Metathesis in the Bible by Steven Philips (20 September 2016, 17 Elul, 5776)
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Foreword by Brit-Am:
One of the Characteristics of the Ten Tribes, especially of Joseph and Manasseh, is that they were to be
Ruler of the World or almost so.
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/biblical-proof/attributes/ruling.html
a dominant world power
http://www.britam.org/Proof/Joseph/joDominant.html
possess military might and be the 'battle-axe" of the Almighty" (Jeremiah 51:20), i.e. policeman of the globe.
http://www.britam.org/Proof/Joseph/joMilitary.html
These attributes would come to expressions primarily towards the End Times.
Nevertheless there were periods in the Biblical Era and after it when the Tribes of Israel were powerful and influenced the surrounding nations.
We have touched on some aspects of this subject in some of our works, e.g.
The Tribes,
http://www.britam.org/the-Tribes.html
Joseph,
http://britam.org/bkjoseph.html
Ancestry
http://britam.org/Ancestry.html
To Rule the World
http://britam.org/RuleWorld.html
Ephraim
http://www.britam.org/ephraim.html
Steven Philips is now in the process of preparing a book (or several books?) on these and related subjects.
The article below is centered around the linguistic phenomenon of metathesis. Metathesis is is the "re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word."
An example from English is the word "bright". In Old English it was beorht and underwent metathesis to bryht, which became Modern English bright.
Metathesis is quite common in Biblical Hebrew, e.g. we have the word "Keves" and "Kesev" both meaning "sheep".
Steven Philips uses Metathesis to show how the name "Manasseh" gives us the Greek Nemesis meaning retribution or vengeance.
So too, metathesis in other Hebrew Names helps us to trace Israelite Tribes to clans and tribes in Western Europe. Those of you who are familiar with our work "The Tribes" will notice that some of the derivations given are the same as our own. The article not only gives us interesting examples of a grammatical phenomenon but also helps us trace Israelite Ancestry.
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Metatheses were a common occurrence, more so than most academics are seemingly prepared to accept. How many people have noticed that Nemesis, the goddess (sic!) of retribution, is a metathesis of Menesis? (Note that there is no sh value in the Greek alphabet.) This 'goddess' was also sometimes known as Rhamnusia or Rhomnusia. According to William Falconer, the addition of the letter rho was a Dorian practice. (See The Geography of Strabo x.i.10, fn. 1 on page 156, Hans Claude Hamilton and William Falconer, which states that it was "A common practice of the Dorians". Link: https://archive.org/stream/geograofstrablit02strauoft#page/156/mode/1up) For Rhamnusia/Rhomnusia, we are to read rho-Menashe.
The name Menashe (AV Manasseh) is derived from the Hebrew root nun-shin-hay nasha meaning 'to neglect' or 'to forget', and this is the meaning which is applied in the Book of Genesis:
"And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house". (Gen. 41:51)
There is, however, a secondary meaning:
nun-shin-hay (var. nun-shin-aleph): To loan or to lend on usury.
We nowadays associate retribution with exacting vengeance, but the Latin is re-tribuere, meaning literally to "hand back", "repay" or "to take back that which was paid in tribute". Historically, a tribute was a payment made periodically by one state or ruler to another usually as a sign of dependence. One of the meanings of retribution is a pay back. When you lend something on usury, you expect a payback. The names Nemesis and Menashe (AV Manasseh) therefore both mean the same thing. This 'goddess' was not a goddess at all, 'she' was an Israelite tribe.
"Nemesis is a personification of the moral reverence for law, of the natural fear of committing a culpable action, and hence of conscience, and for this reason she is mentioned along with Aidos, i.e. Shame. In later writers, as Herodotus and Pindar, Nemesis is a kind of fatal divinity, for she directs human affairs in such a manner as to restore the right proportions or equilibrium wherever it has been disturbed; she measures out happiness and unhappiness, and he who is blessed with too many or too frequent gifts of fortune, is visited by her with losses and sufferings, in order that he may become humble, and feel that there are bounds beyond which human happiness cannot proceed with safety." (A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Vol. 2, entry under Nemesis on p.1152, William Smith, Boston, 1870.)
These then are the characteristic traits of the tribe of Menashe. In ancient times, as even today, the tribe of Menashe became highly involved in keeping nations in order. Whenever there were any wars, Menashe would become involved, just as they do today.
Other examples of metathesis are not difficult to find. The Germanic tribe Usipii, who are mentioned by Julius Caesar, were closely allied to the tribes of Bructeri, Tencteri and Tungri. Usipii is a variant spelling of Yoseph (Joseph). Tungri is a transliteration of the Hebrew name Shingar (AV Shinar) where the letter shin becomes a t in translation and the and the ayyin a g. These Shingari or Tungri, who were also known as Aduatuci, came from the land of Shinar around the Black Sea (Pontus) which you have mentioned in a previous email. These Aduatuci, who seem to have given their name to the Arduenne Forest in north Germany, were descendants of Ard son of Benjamin.
How many people, however, would be able to recognise the names Bructeri and Tencteri as being metatheses of Becher-teri and Tachan-teri respectively?
"These are the sons of Ephraim after their families: of Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthalhites: of Becher, the family of the Bachrites: of Tahan, the family of the Tahanites." (Num. 26:35)
One of these names connected to the name Usipii could be regarded as co-incidence, but not both!
In the book of Divrei HaYammim, Tachan is called Tachat. (1 Chron. 7:20) The Tectosagi can likewise be traced back to the Taokheti who at one time dwelt between the Caspian Sea (called Hyrcanian Sea by the Greeks) and the Black (Euxine) Sea. The region of Bekhyria next to the region of Taokheti was likewise named after the tribe of Becher son of Ephraim.
Strabo informs us that the Tectosagi founded the city of Ankara in Anatolia. (Strabo, Geography xii.v.2 and iv.i.13) Those who are following what I have been saying will quickly recognise that Ankara is a metathesis of Hyrcania.
Caesar informs us that some of these Tectosagi settled in the Hercynian Forest in Germany. (Gallic War 6.24.) Now I wonder which tribe gave their name to that forest? Other writers called these people Quadi where the initial syllable (the 'Ta') has been dropped. The region of Aragon in Spain is likewise a corruption of Tarragon/Tarraconensis. Under the name of Ancalites, some of these Tectosagi are recorded as dwelling in Britain in the first century BCE.
The Tectosagi of the Hercynian Forest were associated with a larger tribe by the name of Marcomanni. The name Marcomanni is derived from "Macrones from the land of Mannae". Note once again the metathesis. (The suggestion by academics that the name Marcomanni means "Men of the marches" is as usual contrived!) According to Sennacherib and Esarhaddon, the land of the Manneans was located between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. Adad Nirari II, in his conquest of the self-same land, called the Manneans, Temanites. These appear to be the people Herodotus called Thamanaeans. Once again we find evidence of the initial syllable Ta being dropped.
The Macrones are recorded by Herodotus as dwelling in his day on the shore of the Black Sea. They are said to have practiced circumcision. (Herod. 2.104) As we know, circumcision relates to the promise given to Avraham. The suggestion by Herodotus that we received it from the Egyptians is utter nonsense! These Macrones are the people the Assyrians called Mehrani, a people who at one time dwelt in the land of Mehri to the south of the land of Harran, in the land we know as Gilead. The land of Mehri is the land of Machir son of Menashe. The Tectosagi and Marcomanni were clearly allied to each other.
I shall round off with the following unrelated piece of information. In the book of Hoshea, Ephraim is described as a "cake not turned". (Hosea 7:8) When we think of cakes, we naturally think of gateaux, Victoria sponges and the like. The Biblical 'cake' was "kneaded" (Gen. 18:6) and cooked in pans. These pans, we are told, were placed on the coals. (1 Kings 19:6) The Biblical 'cake', therefore (Hebrew "oogah/guga" from which we get the English words 'cook' and 'cake' , cook from German koch, Old Saxon coc, Latin cocus and cake from Swedish kaka, Danish caga and German kuchen), was what we nowadays call pan bread. When the prophet records that Ephraim is a "cake not turned", it means that Ephraim is 'half-baked', meaning 'foolish or lacking in common sense'. This then is the characteristic trait of Ephraim and typifies the English people.