"Bethuel": "Daughtered by God"

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Jim Stinehart
Posts: 352
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:33 am

"Bethuel": "Daughtered by God"

Post by Jim Stinehart »

“Bethuel”: “Daughtered by God”

The name “Bethuel”, BTW’L, is said by scholars to mean either “destroyed by God” or “house of God”. But neither such meaning makes any sense for the father of Rebekah.

What would make sense, however, is if BTW’L means “daughtered by God” in Hebrew. Bethuel’s role in the Patriarchal narratives is precisely to sire a daughter, Rebekah, who is ideal as Matriarch #2. Bethuel also has a son, Laban, but such son is troublesome to the Hebrews, whereas Bethuel’s all-important daughter/BT Rebekah is described in glowing terms in Genesis.

Although this would be the only use in Hebrew of “daughter” as a verb, we do know that a person can be “sonned” in Hebrew. At Genesis 16: 2, Sarai asks to be “sonned” by Hagar, where BN is the root of both “to build up” and “son”. Oddly, “daughter” in Hebrew may have the same root as “son”. BT/“daughter” is in any event an extremely irregular noun. We should ask if the Hebrew author may have coined a word, namely BTW, for “daughtered”.

“daughter” in Hebrew is BT. Though not used elsewhere as a verb, here the author seems to have turned this peculiar Hebrew noun into a verb, with vav/W being the verbal ending. The meaning is then ideal, as Bethuel’s primary role in the storyline is to sire his daughter Rebekah as ideal Matriarch #2.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
Isaac Fried
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Re: "Bethuel": "Daughtered by God"

Post by Isaac Fried »

Jim says
Oddly, “daughter” in Hebrew may have the same root as “son”.

Says I
Indeed! But why "oddly"? אב AB, 'father', בן BEN, 'son', and בת BAT, 'daughter', appear to be all of the uniliteral root B, corresponding to the English 'be'. The ending -EN of בן is, in my opinion, the PP אני ANIY, 'I'; and the ending -AT of בת is the PP את AT, 'you', turning a root into a noun.

Isaac Fried, Boston University
Jim Stinehart
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Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:33 am

Re: "Bethuel": "Daughtered by God"

Post by Jim Stinehart »

Isaac Fried:

To my comment that “ ‘daughter’ in Hebrew may [oddly] have the same root as ‘son’ ”, you responded: “Indeed! But why ‘oddly’? אב AB, 'father', בן BEN, 'son', and בת BAT, 'daughter', appear to be all of the uniliteral root B, corresponding to the English 'be'.”

O.K. But then how do you interpret the BTW in BTW-’L/“Bethuel”?

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
Isaac Fried
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Re: "Bethuel": "Daughtered by God"

Post by Isaac Fried »

That אב AB is a Babylonian (בבל = בא-אב-אל) divinity is suggested to us by the fact that it is the name of the eleventh month of the postexilic Hebrew calendar, imported by the returnees from the East . After אב comes the month of אלול ELUL אל-הוא-אל and so on, each for a different Babylonian godling. The month name NIYSAN ניסן is possibly a premeditated scribal shuffle of נישאן as in רם ונישא.

Isaac Fried, Boston University
Jim Stinehart
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Re: "Bethuel": "Daughtered by God"

Post by Jim Stinehart »

Isaac Fried:

In your opinion, what does the Biblical name "Bethuel" : BTW -'L mean?

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
Isaac Fried
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Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 8:32 pm

Re: "Bethuel": "Daughtered by God"

Post by Isaac Fried »

I am not sure. For the difficulty in penetrating the name let's consider the name of his brother קְמוּאֵל QMUEL (Gen. 22:21). On the face of it the fraction קמ QM means 'stand up, rise'. Does the name mean, then "lifted up by EL"? Or, did they have a godling named QAM, and they are declaring through the name of their son that "QAM is (U = הוּא) EL", that QAM is a god?

Isaac Fried, Boston University
Jim Stinehart
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Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:33 am

Re: "Bethuel": "Daughtered by God"

Post by Jim Stinehart »

Isaac:

1. You wrote: “For the difficulty in penetrating the name [“Bethuel”] let's consider the name of his brother קְמוּאֵל QMUEL (Gen. 22:21). On the face of it the fraction קמ QM means 'stand up, rise'. Does the name mean, then "lifted up by EL"?”

Yes, that’s the west Semitic/Hebrew meaning of the name “Kemuel”. It’s formed just like “Bethuel”.

2. You wrote: “Or, did they have a godling named QAM, and they are declaring through the name of their son that "QAM is (U = הוּא) EL", that QAM is a god?”

No. Bethuel and Laban may have worshiped Hurrian gods, but there is no Hurrian god Qam. As to Semitic gods, like the Patriarchs themselves, Nahor’s descendants primarily worshiped only YHWH, as we see at Genesis 24: 50-51:

“50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the LORD [YHWH]: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. 51 Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the LORD [YHWH] hath spoken.”

Note also that at no point is there any religious problem whatsoever with Rebekah, Leah or Rachel.

Finally, the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives rarely references a foreign god by name, even though a majority of non-Biblical names in the ancient world do precisely that.

QMW is a verbal form of “praise”, and is not an unknown deity.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
Isaac Fried
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Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 8:32 pm

Re: "Bethuel": "Daughtered by God"

Post by Isaac Fried »

I would not discount the possibility that קמואל QMUEL means קם-הוּא-אל QAM -HU-EL, 'EL rises', the same way that יהוֹרם YHORAM is apparently יה-הוּא-רם YA-HU-RAM, 'YA is lofty'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University
Mark Lightman
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Re: "Bethuel": "Daughtered by God"

Post by Mark Lightman »

Jim Stinehart wrote:Although this would be the only use in Hebrew of “daughter” as a verb...
Hi, Jim,

If your theory is correct, בָּתָה is what Genenius would call an "unused root." It's just that some roots are more unused than others. Your theory hinges on what this putative verb would have meant in the passive. If בָּתָה meant "to produce a daughter," בִּתָּה would have meant "to be a daughter." (The masculine form would therefore not make any sense.) The iterative הִתְבַּתָּה might have meant "to produce daughters over and over again, to produce (too) many daughters." I'm not sure if this could be used of males or not. What would בָּתוּי have meant? I think it would mean "produced as a daughter= being a daughter." Again, the masculine form would not make any sense; to wit, your understanding of the name בְּתוּאֵל only makes sense if it were a girl's name.
Jim Stinehart wrote:At Genesis 16: 2, Sarai asks to be “sonned” by Hagar, where BN is the root of both “to build up” and “son”.
Indeed she does, but I think that your putative אִבָּתֶה could only have been said by a woman.
Isaac Fried wrote:...בן 'son', and בת 'daughter', appear to be all of the uniliteral root B, corresponding to the English 'be'. The ending -EN of בן is, in my opinion, the PP אני 'I'...
An alternative etymology that one could derive from the principles of ASEHL is בע נע, a combination of the fundamental concepts of being and newness, the בן being the most fundamentally new thing that our first Hebrew speakers would experience.
Jim Stinehart wrote:Isaac Fried:

In your opinion, what does the Biblical name "Bethuel" : BTW -'L mean?
It means the guy in the Bible who is the father of Laban and Rebecca. What its etymology is, that's another question.
Jason Hare wrote:What does Richard or Robert mean?
kwrandolph wrote:What does it matter what it means? Almost never does the meaning of a person’s name have anything to do with what a person turns out in life, what he does and his personality.
Mark Lightman
Jim Stinehart
Posts: 352
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:33 am

Re: "Bethuel": "Daughtered by God"

Post by Jim Stinehart »

Mark Lightman:

1. You wrote: “What would בָּתוּי have meant? I think it would mean "produced as a daughter= being a daughter."

The question is not what BTWY would have meant, but rather what BTW would have meant. There is no yod/Y in “Bethuel” : BTW-’L.

Perhaps I could understand your analysis of “Bethuel” better if you would compare it to the standard analysis of “Kemuel” (who was Bethuel’s brother). “Kemuel” (i) is spelled QMW-’L, (ii) is thought to come from the Hebrew verb QWM meaning “to rise”, and (iii) is thought to mean “raised of God”, where (iv) QMW is a verbal form of the verb QWM. Is “Bethuel” basically the same? “Bethuel” (i) is spelled BTW-’L, (ii) is thought by me to come from the Hebrew noun BT meaning “daughter”, and (iii) is thought by me to mean “Daughtered by God”, where (iv) BTW is a verbal form of the noun BT. BT, by the way, is the most irregular noun I know of in Hebrew, so who knows what the one and only verbal form in the Bible would be of such irregular noun, and whether it might work as a man’s name (instead of as a woman’s name)? Even if BTW under the normal rules might be thought to mean “produced as a daughter”, given that this is such an irregular word, couldn’t it alternatively mean “daughtered”, that is, “[by grace of God] having sired daughters”?

2. You wrote, quoting Karl, but apparently taking this position yourself (at least tentatively): “Almost never does the meaning of a person’s name have anything to do with what a person turns out in life, what he does and his personality.”

Although true in many contexts, that is 100% false as to personal names in the Patriarchal narratives. Genesis 17: 5-6, 15-16 tell us what the names “Abraham” and “Sarah” mean, and “the meaning of [each such] person’s name [has everything] to do with what [such] person turns out in life, what he does”. Likewise, Genesis 25: 26 tells us what the name “Jacob” means, and once again, “the meaning of [such] person’s name [has everything] to do with what [such] person turns out in life, what he does”. As a third obvious example of this phenomenon, Genesis 38: 29 tells us what the name “Pharez” means, and as per usual, “the meaning of [such] person’s name [has everything] to do with what [such] person turns out in life, what he does”.

Why then would you think that other names in the Patriarchal narratives were not selected or created so that “the meaning of [each such] person’s name [has everything] to do with what [such] person turns out in life, what he does”? Consider, for example, the name “Abimelek” : ’BYMLK. One of his key roles in the narrative is to create some doubt (if a bit irrational) in the mind of Abraham as to whether there is any possibility that Abimelek, rather than Abraham, might possibly be the biological father of Patriarch #2 Isaac. Do you think it’s a mere coincidence that one of the many possible meanings of “Abimelek” : ’BYMLK, viewed as being ’B-Y -- MLK where the yod/Y means “of”, is: “[human] Father of the King”? True, Isaac is not literally a “king”, but he is Hebrew Patriarch #2, with each of the three Patriarchs being the closest the early Hebrews ever came to having “kings”. No, this is not the most likely meaning of “Abimelek” (which probably is ’B – Y – MLK and means “[the divine] Father -- King”, or less literally, “God Is King”), but it is one possible meaning of that name.

It is my considered opinion that each personal name in the Patriarchal narratives has been carefully selected or created precisely in order that each such name will tell us something important about such person, with the implication in many cases being precisely that “the meaning of [such] person’s name [has everything] to do with what [such] person turns out in life, what he does”.

So please consider that it would make all the sense in the world if the name “Bethuel” deftly conceptualizes Bethuel’s primary role in the Patriarchal narratives, which is that his daughter and granddaughters became the three successor Matriarchs: “Daughtered by God”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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