Question on how to research an odd entry in a dictionary resource
ISCAH — spy, the daughter of Haran and sister of Milcah and Lot (Gen. 11:29, 31)
M.G. Easton, Easton's Bible Dictionary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).
I know what I did to puzzle this one out but the entry created two questions for me:
- I assume that 'spy' is the literal translation of her name. What is the fastest way to determine why Easton's gives that translation?
- Iscah is not explicitly mentioned in Gen. 11:31. What is the fastest way to determine which person who is mentioned is identified as Iscah by Easton's? Note: I do know that Iscah has been identified with Sarah and with Lot's wife.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
Comments
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Hi MJ.
The most useful reference I found was in the IVP Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch:
"Sarah and Abraham are mentioned again in Isaiah 51:2, where God calls Israel to remember its roots—Abraham and Sarah—and the miracle of the many descendants who came from these two ancestors. Later Jewish tradition surrounding Sarah adds much to the details of the biblical text. Regarding genealogy, Sarah is identified as Iscah, the daughter of Abraham’s brother Haran (Gen 11:29). That would make her Abraham’s niece. The name Iscah is related to the word sākâ (“to look”), for all looked on her beauty (b. Meg. 14a). It is also said that her beauty lasted through journeys and wanderings and continued through to old age (Gen. Rab. 40:4), that her beauty made all other people look like monkeys (b. B. Bat. 58a), and that Abishag, a great beauty in her own right who sought to cheer David in his old age (1 Kings 1), was only half as beautiful as Sarah (b. Sanh. 39b).
The name Iscah also refers to Sarah’s ability to prophesy, according to Jewish tradition, and to see with the eyes of vision (b. Meg. 14a). She is named as one of the seven prophetesses in the Hebrew Bible, and her prophetic gift is reputed to have excelled that of her husband (Ex. Rab. 1:1). In addition, when her name was changed from Sarai, Sarah became a princess for all humanity as well as a princess for her own people (Gen. Rab. 40:5)."
T. Desmond Alexander and David W. Baker, Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, 735 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003).
The WBC thinks trying to work out who Iscah actually was is speculative:
"“Iscah” is mentioned only here. The etymology and meaning of her name are unknown. Suggestions that Iscah is an alternative name for Sarah or that she was Lot’s wife are purely speculative."
Gordon J. Wenham, vol. 1, Word Biblical Commentary : Genesis 1-15, Word Biblical Commentary, 273 (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002).
Hope this helps
Graham
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MJ. Smith said:
- I assume that 'spy' is the literal translation of her name. What is the fastest way to determine why Easton's gives that translation?
I right clicked on her name in a RI (NASB95), selected the Manuscript tab, then Search entire library. I found a few useful tidbits:
Some sources tell me that apparently יִסְכָּה comes from סָכָה, an unused root meaning to watch. (I wonder how they know what that root means if it's unused? Maybe just unused in Scripture but attested elsewhere?) Gesenius says the name means "one who beholds, looks out." Others say "derivation uncertain" (ZEB) or "etym. dubious" (BDB)
MJ. Smith said:- Iscah is not explicitly mentioned in Gen. 11:31. What is the fastest way to determine which person who is mentioned is identified as Iscah by Easton's? Note: I do know that Iscah has been identified with Sarah and with Lot's wife.
Perhaps Easton's is just giving Gen 11:31 as a reference for Lot. Or else maybe the implication from 11:31 is that Terah took the whole family, which would have included Lot's sisters too, even though they aren't mentioned by name. Here's their family tree from Biblical People. I think there's a marriage missing in the diagram, if I'm reading Gen 11:29 correctly. I've drawn it in in red:
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Rosie Perera said:
I think there's a marriage missing in the diagram, if I'm reading Gen 11:29 correctly. I've drawn it in in red:
Rosie, good catch, did you e-mail that data correction into Logos?
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Praiser said:
Rosie, good catch, did you e-mail that data correction into Logos?
Thanks for the reminder. No, I hadn't. I have just now emailed it in to data at logos dot com. I wonder if there are other instances where someone married somebody else in a different generation and whether the family tree rendering module can handle those diagonal lines. You wouldn't want to repeat Milcah in the tree just to have her next to Nahor as his wife, unless there was some other visual indication that it's the same individual. See, in this same tree there are two people named Nahor but that is NOT the same individual. I'm an avid genealogist, and I deal with this sort of thing in my own family tree (which I do in Family Tree Maker). We had one ancestor who married a niece of his. FTM duplicates the person in the tree but puts a [1] next to each copy of that person so you know it's actually the same person. If there are two duplicate individuals in one page of the tree (which we also had in other places because some people married their cousins), they get [2]s or [3]s or whatever to identify them.
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