The meanings of Boaz and Jachin

[lethargic_man]

I've just read Russell Hoban's The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz...

The names Boaz and Jachin are not explained anywhere in the book; where they come from is the names of the pillars at the entrance of King Solomon's Temple (I Kings 7:21):

He set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: he set up the right pillar, and called its name Yāchin, and he set up the left pillar, and called its name Boaz.

וַיָּקֶם אֶת-הָעַמֻּדִים לְאֻלָם הַהֵיכָל; וַיָּקֶם אֶת-הָעַמּוּד הַיְמָנִי, וַיִּקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמוֹ יָכִין, וַיָּקֶם אֶת-הָעַמּוּד הַשְּׂמָאלִי, וַיִּקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמוֹ בֹּעַז׃

There is debate among the commentators as to what these names mean, but in most cases I have my doubts about them. Then, in the last year, I came across a cool explanation that hung together really well, but can't remember what it was. Aaargh, how annoying! Anyone here have a candidate explanation they'd like to offer?

Comments

[darcydodo]

You actually want to change that link to have just socrates.berkeley.edu as the domain name.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

I just took what Google gave me; it was there yesterday, and it's not now, and following your advice (and removing the port specification) didn't help.

I may be able to find the original image again this evening from epicyclic's browser history...

[darcydodo]

Funny, it works fine for me:



(Socrates had some downtime this morning, adding memory or something, which may be why the ist-socrates address no longer works.)

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Oh, duh, the image URL was right in front of me; you're right. But the amended follow-through link still doesn't take me to where the iso-socrates:8080 one did yesterday.