A structure, at once massive, simple and imposing; nestling in the heart of Carmel, the 'Vineyard of God'; flanked by the Cave of Elijah on the west, and by the hills of Galilee on the east; backed by the plain of Sharon, and facing the silver-city of Akká, and beyond it the Most Holy Tomb, the Heart and Qiblih of the Bahá'í world; overshadowing the colony of German Templars...In support of this meaning for "carmel," Ted noted that:
"...Carmel was the superlative 'garden' and came to be the chief exemplar of prosperous farmland. Thus when Amos described devastation of the land, it was Carmel he chose to describe. If Carmel withered, everything would wither:Further, Carmel became symbolic of any well cultivated land and was used of orchards, vineyards, etc. which were not geographically located near Mount Carmel. (Compare Isaiah 32:15.) Thus in Micah 7:14 and other verses, some Bible translations read 'orchard' (RSV) where others read 'Carmel' (KJV).''And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion,
and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the
habitations of the shepherds shall mourn,
and the top of Carmel shall wither.' (Amos 1:2)
"From a dictionary definition perspective you are correct. None of the Hebrew lexicons that I consulted give "vineyard of God" as a meaning for Carmel. However, the 'lamed' (Hebrew letter L' tacked on to the end of kerem) means something.
Hebrew roots are trilateral, that is they have three letters. Suffixes and prefixes can be added to the root to modify the meaning. The addition of a -t to a verbal root is the generic method of forming nouns from verbs. Mem (M) can be added to indicate instrumentality. -ut (oot) to indicate abstraction, such as malkut (kingdom from melek, king). Lamed is also used as a nominal suffix, but relatively rarely. Other examples of nouns formed with -l, are barzel (iron) and gibo`l (corolla). These all have a superlative sense as compared to their root. BRZ means to pierce, but the best way to pierce something in the ancient near east was with iron.
There is no consensus among scholars as to the meaning that an affixed lamed gives to a word. But I personally would see a link to 'El'. It is common to say that 'El' means God, but in its most basic sense it has the more generic sense of Mighty. Thus the lamed as a suffix indicating the superlative nature of its object could well derive from 'El'. Then, kerem is any old vineyard but Carmel is a superlative vineyard and perhaps by extension 'vineyard of God'".
"At the [eschatological] restoration Sinai, Tabor, and Carmel will hymn Moriah [see 2 Chron. 3:1] - Mount Zion -- in song."This Jewish tradition is echoed in the Tablet of Carmel -- though I am not saying that Baha'u'llah is citing or is directly influenced this text.
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