October 2008 Book Reviews 307 teronomy’s “Law of the King,” but that narrow the 177 toponyms from Eusebius’s Onomasticon segment of the Priestly did not influence that formed the basis for his research, the bulk of the overall shape of the Psalter very much. Elitzur’s volume consists of the detailed descrip- tion of the sixty toponyms has chosen to ana- Kent Sparks lyze. Following this list, which includes many familiar biblical names as well as a number of Eastern University less familiar ones (no doubt chosen to illustrate St. Davids, Pennsylvania various linguistic phenomena), is a summary of the historical and comparative linguistic evidence that can be gleaned from the study of the topo- Ancient Place Names in the Holy Land: Preser- nyms. This section is divided according to normal vation and History. By Yoel Elitzur. Jeru- grammatical tradition, starting with comments on salem: The Hebrew University, Magnes Press; spelling, followed by discussions of “phonology,” Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2004. “morphology,” the “definite article and syntax,” Pp. xiii + 466. $59.50. “etymology and semantics,” and, finally, “his- For many, a visit to Israel-Palestine is torical matters, transmission of Hebrew, con- about “place,” more specifically, the setting for fluence of languages.” Part 4 concludes the work most biblical events. And one of the simplest, with “a brief summary of new discoveries and and oldest, methods for making the connection insights in historical geography,” in which eighty between geographic now and then is by means topics, mostly site identifications, are presented of the toponyms. Perhaps the most as the major contributions of the study as a whole well-known person to do this was the nineteenth- to the field of historical geography. century explorer Edward Robinson, whose nar- Each section is well organized and clearly rative in Biblical Researches in Palestine, and written. The English translation reads easily, and in the Adjacent Regions: A Journal of Travels in Elitzur’s style and attention to cross-reference the Year 1838, 3 vols. (Boston, 1874) is a capti- makes the weight of detail easier to bear. And vating account of his excursions in Egypt, the make no mistake, the book is full of detail; it Sinai, and Palestine in the “attempt to lay open is a massive repository of toponym data, pri- the treasures of Biblical Geography and History marily from , Greek, and Arabic, still remaining in the Holy Land” (p. xi). although it includes references as well With Ancient Place Names in the Holy Land: as Samaritan and examples when Preservation and History, a revision of his 1993 helpful and even the occasional pronunciation dissertation, Y. Elitzur contributes to our fasci- elicited from modern Arabic informants by nation with historical geography. A crucial dif- Elitzur himself. It would be no small task for ference from the type of work done by Robinson any one site to acquire the type of information and those who followed him is Elitzur’s focus: that Elitzur provides for sixty! the nexus of historical geography and philology, At first glance, it might seem odd that Elitzur with contributions to Hebrew grammar, one of uses historical-geographical data in order to con- the project’s primary goals. As such, his study tribute to historical Hebrew grammar. He is ex- fills a niche empty for over a century. Not since plicit with his rationale for such a project, though: G. Kampffmeyer’s Alte Namen im heutigen with Arabic toponyms we have “a linguistic in- Palästina und Syrien (Leipzig, 1892–93) has ventory from a historical period of major sig- there been a systematic treatment of biblical to- nificance for linguistic research—an inventory ponymic philology, and it is not surprising that independent of the and of the tra- Elitzur finds fault with much of Kampffmeyer’s ditions of manuscript transmission” (p. 3). Fol- century-old methodology, data, and conclusions, lowing a lead provided by E. Y. Kutscher, Elitzur thereby justifying this new investigation. believes toponym research has the potential to After a brief introduction in which he describes be, as he says, “an Archimedean point outside his goals and methodology and provides a list of the system” (p. 11). And perhaps it is so, with 308 Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 67 No. 4 enough qualification concerning the conversative Additionally, Elitzur places a great deal of nature of proper nouns like toponyms and with a emphasis on the need for a linguistic framework historical-linguistic framework adequately sen- and explicit methodology, but nowhere does he sitive to account for the variety of ways in which actually describe his own. Another issue Elitzur borrowed lexical items (Hebrew toponyms) are leaves for his reader to uncover on his or her own manifested in the borrowing language(s) (Greek, is the rationale for his citation of language data, Arabic). at times transcribed but quite often in the native And after reading the book, I agree with Elitzur script. Although this was an irritant (as was that the study of toponyms has great potential the lack of a table specifying his transcription to provide greater nuance and sometimes even scheme), thankfully it does not take the entire significant revision to our reconstruction of pre- book to sort it out. This does raise a larger Tiberian Hebrew grammar, particularly pho- question for such works, though: if it is linguis- nology. For example, Elitzur asserts that the tically oriented and aimed at a sufficiently broad toponymic evidence does not support the double audience, then should not transcription be used pronunciation of the ‘begadkefat’ consonants throughout? Non-roman fonts are unnecessary for before the Masoretes, but rather that b, d, k, and linguistic analysis and simply serve to exclude t represented the /b/, /d/, /k/, and /t/, linguists who are not from within our specific respectively, and g and p represented the frica- fields (and IPA fonts would be even better). tives /g/ and /f/, respectively. Does this mean that In the end, this book is a valuable addition to Kautzsch is wrong in the statement “[t]he harder my shelf (the closer shelf, with the linguistic and sound is the original” (Gesenius’ Hebrew philology works), but with clearer focus, an ex- Grammar [1847; Oxford, 1910], p. 34) or that g plicit linguistic framework, and transcription of and p represent consonants that underwent two linguistic data throughout, it would be a much sound changes, from to and more powerful tool and accessible to a larger then back? The latter option is unlikely, and the readership. data from Elitzur’s study raise questions about the former option. Robert D. Holmstedt Certainly, this work provides the reader with University of Toronto a wealth of information, but it also suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. By the midpoint of the book, I began asking myself what this book was really about. On the one hand, the title, most of Treasures Old and New: Essays in the Theology the introduction, the sections on the “identifica- of the Pentateuch. By Joseph Blenkinsopp. tion” of the sites for some of the sixty toponyms, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans and the final section suggest that it is about his- Publishing Co., 2004. Pp. x + 228. $26. torical geography and the identification of biblical The author of these essays has deservedly made sites based on later Arabic names. On the other a name for himself as one of the leading North- hand, the explicit linguistic goals, the gram- American specialists of Pentateuchal criticism matical summary in the third section, and a according to the historical-critical method and of surprising statement in the introduction raise the implications of this sort of criticism for the doubts about its historical-geographic focus: understanding of the rest of the . Elitzur states that it “is important to stress that The twelve essays gathered here are not intended in this context we are interested in the preserva- to constitute “a theology of the Pentateuch, much tion of the name, not necessarily in the specific less of the Old Testament” (p. vii); they are, location of the settlement in a given period” rather, of the nature of reflections on particular (p. 13). Interdisciplinary work like this is needed, topics or passages within the Pentateuch or on but then the challenge and necessity of provid- relationships between a Pentateuchal text and ing clarity of purpose are greater. other biblical passages. If there is a primary over-

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