Thursday, February 23, 2023

John Gee on the Meaning of "Nebuchadrezzar" and "Nebuchadnezzar"

  

The Bible has two different spellings of this name. Jeremiah (usually) and Ezekiel (always) use the spelling Nebuchadrezzar (see Jeremiah 21:2, 7; 22:25; 24:1; 25:1, 9; 29:21; 32;1, 28; 34:11; 37:1; 39:1, 5, 11; 43:10; 44:30; 46:2, 13, 26; 49:28, 30; 50:17; 51:34; 52:4, 12, 28, 29, 30; Ezekiel 26:7; 29:18, 19; 30:10). Other biblical writer use the spelling Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah and Ezekiel were pro-Babylonian, and the others were not. The anglicized spellings of the Hebrew names reflect two variants of the Akkadian name. Jeremiah and Ezekiel use the Hebrew form of the proper name of the king, Nabu-kudurri-uṣur, which means: “O Nabu, protect my eldest son!” Those who hated the Babylonians and the Babylonian captivity used the Hebrew form of the satirical name, Nabu-kūdani-uṣur, which means: “O Nabu, beware of the jack-ass!” It is doubtful that anyone would have dared to use the name Nebuchadnezzar to his face. (John Gee, “Cherubim and Seraphim: Iconography in the First Jerusalem Temple,” in The Temple Past, Present, & Future: Proceedings of the Fifth Interpreter Foundation, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw [Salt Lake City: Eborn Books/Provo, Utah: The Interpreter Foundation, 2021], 108 n. 62s)

 

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