Mey Zahav

מי זהב


Genesis 36:39 - the grandmother of Matred (מתרד), whose daughter Meheytav-El (מהיטבל) married Hadar (הדר), an Edomite king.

Gesenius insists that it was a man's name, but this is untenable, even without the overt statement in the Genesis reference that she was female.

Mey (מי) means "waters of", and Zahav (זהב) is gold, surely an allusion to the sun's rays rather than a comment on the waters of a spring or fountain, either way sacred to the sun-god.

Similar names occur in the Tanach, as: Mey Ha Yarkon (מי הירקון), a town in the territory of Dan, named after a nearby spring or fountain (Joshua 19:46); Mey Nephto'ach (מי נפתוח), a fountain in the tribe of Yehudah, near the valley of Ben-Hinnom outside Yeru-Shalayim (Joshua 15:9, 18:15); Mey Dev'a (מידבא), a town in the territory of Re'u-Ven (Isaiah 15:2 places it in Mo-Av, close to Mount Nevo, but this is not a problem as Re'u-Ven disappeared early on, conquered by the people who became the Beney Mo-Av).




Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Meshech

משך


Genesis 10:2: a son of Yaphet, the Greek Japetus. Probably the Moschi or Mushki or Meskheti in Georgian, a tribe inhabiting the mountainous region between 
Armenia and Colchis, usually linked with the Tibareni (Biblical Tuval - תובל).

Psalm 120:5: "Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar"; an odd phrase, from which we have to assume that Meshech has another meaning besides the geographical region. Kedar is linked to Kidron, the stream that flowed through Yeru-Shala'im and came out at the Dead Sea; no one wanted to live by it because it was the main sewage system for Yeru-Shala'im, so at least half of that Psalmic line is self-explanatory.

Mashach (משך) means "to draw out"; and Hosea 7:5 quotes a contemporary proverb: "Mashach yado et-lotsetsim (משך ידו את-לצצים)" meaning "to spend time with wicked men". We can now re-translate the Psalmic verse without difficulty: "Woe unto me if I waste my time with ne'er-do-wells and make my bed in sewage".

Yechezke-El
 (Ezekiel) has many references to the Moschians, as does Herodotus.




Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Mesha

משא


Genesis 10:30 names it as an eastern hill-country of Arabia where the Beney Yaktan (Joktanites) lived, "from Mesha as far as Sephara". The two named towns are probably Maushid and Shehr, between Mecca and Medinah on the Persian Gulf.

Once more we have an instance of a Yisra-Eli tribal list that has nothing whatever to do with the Beney Yisra-El, nor even with Kena'an (Canaan), but which finds its way into the text because of the broader needs of the Redactor in creating a national identity.


The name is written as written as Meysha in 1 Chronicles 8:9 - see also under Tsevo'im.





Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Merari

מררי


Genesis 46:11 names him as the youngest son of Levi.

Exodus 6:19 names Merari's sons as Machli (מחלי) and Mushi (מושי).

See also Numbers 26:57.

Given the nature of Levi's role in the priesthood, we can expect the names of his "sons" and "grandsons" to be, in fact, descriptions of their offices, and to reflect genealogically their position in the priestly hierarchy. And so it transpires.

Merari means "bitter" or "unhappy" and is worth noting in connection with Maror (מרור), the bitter herbs of the seder plate which is so central to the Passover story. The same root (Marah - מרה) gives the names of Mir-Yam (Miriam), Mosheh's sister; of Mor-Yah (Moriah), the holy mountain where Av-Raham went to sacrifice Yitschak; of Elon Moreh, the terebinths of Moreh (מרה); and in Christianity the name Mary. All these are epithets of the sea-goddess (whose tears are bitter because they are made of salt), who is herself a manifestation of the great mother Astarte/Asherah/Anat/Eshet/Io/Chava (Eve)/Diana/Athene - or any of the other local names by which she was known.

We can almost certainly conclude from this that the original Merari was a "daughter" not a son, unless it was a male priest serving the goddess. If it was, he would have been a eunuch priest (see my notes to Milkah), which makes his "fathership" of Machli and Mushi even more questionable. However "fatherhood" is to be taken as a priestly term in this instance - as monastic novices refer to the senior abbot as "father", and he to them as "my son" (and actually the word "abbot" was derived from the Yehudit "av" = father, though it is also the Aramaic word for father, and the Greek "abbas" likewise derives from a still-earlier source, probably Hittite; but please don't mention that to the scholars who are now trying to discredit William Jones).

Machli (מחלי) comes from the same root as Machalat (מחלת), which is the name for the women members of the Temple choir and orchestra, who had a very particular role in the funeral rites, especially at the autumn harvest-festival.

The tribe (or more correctly the cultic clan) of Machli is referred to in Numbers 3:33 and 26:58, and in 1 Chronicles 23:23 and 24:30. They are described as being the brother-tribe of Eder (עדר) and Yerimot (ירמות), Eder meaning "the congregation" and Yerimot "the high place"; so again we are reading cultic titles not personal names (imagine the senior executives of the corporation being named John Ceo, Peter Boardlink and Mary Publicrelations, and you have something like the equivalent).

Mushi (מושי) can be read as a variant on Mosheh (משה), which is to say Moses, the political/secular leader, from the root Mashah (משה). This is normally treated as meaning "to draw out", because in the original Egyptian tale Mosheh is an epithet for Osher (Osiris), from the Egyptian word meaning "to draw out". The Yehudit word Mashah however does not have that meaning, though it echoes it in Mashach (משך) which is the Yehudit word for "to draw out". Ezekiel 16:10 uses Mashah to mean "a garment of silk", and Deuteronomy 15:2 has Mashah (משה) meaning "a debt"; this latter is a textual error, however; it should read Nasha (נשה).



Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Menasheh (Manasseh)

מנשה


Mis-pronounced and mis-spelled as Manasseh in the English of the King James Bible, as though the third letter were a Seen (ש) and not a Sheen (ש).

Genesis 41:50 names him as the elder son of Yoseph by Asnat (אסנת), the daughter of Poti-Pherah (פוטיפרע), priest of On (און); he was later adopted by Ya'akov (Jacob) but supplanted by his younger brother Ephrayim (אפרים).

Genesis 46:20: ibid.

Genesis 48:1 ff/13-20: Ya'akov blesses his grandsons, younger first, exactly as Yitschak (Isaac) did to Ya'akov and Esav previously. Clearly from the text Ya'akov knows what he is doing, and means it this way, despite Yoseph's protests. It fits the pattern of ultimogeniture established previously, though evidently the Egyptian Yoseph did not practice it. The Tanist twinning with Ephrayim is important, especially as both brothers replaced Yoseph in the tribal amphictyony, and Ephrayim later became the alternate - indeed the more common name - for the confederation with Yehudah under David.

Genesis 50:23 names his son Machir (מכיר). The name means "sold", which links him to several ancestors, all of them first-borns, whose birthright and paternal blessing was forfeited. Does the name indicate an indentured servant, sold in the same way that Yoseph was?

The root of Menasheh means "one who forgets", according to the lexicographers. The verbal form is evident from the vowel structure: the Pi'el or intensive form. We can thus treat the Mem (מ) as a prefix and what remains is the root: Nashah (נשה) which does indeed mean "to forget", and would become Menasheh in the Pi'el form.

But there is another Nasheh (נשה), quite unconnected to that one, and it appears crucially in Genesis 32:33, immediately after Ya'akov's wrestling match at Penu-El, when "the man", his adversary, has touched the hollow of his thigh and put it out of joint; we are told: "Al ken lo yochlu beney Yisra'el et gid ha-nasheh asher al kaph ha-yerech - על כן לא יאכלו בני ישראל את גיד הנשה אשר על כף הירד therefore the Beney Yisra-El do not eat of the sinew at the top of the thigh." This is the origins of the Passover rite, as is explained in the commentary on the text; the Nasheh is the central nerve or tendon that passes through the thigh and leg to the ankle. Some will no doubt argue against this theory, which is inconvenient to say the least; the retort is twofold. a) find an explanation of why anyone would name their child, or take as a royal name, "he who forgets"; b) Nota Bene – Penu-El, where Ya'akov wrestled, is located within the tribal territory of Menasheh! It may be that we have found the man with whom Ya'akov wrestled.

Genesis 49:19: Menasheh's blessing: "He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations." A self-fulfilling prophesy, if you are making it several hundred years after the event!

Joshua 13:29 ff and 17:7 ff give details of Menasheh's territory, which straddled the river Yarden (Jordan), having the other important Jacobite cities of Machanayim within its eastern, and Shechem within its western hegemony.

It is also pointed out, and not for the first time, that the territory of his son Machir came in two portions, just as Yoseph's did through his sons. The division into portions (the Yehudit word for portion is "shechem"!) has a religious significance which is Tanist in nature - a reflection of the waxing-waning phases of both the sun and moon.

2 Kings 21:1-18 and 2 Chronicles 33:1-20 record a king of Yehudah (699-644 BCE) who was named Menasheh; a son of 
Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah - חזקיה), he was renowned for his idolatry, superstition and cruelty towards the righteous.

Judges 18:30 speaks of a Yehonatan (יהוֹנָתָן - Jonathan), the son of Gershom (גֵּרְשֹׁם), the son of Menasheh, who was one of the sons of Dan who set up a graven image and served it as priests.

See also Ezra 10:30-33.

Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Meheytav-El

מהיטבאל


Genesis 36:39 names her as a daughter of Matred (מטרד), and grand-daughter of Mey-Zahav (מי-זהב); she married Hadar (הדר), king of Edom.

Possibly the 
Chaldean form of Meytiv-El (מיטיב אל), "the beneficent god".

See also Nehemiah 6:10, where Necham-Yah (נְחֶמְיָה) goes to the house of Shema-Yah (שְׁמַעְיָה) the son of Dela-Yah (דְּלָיָה) the son of Meheytav-El (דְּלָיָה); as so often in Nechem-Yah, the names tend to reflect a faith based on the marriage of El and Yah, which is not the common coupling of the Kena'ani world.





Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Mahalal-El

מהללאל


Genesis 5:12 ff names him as a son of Kena'an (Canaan) in the descent of Shem; he fathered Yared (ירד) at the age of 65 and lived to the age of 895.

Nehemiah 11:4 names Ata-Yah (עֲתָיָה ) the son of Uzi-Yah (עֻזִּיָּה), the son of Zechar-Yah (זְכַרְיָה), the son of Amar-Yah (אֲמַרְיָה), the son of Shephat-Yah (שְׁפַטְיָה), the son of Mahalal-El (מַהֲלַלְאֵל), of the children of Pharets (פָרֶץ), as one of the Bin-Yamin of Yehudah living in Yeru-Shala'im at the time that Ezra read the Book of the Law to the returnees from Bavel (Babylon). The list is particularly interesting as it not only takes the clan-name back to Pharets ben Yehudah, which was also King David's clan (Ruth 4:18-22, Matthew 1:3, Luke 3:33), but it also provides us with a list of names that are almost entirely Yah names, endorsing the association between David and Yah.

Scholars and synagogue cantors generally mispronounce it Mehallel, dropping or elliding the second Lamed (ל), and connecting it thereby with Hallel (הלל) = "praise", "thanksgiving"; if this were indeed the root, then the name would mean "praise of El" and would function as a masculine form of the better known Hallelu-Yah; a splendid coincidence in the circumstances, and further endorsement of the David-Yah association.

However the etymology is extremely doubtful, because the spelling simply does not accord; the double Lamed still needs to be pronounced, with the god-name appended, making it Mahalalel-El or Mahalal-El, or actually, much more likely, Mehal-La-El, treating the second Lamed as a conjunctive preposition, and rooting the first part in Mahal - מהל= "to prune the vine", a verb used figuratively for adulterating wine with water, as the ancients almost invariably did. This would link him to Dionysus/Bacchus in a manner that needs exploring.

The latter root would also give Mul (מול), the pruning of the male vine so that it too may run to fruit, which is to say the practice of circumcision; and from the same root the Mohel, the person authorised to carry out the circumcision.




Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Medan

מדן


Genesis 25:2 names him as a son of Av-Raham by Keturah. The children of Keturah were all Arabian tribes.

Gesenius claims that it comes from the root Din (דין) = "strife"; but this is the same root that gives Dan (דן) and Dinah (דינה); there is no suggestion anywhere that the Dana'ans, who were the occupants of Phoenicia and colonised most of the Mediterranean, had colonies in Mesopotamia and Arabia as well, though their Beney Chet (Hittite) forebears did.

There may be a link to Middin (מדין), a town in the plains of Yehudah which Joshua 15:61 mentions, or possibly to Madon (מדון), a royal city of the Beney Kena'an mentioned in Joshua 11:1 and 12:19.

Much more likely though is that Medan is an error for, or a dialect variation of, Midyan (מדין), the Midyanites of Arabia, who are linked to the Beney Yishma-El in various passages, and especially in the story of the selling of Yoseph. Genesis 37:36 even writes Midyanites as Medanites (מדני), which makes for further evidence.

The same root gives Medinah (מדינה), famously the city in Arabia to which Muhammad fled from Mecca; though that city was properly called Yatrib, and only became Medinah when the Prophet's name was attached to it: Medinat an-Nabi, the "City of the Prophet". Medinah simply means "city". The name came to mean "land" or "nation" or "province" in Yehudit.

The final suggestion that has been made by Bible scholars is that it links to Medea (Maday - מדי), the name of the land and people from whom came the Medes, conquerors of Bavel (Babylon) and liberators of the Beney Yehudah in the 6th century BCE. But the lateness of this date is incongruous with the remainder of the Keturah list, and can therefore probably be discounted, except as an anachronism.


Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Mechuya-El

מחויאל

Genesis 4:18 names him as a son of Irad (עירד), Kayin's grandson. The Masoretic text is somewhat bewildering though, because it names him twice in the same verse, but differently: first as Mechuya-El, then as Mechiya-El (מחייאל).

Nor is the etymology very obvious, though most scholars reckon that it is probably not a Yehudit word anyway. Those who insist that it is Yehudit root it in Machah (מחה) + El (אל) = "struck down" by El, but nothing in the story corroborates it (mostly because he is named, but there is no story).

The problem lies in the Vav-Yud (וי) or Yud-Yud (יי) middle letters, which tends to suggest either a missing letter or a confusion over two letters resolved by using both - but which is it? If we read Mechuya-El as Machah-Yah-El (מחה-יה-אל), the interpretation would be "he who extended the worship of Yah to the worshippers of El" - which of course is precisely what happened at some point when the Phoenicians and the aboriginal Beney Kena'an first came in contact, probably around 2000 BCE, at or just before the time of Av-Raham. If we also read Metusha-El (מתושאל= Methuselah) - the son of Mechuya-El, according to the following verse - as a variant upon Metushelach (מתושלח), as the alternate list in Genesis 5 suggests, the logic of this is further emphasised, since the root-word Shalach (שלח) likewise means "to send" or "to extend". Metusha-El may then be read as "man of El", from the Kena'ani (Canaanite) word Metu (מתו) = Man; or may be linked to the Underworld god Mot (מות).



Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Matred

מטרד


Genesis 36:39 names her as the mother-in-law of the Edomite king Hadar (הֲדַר), "and his wife's name was Meheytav-El (מְהֵיטַבְאֵל), the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mey-Zahav (מי זהב)."


Mey Zahav (מי זהב) means "waters of gold", presumably a reference to the sun's rays rather than the quality of the local spring-water.

Meheytav-El (מהיטבאל) comes from the word Tov (טוב) = "good"; "whom El benefits"; a perfectly normal priestess name, though Meytiv-El would be the more common grammatical form.

Many scholars believe that Hadar is an error for Chadad (חֲדַ֣ד), who appears as a son of Yishma-El in Genesis 25:15 and 1 Chronicles 1:30. 1 Chronicles 1:50 and 51 also call him Chadad, and again name him as an Edomite king, but place him around the time of Sha'ul, centuries after the tales in Genesis. A scribal error between a Reysh (ר) and a Dalet (ד) is not uncommon (Dodanim and Rodanim for example), and it is not uncommon to find an error between a Hey (ה) and a Chet (ח), but it is most uncommon to find both errors in the same word, as would be necessary here; TheBibleNet can find no other evidence to support the case for the error, and therefore rejects it.

Matred occurs in an Edomite list of princes which reflects the pantheon of the Beney Kena'an, and Chadad is also listed; Hadar is not a known name for a Kena'ani deity.

Matred from the root Tarad (טרד) = "to thrust" or "push forward"; but in Chaldean it means "to drive out".

The genealogy gives Meheytav-El as a daughter of Matred, herself a daughter of Mey Zahav. This would make Mey Zahav the place, Matred the priestess; but if Matred had indeed been "cast out", then Meheytav-El would have succeeded to the priesthood in her place, and the name she took tells a story of rehabilitation and restoration after whatever caused the previous priestess to be removed. All this takes place in the city of Pa'u (פעו), where Hadar reigns in sacred marriage with the priestess. Pa'u is known as an Edomite city, though it is also called Pe'i. Its root is Pa'ah (פעה) which means "to call" or "cry out", "to bleat" or "bellow", though its primary meaning is "to hiss", as serpents hiss, from the word Epheh (אפעה) = "a viper". See also Nachash.



Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Masa

משא


Genesis 25:14: a son of Yishma-El.

cf 1 Chronicles 1:30.

The word means "a burden" but it is also used (השר המשא in 1 Chronicles 15:27) for the chorus leader - Ha Sar Ha Masa. It can also mean "a gift" or "tribute" and in modern Ivrit Masa u-Matan (מַשָׂא וּמַתָן), combining two different words for "giving" - in the sense of "give-and-take" - is used for the process of "negotiation" or "bargaining".




Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Masrekah

משרקה


Genesis 36:36 names Samlah (שמלה) of Masrekah as a king of Edom.

Samla means "a garment", usually a large outer garment of the sort in which people would wrap themselves for warmth at night, a kind of Biblical dressing-gown. Odd name! So many Biblical names are odd names, what else is there to do with them but imagine there must be a reason.

The root Samal (שמל) means "to gird" or "to surround", which does not really help decipher the enigma at all.

The fact that he was the successor to Chadad (חדד), which is a shortened form of Ba'al-Chadad (בעל-חדד), the Kena'anite storm-god, and that he was succeeded first by Sha'ul of Rechovot (Saul the Rachabite, which is to say a worshipper of the sea-goddess Rachav/Rahab of Yericho), and then by Ba'al-Chanan (בעל-חנן) the son of Achbor (עכבור) - a moon-god who served in the field-mouse cult of the corn-goddess - ought to give further clues; but alas they take us no nearer.

The king-list is given in full in 1 Chronicles 1:43 ff, and is packed with the names of Kena'ani gods, served by sacred priest-kings (note there are no El or Yah names in the list). Gesenius suggests Samla (שמלה) may be an erroneous transposition of Salma (שלמה), but this is unlikely, because the Jerusalemite Salm cult is never associated with Edom, nor are any of the gods listed here linked directly to the sun. Nevertheless the transposition does take place, and therefore cannot be completely ignored: in Exodus 22:8 and again in Micah 2:8.

Much more likely, it seems to me, the etymology is in fact completely different; because there is also Masreykah (משרקה) = "a vineyard", usually of superior quality, which could indicate that we are again in the Dionysic-Baccanalian realm associated with the Esav-Ya'akov story and their links to Edom.

And no, the name has nothing to do with combing the hair; Masrek (מסרק), which is the Yehudit word for a comb, is spelled with a Samech (ס), not a Seen
(ש).




Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Mash

מש


Genesis 10:23 names him as a son of Aram, and brother of Uts (ע֥וּץ), Chul (ח֖וּל) and Geter (גֶ֥תֶר), in the family of Shem; which is to say an Aramaean people of Ashur (Assyria) or 
Mesopotamia; possibly the inhabitants of Mount Masius, north of Nesileis in the Gordian Mountains of Syria, now known as Karja Baghlar.

However 1 Chronicles 1:17 gives the sons of Shem as Eylam, Ashur, Arphachshad, Lud and Aram, exactly as Genesis 10:23 does, but then makes Uts, Chul, Geter and Meshech (מֶשֶׁךְ) additional sons of Shem, rather than specifically sons of Aram.

There is also a Mesha (משא) which, given that the Aramaic often has an Aleph (א) ending which is absent in the Yehudit, may well be the same place. This one is mentioned in Genesis 10:30.



Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Marduk

מרדך


Why am I including this Babylonian deity in TheBibleNet, when his name does not appear in the Tanach anywhere, or perhaps once, if you count Merodach in Jeremiah 50:2 as a variant on his name - that reference is probably to Merodach-Baladan, the 8th century BCE king of Bavel (Babylon) who was known in his own language as Marduk-apal-iddina II; and so, yes, it is a variant)?

Marduk was regarded as the son of Enki, though that was probably a late syncretisation as he rose to power. He was also called Bel (whence Ba'al), and in some cults he is known as Bel-Marduk, which suggests the amalgamation or assimilation of two cults; or it may be just that Bel/Ba'al is a title, like Ar Thur, "The King".

Later he became the chief of the gods in a patriarchal Trimurti echoed in the Greek Ouranos-Chronos-Zeus as well as the Yisra-Eli Av-Raham-Yitschak-Ya'akov.

In the ancient Persian myth of Creation, Marduk, the 
king of the gods, slices the serpent Orphis in two, unwrapping him thereby from his stranglehold around the unhatched egg of Earth, enabling Creation; the myth recurs in modified form in both of the Yisra-Eli accounts of Creation (Genesis 1:1-2:3 and 2:4-3:24). Marduk also reappears, with his wife Ishtar and his Chamanim (cf Leviticus 26:30), the statues at which he was worshipped as the sun, in the Purim story of Mardechai (מָרְדֳּכַי - Mordechai), Ester (אֶסְתֵּר - Esther) and - the Chet changed to a Hey to disguise him - Haman (הָמָן).

But this is most likely  a late retelling of the ancient Babylonian version, in which Marduk, in one of his earlier incarnations as Enki or Ea, overthrew Tiamat, the goddess of the primordial sea who appeared in the shape of a sea-serpent, and with her the forces of chaos - the Tohu and Bohu of Genesis 1 - and brought order to the universe which the gods and humans work together to maintain.

At his earliest incarnation, in the Old Babylonian period, he appears to have been syncretised with the gods Asalluhi and Tutu (the latter the patron deity of the city of Borsippa), although in some Old Babylonian sources Asalluhi and Marduk were still understood as separate deities. The syncretism with Asalluhi is mentioned in a Sumerian literary letter to the goddess Nin-Isinna, in which Asalluhi is described as the "king of Babylon."

Marduk rose (just like YHVH later on) from being an obscure deity in the third millennium BCE, to become one of the most important gods and the head of the Mesopotamian-Babylonian pantheon in the first millennium. But Babylonia became Marduk's realm in the latter millennia BCE, and through him the city of Babylon, of which he was the patron god,  became the religious centre of Mesopotamia at that epoch. Marduk's main temples were located in Babylon itself: the most famous was the ziggurat Etemenanki ("the Temple that is the foundation of the heavens and the Earth"), his temple tower in Babylon, which served as a model for the Biblical "Tower of Babel." The temple where Marduk was worshipped was called the Esagil (literally: "The Temple whose top is raised," or perhaps better "Proud/Honoured Temple"). In addition, there was the akītu-house at Babylon, where the New Year's festival was celebrated. The akītu-house was located just outside the sacred district of Babylon. A ritual text dating to the Parthian period describes how the Enūma eliš (known, wrongly, as the "Babylonian Epic of Creation"; the title is also the opening phrase, and means ""when on high" - the same form and process as the opening of the Book of Genesiswas recited in front of Marduk's statue during the New Year's festival, which also involved a ritual slapping of the king.

Marduk was also worshipped in other Babylonian cities, such as SipparBorsippa, and Nippur. His cult in Assyria was only minor.

In the second half of the second millennium BCE, Marduk was often invoked by rulers of the Kassite dynasty, who had made Babylon their capital. With the Elamite invasion of Babylonia, which ended the Kassite dynasty, the divine statue of Marduk was abducted to Elam (Persia) together with other Babylonian cultural goods. It was not until Nebuchadnezzar I of the Second Dynasty of Isin that Marduk's statue could be retrieved and returned to Babylon in triumph. The Enūma eliš  was probably composed, or at least popularised, at this period.

Due to tensions between Assyria and Babylonia during the Neo-Assyrian period, Marduk's cult and the city of Babylon often became the focus of Assyrian kings, both in positive and negative ways. It was not until the Neo-Babylonian period that Babylon and Marduk were at the apex: Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned 604-562 BCE) rebuilt the city of Babylon and with it the sacred district of Babylon. Most of the renowned architecture that was excavated in Babylon, such as the famous Ishtar Gate with its glazed brick reliefs showing the symbolic animals of Ishtar and Marduk, dates to this period.

Astrologically he is identified with the planet Jupiter. 

He is the god of healing, justice, compassion, regeneration, magic and fairness. He was known as the peacekeeper among the gods and was referred to, in this regard, as "Shepherd of the Gods". In "The Epic of Irra", Marduk leaves the city of Babylon in the hands of Nergal (Irra, Erra) who destroys it in a rage. Marduk was one of the most popular and enduring gods of Mesopotamia and was adopted by the Assyrians as son of their supreme god Ashur.

Marduk's wife was the goddess Ṣarpanitum. The god Nabu, who was first Marduk's minister, later became identified as his son and then became his co-regent at the helm of the Babylonian pantheon.

All of this is best read in the Enūma eliš, which recounts Marduk's rise to the head of the pantheon, and uses the creation story as a vehicle. First he fights the goddess Tiamat, the deified ocean or primoridal sea, whic really means the prfe-creational elements, and specifically the female, where Marduk represents the male. Marduk wins, kills Tiamat, and creates the world from her body. In gratitude the other gods then bestow fifty names upon Marduk and select him to be their head. The number fifty is significant, because it was previously associated with the god En-Lil, the former head of the pantheon, who was now replaced by Marduk.

This supplanting can also be read in the prologue to the Code of Hammurabi, a collection of "laws," issued by Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 BCE), the most famous king of the first dynasty of Babylon. In the prologue, Hammurabi mentions that the gods Anu and En-Lil determined for Marduk to receive the "Enlil-ship" (stewardship) of all the people, and with this elevated him into the highest echelons of the Mesopotamian pantheon.

Another important literary text offers a different perspective on Marduk. The composition, one of the most intricate literary texts from ancient Mesopotamia, is often classified as "wisdom literature," and ill-defined and problematic category of Akkadian literature. Assyriologists refer to this poem as Ludlul bēl nēmeqi - "Let me praise the Lord of Wisdom" - after its first line, or alternatively as "The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer". Four tablets, each containing 120 lines, it starts with a 40-line hymn of praise to Marduk, in which his dual nature is described in complex poetic wording: Marduk is powerful, both good and evil; just as he can help humanity, he can also destroy people. The story then launches into a first-person narrative, in which the hero tells us of his continued misfortunes. It is this element that has often been compared to the Biblical story of Job. In the end the sufferer is saved by Marduk, and the poem ends by praising the god once more. 

In the Old Babylonian period, Marduk's symbol was the spade, and his totem animal the mušḫuššu, the "snake-dragon," which is frequently represented on the glazed brick reliefs from Babylon. There are very few anthropomorphic depictions of Marduk; most of them can be found on cylinder seals.

The etymology of Marduk's name is controversial. It is difficult to determine whether the logographic writing of his name dAMAR.UD, Sumerian for "calf of the sun/sun-god," is in any way significant or not. The suggestion to translate this spelling as "calf of the storm" should probably be rejected as there is no evidence for Marduk originally having been a storm god nor is there evidence for his association with the storm god Iškur/Adad (see above).


Copyright © 2020 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press


Manachat

מנחת


Genesis 36:23 names him as a son of Shoval (שובל), in the descent of Se'ir of the Beney Chor (Horites); his brothers were Alvan (עלבן), Eyval (עיבל), Shepho (שפו) and Onam (אונם).

1 Chronicles 8:6 makes it a place, not a man's name, though there is no reason why it can't be both. Eyval we know for certain was a place: Mount Eyval (Ebal), facing Mount Gerizim, the mountains of blessing and cursing on either side of Shechem. As to the others?...

The name means "rest", from the same root that yields the name No'ach (נוח).




Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

Mamre

ממרא

The ancient Oak of Mamre in Hebron. Photo 1890-1900

Genesis 13:18 has Eloney Mamre (אלוני ממרא), an oak grove near Chevron.

Genesis 14:12 has Eloney Mamre ha Emori (האמרי - Amorite), naming it after its owner, or possibly its deity.

Further references in Genesis 18:1, 23:17, 35:27, 49:30 and 50:13.

Mamre (ממרא) = "fatness" or "strength".

Mamre is treated throughout as being the name of a man, but an oak grove signifies holy ground, so it is much more likely Mamre was the god worshipped at the shrine, or the title of the sacred priest-king. Given that the word is four-lettered, and Yehudit roots are always either two or three at that early point of history, we must look for a prefix, a suffix or a verbal indicator; or alternately a foreign name rendered in Yehudit, which is more likely for an Amorite. 
The Aleph (א) ending would certainly denote the latter, except that no such word as Mamar occurs in Chaldean, Ethiopic or any of the other languages in which it would be logical to look.

The additional Mem (מ) however, which occurs as a prefix in the cave of Machpelah (מכפלה), which just happens to lie adjacent to Mamre, does render a sensible Yehudit explanation: Mara (מרא) means "to be full of food" or "well nourished", which hints at the fertility goddess at harvest time; and guess what, Na'ami (Naomi), the mother-in-law of Rut (Ruth), says upon her arrival at Beit-Lechem (Bethlehem) - the shrine of the corn-god himself, where he will be disembowelled upon the sacred threshing-floor – "call me not Naomi, call me Mara; אל-תקראנה לי נעמי קראן לי מרא" (Ruth 1:20), which the Yehudit text explains aetiologically as meaning "sad" or "bitter", linking it to the death of her sons, theologically to Mor-Yah, the bitter tears wept by the women for Tammuz at the north gate of the Temple, and by Mother Mary at Calvary, witnessing the Crucifixion.

However, Na'ami is Demeter to Rut's Kore, itself a variation of the Greek myth of Persephone (and the equivalent Roman myth of Proserpina), and Av-Raham in his role as sun-god would logically make "a treaty" with her. We can thus not only explain the nature of the "treaty", but even date it accurately, for the feast of Na'ami is Shavu'ot, the summer harvest-festival that takes place fifty days after Passover, on the 6th day of the month of Sivan, and which is also held to be King David's birthday as well as the date on which Mosheh received the Ten Commandments. Na'ami's husband was named Eli-Melech (אלימלך), a title of the sun-god and a parallel of the name Av-Raham.

The name Mara occurs repeatedly in the Bible stories, and in various forms. Mir-Yam (both Mosheh's sister and Lazarus'), Mount Mor-Yah, and the two Maries all take their names from this variant upon the mother-goddess.

The grammatical explanation of the prefictual Mem (מ) is that it is constructed by using the root in the Pi'el, or "intensive" form.


Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press