Not be confused with Sheva (שבע), spelled with an Ayin (ע) as in Be'er Sheva (באר שבע), the town in the Negev desert, or Bat Sheva (בת שבע) the mother of Shelomoh (Solomon); or with Seva (סבא) with a samech (ס) and the emphasis on the second syllable, the Kushite tribe who appear in Genesis 10:7 as one of this Sheva's uncles.
This one refers to the Sabaeans, a nation and region of Arabia Felix (Yemen), rich in gold, frankincense and myrrh, as well as gems, and quite probably was pronounced Saba or Sava, with the first letter read as a Seen (שׂ - "dot" on the left ) not a Sheen (שׁ - dot on the right).
Genesis 10:7 names him as a grandson of Kush, a son of Ra'amah, and the brother of Dedan - once again we see the ambiguity of the name Kush; on this occasion we are definitely in Yemeni Arabia and not the other side of the Red Sea in Ethiopia.
Genesis 10:28 however makes him a son of Yaktan; still an Arab, but from the region bordering the Persian Gulf further north than Kush; this is plausible, given that Dedan, named as his brother in Genesis 10:7, comes from northern Arabia as well.
Genesis 25:3 makes his ancestry still more complex, treating him as a grandson of Keturah, though still as the brother of Dedan.
However, this is still further complicated by the possibility of Dedan being a mis-reading from Rodanim = the Ionian Greeks (Reysh - ר - and Dalet - ד - in Yehudit are very easy to mistake).
Once again we appear to have hit the problem of different periods of Yisra-Eli history having different perceptions of the political world it inhabited. To make a European allegory, Paris is a "son" of the King of France, but at different periods he could have been described as a "son" of the King of Gaul, or a "grandson" of Romulus. When Henry V won the battle of Agincourt and married Princess Katherine, the House of Paris became a "brother" of the House of Lancaster. Any future historian might well presume that Paris was himself a descendant of that Greek who loved Helen and caused the Trojan War, whereas in fact Par-Ys was a mere epithet, comparing the loveliness of the city to the lost city of Atlantis (Atlant-Ys), the Ile de Séné off the coast of Brittany.
See also 1 Kings 10:1; Isaiah 60:6; Jeremiah 6:20; Ezekiel 27:22; Psalm 72:15; Joel 4:8 (3:8 in some translations); Job 6:19.
Genesis 10:28 however makes him a son of Yaktan; still an Arab, but from the region bordering the Persian Gulf further north than Kush; this is plausible, given that Dedan, named as his brother in Genesis 10:7, comes from northern Arabia as well.
Genesis 25:3 makes his ancestry still more complex, treating him as a grandson of Keturah, though still as the brother of Dedan.
However, this is still further complicated by the possibility of Dedan being a mis-reading from Rodanim = the Ionian Greeks (Reysh - ר - and Dalet - ד - in Yehudit are very easy to mistake).
Once again we appear to have hit the problem of different periods of Yisra-Eli history having different perceptions of the political world it inhabited. To make a European allegory, Paris is a "son" of the King of France, but at different periods he could have been described as a "son" of the King of Gaul, or a "grandson" of Romulus. When Henry V won the battle of Agincourt and married Princess Katherine, the House of Paris became a "brother" of the House of Lancaster. Any future historian might well presume that Paris was himself a descendant of that Greek who loved Helen and caused the Trojan War, whereas in fact Par-Ys was a mere epithet, comparing the loveliness of the city to the lost city of Atlantis (Atlant-Ys), the Ile de Séné off the coast of Brittany.
See also 1 Kings 10:1; Isaiah 60:6; Jeremiah 6:20; Ezekiel 27:22; Psalm 72:15; Joel 4:8 (3:8 in some translations); Job 6:19.
Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press
No comments:
Post a Comment