GNOLAUM

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Pearl of Great Price PN 1. GNOLAUM “eternal” Abraham 3:18

Hebrew עולם ˁÔlām; Aramaic ˁâl(a)mâ (*ˁawlăm, the augmentative original?)[1]; Hebrew עולם ˁOlam “The-Eternal” = Phoenician ˁUlom = Oulomos of Mochus) "the name of a Phoenician old god, 'the ancient one' literally."[2] 'El-ˁolam is used, for example, in early Canaanite divine names,[3] and is the same as Hebrew אלהי עולם ʼelohey ˁolam “everlasting God” (Isaiah 40:28).[4] Cf. גבעות עולם gibˁot ˁolam “everlasting hills” (Habbakuk 3:6); GN בית עולם bet-ˁolam “house of eternity” (Ecclesiastes 1:4,10, 2:16, 3:14, 12:3,5,7), which appears in Egyptian transliteration as bЗt-ˁrm in the conquest list of Pharaoh Shishak I (Bubastite Portal 3:36)[5]; פתחי עולם pitḥe-ˁolam “gates of eternity” (Psalm 24:7,9); “God has set eternity[6] in their heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NJB note b); Ugaritic ġlmt, “Darkness,”[7] and zbl mlk ˁllmy “the Prince, the Eternal King,”[8] and rpʼu mlk ˁlm “the Hero, the Eternal King.”[9] Note that Egyptian nb dt (or nb nḥḥ) “Lord of eternity” = Ptah (ANET 4-6) = Canaanite dū ˁôlami “lord of eternity”; Amarna Cuneiform -ilam, -olam.[10] Cf. Also Hebrew הליכות עולם hălîkôt ˁôlām “ancient orbits,” or pathways taken by deities as they make their celestial circuit.[11]

Notes


  1. The same as Mandaean/Gnostic Alma “Age, Eternity” (Aramaic Glossary of Mandaic-Aramaic Terms used by the Order of Nazorean Essenes by Abba Yesai Nasrai. online at http://www.volker-doormann.org/aramaic.htm ); but ˁolam transliterated γελαμ in LXX (Hatch & Redpath, Concordance to the Septuagint [1897-1906], 235b).
  2. F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, 24-35; Cross, From Epic to Canon, 77, 82; D. N. Freedman defines ˁOlam as “the Eternal” at Deuteronomy 33:27 (Freedman, “The Poetic Structure of the Framework of Deuteronomy 33,” in G. Rendsburg, et al., eds., The Bible World [KTAV, 1980], reprinted in Freedman, Divine Commitment, 95); cf. J. Bright, A History of Israel, 3rd ed. (Westminster Press, 1981), 100.
  3. W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan (London ed.), 104 and n. 21, citing F. M. Cross in Harvard Theological Review, 55 (1962):236-244; cf. J. A. Thompson, “The Root ˁ-l-m in Semitic Languages and Some Proposed New Translations in Ugaritic and Hebrew,” in R. Fischer, ed., A Tribute to Arthur Vööbus: Studies in Early Christian Literature and Its Environment, Primarily in the Syrian East (Chicago: Lutheran School of Theology, 1977), 159-166 ; E. Jenni, “Das Wort ˁōlām im Alten Testament,” ZAW, 64 (1952):197-248; 65 (1953):1-35.
  4. R. N. Holzapfel, D. M. Pike, and D. R. Seely, Jehovah and the World of the Old Testament (SLC: Deseret Book, 2009), 18.
  5. John Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 192-193.
  6. In this instance Northrop Frye interprets עולם ˁolam as “mystery, obscurity,” based on the context (Frye, The Great Code, 124).
  7. G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit, 2nd ed., (Ugarit-Verlag, 2014), 45 (n. 49), 183 (n 24), citing del Olmo Lete, “HALAMA of Emar and ĠLMT of Ugarit: A ‘Dark’ Deity,” in L. Kogan, et al., eds., Festschrift M. Diakonoff, 47-57.
  8. A. Rahmouni, Divine Epithets in the Ugaritic Alphabetic Texts, HdO I, 93 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 169.
  9. Rahmouni, Divine Epithets, 294.
  10. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, 16-20.
  11. Francis I. Andersen, Habakkuk, Anchor Bible 25 (Doubleday, 2001), 292, citing Albright, “The Psalm of Habakkuk,” in H. H. Rowley, ed., Studies in Old Testament Prophecy: Presented to Prof. Theodore H. Robinson (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1950), 14 n. t.

Bibliography


  • Gee, John. "Book of Abraham, selected non-Emglish words in," in Pearl of Great Price Reference Companion, ed. Dennis L. Largey, 63. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017.
  • Smith, Robert F. “Some ‘Neologisms’ from the Mormon Canon,” 1973 Conference on the Language of the Mormons, May 31, 1973, 64-68. Provo: BYU Language Research Center, 1973, online at https://www.scribd.com/document/363522963/SOME-NEOLOGISMS-FROM-THE-MORMON-CANON .