Bkmk
Many scholars would have collectively agreed that the verb was nonsense, an error, a corruption or what have you. Maybe even suggesting that the scribes didn't want the "real message" to get out because the scribes were Jews with an agenda.
Then the experts would have proceeded to "solve" the mystery via their own reasoning.
It's like that opening quote at the head of chapter 1 of the Late Great Planet Earth (first published in 1970), ostensibly alluding to unbelieving "other guys":
We believe whatever we want to believe. Demosthenes, 348 B.C.
By the time Google appeared on the scene, everyone would have been committed to their own understanding, ignoring or mocking anyone who suggested that the meaning is "google it", to search.
"Oh come don't be ridiculous, everyone knows that Google didn't exist when that was written.."
Ah but at the time it needed to be read and understood, and the wheat separated from the chaff, another thing entirely.
later