Tanach Thoughts

Fourty years ago, Steven Bowman published an article discussing the possibly meaning of the name of Khirbet Qumran, which gave its name to the famous scrolls found in its vicinity. In the article he raised the likelihood of the word 'qumran' having Syriac-Aramaic origins and coming from the word 'Kumri(a)' (כומרי, כומריא), which means 'priest(s)' (although in Hebrew this root is usually associated with priests of idolatrous religions, and at some point after the rise of Christianity became the common word for Christian priests, Komer (כומר)). He suggested connecting this with a commonly-accepted notion (although I have some doubts) that the ancient Qumran sect(s) was(/were?) a group of priests or had an association with a priestly sect. The exact identification of the ancient settlement that was located at Qumran is debated. Many have suggested Tanachic Sechachah (סככה), others have suggested Tanachic Ir Ha'melach (עיר המלח) as Iron Age remnants were found...

Been a little while since I've made a post on name-meanings, but I had this realization recently. For some time this last semester, I had been looking into the topic of apocryphal Enochic literature, because I had been thinking about doing a project on it for one of my courses. Eventually I switched to a different topic (if you're curious, it's about the Nesiut (patriarchy) of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai) , but having already delved pretty deeply into the subject, I realized recently that the topic might serve to explain the meaning of two ancient Tanachic names. I say ancient because chronologically-speaking, these people are some of the oldest in Tanach. Irad: Irad was none other than Kayin (Cain)'s grandson, son of his son Chanoch (the first, less-famous Enoch): "וַיִּוָּלֵד לַחֲנוֹךְ אֶת  עִירָד   וְעִירָד  יָלַד אֶת מְחוּיָאֵל וּמְחִיָּיאֵל יָלַד אֶת מְתוּשָׁאֵל וּמְתוּשָׁאֵל יָלַד אֶת לָמֶךְ." "To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begot Mehujael, and Meh...