User talk:2602:30A:C7EE:CAA0:F8CE:6AA1:44CE:1798

I believe this is due to confusion around translations of the Hebrew words for 'light' and 'flame'. Both use the same three letters, but differ in their vowel markings.

Comparing Strong's 216 with Strong's 217, paying close attention to the markings used with the letter vav, we can see that the former has the mark over the vav and the latter has it beside the letter. The former indicates an 'o' sound, the latter an 'u'. Thus, the word 'light' is usually transliterated as Or; the word 'flame' should be transliterated Ur, which we can see in the names Uri, Uriah, and Uriel (Strong's 221, Strong's 222, and Strong's 223, respectively). We can see many attested uses in the source text; an example is Psalms 27:1 on Sefaria.org. If you click the word for 'light', you will see the dictionary appear on the right, as well.

Further confusing matters is that words with the same roots do have related meanings in Hebrew, e.g., walk, message, messenger, and step. Sometimes, all that separates one word's sense from another is its vowel(s) or added consonant(s). In this case, the difference is so subtle and the meanings so closely related (light does come from a flame) that it's easy to mistake one for the other, but the best translation is certainly 'flame'. Although you might translate אוּר (Ur) as 'light of a flame', this would be less precise because what we want to point to is a flame itself. In אוֹר (Or), the sense is clearly 'light' and the word carries no sense of 'flame' whatsoever. In the case of אוּר (Ur), though, the word carries a primary sense of flame, and any sense of 'light' is secondary and only understood in the context of a flame. When the text prefers to discuss 'light' in isolation, it seems to prefer Or; when a flame is needed, Ur is used. It's also worth reading this entry on Jewish Encyclopedia.

Taking these facts into account, we can then see how (i) Uriel's name can have the different variations it has, and (ii) how it has often been mistranslated as mainly having to do with light. Uriel's name is related to light only indirectly, though. The best translation is 'Flame of God' based on a close analysis of the original Hebrew.

--Philosophopotamus (talk) 13:51, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

---