Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Meir Lubetski on the Egyptian Name פשיד on Ostracon #52 at Arad (c. 701-609 BCE)

  

 

פשיד the Judean

 

To be a Judean resident in the southern fortress on the border with Egypt, bearing an Egyptian name, would not be unusual. Social and political influences of the southern neighbor were on the rise during the Late Monarchic period and certainly were catalysts in the emergence of foreign names used by the fortress inhabitants. Besides the intrinsic meaning of the Egyptian harmonizes with the biblical view, which makes the foreign name acceptable in Judean circles. Like the Egyptian forerunner, which formed a PN out of the formula, ntr (deity) the rescuer, so too the biblical onomastics is replete with compound names connoting God the helper. In the Late Monarchic era, עזריה was the name of a famous Judean king (2 Kgs 15.6, 8). In a later period, עזריה is known as the high priest in the Temple of Jerusalem (2 Chron. 26.17, 20).

 

A family living in or around Arad could have chosen the name פשיד because of its contemporary popularity in the region. Considering how the Hebrews, and later the Jews, selected names for their children, it is not surprising that a complete Egyptian name, or a blend, would be chosen.

 

Since the sojourn in Egypt, there were priestly families or, for that matter, high officials who bore names with Egyptian roots. No less a personage than the grandson of Aaron, the High Priest, who was famous during the desert years and the conquest, is given the name Pinhas (Exod. 6.25; Num. 25.7, 10; 31.6) which, in the Egyptian, means ‘the reddish brown’. Likewise, the chief of the tribe of Naphtali is called Ahira (Nom. 1.15; 2.29; 7.78, 83; 10.27), with the prefix translating as ‘my divine brother’ and the suffix denoting Re, the Egyptian sun deity.

 

The process of borrowing never abates, and in border regions it is a familiar phenomenon. פשיד, then, might represent a collateral addition to the pool of alien names adopted by Judean residents yet never mentioned in biblical onomastics. As excavations have taught us, names that are not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible or in related literature surface and enrich ancient Hebrew onomastics.

 

פשיד, the Judean, a Cleric or Official?

 

The פשיד ostracon was unearthed in Arad’s Temple area in a cluster of eight ostraca containing familiar and unknown names. פשיד and two others, מרמות (written in scriptio defectiva) and אשיהו בן עזר, were found near the entrance to the cella (holy of holies). The remaining ostraca were discovered in the vicinity, outside the cella. Among them was the name פשחר. From the group of eight, two names were attested in the biblical text: מרמות was mentioned as the personal name of a priest during the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 8.33; Neh. 3.4, 21). פשחר was the priest, serving in an official position during the late period of the first temple, who severely punished the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 20.1-6). What is interesting is that both names are rooted in the Egyptian language. מרמות is composed of two Egyptian elements,, mr(j), meaning beloved and mwt, indicating the divinity Mut. In Egyptian פשחר means the son of Horus.

 

Since those ostraca, scattered close to the cella, contained only names, Aharoni suggested that they were ‘slips’ that ‘most probably served as lots for the priestly assignments, as practiced in the Jerusalem Temple’. If that is so, then it is certainly a possibility that the unknown individual פשיד, who bears an Egyptian name, was a cleric of the Temple, belonging to the priestly tribe.

 

Yet, names could be used by lay persons as well as by priestly families. As a matter of fact, an individual bearing the name of Pashur (Jer. 21.1) was a layman, albeit an official in the royal court of King Zedekiah. Accordingly, the ostraca might represent a group of high-ranking personnel, composed of assorted categories.

 

. . .

 

Conclusion

 

Thus פשיד originates in Egyptian onomastics. The one who bears the name in Arad might have been the progeny of a Judean family who resided in the fortress and believed that the Egyptian name is more conducive for a successful future career of their offspring. (Meir Lubetski, “Who is Inscribed on Ostracon #52 of Arad?,” in Epigraphy, Iconography, and the Bible, ed. Meir Lubetski and Edith Lubetski [Hebrew Bible Monographs 98; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2022], 231-33, 237; Ostracon #52 of Arad belonged to the VIII stratum, c. 701-609 BCE [ibid., 225])

 

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