What's in a (Moabite) word?
Not long ago I was reading a section of Epiphanius's Panarion. Epiphanius was a Jewish apostate who converted to Christianity. He was born in the Land of Israel and eventually became the Bishop of Salamis (no surprise there. Jews + salami...okay, I'll stop...). Epiphanius wrote a book called " Panarion " (thought to mean "bread basket" in Latin or "medicine chest" in Greek) about Jewish, Judeo-Christian and Christian sects from before his time and during his time. The book provides a lot of interesting information. In the section I was reading he discussed a certain Jewish or Judeo-Christian sect (unclear from the bits of information he provides) called "the Osseans" (he writes that it either means "impudent ones" or "strong ones". To me that means that in Hebrew or Aramaic their name was העזיים or העזאיים, since עז (Az) means both strong and impudent. Strangely, I have yet to come across an academic scholar who makes...