Friday, May 03, 2013

Dog days

The name בלכ Kālēb, which is derived from kéleb ‘dog’, could not have been a secular name because this term generally had pejorative connotations in the Israelite culture (1 Sam 17:43; Prov 26:11, 17; Qoh 9:4). Moreover, a full theophoric form is known to have existed in Phoenicia: םלאבלכ Kalbʾēlîm ‘dog of the gods’. These names would thus have been declaring the name bearer to be a loyal follower of the deity, as a dog is faithful to its master or mistress.—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 322

2 comments:

  1. The Hebrew is showing up backwards on my screen. I'm viewing in Chrome.

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  2. Joseph,

    Yep. For some reason when I copy and paste from the PDF to the browser, it gets screwed up.

    James

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