Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

 Yigal Levin wrote in part:
   
  "....2. In my oppinion, 'EHYEH ASHER 'EHYEH is a pun, not an etymology.

Yigal Levin  "
   
       Agreed; and to that the following may be added --
   
       By the time this interpretation of the divine name was given, its 
original
  meaning had been forgotten. That the interpretation is later than the name
  can be derived from the spelling of the verb: HYH in standard Hebrew vs. the
  Aramaic HWH. This could point to the traditional Northern origin of the
  ancestors who brought the name with them to the WS Canaanite/Hebrew
  environment.
   
       Uri Hurwitz
  w
   
  
 
   
   

       
---------------------------------
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>From JimStinehart AT aol.com  Wed Dec 26 10:14:55 2007
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Subject: [b-hebrew] Amarna Letters:  The Number 318
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Kenneth Greifer:
=20
1.  In Amarna Letter #287, the ruler of Jerusalem, Abdi-Heba, says to=20
Akhenaten at lines 53-59:
=20
=E2=80=9CI sent as gifts to the king [Akhenaten], my lord, =E2=80=A6318 port=
ers for the=20
caravans of the king, my lord=E2=80=A6.=E2=80=9D
=20
2.  As to the peculiar number 318, compare Genesis 14: 14:
=20
=E2=80=9CAnd when Abram [at Hebron] heard that his brother [his nephew 
Lot]=20=
was taken=20
captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and=20
eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan.=E2=80=9D
=20
3.  The word translated there at Genesis 14: 14 as =E2=80=9Ctrained men=E2=
=80=9D is not seen=20
in the secular record after the 15th century BCE.  That suggests that chapte=
r=20
14 of Genesis is a truly ancient text.  The ancient word ch=C3=A2n=C3=AEyk=
=C3=AEm is never=20
used elsewhere in the Bible.
=20
4.  Comparing the two uses of the number 318 above, although the situations=20
are by no means identical, there are some surprising similarities.  Both in=20
Amarna Letter #287 and at Genesis 14: 14, we are dealing with 318 good men=20
mustered from southeastern Canaan for the good cause of the first historical=
=20
monotheist.=20
=20
5.  Moreover, the first historical monotheist, both in the Bible and in=20
secular history, distinguished himself militarily by opposing the 
Hittites.=20=
 In=20
chapter 14 of Genesis, Abraham rescues Lot from a force of four attacking ru=
lers,=20
one of whom has a classic Hittite name:  Tidal/Tudhaliya.  Akhenaten for his=
=20
part distinguished himself by managing to prevent Hittite King 
Suppililiuma=20=
I=20
from invading Canaan.  Although the names =E2=80=9CSuppililiuma=E2=80=9D and=
 =E2=80=9CTidal=E2=80=9D/=E2=80=9C
Tudhaliya=E2=80=9D are not the same, nevertheless those two names are 
truly=20=
joined at the=20
hip.  Suppililiuma=E2=80=99s great-grandfather named Tudhaliya (=E2=80=9CTid=
al=E2=80=9D in Hebrew)=20
started this line of Hittite kings.  Suppililiuma=E2=80=99s immediate predec=
essor as=20
Hittite king was his father, also named Tudhaliya (=E2=80=9CTidal=E2=80=9D).=
  And last but not=20
least, Suppililiuma became king of the Hittites by the dramatic expedient of=
=20
murdering his older brother who was the rightful heir to the throne, and you=
 can=20
guess what the name of that murdered older brother of Suppililiuma was: =20
Tudhaliya (=E2=80=9CTidal=E2=80=9D), of course (known to historians as =E2=
=80=9CTudhaliya the Younger=E2=80=9D). =20
So in my view these Hittite kingly names match, though we are admittedly=20
dealing with two different Hittite kingly names in comparing chapter 14 of G=
enesis=20
to Amarna.
=20
6.  The only other time that I myself have seen the number 318 is when=20
Amenhotep III married a Hurrian princess from the upper Euphrates River, who=
 brought=20
with her 317 handmaidens from Nahrima (accurately stated at Genesis 24: 10 a=
s=20
=E2=80=9CNaharim=E2=80=9D), making a total of 318 women coming out from 
the=20=
upper Euphrates=20
River.  Amenhotep III was the father of the first historical monotheistic=20
leader of a people.  As such, Amenhotep III is somewhat comparable to 
Isaac=20=
in the=20
Patriarchal narratives, who was the father of Jacob/=E2=80=9CIsrael=E2=80=
=9D.  Isaac=E2=80=99s bride=20
of course did in fact come from the upper Euphrates River, from=20
Naharim/Nahrima, a state that went out of existence at the end of the 14th c=
entury BCE, and=20
her name was Rebekah.  True, chapter 24 of Genesis does not say that Rebekah=
=20
brought 317 handmaidens with her.  But note how oddly prominent Rebekah=E2=
=80=99s=20
nurse and handmaidens are who come with Rebekah way out to Canaan:
=20
=E2=80=9CAnd they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham=
's=20
servant, and his men.  =E2=80=A6And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they=
 rode upon the=20
camels, and followed the man.=E2=80=9D  Genesis 24: 59. 61
=20
And just when you had forgotten all about Rebekah=E2=80=99s nurse, who would=
 seem to=20
be as minor a character as possible, why she is mentioned again, and this ti=
me=20
by name even:
=20
=E2=80=9CAnd Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried below 
Beth-el=20=
under the=20
oak; and the name of it was called Allon-bacuth.=E2=80=9D  Genesis 35: 8
=20
7.  Note that both at Amarna and in the Patriarchal narratives, both the=20
first historical leader of a monotheistic people (Jacob and Akhenaten), 
and=20=
his=20
father (Isaac and Amenhotep III), marry women from the upper Euphrates River=
. =20
In the older generation, the woman=E2=80=99s handmaidens are emphasized, and=
 relations=20
with the in-laws are fine.  But in the younger generation, the monotheistic=20
son-in-law from far to the southwest rudely breaks off relations with his ir=
ate=20
father-in-law from the upper Euphrates River/Nahrima/Naharim, with the last=20
straw in both cases being certain statues (teraphim or gold statues) that th=
e=20
monotheistic son-in-law never delivered to his irate father-in-law from the=20
upper Euphrates River.
=20
Yitzhak Sapir can say that this is all fiction dreamed up by four mid-1st=20
millennium BCE Hebrew ghostwriters, JEPD, but it just tain=E2=80=99t so.  Th=
ere is no way=20
that any mid-1st millennium BCE Hebrew ghostwriter would have known these=20
specific historical details that come right out of the well-documented secul=
ar=20
history of the mid-14th century BCE.
=20
Like the number 318.
=20
The fact of the matter is that the Patriarchal narratives are a truly ancien=
t=20
text, no matter how many times academic scholars tell us that we should=20
accept the 100-year-old Documentary Hypothesis.  That old theory that was dr=
eamed=20
up when no one knew the Hittites existed, and when there was little knowledg=
e=20
of Amarna, the Hurrians, the Decapitation of the Shechem Offensive, the=20
historical iniquity of the Amorites, when the Amorites sold out northern Leb=
anon and=20
Ugarit to the dreaded Hittites in the mid-14th century BCE, etc., etc., etc.=
 =20
Since Mr. Wellhausen knew nothing about the secular history of the mid-14th=20
century BCE, why should we accept his theory that the Patriarchal narratives=
 are=20
fiction ginned up by four Hebrew authors in the mid-1st millennium BCE, in=20
the face of all the detailed matches between the text and what is now well k=
nown=20
about the secular history of the mid-14th century BCE?
=20
Note that Yitzhak Sapir has not set forth a single story in the entirety of=20
the Patriarchal narratives that is out of place in a mid-14th century BCE=20
setting.  Not one.  So why should we think that a storyline, all of whose=20
components fit perfectly into the Amarna period, is fiction ginned up by mul=
tiple=20
authors in the mid-1st millennium BCE?  On my view, the first historical Heb=
rew is=20
the sole author of the Patriarchal narratives, and he lived in the mid-14th=20
century BCE.
=20
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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