Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

Ian Hutchesson wrote:

> Hi George,
>
> Thanks for your post.
>
> >> This is making it a coincidence that the two groups had basically the 
> >> same
> >> self name. So by this logic, one could argue that the Elam referred to in
> >> Gen14 wasn't the Elam in south west Iran, but some Elam we hadn't heard 
> >> of
> >> before much closer to the Dead Sea. Likewise with Shinar.
> >
> >Well, there do seem to be two regions called Kush in the Bible!!!
>
> You've got me curious. Where is this other Kush? (And of course what are
> your sources? I had a quick look around through doubt and couldn't find
> anything, but you never know.)
>
> >It's certainly not impossible to have two groups of Heth's.
>
> It is not impossible. What relatively contemporary source would you like to
> put forward as suggesting there was such a second group?

Well, the Bible! :-)

> >It may even be a euphemism for something. Or,
> >it's just plain possible that there was a clan of Hittites in the region
> who had
> >migrated from further north. Why is this such an impossibility?
>
> Are you postulating these reasonable ideas purely because they are more
> likely than the possibility that the text refers to the group we normally
> call the Hittites?

Just for elasticity of argument, mate! UIf we could build a time machine, 
perhaps some
of our best held hypotheses would be blown out of the water. It's just me 
whispering,
"You never know..."

> >As per the Philistines, they probably actually had the roots in S-W
> Palestine to begin
> >with! It is very unlikely that they were Greek Indo-Europeans since, for
> all intents
> >and purposes, they used Semitic languages. There is no evidence for them
> using any
> >other language.
>
> Naturally the Germanic Franks were actually Latin after all. The Kassites
> were really Semites as well because they used a semitic language (at least
> to leave records). Sorry, George. I'm being a little facetious. I don't know
> of any archaeological evidence from the earliest period that gives any
> indication of language used. Do you?
>
> [...]

Maxine Littlefield, a former graduate of Sydney Uni, wrote her thesis on 
Philistine
and Cypriot pottery and what it indicates about them. She reached the 
conclusion, well
argued, that the Philistine's roots were actually in S-W Palestine. I believe 
someone
else, conducting an independent study on the same thing, reached the same 
conclusion.
However, I don't recall the name of this person. Perhaps someone else can 
provide it.

Best regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
Dept of Semitic Studies,
University of Sydney
- Email: gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au
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