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  • From: jimstinehart AT aol.com
  • To: George.Athas AT moore.edu.au, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Does the Name Caleb Mean "Dog"? Not.
  • Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 21:41:39 -0400



Prof. George Athas:

1. You wrote: “One of the hallmarks of a scholar should be an awareness of
the state of play and where consensus actually lies, rather than where one
would like it to be.”

To the best of my knowledge, no one but me has ever analyzed the names
“Kenites”, “Kenizzites”, and “Jebusites” as being Hurrian-based Patriarchal
nicknames, featuring the Hurrian version of an Akkadian verb plus one or more
standard Hurrian suffixes. In my opinion, that is why no convincing
etymologies for those three names have been possible to date.

2. You wrote: “As far as I'm aware, Caleb's name has not been a mystery at
all.”

After I set forth all those many cases when the Bible uses KLB as a Hebrew
common word in an extremely derogatory manner, you still think that Joshua’s
trusted comrade has a west Semitic name that means “Dog”? No way! KLB is
KL-B, a Hurrian name of a Kenizzite, Kelip, meaning “It Pleases [Deity]”.

3. You wrote: “And I find it hard to believe that there are Hurrians hiding
under every rock in the ancient Levant.”

If Genesis 15: 18-21 reflects the Amarna Age, as I think it does, then it’s
no real surprise that 8 of the 10 names there [all except Amorite and
Canaanite] are names for Hurrians in Canaan, because during the mid-14th
century BCE Hurrian princelings dominated the ruling class of Canaan. To see
that, please take a gander at the Hurrian names of princelings in greater
Canaan from the Amarna Letters. Per Richard Hess, “Amarna Pesonal Names”
(1993), the following names are Hurrian, Akkadian or Sanskrit names of
princelings in greater Canaan (Canaan proper, southern Syria and Lebanon),
and are considered by me to be Hurrian princelings. Hurrian (p. 228; 7
names): a-ki-te$$ub, a-ki-iz-zi, a-ra-wa-na, xi-bi-ya, ta-gi, ziliya,
IR-xeba. Akkadian (p. 213; 4 names): haddu-ni-ra-ru, nukurtu-ya, yi-id-ia,
belet-UR.MAX.ME$. Sanskrit (p. 223; 18 names): ar-ta-ma-an-ya,
ar-za-aw-ya, ba-ya-di, bi-ri-da-a$-wa, bi-ri-di-ya, bir-ia-wa-za, da-$a,
i-tag-ga-ma, in-tar-u-ta, ma-ya, ar-za-na, ru-uc-ma-an-ia, sa-ta-at-na,
su-ra-ta, $u-ba-an-di, $u-wa-ar-da-ta, ya-mi-u-ta, ya-a$-da-ta,
zi-ir-dam-ia-a$-da.

Now take a closer look at those purely Hurrian names:

(a) a-ki-te$$ub and a-ki-iz-zi are the same name. As I showed in my post to
Adam, si can interchange with iz-zi in Hurrian, so that second name could
alternatively be a-ki-si. That’s the name of Caleb’s daughter at Joshua 15:
16: Achsah/(KS-H. [The final -H is a Semiticized ending.]

(b) xi-bi-ya and IR-xeba are variants of the name of Moses’ father-in-law
XB-B, a Kenite. In all three names, XB is the Hurrian goddess Xeba. -B and
-ya are both standard Hurrian suffixes.

(c) a-ra-wa-na. To Semiticize that Hurrian name in order to make it a
fitting name of the father of Moses’ father-in-law, a Kenite, drop the
Hurrian standard suffix -na and add the classic Hebrew suffix -)L. There
you’ve got it: R(W-)L at Numbers 10: 29. The root is ar-a-wa, where no
prosthetic aleph is used at the beginning, and the interior Hurrian A is
recorded by Hebrew ayin/(. Both of these names are mere variants on
Arioch/)RYWK/Ar-a-wa-ka at Genesis 14: 1.

The Biblical authors, unlike modern analysts, knew that these names were
Hurrian.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois







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