filipas
I don't find this word in any of my dictionaries. The closest thing I see is MALLA, which Jastrow gives as spy and which I'd say represents a 'hit' equivalent to LChSh and LYTYRYN, which Jastrow gives as informant. I'm curious what dictionary you're using.
MVTh is both a verb meaning to die and a noun meaning death; the Jastrow and the Grossman dictionaries have separate entries for these. Both uses are there in the Old Testament, but in most instances where we see the word death in the OT it is a translation of MVTh.
The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament has these interesting comments about MVTh: "This is a universally used Semitic root for dying and death. The Canaanites employed it as the name of the god of death and the netherworld, Mot. In Hebrew it is occasionally used metaphorically as when Job speaks of the death of wisdom (12:2). But the literal demise of the body in death is usually in view. . . In Ugaritic the god Mot was a well defined figure who ruled the netherworld, a land of slime and filth. He fought with Baal, the god of fertility for which he suffered the displeasure of El, head of the Pantheon. Baal, as the provider of fertility, rain, etc., was a hero god to the Canaanites and as such his cult became a distinct snare to the Isrealites. The same is not true of Mot, so he was not mentioned in the OT, although some claim to find occasional reference to him. . .
"Jeremiah in one case personifies death (MVTh), describing it as one who comes in through the windows (9:20). What may be clearer is the use of mawet "death" as referring more broadly to the realm of the dead (see Isaiah 38:18)."
You may misunderstand the nature of the trump-lexicon correlation I'm pointing to. The words I list are not presented because they denote only the objects on a single card; after all, similar elements are sometimes to be found within more than one trump design (many of the figures wear some type of headdress, for example), and the presence of Hebrew synonyms means that some words can be found under more than one letter entry (The word fool, for example, has numerous synonyms: AVYL, HDYVT, VYZThA, TPSh, KSYL, LYTzN, SKL, ShVTH, ThRDA). It is therefore no surprise that some 'hits' can be achieved even through a wholly random pairing of trumps and letters.
Rather, the nature of the correlation is that the lexicon as an entirety interlocks with the trump designs in a very restrictive--and therefore striking--way. Because the lexicon must be viewed as an entirety, as a static whole, extended discussion over one or two alternative pairings (such as mem to Trump XII or aleph to the unnumbered card) becomes pointless if it is not at some point presented alongside a complete and cogent body of alternative correspondences.
It may be noted here that the letters aleph, mem, and shin have significantly more word entries in the lexicon than any of the other letters. Yet, in spite of their profusion of word entries, the cards corresponding to these letters present us with details not collectively found elsewhere in the alphabet. For instance, the letter aleph simultaneously offers words for magician, bench, coin, cup, balls, cylinder, knife, wallet/purse, waisteband, hat and festive suit; the letter mem simultaneously offers words for death, corpse, reaper, scythe, king, queen, head and crown; the letter shin simultaneously offers words for portal of heaven, almond-shaped, lattice-work, angel, eagle, lion, bull, rod, potion and clouds. While some of these card's details can be found under other letter entries, they cannot all be found elsewhere. In other words, even if we were to forego the other 19 cards and attempt to match Trumps I, XIII, and XXI to the letters bet, nun, and tav respectively, the resulting 'hits' would not compare favorably with those presented.
We could also illustrate this lexical restrictiveness by taking just the letters shin and tav. These two letters make an especially interesting case: not only has each been viewed by different occultists as corresponding to Trump XXI and to The Fool, but a quick glance at a Hebrew dictionary would suggest that the profusion of entries for these two letters would allow an equivalent number of 'hits' by either match. One way I approached these letters was by making two columns, one for shin and one for tav; under shin, I listed all words corresponding to Trump XXI and all words corresponding to the unnumbered card; the same was done for the tav column. This method turned up interesting results. For instance, while shin begins words for fool, madness, staff, knapsack, and fox, it also provided a surprisingly complete set of 'hits' for Trump XXI. However, while tav begins words for world and for ox, it offers no matches for the many other details of Trump XXI.
This is true, and simply reflects the fact that many similar details appear on more than one design, as well as the fact that Hebrew contains synonyms.
Remember that the connection here is suggested by the presence of a complete body of lexical matches rather than by any single match or subset of matches. The words matching the seemingly irrelevant details (such as the grass, or a figure's shoes) did seem superfluous for me to list but they were included 1) to ensure the list was complete for those interested in further research, and 2) because they happen to exist in the 'requisite' positions and so may (or may not) indicate the degree to which the Marseilles designs followed an alphabetic construct.
I agree; additional words are sometimes listed in cases where the identity of an object may be in question, but I would not consider them to be additional 'hits'.
Well, I consider it OK only to the extent that those words can indeed be found in Hebrew sources. Medieval Hebrew did subsume an enormous array of words from Greek and Latin, and dictionaries such as the Jastrow and the Grossman offer an interesting snapshot of that linguistic evolution. In any case, there are really only three or four words in my list where this question of derivation becomes interesting. TMPV, as you note, is one of these.
I do not say it is "not to be found" there but rather that I've not found it to date within the resources at my disposal. Given this theme's importance at the time, and the frequent Renassaince depiction of 'time' as an old man with lantern or hourglass, in my opinion it would be far-fetched to think this word does not exist transliterated within one or more Hebrew source. Nonetheless, since I have not yet found it as such, I note that its inclusion is speculative.
But the word is not foreign insofar as it was indeed part of the medieval Hebrew lexicon. More to the point, it exists in the 'requisite' alphabetical position--so the fact that there is a synonym for Pleiades is irrelevant.
Thanks,
- Mark
