Notes on Biblical Names used in the Secular Record of the Day
The following is taken from A Survey
of Israel's History by Leon Wood
1. Names. One
aspect concerns the existence of names in ancient texts like those
used in Genesis. The name, Jacob, for instance, has been found in
the form Ya `qob-el designating a person in an eighteenth
century text from Chagar-bazar in Upper Mesopotamia, and designating
a place in Palestine in a list of Thutmose III; also in the form
Ya `qob-har as the name of a Hyksos chief.3 The name,
Abraham, has been found in Babylonian texts of the sixteenth century
in the form Abamram, and in other forms at .Mari.4 A Mari
text uses the name of Abraham's brother, Nahor, in the form Nakhur,
as the name of a city in the vicinity of Haran. Mari texts speak
further of a people called Banu-yamina (Benjamin),5 and
use names built on the same roots as Gad, Dan, Levi, and Ishmael.
Later Assyrian texts speak of two cities, Til-turakhi and Sarugi,
the equivalents of Terah and Serug, father and prior ancestor of
Abraham respectively. These names, and others that might be added,
all appear in texts from the first half of the second millennium.
Though evidence is lacking that any refers to a specific biblical
person or place, they do indicate that the names employed in the
Genesis record are those of the nomenclature of the day.6
Footnotes
3 Cf. Albright, JAOS,
74(1954); p. 231; R. DeVaux, RB, 72(1985), p. 9.
4 For three such texts,
cf. G. Barton, AB, pp. 344-45. On names generally at Mari, cf.
H. B. Huffmon, Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Texts (1965).
5 Cf. Gelb, JCS, 15(1961),
pp. 37-38; and H. Tadmore, JNES, 17(1958), p. 130, n. 12.
6 For further discussion
generally and references, cf. M. Unger, AOT, pp. 127-28; J.
Bright, BHI, pp. 70f; C. H. Gordon, ANE, pp. 113-33; and K. A.
Kitchen, AOOT, pp. 48f: 153f.
|
