Friday, April 26, 2013

Thanksgiving

Epigraphic records attest 164 names of thanksgiving to date, which is evidence of an astonishingly rich treasury of familial beliefs. All of these names allude to divine acts of salvation, assistance, or protection as experienced by members of a family, with a large diversity of emphases. No less than 58 different verbs are used in the epigraphic names (11 more than are found in the entire Hebrew Bible), and only 6 of the verbs found in biblical names have not yet been found in epigraphic names. Thus a total of 64 different roots are used in the names of thanksgiving found so far.—Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant, page 298

<idle musing>
That's amazing. I don't think we even have 58 different verbs for thanksgiving in English! Maybe that's why we have a hard time being thankful? Or, more likely, we don't have that many verbs because we aren't very thankful : (
</idle musing>

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