COLORS OF THE HOSHEN STONES ARE HIDDEN IN THEIR NAMES

          M.L Glikman, Israel

                                                                                                                                              

        In the Torah (the Book of Exodus 20:15 we read the following:

..." וכל העם ראים את הקולת ואת הלפידם ואת קול השפר ואת ההר עשן..."

       The literal understanding of this sentence caused confusion among many translators and commentators of the Holy Scriptures: "And all the people see the voices and torches and the shofar sounds and the smoking mountain…”  How is it possible to see the voices and sound of the shofar?

       Here are some examples of translations and interpretations:

1.     “And all the people are seeing the voices, and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the  mount smoking…” (Young's Literal Translation).

2.  “And all the people saw the thunderings , and the  flames, and the  sound of the trumpet, and the  mountain smoking…” (Darby Bible Translation).

3. "And all the people  saw the thunderings, and the lightnings , and the noise of the trumpet , and the mountain smoking …” (King James Bible).   

4.  “ When the people saw the thunderings  and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke …"( New International Version). 

5. "All the people   perceived the thunderings , the lightnings , the sound of the trumpet , and the mountain  smoking…” (World English Bible).

6. "All the people experienced the thunder and lightning , the sound of the ram's horn, and the smoking mountain…"(  International Standard  Version).    

7." And all the people saw the voices and the flames, the sound  of the trumpet, and the mount smoking…"( Douay- Rheims Bible).

  http://bibleapps.com/exodus/20-18.htm

    RASHI wrote about the miracle: “People saw what one normally hears and heard what one normally sees” (see Book of Shemot, Shamir Publishers, 1993, p.239).  And Abraham ibn Ezra (1080 – 1164) believed that at that moment all the senses merged together in one place.   

   The modern Torah commentators attribute the event to the most ancient description of mass synesthesia :"Some say that it was an experience of synesthesia, where they actually saw sounds" (Navigating the Bible . http://bible.ort.org/books/pntd2.asp?ACTION=displeypage&BOOK=28CHAPTER=20 ).  

    Synesthesia (in Greek “joint or simultaneous sense or feeling) occurs as a result of transfer of excitation from nervous structures of one sensor system to another.  For example, “experiencing a color image as a response to a musical phrase” (V.P. Petrenko, 2005).  Sometimes a verbal stimulus or the shape of written letters can cause a sensation of them having colors.  The vast majority of people are not able to see the colors of letters or musical notes.  Only few possess such a gift.

   Ken Robinson wrote: “… synesthesia is when the feelings are mixed or partially overlap each other, thus the ability to see sounds and hear colors is born” (“The Calling”, 2010, p.53).

   Do not RASHI and ibn Ezra talk about the same thing?  The Lord revealed a Miracle! 

   In contemporary perception of synesthesia there is an emphasis on congenital (hereditary or acquired in utero) inter-neuron and inter-center connections, which contribute to the phenomenon of co-sense.  The lack of the early educational training process during the person’s infancy (for example, Mowgli Syndrome) deprives synesthetes an opportunity to describe their feelings.  Words (speech is the second signal system) become meaningful only as a result of a person’s interaction with the external world (associations, condition reflexes, etc.).  But words are made of letters.  Thus, one of the forms of synesthesia is to see the letters of the alphabet in color.  “Each letter has its color!” was the name of the article by Avner Pinchover (2012)( http://alefalefalef.co.il )

     In the foreword to the book by Rabbi F.S. Berg “The Power of the Alphabet” (1996) Kenneth Clark wrote: “The Book of Zohar tells us that the first creation of the Lord in the world of infinity were the 22 letters of the Hebrew language…” (p. 17).  Further in the book we read: “The Talmud says that Bezalel, a skilled architect, successfully built the tabernacle, because he" knew how to compose letters of which heaven and earth were created" (Rabbi Berg, ibid, p. 41).

     The Almighty created the world in color.  Each letter that participated in the creation of the world had its color.  Here is what Helena Blavatsky said in 1897: “Each letter of the alphabet has its own color or a shade… The Mosaic language has a number, a color and a special syllable for each letter.” (from the book The Secret Doctrine, vol.3, p. 422)    

    Rabbi M. Laitman (2003) referring to the Sefef Yetzirah (the Book of Creation) writes: “… letters are stones, out of which buildings – words –are made.  As the sages tell us, the world was created by the letters of the holy tongue, each letter of which represents … the power of creation” (from The Book of Zohar, p. 294).  Further in the text: “… each letter has its own “face”, the order of letters points to the link between different objects” (ibid, p. 296).

   Akram Aylisli (1987) made a connection between a letter and a sound: “Each letter has its own color… A letter is a symbol of a sound, and sound has its own color” (The White Canyon, p. 21).   

   In his book “Orchard of Pomegranates”, RAMAK, רבי משה קורדובירו ((1522-1570 completely disagrees with the notion that the letters of Hebrew alphabet are just the tools to transmit the sounds of speech.  In his opinion, each letter carries the light and radiance coming from G-d’s creating light (chapter the Gate of Letters, see also “The Jewish Astrology” by M. Glazerson, 1996 and זמיר כהן," הצופן" (Zamir Cohen), 2007). 

      A.P. Zuravlev (1981), M.N. Dymshitz et al (2010), Sean Day (1996), Ch.J.Faur (http://www.christianfauer.com/color/idex.html ), Cassidy Curtis (1998) , A. Deadman (2006), P. Green- Armytage (2010), etc. summarize the accumulated experimental material in their works and present Russian and English alphabets in color, with the emphasis on the vowels. 

     There are no vowels in Hebrew.  They are replaced by vowel marks (dots and bars located around the consonants).  This particular feature of the alphabet prevents the automatic transfer of letter colors from other languages into Hebrew.  Some actually believe that the vowel marks (nekudot) “are responsible for coloring Hebrew words” (http://www.hidden.visnsoft.com/).

     In the literature on Kabbalah one can find references for possible color of each of the 22 letters.  In the Table 1 there is some data illustrating this point.

 Table 1 .  Suggested colors of Hebrew letters (literature review)  

Franz  Bardon	N. Farell	D.M. Craig	King Scale Color	Letters
Light blue	Bluish-emerald	Bright yellow	Yellow	א
Light purple	Grey	Yellow	Yellow	ב
Pale green	Pale blue	Blue	Blue	ג
Dark blue	Spring green	Emerald	Emerald Green	ד
Dark purple	Red	Scarlet	Scarlet	ה
Lilac	Olive	Red-orange	Red-Orange	ו
Lemony yellow	Bright yelow	Orange	Orange	ז
?	Bright red-brown	Amber	Amber, Orange-Yellow	ח
?	Grey	Green-yellow	Yellow	ט
Opal	Green-grey	Yellow-green	Yellow-green	י
?	Magenta	Purple	Violet	כ
Dark green	Blue-green	Emerald	Emerald-green	ל
Blue-green	Olive-green	Dark blue	Blue	מ
Red	Dark brown	Green-blue	Green-Blue	נ
Purple-red	Green	Blue	Blue	ס
?	Blue-black	Indigo	Blue-violet	ע
Light green	Venetian red	Scarlet	Scarlet	פ
Bright red	Mauve	Purple	Violet	צ
Silver-blue	Pink brown	Bright purple	Red-violet	ק
Golden	Amber	Orange	Orange	ר
Sparkling red	Scarlet	Orange-red	Red	ש
Dark brown	Dark brown	Indigo	Indigo	ת

  A hypothesis: a word in Hebrew serves as an indicator of the color of a phenomenon or an object.    

     If one knows the colors of the letters, it is possible to calculate the color of a word by adding the basis data and using the software for mixing the colors.  For example, the word אש (fire) consist of the letters ש (scarlet, red, orange-red) and א (yellow or light blue, see Table 1).  According to the physics of light, red + yellow = orange, while red + light blue = a shade of purple.  We can consider the test successful, as a fire, depending on what is burning, can be of any of these colors.  What is then the color of the names of the Hoshen stones?  

    The aim of our study is to determine the colors of the words denoting the 12 stones of the High Priest’s breastplate by using the color scale of the letters comprising these words.  We have not found a similar research in any literature available to us.   

   The method.  It is impossible to use a descriptive identification of colors (e.g. coral, turquoise, salmon, indigo, etc.) for obtaining quantitative results.  The coding must be used.  That is why a decision was made to utilize the already existing color alphabet of Hebrew language presented in an article by Avner Pinchover (see Figure 1 and http://alefalefalef.co.il).   The issue of the origin of the alphabet at the beginning stage did not have much significance to us, as we did not imagine the final result beforehand.  The main requirement was for all the 22 color shades (corresponding to the number of letters) to be distinctly different from one another.      

  Fig.1. Avner  Pinchover’s color alphabet 

    We coded the colors of the letters in the RGB system (red-green-blue) by using the color directory at  http://www.techyuva.com/wp-content/uploads/colors.gif  (see the coding results in the Table 2).   We used the computer mixer http://www.colorhexa.com  for adding the codes together and obtaining the final colors for the words.  The results are shown in the Table 3 and Figure 2.

   

     Table 2.  The codes for the Hebrew letters in the RGB system according to Avner Pinchover’s alphabet. 

255, 51, 102	FF 33 66	א
0,  255,  51	00 FF 33	ב
0,  204, 204	00СС СС	ג
255, 51, 51	FF 33 33	ד
204, 51, 204	СС 33 СС	ה
51, 153, 153	33 99 99	ו
255, 204, 0	FF CC 00	ז
51, 153, 255	33 99 FF	ח
255, 255, 51	FF FF 33	ט
51, 255, 153	33 FF 99	י
51, 255,255	33 FF FF	כ
0, 204, 255	00 CC FF	ל
204,204, 0	CC CC 00	מ
51, 51,255	33 33 FF	נ
255, 153,51	FF 99 33	ס
102, 153,255	66 99 FF	ע
204, 204, 204	CC CC CC	פ
153,51,204	99 33 СС	צ
102, 204, 204	66 СС СС	ק
102, 255, 0	66 FF 00	ר
255, 0, 51	FF 00 33	ש
204, 204, 51	CC CC 33	ת

     For the sake of comparison we conducted the analysis of the colors of the names of the Hoshen stones according to their English transcriptions by using the existing codes of the colors of the English letters found in the following articles: "Тhе color Alphabet of Christian J.Faur "( see above)  and  P. Green-Armytage "А Color Alphabet and the Limits of Color Coding" http://www.colour-journal.org/2010/5/10/  (see the results in Table 4).

   The obtained results.  The “color blender” program gave us twelve color codes for the names of the Hoshen stones as well as their color description in the color range.  We used the results to make a table imitating the Hoshen.

Table 3.  Color codes of the names of the Hoshen stones.

AD 8F 3D – dark moderate orange תרשיש-	99 88 66 – mostly desaturated dark orange - לשם	66 AA EE – soft blue נפך-	EE 66 33 – bright orange אדם-
DD 55 55 – soft redשהם-	66 88 55 – mostly desaturated  dark green - שבו	99 D9 66 – soft greenספיר-	E6 8C 80 – very soft redפטדה-
B3 80 99 – slightly desaturadet   pink ישפה-	8F 85 A3 – dark grayish violet  אחלמה-	73 B3 99 – slightly desaturated cyan-lime green יהלם -	5D EA 4D – soft lime green ברקת-

Figure 2.  Colors of the names of the Hoshen stones.

      The result exceeded our expectations.  The hypothesis worked!  Most of the obtained color shades are similar to the colors of the stones from the Translation of the Seventy.  Thus, sard, topaz and emerald (the first column) in their color range match the colors obtained for the Hebrew names.  In the second column we find jasper.  According to Pliny, its color is green, which could correspond to the obtained color of the word “yahalom” – a shade of green.  The colors in the third column are similar to the colors of ligure, amethyst and, with some stretching, agate.  In the fourth column there are chrysolite and onyxion (if the stone is of the nail color).  There are 9 matches out of 12, accounting for 75%.  However, there are also striking exceptions.  The color of the word נפך (nofech) is a shade of blue, which does not correspond to the general notion of anthrax, even though there is a story by Arthur Conan Doyle called “The Blue Carbuncle” that talks about a diamond.  But those who believe the gem to be a turquoise stone will find the color of the word quite useful.  A surprise, even though not totally unexpected, is that the color of the wordשהם  (shoham) is a shade of red.  Also, when comparing the stones of the Garden of Eden with the Navaratna, we see that שהם is a red colored stone (see “ Navaratna – the Key to the stones of Hoshen "), even though it is not consistent with the general perception of the black color of the stone.  However, nobody has expected that the color of the word ספיר (sapir) would turn out to be green, with a possible exception of Onkelos.  He translated the name of the fifth Hoshen stone as שבזיז (shavziz), most likely from the Persian word sabzi – green .

      In order to make sure that “Hebrew works only in Hebrew”, i.e. the implementation of this idea is impossible in an alphabet of any other language, we calculated the colors of the names of the Hoshen stones in the English transcription by using the above-mentioned English color alphabets.

      Table 4. Color codes of the Hoshen names (English transcription).

Names of the stones	According to the alphabet by Cr.J. Faur	According to the alphabet by  P. Green-Armytage
odem	F27416 –vivid orange	8A2141 – dark moderate red
piteda	806649 – mostly desaturated dark  orange	796A8A – dark grayish violet
bareqet	734243 – mostly desaturated dark red	575462 – very dark grayish blue
nofekh	B17A59 - dark moderate orange	716E3C – very dark desaturated  yellow
sappir	998634 – dark moderate yellow	CD91A9 – slightly desaturated  pink
yahalom	864855 – dark moderate red	E4A573 – soft  orange
leshem	9E5448 – dark moderate red	7D7561 – dark grayish  orange
shevo	B65E58 – moderate red	958188 – dark  grayish  pink
ahlama	55336D – very dark desaturated  violet	DD96B0 –very soft pink
tarshish	665B68 – very grayish magneta	A5A7A7- dark grayish cyan
shoham	823F58 – dark moderate pink	D8A39D – slightly desaturated red
yashfe	8B6A68 – mostly desaturated  dark  red	69884E – mostly desaturated dark  green

     Thus, we have obtained two more color images that are neither similar to each other, nor to the Hebrew result.  Moving beyond the visual assessment, we continued the comparison process by using mathematical and statistical analysis.  Each code can be deciphered based on the correlation of R (red), G (green) and B (blue).  For example, F27416 = 242, 116, 27, etc.   By deciphering all the tables, containing the codes of the shades of colors of the Hoshen stones’ names, we obtained the initial ranges of numeric values (n =36, twelve names multiplied by three color indices).  Then we calculated the pair correlation coefficient, which allowed us to estimate whether there is a linear relationship between the two variables, as well as to determine the strength of the relationship.  In our case, if there is a positive correlation, we can assume the existence of a common causal factor (for example, the color of letters or the general trend).  All the calculations were done by using the software “Optimization tasks. Online solutions”  (http://www.uchimatchast.ru/aplication/pirson.php).

    The following variables of the correlation coefficients were obtained: 

1.     When comparing the coloring of the names of the Hoshen stones obtained by using the two color English alphabets, we calculated the pair correlation coefficient, which equaled r =0,2241.  This indicates that there is no statistically significant correlation relationship between the samples.  The difference in coloring of the English alphabet letters caused the differences in the coloring of the stone names.  

2.     The comparative analysis of the usage of the color Hebrew alphabet and the alphabet from the article by P. Green-Armytage determined r = 0,0821.  The conclusion is simple: there is no correlation relationship.  The particular language characteristics were layered on the differences in the letter coloring. 

3.     When comparing the deciphered Hebrew words with the similar results according the Ch.J. Faur’s alphabet, we obtained the correlation coefficient r = 0.3511, which turned out to be statistically meaningful with this sample (n = 36, the critical coefficient value r  = 0,33, the error probability is 0,05 ), and indicated a weak relationship.    

The statistical analysis confirmed discrepancies in the colors of the names of the Hoshen stones when using color English alphabets.  This could be caused by the differences in the coloring of the letters in Hebrew and English.  The spelling of the words in Hebrew is also very different from English.                         

     

       Conclusions.  Professor H. Shore in his book "Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew"  (2008)  dedicated the whole chapter to the description of the connection discovered by him between the gematrical meanings of Hebrew words denoting colors and the digital expressions of the wavelength of the corresponding colors in the spectrum (see pp. 158-180).  Professor believes that there is hidden information contained in the words of the Torah, which complements what is already known.   

      The hidden and the revealed are parts of one same thing.  In our study we just scratch the surface of the hidden knowledge.  The result is original and meaningful indicating that we are on the right track.     

      Unfortunately, we were not able to determine the origin of the color Hebrew alphabet that we used.  Perhaps, it is a vision of a synesthete, or maybe it was developed by A. Pinchover (who came really close to the knowledge of the coloring of the letters of the Primary Alphabet of the Holy Tongue).   If this is the result of the synesthesia, then how many syesthetes saw it the same way (as not all the synesthetes see color alphabets the same way, Sean Day, 1966, etc.).  The result obtained by us should be seen as just an example, though an impressive one.     

      Undoubtedly, the final coloring of a word depends on the coloring of the letters comprising it. “Each Hebrew letter has its color!”  Thus, it is clear that the colors of the stones on the High Priest’s breastplate are hidden in their names.  In order to declare the knowledge of the coloring of the Hoshen stones it is necessary first to find out the true colors of the letters of the Primary Alphabet of the Holy Tongue.      

      Gematria, the color range of the alphabet, the correct pronunciation of the Hebrew letters (including taamim) – all these are additional keys to discovering the depth of the Torah and coming closer to the All-Encompassing Knowledge.    

      In their work “On Relationship between the Wavelength of the Visible Light and Audible Sound”, 2008, A. Benditzky and A. Kovalev found that the visible range of light (0.4 - 0.8 mm) corresponds to the range of audible sounds (456-913 Hz).  The authors believe that is not a mere coincidence, but rather a reflection of the way the human organs of vision and hearing perceive and process information.  Possibly, if the words are pronounced in this range, the color associations will appear. 

    Though, J. Klingman believes that at the Mount Sinai the people were subjected to the simultaneous and direct stimulation of the visual and auditory centers in their brains bypassing the external analyzers.  That was the reason of the mass synesthesia and mass panic.    

     “… let not God speak with us, lest we die.”   And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin” (the Torah, Exodus 20:19-20).
It took physics thousands of years to catch up with the Torah.

                                                                                                      27.06.2016 

Bareqet. The Etymology of theWord

M. L. Glikman,   Israel                 

     “Etymology (the study of the meaning of words) is a section of linguistics studying the origin of words and their history.”   

     Bareqet – is the name of the third stone on the hoshen (breastplate of High Priests).  Bareqet stone is mentioned three times in the Tanach: twice in the Book of Exodus and once in the Book of Ezekiel.   The word first appears at the time of Exodus, i.e. during the rule of one of the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom in Egypt. 
     Hebrew dictionaries contain information about the influence of other languages on the origin of the word bareqet.  In Akkcadian there is a word barraqtu, in Sanskrit –marakata and in ancient Egyptian –brgt (brKt ) (P. Barguet, 1953; Fr. Brown at al ,1979; E.Klein, 1987; A. Even Shoshan, etc.).  All three words are translated as “emerald”.

     Obviously, all the conclusions were based on ancient texts.  The only question was: how ancient these texts actually were?  Our task was to get acquainted with these materials in order to specify when they were written and what role they played in the originating of the word bareqet.
    The Akkadian word barraqtu is mentioned by R.C. Thompson (1936) as well as in the following dictionaries: CAD. B. 113, and   AHw, 107: “barraqtu (he. bareqet,  aram. bareqa,  sskr. marakatam; smaragdos) “Smaragd”, spB.,  BE 9, 41, 4-6.”
      These three publications (as well as all the subsequent publications related to the word barraqtu) use the same primary source, which dates back to the fifth century B.C. (to be more exact 464 – 424 B.C.) and is described in the book “The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania. Series A: Cuneiform Texts ,  Ed. by   H.V. Hilprecht,  A.T.Clay. 1898, Vol .9, стр.30-31, lines 4-6 in the original text”.  It talks about a stone called “barraqtu” in a golden ring.   There is not even a hint in the text about the mineralogy or a color of the stone.  However, this did not stop the English translator from using the word “emerald” in his translation.  The time of writing of the Akkadian text allows us to conclude that the word was simply borrowed from Hebrew and barraqtu is a transliteration of the Hebrew bareqet.   
   The connection bareqet – marakata also failed the etymological test.  A. Weber (1857), R. Garbe (1882), H. Lewy (1895) wrote that the Sanskrit word “marakata” is borrowed from the Greek and constitutes a derivation smaragdos – maragdos.  These words, in turn, are borrowed from Hebrew.  Thus, the connection is reversed.  Professor Arun Kuma Biswas of the Indian Technological Institute (1994 , p.14)  came to the opposite preliminary conclusion:  “Indians imported emerald but developed and exported the etymology”.   He suggested his own etymology of the word marakata, which is not related to the word smaragd (maru – desert, kata = saikata – sea shore) and has no connection to Hebrew.  According to the author of the article, the Sanskrit word for emerald masAraka or masAragalu contributed to the emergence of the word smaragdos in Greek.  Moreover, the Sanskrit texts mentioning the word marakata in the meaning of emerald are dated AD.  In Sanskrit the word emerald has 21 names (based on the Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit).

     The ancient Egyptian word brgt does not appear in the following dictionaries: A.Erman und H. Grapow (1971), E.A. Wallis Burge (1920/1978), G.Takacs (2001).  It is mentioned only in publications dealing with Stela Famine by P. Barguet, 1953, J. Harris, 1961, M. Lichtheim, 1980, J. Davidovits, 1988, etc.  There is no explanation about the nature of the mineral in the original text.   According to J. Harris (1961) this is the only appearance of the word brgt in Egypt.   The text was carved on a cliff on the island of Sehel not far from Aswan, and dates back to the reign of Ptolemy V (about 200 B.C.).  Therefore, it is a case of another borrowing from Hebrew.  The classical translation “emerald” was used for this Egyptian word as well.  Harris (1961) and  C. Andrews (1990) also allow the possibility of the meaning being “peridot” (a synonymous with olivine and chrysolite).   However, all the translations are based on the Septuagint version of “bareqet-smaragdos”, which has been firmly entrenched in the word-stock of the translators.
     Thus, the word bareqet does not have any etymological roots in other languages, rather it was borrowed by these languages.   At the same time, all the researches without exception agree that the root of this word is the letter combination   brq – ברק.   Other nouns formed from this root include baraq meaning “lightning, glitter, shine”; barqai – ברקאי  meaning “morning star” (F.L. Shapiro, 1963).   A verb formed from the root is baraq meaning “to shine, to glitter”.   The word bareqet is translated from the Aramean as “morning star” (B. Krupnik, A.Silbermann ,1970).
     The word brg (bKt, read as barga) appears in all ancient Egyptian dictionaries meaning “glanzen, illumine, to give light, leuchten”.   The words balaga in Arabic, birqu in Akkadian and barqa ( ברקא) in Aramean all have a similar translation.   
     Therefore, the only possible literal translation of the word bareqet is “a shiny glittering stone” or “iskryak”, a term suggested by V. Severgin for aventurine (B.F. Kulikov, V.V. Bukanov, 1988).   Onkelos (second century AD) used an Aramaic word barqan to translate the word bareqet.     
     Another outdated term sounding strangely similar to the word bareqet is zeberget meaning chrysolite.   The name probably originates from the island of Zeberged in the Red Sea, where they used to mine precious chrysolites in ancient times ( B.F.Kulikov et all, 1988, p. 44).  However, the name of the island is most likely borrowed from another language.  Both zabargat in Persian and zebirget in Arabic mean “peridot”. 
     According to W.Pape (1908) the word smaragdos does not necessarily means emerald.  It may also denote a light beryl, light green transparent fluorspar and any kind of green crystal as well as a free-pouring green liquid glass (Glasflusse) used to produce artificial stones.   Pliny the Elder described twelve types of smaragdum.   

      The conclusion: the word bareqet derives from the root baraq (both are Hebrew words).  The information about its etymological connection with the Akkadian barraqtu and Egyptian brgt is correct in terms of the impact of the word bareqet on the origin of these words.   

      We could not establish any etymological connection to Sanskrit but it would be unfair not to mention the fact that one of many translations of the adjective “shining” into Sanskrit is bhrAja (bhrAjat).  If we add a preface su (which in Sanskrit carries the meaning “good, fair, very”), we will get new words: subhrAj and subhrAja meaning “shining brightly” and all this together means “shine, glitter, bright, light, transparent”.
      In Persian and Arabic there is another word zabarjat meaning “peridot”.  Peridot in Indonesian is batu zabarjat.  Given that this stone has all the above characteristics, it is safe to assume that the name was taken from Sanskrit and later transformed into zeberget creating an illusion that this refers to the bareqet stone, i.e. peridot, olivine, chrysolite.

     

Bibliography.

Куликов Б.Ф., Буканов В.В.  Словарь камней-самоцветов. Ленинград, 1988
Шапиро  Ф.Л.  Иврит-русский словарь.  М.1963 б стр.83
Andrews C. Ancient Egyptian Jewellery. London, 1990, p.49
Barguet P. La stele de la Famine, a Sehel. Le Caire, 1953
Biswas A.K.  "VaidUrya, marakata and other beryl  family gem minerals: etymology and traditions in ancient India" . Indian Journal of History of Science, 1994, 29( 2 ),pp. 140-154
Biswas A.K.  "Minerals and their Explotation in Ancient and Pre – modern  India " .  India ; Metallurgy in India. 2001, pp. 1-24
Brown F.,  Driver S.R.,  Briggs C., Gesenius  W. The new Hebrew and  English  lexicon. Hendrickson Publishers 1979, p.140
Burge Wallis E.A. An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary . N.Y. 1978 (1920), pp. 204 -205
Davidovits J. " The Famine Stele provides  the hieroglyphic names of chemical and minerals involved in the construction  of pyramids". Presented at the Vth   International Congress of Egyptology, Cairo, Egypt, Oct. 1988
Ervan A., Grapow H. Worterbuch der  Aegyptischen  Sprache. Berlin, 1971, Band 6, S.68
Garbe R. Die Indischen Mineralien .Leipzig,  1882, S. 76-77
Harris J.R. Lexicographical  studies in ancient  Egyptian Minerals. Berlin, 1961, p. 105
Krupnik B. , Silbermann A.M.  Handworterbuch   zu  Talmud,  Midrasch  und Targum. Tel-Aviv, 1970, Band 1,S.127
Lewy H. Die semitischen  Fremdworter  im  Griechischen. Hildesheim,  1895/ 1970. S.57
Lichtheim  M. Ancient Egyptian Literature. A Book of Readings . Berkeley, 1980, pp.94-103
Pape W. Griechisch = Deutsches   Handwortebuch. 1908. Band 2, S. 910
Takacs G. Etymological    Dictionary of Egyptian . 2001, Vol 2, pp.268-269
Weber A.  Indische  Skizzen.  Berlin, 1857,S. 88

B E D O L A C H

     M.L. Glikman , Israel                                                         18/03/2015

Eliezer Ben Yehuda (1858-1922), “the father of modern Hebrew” suggested that the word bedolach בדלח can be seen as a two root word consisting of the roots badal בדל and dalach דלח.  The noun badal בדל means “tip, part”, while the verb badal means “to separate”.  It is believed that the word bdil (bedil) בדיל meaning “tin” (stannum) is also derived from the first root. 

The second root dalach is associated with words meaning “muddy” – daluach דלוח, “water pollution” delicha דליחה, etc.  In Akkadian dalahu also means “water pollution”, while in Tibetan driha means “urine”.

     In literature we find various transliterations of the word bedolach: bdolach, bedolach, bdolah.  J.B. Obry (1858) even writes it as “bedoulakh” possibly hinting at Sanskrit.  A book “Die Indischen Mineralen” by R. Garbe was published in 1882.  In the chapter “Gelber, Arsenik, Auripigment” we read that one of the names of Auripigment is “bidlAka” (page 48).  This word can be found almost in all Sanskrit dictionaries.  It should be noted that in Sanskrit this mineral has only (!) 50 different names (according to the Spoken Sanskrit dictionary), but the word “haritAla” is most commonly used in the Indian literature (Vaidia Bhagvan Dash, 2001, etc.).

     While continuing with the “Sanskrit direction” of our research we discovered certain “imitation” of Hebrew.  In Sanskrit the noun dala means “part, portion, piece”, the verb dal – “to explode”, the noun bidal (sf. vidal) – “to burst, crack, be produced by splitting”.  The word vidala means “separating, fragment”.  We would like to emphasize that the Hebrew word badal בדל and the Sanskrit word vidala have the same semantic meaning “to separate, separating”.

    And now, a bit of grammar.   The letters “b” and “v” in Sanskrit are interchangeable in certain cases.  Thus, V.B. Dash (2001) writes the name of Auripigment as “vidAlaka” (see “Alchemy and Metallic Medicines in Ayurveda, page 136).  The suffix “ka” in the end of the word sometimes does not change its original meaning and sometimes lends it a diminutive or even pejorative tone.  (V.A. Kochergina “Sanskrit-Russian Dictionary”, M. 1996, pages 920-921).  For example, the word vidAra means “the act of tearing, splitting”, while vidAraka means “the one who tears”; the word biDAla means “cat”, biDAlaka means “little cat” and biDAlika – “female cat” (see ibid. pages 466, 489).

   At this stage we can only speculate that the word bidAlaka meaning “Auripigment, Orpiment” was formed by adding the suffix “ka” to the words bidal, vidal or vidala.  In the literature available to us such a theory has not been found.

   Conclusion: BEDOLACH = bidAlaka = ORPIMENT, AURIPIGMENT

     Discussion.  The experts studying Sanskrit usually agree that the meaning of the word “saniSkRta” is “good atonement or expiation”, “treated, brought to perfection” (V.A. Kochergina, 1996).  Sanskrit is possibly the richest language when it comes to the number of synonyms for each word.  Some Sanskrit words with similar pronunciation and meaning can be found in many languages of the world.  For example, the word “part” in Latvian is dala, “amber” is dzintars, which sounds similar to the Sanskrit yantra meaning “amulet” and yantraNa meaning “protecting”.  The Sumerian word LUH-HA means “to wash, clean”, URUDU.LUH-HA - purified copper, KU.LUH-HA - purified silver and PAD.LUH-Ha – pieces of silver.  The Sanskrit  word Loha meaning “metal, copper, iron” (see Vibha Tripathi “Archaeometallurgy in India”, 1998, page 141) came from the root Luh, which in Sanskrit means “removing, pulling, drawing, attracting”.  E. Renan in his monograph “Histoire generale et systeme compare des langues semitiques” (1858) gives many such examples (see pages 205-206).  Perhaps, Sanskrit absorbed words from several ancient languages.  However, it was not a loan, but rather storage and safekeeping.  That is why one can find similarities with some Hebrew words that had been forgotten by the native speakers but had kept their original meaning in Sanskrit.  The Sanskrit word yaTa means “sulfur”.  In an alchemic tractate (J.J. Mangeti, 1612) the trinary from the Land of Haviah: gold, bedolach and the shoham stone is compared to the three main alchemical substances respectively: mercury, sulfur (under the name of bdola) and salt.  According to our research, bedolach is not sulfur but rather its compound with arsenic.

   The Sanskrit word used both for bronze and brass is kAMsya, it has such synonyms as vahniloha, pitalauha, etc., while one of the Tibetan names is ba ta lo ha (V.B. Dash, 1994).

   

  We have not found any proof that the root dalach דלח is used in forming the word bedolach, even though the Auripigment power, which is poorly soluble in water, could make the water look muddy.  The words בדיל (stannum) and בדלח (Auripigment) have the same root in Hebrew.

AS THE SEED OF WHITE GAD ( OR WHITE MANNA?).

M. L. Glikman,  Israel

The ancient people used to find the Shoham stone in the land of Havillah along with gold and bedolach.  The color of bedolach and the seed of gad had served as some kind of identification marks for the manna. 

    In the book of Exodus (Shemot) 16:31 we read the following:  “And the house of Israel called the name thereof  manna: and it was like gad seed  white…”  The second time we see the combination “manna – gad” in the book of Numbers (Bamidbar) 11:7: “Now the manna was like gad seed, and  the  appearance  thereof  as the appearance of bedolach.”

   We have made small changes in the translation.  In both cases the translator used the word coriander  as the name of the plant instead of the word גד – gad.  We felt it was appropriate to use the original Hebrew word but in its English transliteration.

   The first sentence in the original text does not provide a clear answer to the following question: To which of the two nouns does the definition “white” relate to?  The reference is either to the white gad or to the white manna.  Unfortunately, a survey of a small number of Torah scholars and students in the town of Bnei Brak has revealed differences of opinion, and yet, the majority of respondents adhered to the traditional view: gad is the coriander and the manna is white.

   Various ethnic groups have almost identical names for coriander.  In Akkadian the name is kisibirru,kisibirritu(m), in Sanskrit - kustumbari, in Telugu – kustumburu, in Urdu –kothamir, in Tamil – kotamali, in Arabic – al-kuzbara, in Latin – celiandrum.  The most often used Russian name is kinsa. 

  The history of translation of the word gad as coriander dates back to the Septuagint and continues in translations of the Holy Scriptures into other languages.  Due to the color difference between the coriander seeds, which are of dirty yellow/ brownish color, and the whiteness of the manna, the Torah commentators made some amendments.  According to the Babylonian Talmud (Yoma, page 75), Rav Asi (אסי ) said that the manna was round like gad and white like margalit (this word is usually defined as a pearl or a precious stone).  RASHI supported such interpretation: “….a  herb , the name of which is coriander ; its seed  is round and is not white, whilst the Manna was white." ( Pentateuch.  Exodus. London, 1930 ,p. 87 ).  

   In the same section of the Babylonian Talmud (see also the commentaries Sefer Ein Israel, also called Ein Yaakov) it had been suggested for the first time that gad is pishtan (פשתן ) – flax. 

  However, this idea did not get a momentum due to the red color of flax seeds, which contradicted the accepted notion about the color of manna.   S. Landersdorfer (1916), F.X. Kortleiter (1930) and Moshe Raanan ((ד"ר משה רענן had proposed that the possible explanation for comparing gad with flax may be found in the Sumerian language, where the word gad means flax (http://www.daf-yomi.com/DYItemDetails.aspx?itemId=8058).  Unfortunately these authors did not go beyond simply stating the fact.  

Thus, we have two possible concepts for the etymology of the word gad - גד.   The first one is based on the assumption that the word is derived from the Phoenician language, as the Carthaginians, according to Dioscorides (1^st century AD), used the word goid  for the African coriander (J. Parry,1858; I. Low, 1881).

  The second concept is based on the cuneiform writing.  The Sumerian word gish GADA corresponds to the Akkadian word kitu meaning flax, linen (gish being an indicator of flora).  The earliest records on the clay tablets about flax date back to the third millennium BC (http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/egi-bin/epsd ). (See also R.C. Thompson. A Dictionary of Assyrian Botany, 1949, p. 113).

  The word gad in the Torah is used together with the word zerah – זרע (seed).  In the Sumerian-Akkadian the word seed is written as SHE.NUMUN = zerum (B. Kienast, W.  Sommerfeld, 1994), while the expression zer GADA- Leinsamen (the flax seed) can be found in the dictionary АНw II. 495.

The Wikipedia article “Common Flax” indicates that there are several colors of flax seeds.  The colors vary from pale yellow to dark brown.  The seed capsules have either flattened spherical or ovoid spherical shape, while the seeds are of either ovoid or elongated elliptical shape.   The flax variety with pale yellow seeds is called “white flax” or Linum perenne "Alba".   The flowers of common flax are blue (blue flax), while white flax has white flowers.  Can this be the biblical “white gad”?

W.H. van Soldt (1990) has published the names for flax in the Ugaritic language: pttm = GADA –flax, linen.   Besides that, there are two more words for flax in this language: ktn and qt.  The last word even falls into the same pattern as gad.  One of the words for flax in the Ancient Egypt was psd (sounds similar to the Hebrew pshtn).

   In the Dravidian language the word gaddi  means grass, straw, hay ( T. Burrow, M. Emeneau, 1961).

Continuing the search for white flax we discovered  GADA   BABBAR - white linen (M. Silver, 1992) on the lists  of goods arriving from Tilmun (Dilmnun, Bahrain).   The word BABBAR means white, while the collocation GADA  BABBAR  can be found in the" Lugalbanda in the Wilderness"  epos (H.L.J. Vanstiphout, J.S. Cooper, 2003), as well as in the works of  A. Livingtone (2007), J.O. Nriagu,(1983), A. Berlejun (1998) and others.

   We assume that the phrase ki zerah gad lavan   כזרע גד לבן-from the book of Exodus could be written in Sumerian as zer GADA BABBAR – the seed of white flax.   Therefore, גד לבן  (gad lavan) means white flax.  Then the manna is like the seed of white flax and does not have anything to do with coriander.   The heavenly manna is of the light golden color.  Continuing with this train of thoughts we come to the conclusion that bedolach is of golden color.  But bedolach will be the topic of the next article.  

MAKKAN – MAGAN, OMAN AND THE STEATITE STONE.

M. L. Glikman,  Israel

This article can be considered as sort of “side notes”.  The material for the article was collected in the course of my search for the shoham stone.

  

   The time inevitably erases from human memory both the good and the bad.  Thus, the mineral that was widely used in ancient economy as well as in glyptics in Mesopotamia, Harappa and Egypt had lost its original name or maybe it had disappeared in other languages.  We are talking about steatite.  Many museums around the world put on display artifacts made of steatite: scarabs, both enameled and not enameled, pots, rectangular and round stamps depicting exotic animals and un-deciphered scripts, the well-known bust of Mohenjo-daro priest and other artifacts.  Even today steatite has not lost its artistic and commercial value.  

   “Steatite is a microcrystalline variety of talc (and this ancient name probably comes from the Arabic word talq).  The name is derived from the Greek words stear and steatos meaning “fat” or “greasy”, because the surface of the stone seems greasy to the touch.” (N. Sobchak, T. Sobchack , The Encyclopedia of Minerals and Precious Stones, 2002, pp. 354, 364).

    Pliny wrote that there are stones that had received their names from different body parts, thus, “steatitis  singulorum  animalium adipe numerosa" (Naturalis Historiae, 37,186), i.e. from the animal fat.

    The name of the stone has many synonyms: soapstone, Speckstein (fat-stone in German), pot-stone, wax-stone (which relates to the word “stearin”).  In Finland it is called tulikivi, which means “fiery, furnace stone”.

     How was steatite called in ancient Mesopotamia?  We could not find a definite answer in the available literature.  Thus, in CAD A/1 337-338 it says "algameshu- steatite  or any soft stone ".  R.C.Thompson in DACG 167-169 calls it amethyst.  There is a similar sounding word in Hebrew   אלגביש-elgabish  - meaning crystal, hailstone, meteorite.   In ancient Egypt the word irkbs also meant crystal.

   A.Schuster –Brandis (2008), believes that the dushu stone – a light green stone – is steatite.  Many authors disagree with her including P. Steinkeller  (1982) NA4 who believes duh-shi(-a) to be topaz or agate, according to him, steatite is the marhushu stone.   

     Following Thor Heyerdahl (see The Tigris Expedition, M. 1981) into the Meluhha country in the Indus Valley (modern day Pakistan) we have looked into some aspects of the history of the Sultanate of Oman. 

     After the archeological excavations carried out in this country, no one really doubts that the modern Oman is Makkan (often spelled Magan) – the ancient trading partner of Sumer (see G. Bibby. Looking for Dilmun, N.Y.,1968).  All the papers written before the results of the Mohenjo-daro excavations were published are based on the notes by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, the son of the king Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.) about the country of Magan (Ma-gan-nu) being in Egypt or to the South of Egypt  ( W. F. Albricht ,1921;   E. A. Wallis Budge, The History of Esarhaddon, 2001).  It is a historical irony caused by the limitations of human memory.  At the time of the above-mentioned Assyrian king’ rule, it had been more than a thousand years since the goods from Magan and Meluhha stopped coming, and the names of the countries remained only in records.   Here is another example of the echoes of history: there is a Yiddish expression unsere meluhe meaning “our country”. 

    The Mesopotamian texts from the times of Sargon of Akkad, the texts written by Gudea the ruler of Lagash, the Enki and Ninhursag epic and other texts describe the goods coming from Magan.  They included copper supplies and, as has been established by the modern chemical analysis, this copper had low content of nickel, diorite (NA4 esi/usu), U-stone and shuman- stone (P. Attinger, 1984; W. Heimpel, Magan, Reallexikon der Assyrologie, B.7,S.195-199;  D. T. Potts, 1993;  Нimanshu  Prabha  Ray,2003).

    The modern analysis of ancient statues that were previously recorded as made of diorite shows that gabbro was also used as part of the material (P. Yule, I. Guba, 2001).

     What kind of minerals are hiding behind the names of U-stone and shuman-stone?

  In the Assyrian Dictionary published by the University of Chicago (СAD,1992, vol. Sh  3, p. 272) we find shumenu - "a stone", while in Akkadisches  Handworterbuch (1981, vol. 3, p. 1272) the stone is called slightly differently –shumi/enu, which is translated as ein  Stein-  "a stone".   In the list of all the known stones in Deutsch-Akkadisches  Wortebuch ( T. R .Kammerer, D. Schwiderski, 1998, p. 360)  we found the word shuminu without any additional explanations.     

    D.T. Potts (1993) reckons NA4 shu-man/mi among "the soft stones"  ( NA4 is a directory of stones in Sumerian-Akkadian texts), while NA4 al-ga-mish and NA4 bur-shu-sal -accadic belong to the same group.  According to him, all these stones can be identified as steatite, or chlorite, or serpentine.  The author comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to clearly indicate which specific mineralogical values correspond to Sumerian-Akkadian names in the cuneal texts analyzed by him.    

  Both Arabic and Hebrew belong to the Semitic languages.  One of the words for “fat” in Arabic is samin (F. Steingass, The English-Arabic Dictionary, 1993, p.139).  The Hebrew word for “fat” is שומן –shuman. Also in Akkadian the “fat” is shamnu, shaman.   Comparing these words with shuman, shumin brings us to the fat-stone.    It turns out the term “fat” connects the Akkadian and the Greek languages.  Steatite clearly has its place in the literature on mineralogy but the origin of its name is forgotten.    

    A small detail, the Oman steatite is a reality, as steatite is stated on the list of the natural resources of the Sultanate.   

     Concerning U-stone, there is a speculation that it is malachite.  It is synonymous with shammu-stone, which means “green”.  It was often given as a tribute and was used for medical purposes (CAD SH/1 320-321). Here is an analogy: the ancient Egyptians used malachite and called it “green” – wзd,  wзdwзdt,  and another name shsmt (the letter t in the end of the word indicates the feminine gender) (J. R. Harris, 1961).  The speculation requires additional proof.  However, it is a fact that the Sumerian-Akkadian name for malachite has not been found yet.  Perhaps it is some other cupriferous mineral.  The ancient Magan used to export the copper. 

  The conclusion: NA4 shuman /in is steatite.