Skip to main content
×
×
Home

The Combat of 'Aleyân-Ba'al and Mōt A Proto-Hebrew Epic from Ras-Shamra

  • Theodor Herzl Gaster
Extract

The original tablet contained about 527 lines; of these only 367 remain, excluding unintelligible fragments. Large gaps, involving fifteen lines and more, occur in Cols. I, II, III, and VIII; Cols. IV, V, VI, and VII (in the centre of the tablet) are less damaged, though everywhere minor breaks affect the text. In view of this it is very difficult to recover the sequence, and the following summary must be regarded as partially conjectural, though in the main reasonably certain.

Copyright
References
Hide All

page 14 note 1 The usual meaning is “be great, dominari”; this would be a development paralle ed by Hebrew . Derivative nouns from the root . meaning “plenty”, “crowd”, etc., going back to the idea of number, do indeed occur.

page 22 note 1 Aram. , however, links up rather with , pêṣu.

page 28 note 1 Is it too hazardous to propose for The word would then mean “foundations”; cf. Ar. and BH. in Amos 9 6.

page 31 note 1 That my interpretation is here correct is strikingly suggested by the complete parallelism of expression in another Semitic tongue—Mandean, in describing a similar scene. Cf. Qolasta, 316, Lidzbarski: = “Thereupon she laughed, exulted, sprang up, and leapt about.”

page 32 note 1 Or read , which was “emended” when was wrongly derived from . I think this is better.

page 34 note 1 Cf. Genesis 424, 503; Is. 2315; Jerem. 2511. See also KAT2 p. 634.

page 34 note 2 I there regard = ki lâ “how not?” in the Amarna letters (and again in 2 Sam. 235) and render: “Springs not anguish from the very dust? and sprouts not trouble from the soil itself? Forsooth, mankind is unto trouble born, and Resheph's hosts do ever wing on high.”

page 35 note 1 Due to varying methods of computation; v. Jastrow, , Rel. Bab. u. Assyr., i, 198, n. 2. Five and fifty belong to the decimal system: Jensen, v., ZKF., i, 150, and cf. Greek πέντε “handful” (Headlam-Knox, Herodas, p. 133). Seven and seventy belong to the heptad system, on which v. KAT2, 621, and (in Greece) Roscher, , ASGW., xxi, 4. “Six” and “sixty” belong to the Mesopotamian sar-system, based on the complete circle of 360 degrees.

page 35 note 2 A = (water); NU = zikaru (mighty; cf. NUN = rubu): thus A.NU = BH. “ocean”. NA is a phonetic complement, actually omitted in early forms of the name. KI is the determinative of location. Being no Sumerologist, I take this from Jastrow, Rel. Bab. u. Assyr., except for the comparison of A.NU with which is my own.

Recommend this journal

Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this journal to your organisation's collection.

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
  • ISSN: 1356-1863
  • EISSN: 1474-0591
  • URL: /core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society
Please enter your name
Please enter a valid email address
Who would you like to send this to? *
×

Metrics

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 3 *
Loading metrics...

Abstract views

Total abstract views: 39 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between September 2016 - 12th June 2018. This data will be updated every 24 hours.