Глава 28

Gen.28:19. “And Jacob called the name of the place Bethel, but formerly the name of the city was Ulammaus.” Because he said above: “How scary this place is. This is none other than the house of God and the gate of Heaven,” he now gives a name to this place and calls it bethel ( בֵּ ֽ ית־אֵ ֑ ל ), that is, “the house of God.” This place was formerly called luza (ל֥וּז), which translates as "nut" or "almond". Therefore, it is funny that some people believe that the name of the city is the Hebrew word ulam (אוּלָם, אלָם) or elam (אילם), which means nothing more than “before”, or “formerly”, or “hallway”, or “lintel”, or “doorpost” 47 . The word אוּלָם is found in the Bible with two main meanings: 1) “porch,” “porch” (1 Kings 7:6) and 2) (usually in conjunction with the conjunction ו) “a, but, however,” as in this case. Probably, based on the general sense that “porch” or “narthex” is what is in front, the Holy Father ascribes to the word the meaning “before”. But, as a result, the word לָרִאשֹׁנָה at the end of the sentence, which actually expresses the meaning of “before,” turns out to be redundant and is left without translation. While in the Seventy the last word is rendered correctly: τὸ πρότερον. However, in general, Jerome's remark that the LXX mistook the entire expression לוּז וְאוּלָם for the proper name Ουλαμλους, although the name of the city is contained only in the word לוּז, is quite appropriate.