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Very interesting. Thank you for presenting these ideas in a way that helps enhance our understanding of Joseph’s process of translation, without using it for criticism or lessening faith in its correctness or divine origins. I feel like I understand that process so much better now, and it’s fascinating.
Very well done.
Smoot’s key notion that Joseph’s translation entailed “dynamic processes influenced by external factors” (p. 366), yes, of course. True of any adequate translation.
Smoot says, however, that “only three [non-KJV] Hebrew words appear in the actual translated text of the Book of Abraham” (p. 358). Given Joseph’s obvious dynamism, Smoot should perforce have added to Table 1—
SHAGREEL – Idolatrous “god of…the Sun” (BofAbr 1:9). Very likely hypothetical Hebrew שערי-אל* *šaˁarey-ʼel “Gates-of-El” = Babylonian Bab-ili “Gate of God” as the name for Babylon (cf. Ps 118:20 haššaˁar laYHWH “gate of the LORD”; cf. Job 38:17, Isa 38:10, Pss 9:13, 100:4, 107:18, 118:19, Prov 14:19, Jer 7:2, Odes of Sol 22:12, Wisdom of Sol 16:13; Matt 16:18; 2 Ne 4:32 gates of Hell/ Death/ Hades/ Še’ol); KJV Shaarayim “Two-gates” (1 Sam 17:52) ; Moabite šˁryh = šaˁrê-ha “Her gates” (Mesha Stele 2); Egyptian syllabic ša-ˁa-ra “gate,” as in Papyrus Amherst 4,3. Virtually identical to Hebrew šaˁar haššāmāyîm “Gate of Heaven” (Gen 28:17 ǁ bêt-ʼĕlōhîm ”House of God, Temple”), which explains the meaning of the Hebrew place-name Bēt-ʼĒl “House-of-God; Temple” (Gen 12:8, 13:3-4, 28:10-18) = LXX Greek Oikus Theou; Josephus Theia Hestia “God’s Hearth-Stone” = modern Beitin = Egyptian BЗty-Зr(З) “Bethel.” The guttural -ġ- of SHAGREEL is reflected by earlier Ugaritic tǵr, and confirmed in Arabic tuǵra); ∥ grn “threshing-floor,” and ∥ bt “house.” Cf. the typical Egyptian temple as “the doors of heaven,” guarded by the twin-Rwty-lions (the sun rising at the horizon).
The form which Shagreel takes is familiar from other names in the Bible: The hybrid Egyptian-Hebrew name, Asareel “Osiris is god” (1 Chron 4:16), and Abdiel, Abdeel “Servant of God” (1 Chron 5:15, Jer 36:26), etc.