Dear Reinaldo,
Excuse me for being blunt, but your assertion
is ridiculous. The semitic word for sun is $VmV$. It is shared by all
semitic languages (Heb $eme$, Akkadian $am$su, Ugaritic $p$, Arabic
sams, etc). The Akkadian nominal form would be $am$u with the nominative
ending. The form $ama$ is the absolute form used in personal names, so
$ama$ is simply the way one adresses the sun (Mr. Sun). THe word
for the heavenly luminary precedes its deification, and does not
derive from it.  Although the sun may have
been adored in Israelite religion, biblical or post biblical, as has been
asserted by many scholars (see, for example Morton Smith's article on
Helios in Palestine in the Orlinsky Volume of Eretz Israel, or
Hadley? articles and books), your argument is simply wrong, backward, and
irrelevant.

As for adoring the rising sun, in particular, I might refer you to the
famous Sun Disk inscription of Nebobaladan (King, Babylonian Boundary
Stones no. 36) which tells that the statue of $ama$ was lost, and until it
was "miraculously" rediscovered, it was substituted for by a "niphu". Now,
niphu designates a sundisk model, round and decorated with a four pointed
star with wavy lines characteristic of $ama$ between each arm of the
star. If you look at a picture of the tablet you will see such a
niphu. What is relevant to your suggestion about this, is that the
Akkadian
verb napahu, from which niphu is derived, means to break out in flames,
and also "sun rise", so if we may learn anything from this it may be that
the accepted non-anthropormorphic symbol of the Babylonian Sun God $ama$
was a model of the rising sun.
Victor

PS - Dear Orion Manager,
Please note that I have been a good boy and apocopated the trailer before
sending this message!

On Sun, 5 May 2002, Reinaldo Martinez wrote:

>
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Regarding Russel Gmirken on Ossenes adoring the
> > rising
> > > sun, Shamash was the sun-god of Babilonians; from
> > > there comes the Hebrew word for the sun, so we may
> > > deduct that they adored the sun. Whether it was
> > the
> > > "rising" sun or anyother it may prove difficult to
> > > determine.
> > >
> > > Reinaldo MArtinez
> > >
>
>
>


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