Biblical Hebrew also has more then one word that for Love.

I've talked before about my issues with the fixation so many have on drawing a hard distinction between the different Greek words for Love.  My lost post on that topic focusing on making Comparison to Japanese since I am somewhat of a Weeb. 

https://solascripturachristianliberty.blogspot.com/2024/03/agape-and-eros.html

But I've also noticed a trend among people who want to Argue actually taught in Greek that the New Testament's usage of more then one word for Love is further evidence of it's innate Greekness.

The New Testament doesn't even use all these Greek words for Love people obsess over, it only really uses three, Aqape, Philia and Xenia. But rather then seeing that as evidence that the New Testament is only using the Greek language to express fundamentally Semitic ideas, they insist Eros was excluded deliberately, which lies at the heart of why I dislike this obsession.  

Stroge's absence from the New Testament can't be explained so ideologically however, familial love is definitely a theme in The New Testament.  The only reason for none of these texts to use a word that specifically means that, is if they are regardless of what language they were first physically written down it at their core translating ideas first formed in a language without an equivalent single word. It appears as an element of some names, but so does Eros the word these puritanical Christians want to reject. 

Xenia is used in The New Testament seemingly only ever as a word for a place of Lodging rather then a word for the abstract concept of Hospitality. Hospitality is definitely a New Testament as we see in Hebrews 13. and when Jesus agrees with Ezekiel 16 that Inhospitality was the Sin of Sodom. Hebrews 13 uses the compound word Xenophilia which is equivalent to the Hebrew term Hachnasat Orchim.

Biblical Hebrew meanwhile has more words for Love then Greek actually, meaning the New Testament's usage of only three of it's options shows the limits of Greek in expressing Hebrew ideas. 

Ahabah and Ahab and Ohab are in the LXX interchangeably translated as both Agape and Eros, and I note again how the Song of Songs uses Agape not Eros, meaning it absolutely was applicable to Romantic/Sexual love in the minds of Ancient Greek speaking Jews. 

Meanwhile there are also the words Hesed and Rachamim and Dodim.  Rachamim is derived from the Hebrew word for Womb implying it was first thought of as an inherently Maternal kind of Love, making it's use for God's Love of Humanity quite interesting.

And one Hebrew word that doesn't come up right away when you google this topic is Agab/Egeb. In fact when you try to Google Agab or Egeb specifically now the darn AI continually assumes I'm just mis spelling something else, though the less common variant Agabah shows up just fine  These words only seem to be used in negative context, as if they represent the more problematic meaning of Eros. But is used positively in Ezekiel 33:31-32.  I would also argue Ezekiel 23:11 by specifying corrupt love is clearly implying Agabah is not inherently corrupt. 

If I wanted to propose a theory that Agape was actually a Semitic loan word into Greek via Phoenician influence, Agabah is the Semitic word I would pick.  There is other precedent for a B becoming a P during such processes.  But since the variations of this word only appear in Jeremiah and Ezekiel perhaps you could argue they are foreign loan words into Hebrew. 

Asherah in The Hebrew Bible

The Canaanite Pagan goddess known by that name really isn't directly mentioned in Scripture, Asherim is a term for a type of Pagan Cultic Object translated "grove" in the KJV that is probably tied to her worship, but as far as being specific about Canaanite Goddess worship the Scriptures are far mor interested in singling out Astarte, The Queen of Heaven.

But there is a lot of talk online about a few archeological inscriptions taken as implying the Israelites worshiped Asherah as the Wife of YHWH.  There is of course plenty of dispute about that reading of these inscription, but i have an interesting theory to add.

Etymologically speaking Asherah is a feminine from of a Semitic word that means Happy or Blessed, the same root the name of Asher comes from.  In fact that first time this word appears in Scripture at all is when explaining Asher's name in Genesis 30:13.

"And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher."

I looked at every other account of a son of Jacob being named in Genesis 29-30, and only in this one does the mother naming him say something to imply the Feminine from of his name could be an additional name for herself.

Another use of this word, when the context implies it's being used in it's feminine form, is Malachi 3:12.

"And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts."

The word for Delightsome here is the core root that Hephzibah comes from, a poetic name for the Land of Israel in Isaiah 60.

This ties into the them of Israel being in a sense collection the Wife of YHWH, Asharah is among her poetic alternate names in that context. 

But there is also some New Testament significance I could add, from Luke 2.

Verse 28 the Angel first appears to Mary and says;

"Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women."

Then there's the Visitation, 41-48.

"And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.  For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed."

If they were originally speaking Hebrew, it's plausible Asharah is the word for Blessed they were using.

This does NOT vindicate Catholic Marian Veneration. It only further shows that Mary being an important woman from the Bible doesn't change that Veneration of Images of her are Idolatry.

Girgashites, who were they?

The Girgashites are in my view the most mysterious Canaanite tribe.  The five tribes only mentioned in the Table of Nations may seem like a mystery at first but they can each be solidly identified with known cities in the Akkar District of Lebanon or Syria north of Lebanon.  They are not included in the list of nations the Israelites are later to drive out of the land because they had no presence within that land. 

In Deuteronomy 7:1 and Joshua 3:10 and 24:11 and Nehemiah 9:8 the Perizzites may seem the most mysterious of those at first due to not being in the Table of Nations, but Perizzite is a designation that just means village dweller, they are rural country folk while the city dwellers more strongly identify with their Genesis 10 tribes, probably because many started as city states who then spawned daughter cities.  Though I do like to note that the word Canaanite also means Merchant in Hebrew (that’s how it’s used in Genesis 38 despite how the KJV translates it, Judah’s wife was probably a descendent of Abraham via Keturah not Ham), so in that sense those called Canaanites in contrast to the rest in these verses could be referring to traveling merchants not tied to a specific place. 

Not every listing of the Tribes to be driven out includes the Girgashites, but they’re usually the only one missing.  They are never mentioned in any of the actual accounts of battles fought with the Canaanites, no King is called a Girgashite and no city is ever specifically defined as Girgashite. But Joshua 24 lists them as among those driven out, so why were they never singled out?

In Jerusalem Talmud Shevit 6:1:13 Rabbi Samuel Nahman said; 

“Joshua sent three orders to the Land of Israel before they entered the Land: Those who want to evacuate should evacuate, those who want to make peace should make peace, those who want to go to war should go to war. The Girgasites evacuated, believed in the Holy One, praised be He, and went to Africa.”

The Roman era context of when The Talmud was compiled means the Roman Province of Africa may specifically be what’s meant here.  That was Mediterranean coastal regions which included most of modern Tunisia, much of the Mediterranean coast of Libya and some of Algeria.  

In the Septuagint the Hebrew letter Shin in transliteration usually becomes Sigma thus an S rather than Sh sound, an influence is still felt in the KJV of Genesis 10 where it’s Girgasite.  So Girgashite, Girgashi in the Hebrew, became Gergesaioi. 

In Greek Mythology there are a group of female monsters known as the Gorgons, a name derived from the Greek word Gorgos meaning dreadful. And they were typically placed in the far west of the known world which to the Ancient Greeks was the western Mediterranean. 

In Diodorus Siculus Library of History Volume 3 chapters 52-52 people living in Northern West Africa are discussed, including some Amazons who are distinguished from the usual Amazons of the Pontus region, Atlantians probably meaning people of the Atlas Mountains, and Gorgons who are here presented as a Matriarchal Tribe like the Amazons that merely became later mythologized as Snake Monsters. But still distinct, some modern websites attempting to construct an all encompassing Amazon lore will classify the Gorgons as a sub group of the Libyan Amazons but that’s not how Diodorus defined them.

I do not take this at face value, but I’m not as willing to dismiss it as others are either.  I think Diodorus is creatively adapting for his Greek audience traditions he learned (perhaps indirectly) from Natives in North Africa. I regrettably have my doubts whether either these Amazons or Gorgons were fully Matriarchal.  Sometimes a patriarchal society will look for any excuse to present a people they want to other as a much more feminine culture than their own. On the subject of the Gorgons, Diodorus may have read in or heard from his source a name that sounded very similar to Gorgos to him and then made that mythological connection himself.

I also believe Diodorus’s source for this is an independent version of whatever the source of Plato’s Atlantis narrative was, but Plato changed it for his purposes even more.  In Diodorus’s account the people who do what the Atlanteans did in Plato are not those called Atlantians but the Amazons.  Michael Hubner argued that Atlantis was the Souss-Massa plain in Morocco which local Berbers do call an Island. Which I think also fits well Diodorus’s Island of Hespera in the march Tritonis containing the great city of Cherronesus which is by Okeanos but not in it.

I think the place being identified as the home of these Amazons is in Morocco. And so Myrina started west of the Atlas mountains and then encountered the Gorgons when she was east of them, possibly in modern Tunsunia. 

The thing is there is no dispute that people originating from The Land of Canaan wound up in this part of Africa, it was the base of the Punic civilization whose greatest city eventually became Carthage. No Archeologists or historians dispute that the Carthaginians are from those The Bible calls Canaanites and the Greeks called Phoenicians, their language was from that Branch of the Semitic Language family and they worshiped Baal.

However Carthage being founded as a colony of Tyre specifically (and thus Sidon/Zidon in Genesis 10 terms) is primarily a product of Greek Historiography, because Tyre was to them the greatest Phoenician city and so were inclined to assume everything revolved around Tyre more than it actually did.  As a Merchant Trading Empire contact with Tyre was probably always happening, and so maybe the city of Carthage specifically had a Princess of Tyre involved in its founding or some formative event in its history. 

Really the biggest problem with my thesis here is having the earliest Phoenicians in North Africa arrive this early, my standard date for the Conquest of Canaan being older even than Ussher’s around 1600 BC. 

Utica’s founding is sometimes dated to around 1100 BC but even that ancient date is controversial.  Another settlement said to have been founded around the same time as Utca is one today called Ghar el-Meh.  Cadiz was founded as a Phoenician colony in Spain about 1104 BC, so they were planting colonies in this era. 

Archaeologists usually date Phoenician settlement in North Africa as starting around 900 BC, with Carthage’s traditional founding date being 814 BC.  

Well the simple answer is that the Talmudic quote oversimplified the timeline.  The Girgashites didn’t actively resist the Israelites but at first that didn’t immediately result in them leaving but living separately in the plains like other Canaanites not driven out right away. They may have been the Canaanites of Dor, but I have nothing solid for that. The Tjekker of Egyptian Records are an Exonym, not what they called themselves. 1100 BC is when archeologists believe the Tjekker were chased out of Dor by Phoenicians, this academic use of Phoenician more specifically means the Sidonians, so one Canaanite tribe drove out another, unless my theory that these Phoenicians are sometimes Asher is true, Joshua 17:11 may imply Asher had a claim on Dor at some point. 

Dido or Elissa, the traditional founder of Carthage was, according to the sources Josephus quoted in Against Apion, a granddaughter of Jezebel’s brother.  If the stories ever say she’s younger than this I’m going to assume that poetic license, I’m going to guess she was 30-40 when left Phoenicia several years before 814 BC (if she was real at all). 

But as The Bible never refers to Jezebel;s father Ethbaal as ruling Tyre, I’m starting to question the assumption he even is the same person as the Ithobaal King of Tyre mentioned by Meander of Ephesus as quoted in Josephus. Even if the names are the name it could be a name multiple Kings would use, but they also might not be the same name. Even if the first letter is the same in the original Semitic form the lack of an “o” in the Bible in Ethbaal could be important as it could be a vowel sound not represented in Hebrew or a Vav.

In summary I think the Girgashites were the first Canaanites to come to Tunisia and founded the early forms of Utica and Gher al-Meh around either 1100 or 900 BC and then later Sidonians founded Carthage around 826-814 BC. 

Update February 14th: I decided for the fun of it to see if I could find plausible Semitic Etymologies for the three named Gorgons by skimming my Strongs. 

For Medusa I found H4098 Medushshah which is translated "Threshing" but appears only once in Isaiah 21:10 an derived from a more common word for Threshing. 

For Stheno I found H8361 which is Shittiyn and is the Hebrew word for the number Sixty.  And I kid you not the instruction to pronounce it "shit-teen'".

For Euryale I found H3400 Yriy'el which a name spelled in the KJV as "Jeriel" but is pronounced "yer-ee-ale" and means "thrown of God". 

The first is the only one that really works, but perhaps it's the only one that needs to?

Haifa belonged to Zebulun

All the Maps you tend to see of the allotment of the Land to the Twelve Tribes based on Joshua 16-19 do not give Zebulun any coastal territory.

This has always bugged me because Genesis 49:13 and Deuteronomy 33:18-19 say Zebulun would be by the Seashore and a Heaven for Ships and possibly merchant traders.  

According to the Midrash the banner of the Tribe of Zebulun was a Ship on a white background.  And there are other Rabbinic traditions about them being sea farers.

Josephus in Antiquities of The Jews Book 5 Chapter 1 Section 22 says that Zebulun's allotment includes Mount Carmel, which on these common maps is given to Manasseh.  However Josephus's credibility is hindered here by claiming Zebulun also bordered the Sea of Galilee when in Joshua that's definitely all Naphtali.  In 2 Kings 15:29 the Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser carried away the entire tribe of Naphtali into captivity but Zebulun is not included in any of the Assyrian captivity accounts.  So I think after that happened Zebulun sorta take's Naphtali's former territory which I think explains this mistake of Josephus and any other time you see Zebulun associated with the Sea of Galilee. 

There are two places called Carmel in The Bible, there is a Carmel south of Hebron in the Judean Mountains close to the southern border of the modern West Bank.  But "Mount Carmel" always refers to a ridge of Mountains in Northern Israel in the Haifa subdistrict of the Haifa district. 

The city of Jokneam is part of that ridge. Joshua 19:10-11 and 21:34 clearly define Jokneam as part of Zebulun, but it's given to Manasseh in all these maps I've talking about.

I think the confusion is caused by the account of Manasseh's allotment in Joshua 17, it mentions the tribe of Asher in three verses, 7, 10 and 11 and Zebulun not at all.  The first two verses seem to say Manasseh borders Asher, and then verse 11 talks about cities in territory originally meant for Issachar and Asher that Manasseh wound up claiming, but the Canaanites were not driven from those cities anyway. Dor is typically assumed, including by me in the past, to be the one that was Asher's since other reference to this group don't include Dor and the others are right by Issachar. Since none of these are mentioned in the actual accounts of those Tribes allotment sin Joshua 19 we can't say for certain.

I have to admit, if I weren't doctrinally devoted to a belief that the Hebrew Text has been perfectly preserved, I would be inclined to theorize that all three references to Asher in this chapter were supposed to be Zebulun. It is usually Zebulun that gets paired with Issachar like this. The Septuagint and Peshitta have variants here but never in ways that add Zebulun.  Neither mention Asher in verse 7, the Septuagint says Aseb in verse 10 but does say Asher in verse 11, the Peshitta has Asher in verse 10 but not in verse 11. 

Instead what I'm going to speculate is that Asher's claim on Dor did not require land continuity with the rest of Asher's allotment since Dor was a Mediterranean port city and Asher's actual allotment was also on the Mediterranean coast.  Tel Dor btw is in the Hadera Subdistrict of the Haifa District. 

In this reinterpretation of the Tribal Borders the land of Zebulun includes the port city of Haifa.  This city is never mentioned in The Bible, but it is ancient being even a port already in the Bronze Age, but young enough to have not existed yet in the time of Joshua, so a settlement that was likely founded by Zebulunites from it's beginning.

As I said before Zebulun is not ever listed among the Tribes carried away by Assyria, in The Bible or Assyrian records.  2 Chronicles 30 lists Zebulinites among those who accepted Hezekiah's Passover invitation in verses 11 and 18, those Zebulunites became citizens of Judah and thus Jews.