Theophoric Personal Names in Ancient Hebrew (3).pdf

7/28/2019 Theophoric Personal Names in Ancient Hebrew (3).pdf

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/theophoric-personal-names-in-ancient-hebrew-3pdf 1/3

Theophoric Personal Names in Ancient Hebrew: A Comparative Study by Jeaneane D. FowlerReview by: J. J. M. RobertsJournal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 109, No. 2 (Summer, 1990), pp. 316-317Published by: The Society of Biblical Literature

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3267022 .

Accessed: 19/05/2013 20:04

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Society of Biblical Literature is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

Journal of Biblical Literature.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 204.152.149.5 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:04:26 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sbl

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3267022?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp





http://www.jstor.org/stable/3267022?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sbl



316 Journal of Biblical Literature

realities? The argument that terms like "father,'when applied to Yahweh,or the com-

parison of Yahwehwith a woman in labor (p. 206) are gender-neutral diminishes the

importance of the issues surrounding these images. Mettinger's work brings his

audience to the biblical data raising theological questions such as these; he leavesthese issues to his audience to formulate and explore. For all the difficulties raised,there is no text for nonspecialists that better presents the divine name and titles with

a concern for their theological depth.

Mark S. Smith

Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520

TheophoricPersonal Names in Ancient Hebrew:A ComparativeStudy, by Jeaneane D.

Fowler. JSOTSup49. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1988. Pp. 410. ?20.50 ($34.95).

This study of the ancient Hebrew theophoric personal names is a revision and

expansion of a doctoral dissertation done under Alan Millard at the University of

Liverpool, and his influence is discernible throughout the work. The work is devel-

oped in five chapters, followed by four appendixes, twenty tables, a good bibliography,and a very helpful series of indexes of Hebrew names; Ugaritic,Phoenician, Amorite,

Aramaic,Old Akkadian,Akkadian, and Palmyrene name elements; and Ammonite,

Edomite, and Moabite theophoric names.

The heart of the work is chap. 2 where Fowler gives her analysis of Hebrew

personal names. After discussing the problem of source material, including the non-biblical inscriptional material, she discusses the theophoric elements and then

analyzes the various types of theophoric names: nominal sentence names, verbal

sentence names, construct form names, names of the pattern qBft'l1, other gram-matical forms, difficult forms, and abbreviated forms. The analysis is careful, the

discussion usually judicious, and Fowler gives alternative interpretations offered byother scholars. One glaringweakness that does appear in this section, however,is the

confidence that Fowler puts in the popular etymologies offered in the OT narratives.

Thus she argues that the name Jerubbaal cannot imply that its wearer was an

advocate of Baal, because according to Judg 6:30-32 Gideon was given the name for

destroying the cultic installations of Baal (p. 58). One may also be dissatisfied withher criteria for excluding shortened or abbreviated names from her discussion, and

one may certainly reject some of her interpretations of individual names. Never-

theless, this is the most useful part of the work and will undoubtedly serve as an

important reference tool on Hebrew names for some time to come.

Chapter 4 forms the other major chapter in the work. It is a comparison of the

concept of deity found in the Hebrew onomastica with the concept found in a series

of other onomastica: Ugaritic, Phoenician, Amorite, Aramaic, Old Akkadian,Akka-

dian, and Palmyrene.This section is not as impressive as the analysis of the Hebrew

onomastica. Fowler does not appear to have the same control here over the primary

sources, and this results in her being too dependent on the opinions of her mentor.Moreover,there is a clear apologetic bias at work in the attempt to demonstrate the

uniqueness and superiority of Israel's concept of God over against that of its pagan

neighbors. Despite these weaknesses, however, the section is useful in outlining the

basic name types found in these other onomastica and in pointing out certain majordifferences between them and the Hebrew onomastica.








Book Reviews 317

Fowler is certainly correct in pointing out that Israelite monotheism has left a

significant impression on the Hebrew onomasticon. Despite the prophetic attacks on

Israel'sreligious syncretism, the relativelyrareoccurrence of the names of gods other

than Yahweh n the Hebrew onomasticon is quite different from the situation found

in the onomastica of polytheistic peoples. The almost total absence not only of

feminine deities but even of feminine epithets for the deity again points to the distinc-tiveness of Israel's religious faith.

On the other hand, much of Fowler's discussion of the difference between the

Hebrew conception of God and that of its neighbors, particularly in her conclusion

in chap. 5, seems ill-founded and shallow. She often seems to be unaware that she is

comparing the onomastica, not just of different religious groups, but of different

linguistic groups. One cannot expect every element popular in Akkadianor Ugaritic

even to exist in Hebrew, or if it does, to have the same figurative significance indifferent languages, no matter how closely related. Yet Fowler repeatedly points to

particular words that are missing in Hebrew theophoric names but that are presentin the theophoric names of her other comparative onomastica (see especially pp.

312-13) as though this absence in Hebrew were theologically significant. She makes

the same mistake with particular words present in the Hebrew onomasticon but

absent in those of the other languages (see pp. 286-87). Much of what she under-

scores as distinctive seems insignificant, and sometimes what she finds lacking in the

Hebrew onomasticon is clearly present in other sources for Israelite religion. Hebrew

names may not refer to God as a warrior,a lion, or a wild bull (p. 302), but Israelite

religious poetry and prophetic oracles did, so is this omission in the onomasticon, ifit can be sustained, of any significance?

J. J. M. RobertsPrinceton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ 08542

Ancient Israel:A New Historyof IsraeliteSociety, by Niels Peter Lemche. The Biblical

Seminar 5. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1988. Pp. 276. ?22.50/8.95 ($34.95/14.95).

Therequisite chronological

tablelisting

ancientmonarchs,

Saul toZedekiah,stands at the beginning of the body of Lemche's Ancient Israel. But it is a misleading

signpost, for Lemche is scarcely interested in tracing the succession of political

leadership. Instead this new history devotes itself to the emergence of historical ideas

against the skeletal backbone of a reconstruction of the history of the society. Thus

Lemche's study is no history textbook to be placed in the typical genre of biblical

histories. It comprises more an essay on historical research than a comprehensive

assemblage and sifting of data. There are no notes, though an annotated literature

guide occupies a dozen pages. The occasional appearances of the names of OT

scholars serve more to conjure up worlds of thought than to acknowledge debt or

buttress argumentation. The overall aim is to force a full acknowledgment of therestraintsimposed upon historians by their sources and to begin a process of rethink-

ing Israel's history.An initial chapter on geography,demography and economy offers a stage setting

which serves to underscore the extent to which anypolitical or national developmentsin this corner of the world could not have escaped integration into the larger






Documents

Theophoric Personal Names in Ancient Hebrew (3).pdf