From: owner-ane@ (ANE Digest) To: ane-digest Subject: ANE Digest V1999 #238 Reply-To: Sender: owner-ane@ Errors-To: owner-ane@ Precedence: bulk ANE Digest Tuesday, August 24 1999 Volume 1999 : Number 238 ane W Blessing Re: ane W Blessing Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Re: ane W Blessing Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Re: ane W Blessing Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Re: ane W Blessing Re: ane W Blessing Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 09:01:03 -0600 From: John Tvedtnes Subject: ane W Blessing Regarding Richard Stern's question about the spread fingers used in the priestly blessing: I think most would admit that the suggestion that the fingers represent the letter shin is a late explanation. Personally, I like Theodore Reik's explanation that the spread fingers represent the cloven hoof of sacrificial animals, especially the sheep, which he considers to be totemic for ancient Israel. He ties this with the tallit which, originally, was made of lamb's wool, and suggests that the knots in the tsitsit represent joints and sinews of the four legs of the sacrificial lamb. John A. Tvedtnes Brigham Young University ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 19:07:38 +0300 (IDT) From: avigdor horovitz Subject: Re: ane W Blessing dear John, In all due respect the suggestion you support is totally without foundation and merit. I have already mentioned off line to someone that there is no evidence in the biblical tradition of a priest having any vacarious function outside the context of the city of refuge law which releases the killer from the city when the High priest dies. So his representation of a sacrificial animal would be without context. When the priest eats the hatat in is a way of disposing of the contamination absorbed by the sacrificial victim. What is "totemic" about a sheep in ancient israel? Where are the knots in the zizit given any importance in biblical tradition? And is there anything in later Jewish exegesis of the tzitzit which would support this explanation. Since the knots in the zizit are mandated rabbinically I would first go to rabbinic sources for their explanation. When a Jew puts on a talit is he pulling wool over himself and masquerading as a sheep? I do this every morning and I don't think that this is what I am doing and I doubt that any of the men in synagogue doing this with me would think that it is what they are doing. The most we do is pull the wool over our eyes when wrapping ourselves in the talit. We are not shamans and a re not dressing up as little lambs who have lost our way. The whole thing seems very wooly to me. Victor On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, John Tvedtnes wrote: > Regarding Richard Stern's question about the spread fingers used in the > priestly blessing: > > I think most would admit that the suggestion that the fingers represent the > letter shin is a late explanation. Personally, I like Theodore Reik's > explanation that the spread fingers represent the cloven hoof of > sacrificial animals, especially the sheep, which he considers to be totemic > for ancient Israel. He ties this with the tallit which, originally, was > made of lamb's wool, and suggests that the knots in the tsitsit represent > joints and sinews of the four legs of the sacrificial lamb. > > John A. Tvedtnes > Brigham Young University > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 19:13:27 +0300 (EET DST) From: Robert Whiting Subject: Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Don Mills wrote: >With regard to the supposed relationship between "phoinos", >meaning "red", and "Phoinike", "Phoenicia", I would advise >caution since there are several other possibilities. Some have >related it to Egyptian "fenekhw", "carpenters", as an MK term for >the Phoenicians, whereas Boisacq suggested a derivation from >"Poun-t, a collective name for the Semites of the East >Mediterranean hinterland", influenced by Greek "phoinos". Since we are telling "just-so" stories, let me tell mine. I suspect that _Phani:ke:_ "Phoenicia(n)" (< _phoi:ni:kos_, gen. of _phoi:ni:ks_ "purple/crimson" < _phoinos/phoinios_ "bloodred") is a calque in Greek of the name Canaan, long associated with the Akkadian kinahhinu "purple dye". Greek did not accept loan words easily and usually translated them into Greek (even with place names if they could be etymologized). Thus _Phani:ke:_ is "land of purple" corresponding to the meaning of Canaan. Translation of place names is not really common, but it is not really rare either (e.g., Capetown < Kaapstad or Montenegro < Chernagora ["black mountain"]). "Phoenicians" then is just what the Greeks called the Canaanites and it is pure Greek and any attempts to derive it from lookalikes in other languages just won't work. (I rather think that Sally Morris published something along these lines, but I'm not entirely sure where; perhaps in the special volume of _Arethusa_ devoted to Black Athena.) >It seems to me that the "phoinos" (red, purple) / "Phoinix" >(Phoenician) / "phoinix" (date-palm, amongst other plants) / >"phoinix" (phoenix bird) complex reveals the mutual influence >upon one another of several words of different origins (Egyptian >"ben(n)u" for the bird, for example). I know that one member of >the complex appears in Mycenaean Greek ("ponike" / "ponikipi", >interpreted as "(with) date-palms"), and that the latter's >relation if any to "phoinos", "red", is often described as >"obscure". Does anyone on the list know of an etymology for >"phoinos" itself, sometimes taken as the root word of the group? Yes, _phoinos_ (also _phoinios_) "bloodred" comes from _phonos_ "murder, slaughter". _Phonos_ shows up again in names like Bellerophon and Tisiphone. The word comes from PIE _g^when_ (g^w represents a labialized velar; the ^w means that the w is usually written as a superscript) "hit, strike, slay, kill, wound, hurt". The verb in Greek is _epephnon_ (pres. theino:) It apparently does not survive in Germanic, but comes into English as a loan from Latin where it appears only in compounds (de-fendere, of-fendere [< ob-fendere]). Bob Whiting whiting@cc.helsinki.fi ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 10:16:14 -0600 From: John Tvedtnes Subject: Re: ane W Blessing Avigdor Horovitz wrote: >Just a bit more on the priestly blessing, and again my profoundest >aploogies for not being able to research the thing more fully. >This morning, after services, I asked a friend who is a Kohen and had just >recited the Priestly Blessing about the fingers. He is hardly a scholar >and couldn't give me a full answer, but he told me what he had been taught >or read somewhere. He suggested that the ten fingers, placed as they are >when reciting the blessing, actually form five fingers (the thumbs are >joined into a single finger, and the remaining eight are divided into four >groups of two, so we have five double fingers). He said that this is a >representation of the Hand of God. This could not have been its original meaning, for in Second Temple times, the kohanim would raise the hands above the head, in the temple, while outside the temple they could only raise the hands to shoulder level. See Mishnah Tamid 7:2. Today, since the temple no longer exists, they raise their hands to shoulder level only, and hold them together toward the congregation they are blessing, which enables them to put the thumbs together. The practice of raising the hands is based on Leviticus 9:22, but is found in other passages as well. FYI, Bahir 123-124 and 138 discusses the raising of the priest's hands during blessing, saying that the ten fingers represent the ten sefirot and the ten commandments. You may also want to see See D. Plooij, "The Attitude of the Outspread Hands (‘Orante') in Early Christian Literature and Art," Expository times 23 (1912), 265-69. John A. Tvedtnes Brigham Young University ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 10:47:59 -0700 (PDT) From: cuibono@socrates.berkeley.edu Subject: Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions hello could you substantiate a little the comment on greek reluctance to accept loan words or to translate place names? chris hoffman On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Robert Whiting wrote: > On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Don Mills wrote: > > > > > >With regard to the supposed relationship between "phoinos", > >meaning "red", and "Phoinike", "Phoenicia", I would advise > >caution since there are several other possibilities. Some have > >related it to Egyptian "fenekhw", "carpenters", as an MK term for > >the Phoenicians, whereas Boisacq suggested a derivation from > >"Poun-t, a collective name for the Semites of the East > >Mediterranean hinterland", influenced by Greek "phoinos". > > Since we are telling "just-so" stories, let me tell mine. I > suspect that _Phani:ke:_ "Phoenicia(n)" (< _phoi:ni:kos_, gen. of > _phoi:ni:ks_ "purple/crimson" < _phoinos/phoinios_ "bloodred") is > a calque in Greek of the name Canaan, long associated with the > Akkadian kinahhinu "purple dye". Greek did not accept loan words > easily and usually translated them into Greek (even with place > names if they could be etymologized). Thus _Phani:ke:_ is "land > of purple" corresponding to the meaning of Canaan. Translation > of place names is not really common, but it is not really rare > either (e.g., Capetown < Kaapstad or Montenegro < Chernagora > ["black mountain"]). "Phoenicians" then is just what the Greeks > called the Canaanites and it is pure Greek and any attempts to > derive it from lookalikes in other languages just won't work. > (I rather think that Sally Morris published something along these > lines, but I'm not entirely sure where; perhaps in the special > volume of _Arethusa_ devoted to Black Athena.) > > >It seems to me that the "phoinos" (red, purple) / "Phoinix" > >(Phoenician) / "phoinix" (date-palm, amongst other plants) / > >"phoinix" (phoenix bird) complex reveals the mutual influence > >upon one another of several words of different origins (Egyptian > >"ben(n)u" for the bird, for example). I know that one member of > >the complex appears in Mycenaean Greek ("ponike" / "ponikipi", > >interpreted as "(with) date-palms"), and that the latter's > >relation if any to "phoinos", "red", is often described as > >"obscure". Does anyone on the list know of an etymology for > >"phoinos" itself, sometimes taken as the root word of the group? > > Yes, _phoinos_ (also _phoinios_) "bloodred" comes from _phonos_ > "murder, slaughter". _Phonos_ shows up again in names like > Bellerophon and Tisiphone. The word comes from PIE _g^when_ (g^w > represents a labialized velar; the ^w means that the w is usually > written as a superscript) "hit, strike, slay, kill, wound, hurt". > The verb in Greek is _epephnon_ (pres. theino:) It apparently > does not survive in Germanic, but comes into English as a loan > from Latin where it appears only in compounds (de-fendere, > of-fendere [< ob-fendere]). > > > Bob Whiting > whiting@cc.helsinki.fi > > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 19:48:21 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Th=E9r=E8se?= Ghembaza Subject: Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Dear Mr. Don Mills" on Ausut 22, you wrote wrote: >With regard to the supposed relationship between "phoinos", meaning "red", and "Phoinike", >"Phoenicia", I would advise caution since there are several other possibilities. Some have related >it to Egyptian "fenekhw", "carpenters", as an MK term for the Phoenicians, whereas Boisacq suggested >a derivation from "Poun-t, a collective name for the Semites of the East Mediterranean hinterland", >influenced by Greek "phoinos". > >It seems to me that the "phoinos" (red, purple) / "Phoinix" (Phoenician) / "phoinix" (date-palm, >amongst other plants) / "phoinix" (phoenix bird) complex reveals the mutual influence upon one >another of several words of different origins (Egyptian "ben(n)u" for the bird, for example). I >know that one member of the complex appears in Mycenaean Greek ("ponike" / "ponikipi", interpreted >as "(with) date-palms"), and that the latter's relation if any to "phoinos", "red", is often >described as "obscure". Does anyone on the list know of an etymology for "phoinos" itself, >sometimes taken as the root word of the group? Indeed I consider the Egyptian term "pount" designing the Red Sea to be at the origin of the greek term Pontos meaning a sea which can be easily crossed by passing from an island to another. As for Phonoikos and the Phoenix bird, we must also consider the latin term punic from which the t of pount has disappeared. So we can however set now the question : Were the Phenicians originating from Pount and particularly from Erythrea, the land of the red men, meaning men with pale face burned by the sun ? Perhaps there was a "Persian" emigration on this East coast of Africa where most of the population was black, however moderately black because some percentage of metissage with European emigrants coming from Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia. Thanking you for your interest, I apologize for not to be at your level of specialist of linguistic and philology. But I appreciate very much your remarks. Thérèse Ghembaza Paris, France ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 19:21:51 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Th=E9r=E8se?= Ghembaza Subject: Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Dear Dr. Stefan Weninger, on Sun, August 22, you wrote : >I'm sorry, but your information is not quite correct. "Homeritai" in the >Greek version of Bent I (now quoted as RIÉ 270) is just the >transcription of the ethnonym "Himyar" in the Ethiopian version(s) and >has nothing to do with the famous Greek poet. So I thank you for your rectification, but as I am not a specialist, please could you tell me what means exactly the greek term "Homeritai". In my greek-french dictionnary (Bailly) I found only "Omeridai", the ones who sang the poems of Homer or who were supporters of Homer. And what is the context of the Aksum inscription ? Thanking you for teaching me, Thérèse Ghembaza Paris, France ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 14:26:59 EDT From: SheMichael@aol.com Subject: Re: ane W Blessing In a message dated 99-08-23 12:18:01 EDT, victor@bgumail.bgu.ac.il writes: << What is "totemic" about a sheep in ancient israel? >> Well, one of the Mothers of Israel, "RHL" is named "Ewe". She's the only one who dies in childbirth. There's likely to be a reason. Sheila Shiki y Michaels ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 21:26:26 +0200 (MET DST) From: Tomas.Marik@ff.cuni.cz Subject: Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Dear Robert Whiting, As far as I know the etymology from _foinos_ "red" is very frequent, e.g. Der kleine Pauly, Vol. 4, 796 simply states it as fact. But I think that actually it is not necessary to talk about "translation", since for the Greeks Phoenicia was the major (if not only) source for purple and purple textiles. >Since we are telling "just-so" stories, let me tell mine. I >suspect that _Phani:ke:_ "Phoenicia(n)" (< _phoi:ni:kos_, gen. of >_phoi:ni:ks_ "purple/crimson" < _phoinos/phoinios_ "bloodred") is >a calque in Greek of the name Canaan, long associated with the >Akkadian kinahhinu "purple dye". Greek did not accept loan words >easily and usually translated them into Greek (even with place >names if they could be etymologized). Thus _Phani:ke:_ is "land >of purple" corresponding to the meaning of Canaan. Translation >of place names is not really common, but it is not really rare >either (e.g., Capetown < Kaapstad or Montenegro < Chernagora >["black mountain"]). "Phoenicians" then is just what the Greeks >called the Canaanites and it is pure Greek and any attempts to >derive it from lookalikes in other languages just won't work. >(I rather think that Sally Morris published something along these >lines, but I'm not entirely sure where; perhaps in the special >volume of _Arethusa_ devoted to Black Athena.) Tomas Marik tomas.marik@ff.cuni.cz Istitute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies Prague ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 22:00:20 +0200 (MET DST) From: Tomas.Marik@ff.cuni.cz Subject: Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Dear Robert Whiting, As far as I know the etymology from _foinos_ "red" is very frequent, e.g. Der kleine Pauly, Vol. 4, 796 simply states it as fact. But I think that actually it is not necessary to talk about "translation", since for the Greeks Phoenicia was the major (if not only) source for purple and purple textiles. >Since we are telling "just-so" stories, let me tell mine. I >suspect that _Phani:ke:_ "Phoenicia(n)" (< _phoi:ni:kos_, gen. of >_phoi:ni:ks_ "purple/crimson" < _phoinos/phoinios_ "bloodred") is >a calque in Greek of the name Canaan, long associated with the >Akkadian kinahhinu "purple dye". Greek did not accept loan words >easily and usually translated them into Greek (even with place >names if they could be etymologized). Thus _Phani:ke:_ is "land >of purple" corresponding to the meaning of Canaan. Translation >of place names is not really common, but it is not really rare >either (e.g., Capetown < Kaapstad or Montenegro < Chernagora >["black mountain"]). "Phoenicians" then is just what the Greeks >called the Canaanites and it is pure Greek and any attempts to >derive it from lookalikes in other languages just won't work. >(I rather think that Sally Morris published something along these >lines, but I'm not entirely sure where; perhaps in the special >volume of _Arethusa_ devoted to Black Athena.) Tomas Marik tomas.marik@ff.cuni.cz Istitute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies Prague ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 22:13:06 +0200 (MET DST) From: Tomas.Marik@ff.cuni.cz Subject: Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions If the term "bilingual inscriptions" does also include vocabularies, then the oldest bilingual inscription could perhaps be one of the famous bilingual vocabularies from Ebla from around 2500 BC, with Sumerian words on the left and Eblaite equivalents on the right side. Published in MEE 3 I think (perhaps, someone else has the correct citation closer at hand). Tomas Marik tomas.marik@ff.cuni.cz Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies Prague ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 15:23:20 -0500 From: "Donald R. Vance" Subject: Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions I cover this in my "Literary Sources for the History of Palestine and Syria: The Phoenician Inscriptions, Part I" (BA 57:1[1994], p. 4). E. A. Speiser in "The Name Phinikes" (Language 12[1936], pp. 121-126) discusses the calque idea. Muhly suggests that the calque is not of Canaanite *kn< but of Hurrian Kina##u. On 8/23/99 11:13 AM, Robert Whiting, with the address of whiting@cc.helsinki.fi, did pen the following: >On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Don Mills wrote: > > > > >>With regard to the supposed relationship between "phoinos", >>meaning "red", and "Phoinike", "Phoenicia", I would advise >>caution since there are several other possibilities. Some have >>related it to Egyptian "fenekhw", "carpenters", as an MK term for >>the Phoenicians, whereas Boisacq suggested a derivation from >>"Poun-t, a collective name for the Semites of the East >>Mediterranean hinterland", influenced by Greek "phoinos". > >Since we are telling "just-so" stories, let me tell mine. I >suspect that _Phani:ke:_ "Phoenicia(n)" (< _phoi:ni:kos_, gen. of >_phoi:ni:ks_ "purple/crimson" < _phoinos/phoinios_ "bloodred") is >a calque in Greek of the name Canaan, long associated with the >Akkadian kinahhinu "purple dye". Greek did not accept loan words >easily and usually translated them into Greek (even with place >names if they could be etymologized). Thus _Phani:ke:_ is "land >of purple" corresponding to the meaning of Canaan. Translation >of place names is not really common, but it is not really rare >either (e.g., Capetown < Kaapstad or Montenegro < Chernagora >["black mountain"]). "Phoenicians" then is just what the Greeks >called the Canaanites and it is pure Greek and any attempts to >derive it from lookalikes in other languages just won't work. >(I rather think that Sally Morris published something along these >lines, but I'm not entirely sure where; perhaps in the special >volume of _Arethusa_ devoted to Black Athena.) > >>It seems to me that the "phoinos" (red, purple) / "Phoinix" >>(Phoenician) / "phoinix" (date-palm, amongst other plants) / >>"phoinix" (phoenix bird) complex reveals the mutual influence >>upon one another of several words of different origins (Egyptian >>"ben(n)u" for the bird, for example). I know that one member of >>the complex appears in Mycenaean Greek ("ponike" / "ponikipi", >>interpreted as "(with) date-palms"), and that the latter's >>relation if any to "phoinos", "red", is often described as >>"obscure". Does anyone on the list know of an etymology for >>"phoinos" itself, sometimes taken as the root word of the group? > >Yes, _phoinos_ (also _phoinios_) "bloodred" comes from _phonos_ >"murder, slaughter". _Phonos_ shows up again in names like >Bellerophon and Tisiphone. The word comes from PIE _g^when_ (g^w >represents a labialized velar; the ^w means that the w is usually >written as a superscript) "hit, strike, slay, kill, wound, hurt". >The verb in Greek is _epephnon_ (pres. theino:) It apparently >does not survive in Germanic, but comes into English as a loan >from Latin where it appears only in compounds (de-fendere, >of-fendere [< ob-fendere]). > > >Bob Whiting >whiting@cc.helsinki.fi > > Donald R. Vance, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature Undergraduate Theology Oral Roberts University drvance@oru.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 01:54:08 +0300 (IDT) From: chaim cohen Subject: Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions Dear Tomas and List Members, As far as I know, "bilingual inscriptions" does not usually include bilingual lexical texts, since the latter are not regular inscriptions but rather belong to the special genre of lexical lists (for which see esp. A. Cavigneaux, "Lexicalische Listen," RLA VI [1983], 609-641 and W. von Soden, THE ANCIENT ORIENT, trans. from German [Michigan, 1994], 145-153 and the soon to be published M. Civil, MESOPOTAMIAN LEXICOGRAPHY in the series HANDBOOK OF ORIENTAL STUDIES published by E. J. Brill, Leiden). The reference you were seeking is the edition of the VE = Vocabolario di Ebla in G. Pettinato, MEE IV (Napoli, 1982). In this context, mention should also be made of the symposium L. Cagni ed., IL BILINGUISMO A EBLA (Napoli, 1984). All the best, Chaim Cohen On Mon, 23 Aug 1999 Tomas.Marik@ff.cuni.cz wrote: > > If the term "bilingual inscriptions" does also include vocabularies, then > the oldest bilingual inscription could perhaps be one of the famous > bilingual vocabularies from Ebla from around 2500 BC, with Sumerian words on > the left and Eblaite equivalents on the right side. Published in MEE 3 I > think (perhaps, someone else has the correct citation closer at hand). > > Tomas Marik > tomas.marik@ff.cuni.cz > Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies > Prague > > > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 18:57:08 EDT From: FucciXXV@aol.com Subject: Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions In a message dated 8/23/99 11:21:53 AM Central Daylight Time, whiting@cc.helsinki.fi writes: > The verb in Greek is _epephnon_ (pres. theino:) It apparently > does not survive in Germanic, but comes into English as a loan > from Latin where it appears only in compounds (de-fendere, > of-fendere [< ob-fendere]). How about simply "fend"? Jim Thorn Chicago, IL ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 04:42:14 +0300 (IDT) From: avigdor horovitz Subject: Re: ane W Blessing and another matriarch is named leah which means cow and a third is named Rivkah which means cow, and my office mate is named Zipporah who was also Mrs. Amramson and it means bird, so what? Victor On Mon, 23 Aug 1999 SheMichael@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 99-08-23 12:18:01 EDT, victor@bgumail.bgu.ac.il writes: > > << What is "totemic" about a sheep in ancient israel? >> > > Well, one of the Mothers of Israel, "RHL" is named "Ewe". She's the only one > who dies in childbirth. There's likely to be a reason. > > > Sheila Shiki y Michaels > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 05:12:05 +0300 (IDT) From: avigdor horovitz Subject: Re: ane W Blessing On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, John Tvedtnes wrote: > Avigdor Horovitz wrote: > > >Just a bit more on the priestly blessing, and again my profoundest > >aploogies for not being able to research the thing more fully. > >This morning, after services, I asked a friend who is a Kohen and had just > >recited the Priestly Blessing about the fingers. He is hardly a scholar > >and couldn't give me a full answer, but he told me what he had been taught > >or read somewhere. He suggested that the ten fingers, placed as they are > >when reciting the blessing, actually form five fingers (the thumbs are > >joined into a single finger, and the remaining eight are divided into four > >groups of two, so we have five double fingers). He said that this is a > >representation of the Hand of God. > > This could not have been its original meaning, for in Second Temple times, > the kohanim would raise the hands above the head, in the temple, while > outside the temple they could only raise the hands to shoulder level. See > Mishnah Tamid 7:2. Today, since the temple no longer exists, they raise > their hands to shoulder level only, and hold them together toward the > congregation they are blessing, which enables them to put the thumbs > together. The practice of raising the hands is based on Leviticus 9:22, > but is found in other passages as well. I don't see how the height of the hands has anything to do with what they represent. A divine hand is a divine hand whehter at shoulder height or higher. The theory may be wrong, but your objection doesn't seem to refute it. > > FYI, Bahir 123-124 and 138 discusses the raising of the priest's hands > during blessing, saying that the ten fingers represent the ten sefirot and > the ten commandments. The qabbalah will place everything into the symbolic framework of the ten sefirot. this doesn't help understand the real meaning Victor > > You may also want to see See D. Plooij, "The Attitude of the Outspread > Hands (‘Orante') in Early Christian Literature and Art," Expository times > 23 (1912), 265-69. > > John A. Tvedtnes > Brigham Young University > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 06:46:04 +0300 (EETDST) From: Robert Whiting Subject: Re: ane Bilingual ancient inscriptions On Mon, 23 Aug 1999 FucciXXV@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 8/23/99 11:21:53 AM Central Daylight Time, > whiting@cc.helsinki.fi writes: > > > The verb in Greek is _epephnon_ (pres. theino:) It apparently > > does not survive in Germanic, but comes into English as a loan > > from Latin where it appears only in compounds (de-fendere, > > of-fendere [< ob-fendere]). > > How about simply "fend"? "Fend" is simply aphetic for "defend". Note also "forfend" which is a hybrid of "for-" and "fend". The point is that none of these are inherited words in English. They come from Latin "de-fendere" (as loans through French) and then have their own developments in English. There is no *fendere in Latin. Bob Whiting whiting@cc.helsinki.fi ------------------------------ End of ANE Digest V1999 #238 **************************** Back issues are available on the Oriental Institute World-Wide Web (WWW) site at: http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/ANE/OI_ANE.html