What is the temple of Arza? Which idol is this?

[Reb Chaim HaQoton]

I find that your question is adequately answered here:
http://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/q ... ol-is-this

As I commented there, my question is specifically to understand the explanation of Targum and the Peshitta who DO explain that Arza is an idol, I realize that there are other interpretations, but I was not asking about them.

[John2]

Finding the answer to that question looks like a wild goose chase to me. I look at it this way. The Greek (LXX and Josephus Ant. 8.12.4) and Hebrew texts say that Arza is a royal steward. That these (presumably later) Aramaic variants exist is curious and there must be an explanation for it, but I don't know what it could be and haven't found one online.

[John2]

Now I'm curious to see these Aramaic variants of 1 Kings 16:9. Thus far I've only found Lamsa's translation of the Peshitta, which says "house of cedar":

"And his servant Zimri, commander of the half of the horsemen, conspired against him as he was in Tirzah, drinking old wine in the house of cedar which he had built in Tirzah."

http://xsrc.in/viewChapter.php?book=1+K ... chapter=16

And I can't find Targum Jonathan online. All I've found so far is scholars who note the variant.

[semiopen]

The phrase is clearly not talking about an idol. Therefore, the meaning of the term "interpretation" is really being stretched.

Zimri, in another incarnation, is the famous copulator from Numbers 25 -

The name of the Israelite who was killed, the one who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri son of Salu, chieftain of a Simeonite ancestral house.
(Num 25:14 TNK)

The Book of Legends/Sefer Ha-Aggadah: Legends from the Talmud and Midrash - http://www.amazon.com/Book-Legends-Sefe ... of+legends

695:57 quotes BT Sotah 22b - http://www.come-and-hear.com/sotah/sotah_22.html

King Jannai11 said to his wife', 'Fear not the Pharisees and the non-Pharisees but the hypocrites who ape the Pharisees; because their deeds are the deeds of Zimri12 but they expect a reward like Phineas'.13

13 - Ibid. 11ff. [He probably had in mind the treacherous act by a group of Zealots — not Pharisees — in resisting foreign assistance — Demetrius Eucerus, King of Syria — in their struggle with Alexander Jannaeus. Josephus, op. cit. XIII, 13, 5. V. Klausner, [H] 11, 128.

I'm not sure why the 1 Kings story isn't mentioned.

Phinehas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in My passion.
12 Say, therefore, 'I grant him My pact of friendship.
13 It shall be for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites.'"(Num 25:11-13 TNK)

Had Zimri 2 killed Elah while he was worshiping idols, one could argue that his act was noble and deserving of reward. Ironically, he only gets to be King for seven days, and finally dies like Zimri 1.

It's easy to see how this might be an interesting subject for the commentators to play with.

Like I mentioned before

אַרְצָ֔א arza looks a little like אֶסְתֵּר Esther/Ishtar.

so my favorite idea is that Elah was worshipping Esther, so you get some sexual issues involved - again similar to Zimri 1.

Hope I'm not making this weird.

[John2]

It's something to chew on, semiopen. And I was wondering about Lamsa's "house of cedar" translation above and see that he may have derived it from arza with a zayin instead of a tsade (though I don't know if that's how it's spelled in the Peshitta):

https://books.google.com/books?id=Ygzh_ ... ic&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=lHDsC ... ic&f=false

[John2]

I also noticed that the LXX uses "Osa" (῾Ωσὰ) for Arza in 1 Kings 16:9, which is elsewhere used for the Hebrew name Hosah (http://biblehub.com/hebrew/2621.htm):

1 Kings 16:9 (for Arza):

http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-te ... 11&page=16

1 Chron 16:38 (spelled ᾿Οσσὰ ) and 26:10, 11 and 16 (spelled ῾Ωσὰ) (for Hosah):

http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-te ... 13&page=16

http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-te ... 13&page=26

I'm not sure what to make of this.

[semiopen]

Arza is derived from eretz which means earth/land. Also seems to point to Mommy.

It wouldn't be surprising if the story was modified several times.

The seven days that Zimri ruled seems odd. It also wouldn't be surprising if the whole story was fiction.

[John2]

"Arza is derived from eretz which means earth/land."

Right, which was why Lamsa's "cedar" translation seemed curious to me (though I'm still wondering if "arza" is spelled like "cedar" in the Peshitta or if it is only Lamsa's supposition).

[semiopen]

Wood, in general, is sort of a shorthand for idol.

For his use he cuts down cedars; He chooses plane trees and oaks. He sets aside trees of the forest; Or plants firs, and the rain makes them grow.
(Isa 44:14 TNK)

אֶ֔רֶז erez means cedar which is different than land (eretz) and Arza. Maybe close enough to Arza for the commentators though.

Elah means oak or terebinth which recalls

They gave to Jacob all the alien gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the terebinth that was near Shechem. (Gen 35:4 TNK)