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Theophoric Personal Names in Ancient Hebrew: A Comparative Study by Jeaneane D. FowlerReview by: J. J. M. RobertsJournal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 109, No. 2 (Summer, 1990), pp. 316-317Published by: The Society of Biblical Literature
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316 Journal of Biblical Literature
realities? The argument that terms like "father,'when applied to Yahweh,or the com-
parison of Yahwehwith a woman in labor (p. 206) are gender-neutral diminishes the
importance of the issues surrounding these images. Mettinger's work brings his
audience to the biblical data raising theological questions such as these; he leavesthese issues to his audience to formulate and explore. For all the difficulties raised,there is no text for nonspecialists that better presents the divine name and titles with
a concern for their theological depth.
Mark S. Smith
Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520
TheophoricPersonal Names in Ancient Hebrew:A ComparativeStudy, by Jeaneane D.
Fowler. JSOTSup49. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1988. Pp. 410. ?20.50 ($34.95).
This study of the ancient Hebrew theophoric personal names is a revision and
expansion of a doctoral dissertation done under Alan Millard at the University of
Liverpool, and his influence is discernible throughout the work. The work is devel-
oped in five chapters, followed by four appendixes, twenty tables, a good bibliography,and a very helpful series of indexes of Hebrew names; Ugaritic,Phoenician, Amorite,
Aramaic,Old Akkadian,Akkadian, and Palmyrene name elements; and Ammonite,
Edomite, and Moabite theophoric names.
The heart of the work is chap. 2 where Fowler gives her analysis of Hebrew
personal names. After discussing the problem of source material, including the non-biblical inscriptional material, she discusses the theophoric elements and then
analyzes the various types of theophoric names: nominal sentence names, verbal
sentence names, construct form names, names of the pattern qBft'l1, other gram-matical forms, difficult forms, and abbreviated forms. The analysis is careful, the
discussion usually judicious, and Fowler gives alternative interpretations offered byother scholars. One glaringweakness that does appear in this section, however,is the
confidence that Fowler puts in the popular etymologies offered in the OT narratives.
Thus she argues that the name Jerubbaal cannot imply that its wearer was an
advocate of Baal, because according to Judg 6:30-32 Gideon was given the name for
destroying the cultic installations of Baal (p. 58). One may also be dissatisfied withher criteria for excluding shortened or abbreviated names from her discussion, and
one may certainly reject some of her interpretations of individual names. Never-
theless, this is the most useful part of the work and will undoubtedly serve as an
important reference tool on Hebrew names for some time to come.
Chapter 4 forms the other major chapter in the work. It is a comparison of the
concept of deity found in the Hebrew onomastica with the concept found in a series
of other onomastica: Ugaritic, Phoenician, Amorite, Aramaic, Old Akkadian,Akka-
dian, and Palmyrene.This section is not as impressive as the analysis of the Hebrew
onomastica. Fowler does not appear to have the same control here over the primary
sources, and this results in her being too dependent on the opinions of her mentor.Moreover,there is a clear apologetic bias at work in the attempt to demonstrate the
uniqueness and superiority of Israel's concept of God over against that of its pagan
neighbors. Despite these weaknesses, however, the section is useful in outlining the
basic name types found in these other onomastica and in pointing out certain majordifferences between them and the Hebrew onomastica.
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Book Reviews 317
Fowler is certainly correct in pointing out that Israelite monotheism has left a
significant impression on the Hebrew onomasticon. Despite the prophetic attacks on
Israel'sreligious syncretism, the relativelyrareoccurrence of the names of gods other
than Yahweh n the Hebrew onomasticon is quite different from the situation found
in the onomastica of polytheistic peoples. The almost total absence not only of
feminine deities but even of feminine epithets for the deity again points to the distinc-tiveness of Israel's religious faith.
On the other hand, much of Fowler's discussion of the difference between the
Hebrew conception of God and that of its neighbors, particularly in her conclusion
in chap. 5, seems ill-founded and shallow. She often seems to be unaware that she is
comparing the onomastica, not just of different religious groups, but of different
linguistic groups. One cannot expect every element popular in Akkadianor Ugaritic
even to exist in Hebrew, or if it does, to have the same figurative significance indifferent languages, no matter how closely related. Yet Fowler repeatedly points to
particular words that are missing in Hebrew theophoric names but that are presentin the theophoric names of her other comparative onomastica (see especially pp.
312-13) as though this absence in Hebrew were theologically significant. She makes
the same mistake with particular words present in the Hebrew onomasticon but
absent in those of the other languages (see pp. 286-87). Much of what she under-
scores as distinctive seems insignificant, and sometimes what she finds lacking in the
Hebrew onomasticon is clearly present in other sources for Israelite religion. Hebrew
names may not refer to God as a warrior,a lion, or a wild bull (p. 302), but Israelite
religious poetry and prophetic oracles did, so is this omission in the onomasticon, ifit can be sustained, of any significance?
J. J. M. RobertsPrinceton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ 08542
Ancient Israel:A New Historyof IsraeliteSociety, by Niels Peter Lemche. The Biblical
Seminar 5. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1988. Pp. 276. ?22.50/8.95 ($34.95/14.95).
Therequisite chronological
tablelisting
ancientmonarchs,
Saul toZedekiah,stands at the beginning of the body of Lemche's Ancient Israel. But it is a misleading
signpost, for Lemche is scarcely interested in tracing the succession of political
leadership. Instead this new history devotes itself to the emergence of historical ideas
against the skeletal backbone of a reconstruction of the history of the society. Thus
Lemche's study is no history textbook to be placed in the typical genre of biblical
histories. It comprises more an essay on historical research than a comprehensive
assemblage and sifting of data. There are no notes, though an annotated literature
guide occupies a dozen pages. The occasional appearances of the names of OT
scholars serve more to conjure up worlds of thought than to acknowledge debt or
buttress argumentation. The overall aim is to force a full acknowledgment of therestraintsimposed upon historians by their sources and to begin a process of rethink-
ing Israel's history.An initial chapter on geography,demography and economy offers a stage setting
which serves to underscore the extent to which anypolitical or national developmentsin this corner of the world could not have escaped integration into the larger
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