Thoughts On The Lemnos Stele

[Eduard Selleslagh]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ernest P. Moyer" <epmoyer at netrax.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 7:56 PM

[snip]
> I don't want to be a big splash in this small pond, but the word Naphoth is
> Biblical.

> See Josh 11:2, Josh 12:23, Josh 17:11, and 1 Kings 4:11.

> It is associated with Dor. Both RSV and NIV always translate the Hebrew word
> as a formal noun, as Naphoth-Dor.  Other translations use "heights,"
> "borders," and so on of Dor rather than a formal name.

[snip]
> Clearly this is a Semitic word, and not Indo-European.  It follows the
> inflectional attributes of Semitic forms. Many names, nouns, and verbs ending
> in -oth could be cited.

[Ed]

Not surprisingly: in Biblical Hebrew -oth is the plural of female words ending
in -ah.

Whether Naphoth is Hebrew, that's another matter: it could be coincidence.  In
modern Hebrew 'border' is 'gvul' and 'heigh' is 'gavoa' , also based on a
common root.

> The lesson I learned was this: When two different cultures and languages mix
> intimately they may acquire one another's words, morphology and syntax.
> Rigid linguistic rules break down.  Especially if the mixture is between IE
> and Semitic.

[snip]

> The native name for the Hebrew tribes was Ibri.  It is my understanding that
> the Romans called them the Iberi.  Iberi are positively identified in regions
> near the Caspian Sea. The Roman general Pompey conquered them. Strabo said
> that "... The migration of western Iberians (was) to the region beyond the
> Pontus and Colchis."

[Ed]

I thought they called them Hebraei. I'm afraid you confound them with the
people from Iberia, in present-day Georgia (S. Caucasus), who were not Semitic
at all, as far as we know. Those are the ones Strabo speaks about most of the
time. (In Book 3 he also mentions the Iberians of Spain).

There are, however, a number of peculiarities about the ancient Jews that
distinguish them from other Semitic people: e.g. the legend of Noah's ark
stranded on Mount Ararat (a very high volcano in Turkish Armenia, 1300 km from
Jerusalem, the only mountain in the region with snow during the summer), which
seems to suggest some cultural relationship with E. Anatolia (the actual,
archaeologically attested great flood happened in the plains around the Black
Sea and is reflected in other peoples' legends in other versions). They are
also the only ones to use the word Yahwe for God, besides the "normal" Semitic
'el(i)' or 'elohim' (a plural!!!). Other beliefs like the Red Cow, that augurs
the coming of the Messiah, has 'cognates' in other non-semitic very ancient
Mediterranean cultures like the Basques (Beigorri)

> The name still carries today on the Iberian peninsula.  Folk traditions say
> they migrated as far as Ireland.  In fact, the name Ireland derives from
> Iberi.

[Ed]

Not entirely impossible (in relationship with the Iberians that invaded Spain
from the Mediterranean), and in the interpretation of some, supported by
archaeology. But we know nothing about the languages involved, and there are
very few who think it was that simple.

[snip]

> Any attempt to decipher the Lemnos Stele, (and possible connections with the
> Etruscans), must consider this probable Semitic influence.

[Ed]

You may have a point as to one or two (loan? place-name?) words, but the
language is definitely not Semitic.

Ed Selleslagh