# Bethlehem / בית לחם



## johnnytwohands

Hello, and thanks in advance for your time.
To help with an art project I am doing, I was wondering the following:
I have always been told that Bethlehem is (obviously romanized) Hebrew for 'house of bread', would it be possible to say 'man of bread', or 'head of bread', and if so could I see them in romanized Hebrew and actual Hebrew?

Hoping I'm not wasting any of your time on account of my ignorance of Hebrew,
Best wishes,
John


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## oiseauxlahaut

Are you asking if Bethlehem could also be translated as man or head of bread? In that case, no. Beth=house Lehem=bread make Bethlehem, "house of bread", בית לחם. 
But, "Man of bread" would be ish-lehem איש לחם. "Head of bread" would be rosh-lehem ראש לחם. What's your context here? Rosh lehem sounds like you're talking about someone with a head made of bread- some creative insult or something...


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## johnnytwohands

> "Man of bread" would be ish-lehem איש לחם. "Head of bread" would be rosh-lehem ראש לחם.


Thanks, this was exactly what I was hoping for. I made a sculpture using bread and wine pulp, a bust. So the sculpture is a man or more specifically a head made mostly from bread.

Thank you very much for your help, have a nice day.

John


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## Ali Smith

But בית לחם is originally Aramaic, isn't it? I admit it means the same thing as the Hebrew version (because in both languages it's a construct chain, and the word לחם is indefinite; the definite form in Hebrew would be הלחם and the one in Aramaic would be לחמא, of course).


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## Abaye

I would (and I guess every reader would) appreciate references to assertions of this kind.


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## Drink

Ali Smith said:


> But בית לחם is originally Aramaic, isn't it?


What makes you say that?


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## Abaye

Few short comments for בית לחם

If the name is ancient enough (we don't know), לחם may mean food and not specifically bread.
The מדרש suggests that לחם may mean war and not bread.
AFAIK the earliest attestation of this name (outside the bible) is a bulla that says: בשבעת בת לחם[למל]ך, excavated few years ago in Jerusalem and dated to the 1st temple (that is, before the Babylonian exile).


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## GeriReshef

בית means in this case "place",
like in expressions like בית עלמין or בית שחי or בית דין etc.


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## Abaye

GeriReshef said:


> בית means in this case "place",
> like in expressions like בית עלמין or בית שחי or בית דין etc.


Which makes the thread's subject weird, what does "man of bread" mean? Is it a man made of bread? A man who makes bread? Bread-head like meathead, Archie Banker's favourite title for his son in law?


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## GeriReshef

לחם means food in general and not particularly bread.
בזיעת אפיך תאכל לחם - refers to food, otherwise we would suggest Adam to eat cakes instead ..


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## Abaye

GeriReshef said:


> לחם means food in general and not particularly bread.
> בזיעת אפיך תאכל לחם - refers to food, otherwise we would suggest Adam to eat cakes instead ..


We don't know it for sure:
* בזיעת אפיך תאכל לחם may use לחם as literally bread and only symbolically any food
* בית לחם may mean either

It depends on when the terms were coined. If they're ancient enough, לחם = food makes sense. Otherwise לחם = bread makes more sense. The theory is indeed (comparing to Arabic etc.) that לחם meant originally food (and this meaning still marginally exists in the bible, including לחם= meat as in Arabic), but I don't know what's the presumed time of the change to לחם = (mainly) bread, and the same about dating בית לחם and Genesis 3:17.

Our discussion is sort of off topic of course for this specific thread, and I guess there are other threads for the history of לחם.


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