Will: Let me address your two points in reverse order. 1. Youwrote: “This seems less reasonable if weconsider the Egyptian form of this name, 3ḫ-n-ỉtn (i.e., divided Akh-en-Aten,but note the different consonants).” 3ḫ = ax = Egyptian ayin – Egyptian heth = (X =Hebrew ayin – Hebrew heth. Why are yousaying “different consonants”? Those twoconsonants are identical. As to -n- in Egyptian, that’s a generic connector,which has no precise meaning, and which would not be expected in a Hebrewversion of this name. itn is the name of the deity that Akhenaten favoredin his early and middle years, as his first four daughters have itn in theirnames. But his last two daughters’ nameshave Ra, not itn. So an updated Biblicalversion of Akhe-n-Aten would substitute ra or pA ra for itn. pA ra ax works perfectly and, as I havepreviously shown, could well be one of the intended meanings of the Hebrew wordPR(H in the Patriarchal narratives. Wordorder was a bit funky in Egyptian. Inthe cartouches, the deity name usually seems to come first, regardless of the Englishtransliterations of the names of the pharaohs. But instead of “word order”, you say “different consonants”, so I don’tfollow your drift. As to word order using Egyptian hieroglyphs, let mecite this basic explanation: “Hieroglyphicscript conforms to certain artistic and linguistic standards and rules whichseem to have been established very early in Egyptian history. A hieroglyphicinscription is arranged either in columns or in horizontal lines. When thescript is arranged in a column, it is always read from the top down. However,if script is written horizontally, the signs can be written right to left, orleft to right. The key is to check which way the animals and/or Gods arefacing. If the figures face right, the script reads right to left. To furthercomplicate translation, no punctuation marks or spaces to indicate thedivisions between words, which are sometimes arranged unconventionally forartistic effect or to adapt to restricted space.” http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/hieroglyphs-word-order.html That’s what I mean when I say that in a pharaoh’sname, word order was “negotiable”; itcould be, and often was, manipulated for artistic effect, etc. Per the above quotation, hieroglyphic words[such as in a pharaoh’s name in a cartouche] “are sometimes arranged unconventionally for artisticeffect or to adapt to restricted space.” So I don’t think itmakes too much sense to purport to require “normal” word order here for a namereferencing a pharaoh, especially in such a name created by an early Hebrewauthor, who was not an Egyptian native speaker [but who did know a fair amountof Egyptian and was a true genius, especially with languages]. Let me add that what distinguishes Akhenaten’s namefrom that of his first four daughters, and from all other Egyptian names withwhich I am familiar, is ax [A-khe]. Thelast two letters in PR(H can be interpreted as being ax or (X, since theAkkadian cuneiform letter from which he/H would derive is Akkadian cuneiformheth, which can also render Hebrew heth/X. If all you’re saying is that the consonants in the deity’s names differ,that’s because they are two completely different deity names. itn was the old favored name, but by the timeof the Patriarchal Age, the new favored name was ra, or pA ra, just as we seeat the end of the name of Joseph’s first Egyptian master: P W+ -Y- P R. Since this is a big deal to me, I am disappointedthat I don’t seem to be getting the gist of your point here. 2. Youwrote: “I don't see p3-rʿ-ʿḥ as beingpossible in Egyptian. If I were to try totranslate “Palace of The Ra” back into Egyptian, I'd probably come up withsomething like ʿḥ-n-rʿ or ʿḥ-n-p3-rʿ. Nor does assuming that it was formed inHebrew seem to help.” Are you focusing on the -n- in Egyptian? As noted above, that is a generic connectorshowing some ill-defined relationship between what goes before and what comesafter. In fact, it’s something like ’n’in English, where in theory the meaning is “and”, but it’s actually just anall-purpose connector. We would notexpect to see that -n- in the Hebrew version of any of these Egyptian names. Otherwise you may be pointing out thedifference in word order, but (i) word order was often negotiable in Egyptian,per the quotation above, and (ii) I believe that in the hieroglyphs incartouches, the deity name customarily is put first [or at least often that isthe case], even if the English transliteration of the pharaoh’s name puts thedeity name last.
There is no problem with the consonants here, as aH in Egyptian, even if it isnot the same as (H in Hebrew [as you rightly pointed out in your prior post],nevertheless is an equally plausible rendering based on the original Akkadiancuneiform, where the last letter is Akkadian cuenform heth, which could renderheth or he or emphatic H. Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois
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