Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Henry Churchyard <churchyh AT ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>]

> From: Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>

>> the cave Abraham bought from the Hittites.

> How the Hittites got entangled in Jewish cultural history is quite a
> mystery. T hey never had holdings in Palestine but might have had
> nominal tutelage -- be it unlikely -- of the entire zone through
> their annexation of the kingdom of Yamkhad in northern Syria (one
> wonders if Yamkhad's influence ever got south of Hama).  Whatever
> the case, the Hittites lost their control of Yamkhad to the Mitanni,
> so it is unimaginable that Abraham could have bought a cave from any
> Hittites.

Uh, guy, just because the central government of the Hittite empire had
a sporadic and tenuous grip, at best, on southern Canaan, doesn't mean
that there couldn't have been Hittite individuals and family groups
living there (among the "Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites,
Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites") -- if you look at the Bible, it
says that Abraham bought the burial cave from `Ephron son of S.oh.ar,
not Hattusilas the umpth.

--
         --Henry Churchyard     churchyh AT ccwf.cc.utexas.edu