Asa and Baasha: Mysterious Names

[Isaac Fried]

1. Baby name lists suggest the cute, or toy, explanation to רות RUT as being a contraction of the Hebrew רעות REUT, 'friendship', but I doubt this, RUT was not a "friend" of NAAMIY. But possibly, ראות R)UT, 'sight', for ערפה ARPA showed NAAMIY her back, while RUT showed her her face.

2. Other names similar to BOAZ are BUZ of Gen. 22:21, and BUZIY of Ezek. 1:3.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Jim Stinehart]

Isaac Fried:

You wrote: “Other names similar to BOAZ are BUZ of Gen. 22:21....”

As to “Buz” : BWZ, we know that the author of the Patriarchal narratives knew BWZ as a Hebrew common word, because it appears at Genesis 38: 23, meaning “contempt”. But why would Nahor and Milcah, who lived in eastern Syria, give their second son a Hebrew name that means “Contempt”? Does that make sense?

Boaz is completely different that Buz. The root of the name “Boaz” : B-(Z is (Z, ayin-zayin, which is the Hebrew common word for “strength”. I think that you and I agree that B-(Z means “In Strength”. But there’s no ayin-zayin in the name BWZ : “Buz”.

Nahor and Milcah lived in the heart of Hurrianland in eastern Syria, and the name “Nahor” : NXWR makes perfect sense in Hurrian. So perhaps we should consider that there is a Hurrian common word, pu-ú-zi-hu-um, whose root is pu-ú-zi. Amarna Letter 18: 5 has a somewhat similar Hurrian name: pu-u-xi [which means “Exchange” and is probably based on the Akkadian word pu-xu]; in comparing pu-u-xi to pu-ú-zi, note that both -xi and -zi are Hurrian suffixes. P and B are interchangeable in Hurrian, so the Hurrian root pu-ú-zi could alternatively be rendered as bu-ú-zi, which would be spelled in Biblical Hebrew BWZ : “Buz”. Note also that bussuru in Akkadian, which starts with B, means “to bring, send a message”, which is a very similar meaning to Hurrian pu-u-xi, which as noted above means “exchange”. Thus BWZ as the name of the second son of Nahor and Milcah who was born in the heart of Hurrianland in eastern Syria may be bu-ú-zi, based on the Hurrian word pu-ú-zi, which in turn is similar to both the Hurrian attested name pu-u-xi and to the Akkadian word bussuru, all of which are thought to have a similar meaning: “exchange”.

I myself do not see “Boaz” : B-(Z as having a similar meaning to “Buz” : BWZ. “Boaz” means “In Strength” in Hebrew. “Buz” is not the Hebrew word BWZ, meaning “Contempt”, because that does not make substantive sense. Rather, “Buz” is bu-ú-zi, a Hurrian word that means “Exchange”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jason Hare]

The root of the name “Boaz” : B-(Z is (Z, ayin-zayin

I'm really trying to understand your transliteration. What does the hyphen (-) represent to you? Why do you insert it randomly? If you had written B-(-Z, then I would understand that you're using it as a spacer for B(Z (בעז). But, as it is, I have no idea what you mean when you transliterate for this forum. Can you not input Hebrew letters instead?

Thanks.

Jason Hare

[Jim Stinehart]

Jason Hare:

You wrote: “I'm really trying to understand your transliteration. What does the hyphen (-) represent to you? Why do you insert it randomly? If you had written B-(-Z, then I would understand that you're using it as a spacer for B(Z (בעז). But, as it is, I have no idea what you mean when you transliterate for this forum. Can you not input Hebrew letters instead?”

There are two main ways to try to understand the name “Boaz” : B(Z : בעז. One way is to view the bet/B as the first letter in the root of the name. However, that does not come up with much. The other way is to view the initial bet/B as being a prefix, which is the Hebrew preposition bet/B/ב, meaning “in”.

One of the few things that Isaac Fried and I agree upon is that in the name “Boaz” : B(Z : בעז, the initial bet/B is a prefix, which is the Hebrew preposition bet/B/ב, which means “in”. So both Isaac Fried and I see that name as meaning “In Strength”. The reason I added a dash/hyphen to the name “Boaz”, rendering it as B-(Z, was to show that in my view, the initial bet/B is not part of the root, but rather is a prefix/preposition.

How do you yourself interpret the name “Boaz”? And even more importantly, how do you interpret the name “Baasha”? My point is that whereas “Boaz” is a perfectly good Hebrew name that makes perfect sense in Hebrew, I don’t see that for the name “Baasha”. I have tentatively suggested that the name “Baasha” may mean “In Esau”, where the initial bet/B is the Hebrew prefix/preposition meaning “in”, and the rest of the name “Baasha” is a play on the non-Semitic name “Esau”. I see the root of both “Baasha” and “Esau” as being ayin-shin. Note that like Esau, Baasha is the evil older brother [where the state of Israel is viewed figuratively as being the older brother of the state of Judah], whose lifelong rival is his good younger brother.

But what is your own view of the name “Baasha”? Even though Baasha is a Hebrew king of Israel, his name doesn’t seem to make sense in Hebrew. Why is that? Nor does the name of his rival king, good king Asa of Judah. Why don’t those two Hebrew kings have classic west Semitic names? Why are those two names so mysterious?

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jason Hare]

Jason Hare:

You wrote: “I'm really trying to understand your transliteration. What does the hyphen (-) represent to you? Why do you insert it randomly? If you had written B-(-Z, then I would understand that you're using it as a spacer for B(Z (בעז). But, as it is, I have no idea what you mean when you transliterate for this forum. Can you not input Hebrew letters instead?”

There are two main ways to try to understand the name “Boaz” : B(Z : בעז. One way is to view the bet/B as the first letter in the root of the name. However, that does not come up with much. The other way is to view the initial bet/B as being a prefix, which is the Hebrew preposition bet/B/ב, meaning “in”.

One of the few things that Isaac Fried and I agree upon is that in the name “Boaz” : B(Z : בעז, the initial bet/B is a prefix, which is the Hebrew preposition bet/B/ב, which means “in”. So both Isaac Fried and I see that name as meaning “In Strength”. The reason I added a dash/hyphen to the name “Boaz”, rendering it as B-(Z, was to show that in my view, the initial bet/B is not part of the root, but rather is a prefix/preposition.

How do you yourself interpret the name “Boaz”? And even more importantly, how do you interpret the name “Baasha”? My point is that whereas “Boaz” is a perfectly good Hebrew name that makes perfect sense in Hebrew, I don’t see that for the name “Baasha”. I have tentatively suggested that the name “Baasha” may mean “In Esau”, where the initial bet/B is the Hebrew prefix/preposition meaning “in”, and the rest of the name “Baasha” is a play on the non-Semitic name “Esau”. I see the root of both “Baasha” and “Esau” as being ayin-shin. Note that like Esau, Baasha is the evil older brother [where the state of Israel is viewed figuratively as being the older brother of the state of Judah], whose lifelong rival is his good younger brother.

But what is your own view of the name “Baasha”? Even though Baasha is a Hebrew king of Israel, his name doesn’t seem to make sense in Hebrew. Why is that? Nor does the name of his rival king, good king Asa of Judah. Why don’t those two Hebrew kings have classic west Semitic names? Why are those two names so mysterious?

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

I don't generally go out of my way to interpret names. That's not what I was asking you.

I find your transliteration system hard to follow, so I was hoping you'd explain how you transliterate Hebrew and what the hyphen means in your system.

Thanks,
Jason