of the ancient canaanite cultures (unfortunately, and ironically, this half-joking remark is still valid today). so, i tend to accept george's "outdated theory". but i also suggest an alternative: if the hebrew verb YR)=fears, which refers also to a follower of a religion, had started originally from the biradical YR, we might reach the following translation: "you should fear $LM", "you should fear B(L" etc. nir cohen >> jim: Although it may be dismissed by some as allegedly being a “folk etymology”, the most straightforward etymology of “Jerusalem” is that it means “City of Peace”. YRW in Hebrew originally was úru, meaning “city” in Sumerian/Akkadian in the Amarna Letters. $LM is the west Semitic word for “peace”. I myself do not see Canaanite warawa as ever having been part of this city name [with Jerusalem not being in the Execration Texts], nor do I see any evidence that anyone at Jerusalem ever knew of the pagan god Shalem. Rather than meaning “Founded by/for [the pagan god] Shalem”, I see the city name “Jerusalem” as meaning, from day #1: “City of Peace”. Jim Stinehart _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
