MOSAIC ORIGIN OF THE PENTATEUCH. 



43 



(c) Foreign Words. 



Several words in this work are of Egyptian origin. Dr. 

 Driver admits eight or nine,* of which Jlin, Tehah, for ark 

 and TIJtDi^tZ) (Shaatenez, mixture ; Lev. xix, 19 ; Deut. 

 xxii, 11) are only found in the Pentateuch, and three others 

 seldom elsewhere. 



In Exod. xvi, 16, 18 a certain measure is called 'Omer ("^W ), 

 and in v. 36 is explained as equal to one-tenth of an ephah. 

 The word occurs nowhere else in this sense, but instead " the 

 tenth part of an ephah,'' or 'Issaron (p^t^^, tenth part) 

 is used. 



In a careful comparison of the Hebrew and Greek texts of the 

 Pentateuch, which has occupied me for a considerable time, 

 my attention has been drawn to the Greek transliteration of 

 Hebrew names and words. Now 'Omer begins with the guttural 

 *Ain (y), which has no equivalent in the Greek alphabet, 

 and is therefore in most cases disregarded (as, e.g., in ^laKcaS). 

 In a few instances, however, it is represented by the Greek 

 gamma (y), and this word appears as yo/nop. But the 

 remarkable fact is that the names in which y appears are 

 foreign names, such as Gaza, Gomorrah, Chedorlaomer, etc. 

 Now in Arabic the name Gaza begins with the guttural Ghain 

 ( ^, only differing from 'Ain ( ^ by a diacritical point, while 



in modern Greek y is pronounced with a softer gh sound. It 

 would seem, therefore, that the Hebrew, having no letter Ghain, 

 has perforce represented it by the nearest equivalent, ' Ain, 

 but that the Greek translators, aware of the true pronunciation 

 of these foreign words, have indicated it by inserting the y. 

 This letter, then, in yofiop (and the double vowelling with o 

 points in the same direction) would show that this is not a 

 Hebrew word, and both Driver and Fuerst (in his Lexicon) 

 compare it to the Arabic ghumar (^i), a cup, " said to be used 

 by Arabs when travelling in the desert.''* 



Does not this at once explain the unique use of the word in 

 Exod. xvi, and the need for explaining it in v. 36 ? In a 

 desert incident a desert word is used. 



There is some reason, also, for thinking that some of the 

 names of "unclean" birds, in Lev. xi, Deut. xiv, are traceable 

 to desert Arabic, but this has not yet been established. 



* LOT, 125. t Driver, Exodus, 149. 



