SHAGREEL

From Book of Mormon Onomasticon
Jump to navigationJump to search
Pearl of Great Price PN 1. SHAGREEL (Shag-reel) god of “the sun” (BofAbraham 1:9)

Hypothetical Hebrew *šaˁarey-ʼel "Gates-of-El" = Babylonian Bab-ili “Gate of God” as the name for Babylon[1] (cf. Ps 118:20 haššaˁar laYHWH "gate of the LORD"; cf. Genesis 28:17, Job 38:17, Isaiah 38:10, Psalms 9:13, 100:4, 107:18, 118:19, Proverbs 14:19, Jeremiah 7:2, Odes of Solomon 22:12, Wisdom of Solomon 16:13; Matthew 16:18; 2 Nephi 4:32 gates of Hell/ Death/ Hades/ Še’ol); Moabite šˁryh = šaˁrê-ha “Her gates” (Mesha Stele 2); Egyptian syllabic ša-ˁa-ra “gate,” as in Papyrus Amherst 4,3. The guttural -ġ- is reflected by earlier Ugaritic tǵr, and confirmed in Arabic tuǵra); ∥grn “threshing-floor,” and ∥bt “house.”[2] Cf. the typical Egyptian temple as “the doors of heaven.”[3]

Another possible reference here may be to the divine name Šgr, a minor god in some Ugaritic texts1: Baal Cycle, tablet 5 (KTU 1.5), III:16-17, and CAT 1.148.31.[4]

Variant: Shag-reel


Notes


  1. S. Dalley, Myths of Mesopotamia, 263 n.38.
  2. L. Fisher, RSP, I, p. 381 #605, and p. 158 #137.
  3. E. F. Wente, “Egyptian Religion,” in Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:409.
  4. Simon Parker, Ugaritic Narrative Poetry (SBL/Scholars Press, 1997), 145, n. 164.

Bibliography


  • Hoffmeier, James K. Ancient Israel in Sinai: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition. Oxford Univ. Press, 2011.