Genesis 12:6 states that that Abram crossed to Shechem and elon Moreh - the latter nowadays translated as the Oak of Moreh.
I was reading the Vulgate, and reaching this verse I found "convallem illustrem" - the famous valley. Seeing Shechem, I was intrigued by this famous valley, but found my English and Afrikaans Bibles speaking about trees, except the KJV that said plains of Moreh.
Where on earth did Jerome, a scholar of Hebrew, get a valley? Even the Septuagint has tree here. The KJV is obviously secondary to the Vulgate, so that is where its plain comes from, but why did Jerome call it a valley in the first place? Maybe the trees had long since gone and he was using a placename in his own time? Can anyone shed some light on this?
Moreh itself means teacher, or diviner, so perhaps Jerome was trying to ommit a potential reference to a Pagan practice. But why would he, as this is as Abram enters the pagan Canaan? Or was this contra-Samaritan, who read Moriah (and presumably Moreh as form thereof) as being Shechem's Gerizim, so placing Abram's initial vision in Canaan there? So speculatively, maybe Jerome stressed it as being a valley, so that it could not be a high place like Mount Gerizim?
I was reading the Vulgate, and reaching this verse I found "convallem illustrem" - the famous valley. Seeing Shechem, I was intrigued by this famous valley, but found my English and Afrikaans Bibles speaking about trees, except the KJV that said plains of Moreh.
Where on earth did Jerome, a scholar of Hebrew, get a valley? Even the Septuagint has tree here. The KJV is obviously secondary to the Vulgate, so that is where its plain comes from, but why did Jerome call it a valley in the first place? Maybe the trees had long since gone and he was using a placename in his own time? Can anyone shed some light on this?
Moreh itself means teacher, or diviner, so perhaps Jerome was trying to ommit a potential reference to a Pagan practice. But why would he, as this is as Abram enters the pagan Canaan? Or was this contra-Samaritan, who read Moriah (and presumably Moreh as form thereof) as being Shechem's Gerizim, so placing Abram's initial vision in Canaan there? So speculatively, maybe Jerome stressed it as being a valley, so that it could not be a high place like Mount Gerizim?