Thursday, September 23, 2021

Ze'ev Weisman on "Ahab" and Pejorative [Midrashaic] Name Derivation

 

 

Ahab, the Son of Kolaiah (Jer 29:21-23). In the conflict between Jeremiah and his adversaries—the two false prophets, Ahab the son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah—Jeremiah curses them both. For the purpose of the curse he uses the name “Kolaiah” (קוליה), and makes a play on it in various ways: “Because of them this curse (קללה) shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: ‘The Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted (קלם) on the fire’” (v 22). On the basis of phonic association between קללה, קוליה and קלה a pejorative name etymology is constructed here, which turns the theophoric name Kolaiah, whose presumed meaning is קוה ליה (“hope in God”) into the object of a curse in the name of God, involving roasting in fire. Not by chance did the satirist chose to play on the verb שרף, which is not common in the Bible, instead of קלה, which is usual (32:20; Deut 7:5; Josh 6:24; Jud 18:27). Moreover, the satirical tendency of contrasting the name is also revealed in the paradoxical use by the prophet of the stylistic formula of blessing for the purpose of a curse: the formula “The Lord make you like . . . “ followed by a personal name appears in the Bible in the context of blessings, for example, ‘”The Lord make you like Ephraim and Menasseh” (Gen 48:20). This device of pejorative name etymology is used principally by the author of Chronicles, who turns it into his particular means for historiosophic and religious evaluation. (Ze'ev Weisman, Political Satire in the Bible [The Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies 32; Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1998], 16-17)