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From: aaron_j._dinkin@fourd.com (Aaron J. Dinkin)
Subject: Re: Are all alphabets co-derivative?
Message-ID: <aaron_j._dinkin-2206962201410001@wakma2-26.usa1.com>
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 22:01:41 -0500
References: <4p86mk$dmp@cantuc.canterbury.ac.nz> <DsMu6G.676@midway.uchicago.edu> <31bc60f5.29929436@news.nando.net> <mankin-1706961426580001@mankin.usc.edu>
Lines: 36

In article <mankin-1706961426580001@mankin.usc.edu>, mankin@bcf.usc.edu
(Eric Mankin) wrote:

>  We are told that Moses was educated as an Egyptian. His name is
>  does in fact seem to bear this out. Ahmos is a common Egyptian
>  name, found in the heiroglyphic record.. Moses, on the other
>  hand was clearly not a common Hebrew name.  Exodus has
>  Pharoah's daughter calling him Moses 'because I drew him out
>  of the water' (1.10), from the Hebrew verb (thank you, NEB
>  footnote) mashah, to draw up.  This explanation hangs on the
>  surely dubious presupposition that Pharoah's daughter spoke
>  Hebrew.  Even more telling, the insertion of an explanation into
>  the record indicates that something needs to be explained --
>  that the name seems strange to Hebrew ears, unlike a
>  completely Hebrew, mainline Semitic name like Aaron, Yitzhak,
>  Yakob, etc.

I generally agree with you, but there're a few points I'd like to comment
on. First, the Bible regularly explains the meaning of a character's name
when he or she is named -in the long passage in which Jacob's eleven son's
are born, and all given Hebrew names, but their names are all explained.
For example:

"Vatomer Leah, 'Ba gad'; vatikra et shmo Gad."
"Leah said, 'Fortune comes'; she named him Gad."

Also, Aaron is I believe accepted as an Egyptian name nowadays, primarily
because it doesn't seem to mean anything in Hebrew. Same for Miriam and
its derivatives (Mary, Maria, &c.).

However, I do agree with all your major points; "mose" or "moses" or the
like seems common in Egyptian names. Vide Rameses, Thutmose, &c.
                                       ^^^^^      ^^^^

Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom

