Page 206 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

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CHAPTER 13 METALS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
CHAPTER 13 METALS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES 185
Comments
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The Hebrew word oferet is the most suitable to represent elemental iron, as
obtained from the statistical analyses of the transition metals . For some time, we
entertained the idea of using this to represent the pure substance iron. We finally

abandoned this idea, but we still believe that it has merits for considerations that
are now expounded.
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The Hebrew name oferet and the Hebrew word afar (soil) are very similar,
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and probably derive from the same root. Perhaps oferet was initially used in
ancient Hebrew to denote ore that contains iron, and then it was generalized to
imply soil in general.
A similar development may be traced in the English language. The word “ore”
(corresponding to “soil” in the above case) is derived from “era.” In ancient Rome,

“aera” were disks or tokens made of brass , and used for counting (Ayto 1990).
Thus, brass (era) was generalized to denote the general term “ore,” the same as
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oferet (seemingly raw iron, as dug from the earth) was probably generalized to
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denote soil (afar). Also, oferet is mentioned nine times in the Bible. In fi ve of
those instances, it is mentioned together with barzel. 7
As alluded to earlier, statistical analysis of the available set of observations shows
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that the metal name oferet, when referred to as the pure substance “iron,” inte-
grates smoothly with the other observations in the sample. However, to remove
any doubts regarding the validity of the statistical analyses, we have not pursued
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this idea, with respect to the possible original meaning of oferet, any further. In
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other words, oferet is used in the statistical analyses to mean “lead ,” as in modern
Hebrew.

13.2.3 Values of the Analyzed Physical Property (Metals)

The next step in the preparation of the sample for statistical analysis relates to the
selection of the physical property to be analyzed. The most natural choice is to use
as the response (the dependent variable ) the metal’s atomic weight (AW ), as the

latter is given in the periodic table of the elements (the pure substances).

The first researcher to construct a periodic table was the Russian Dmitri

Mendeleev , and the table was first published in 1869. Medeleev had shown that

when the elements were ordered according to atomic weight, a pattern resulted in
which similar properties for elements recurred periodically. Based on the work of
physicist Henry Moseley, the periodic table was reorganized later on the basis of
increasing atomic number rather than on atomic weight. The revised table could
be used to predict the properties of elements that had yet to be discovered. Many
of these predictions were later substantiated through experimentation. This led to