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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Hebron: The Linguistic Search for the Patriarchs' "Hebron"
  • Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2008 10:15:02 EDT


Hebron: The Linguistic Search for the Patriarchs’ Bronze Age “Hebron”

The name “Hebron”, as a city name for the city 20 miles south of Jerusalem,
is not known in secular history prior to the 8th century BCE, many centuries
after the Patriarchal Age. Moreover, there is very little good pastureland
near the high altitude city of Hebron, so it would not make sense for Abraham
to
sojourn for decades with his large flock of sheep and goats at the city of
Hebron. Finally, as we saw in my prior post, chapter 13 of Genesis strongly
suggests that Abraham went w-e-s-t of Beth-el upon splitting from Lot, not
south
toward the city of Hebron. The Patriarchs’ “Hebron” may be a completely
different place than the city of Hebron referenced in the rest of the Bible.

Let’s now see if we can find a Late Bronze Age inscription that documents the
Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, west of Beth-el, in a locale that had i-d-e-a-l
pastureland. As noted in a prior post, I believe I may have located a
mid-15th
century BCE inscription that refers to the “Hebron” where Abraham sojourns in
the Patriarchal narratives (which is not the city of Hebron referenced in
later
books in the Bible).

There were no Hebrews in existence yet in the mid-15th century BCE, and no
Hebrew language. So what we are looking for in this Late Bronze Age
inscription
is the non-Hebrew west Semitic forerunner of the Hebrew name “Hebron”. If a
prefix and a suffix is involved in the Hebrew name “Hebron”, which is my
view of the case (which is how, for example, the Hebrew place name “the
Sharon”
came about, as discussed below), then we cannot reasonably expect such Hebrew
prefix and Hebrew suffix to be present in this pre-Hebrew inscription from
the
mid-15th century BCE.

Is “JBR” the ancient pre-Hebrew west Semitic root of the Hebrew name “Hebron”
? Does that “JBR” represent the Aijalon Valley, which is 17½ miles west of
Beth-el, and which is i-d-e-a-l pastureland? That is my theory of the case.

An item that is sometimes set forth in English as “JBR” appears four times
on the topographical list of places in Canaan recorded by conquering Egyptian
pharaoh Thutmosis III in the mid-15th century BCE. See items #15, #90, #92
and
#99 on the Thutmosis III list here (a site maintained by archaeologist and
Egyptologist Paul James Cowie):

_http://www.archaeowiki.org/Topographical_List%2C_First_Campaign_of_Thutmose_I
II_
(http://www.archaeowiki.org/Topographical_List,_First_Campaign_of_Thutmose_III)


If we can understand the meaning of J-B-R on the Thutmosis III list, then
perhaps we can find the missing Hebron, namely Abraham’s “Hebron”.

The key is to analyze the west Semitic meaning of the ancient west Semitic
word that is represented in Egyptian as J-B-R (four times on the Thutmosis
III
topographical list). If we can do that, then perhaps we can discover
“Hebron”
in the Late Bronze Age, and figure out what the word “Hebron” actually meant
in secular history in the Late Bronze Age.

J on the Thutmosis III list represents an aleph (based on the other uses of J
on such list). J = aleph.

B is simply bet/B.

R is either resh/R or lamed/L. (The Egyptians used R to represent either
west Semitic resh/R or west Semitic lamed/L. Egyptian R seems to represent
lamed/L in a slight majority of cases. Scholars here routinely assume that
this
Egyptian R represents a west Semitic lamed/L. [For example, Anson Rainey
shows
item #99 on the Thutmosis III list, at p. 73 of “The Sacred Bridge”, as “
aleph/u-bi-la”, treating the J as an aleph, the R as a lamed, and implying
various
possible vowel sounds.] But L and R are fully interchangeable in these
Egyptian inscriptions of names of Late Bronze Age towns in Canaan, and R is
the
letter that Egyptians used to represent either resh or lamed. As noted by
Gesenius and modern scholars, sometimes lamed/L and resh/R can even be
interchanged
within Biblical Hebrew itself. In particular, sometimes resh/R softened to
lamed/L over the centuries. The interchangeability of L and R may be
especially
likely here, in a truly ancient inscription like this which pre-dates the
emergence of the first Hebrews.)

Why is J-B-R on the Thutmosis III list four times? What does J-B-R mean in
that context? Is J-B-R connected in some way to the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”?

Instead of letting historians, archaeologists and Egyptologists do all the
thinking, why not bring some Biblical Hebrew expertise to these matters? Can
we
on the b-hebrew list use our knowledge of Biblical Hebrew to find secular
historical Late Bronze Age “Hebron”? In particular, is “Hebron” there, in
some
sense, as “JBR” (aleph-bet-resh/lamed) on the Thutmosis III topographical
list?

A geographical place name of a region in Biblical Hebrew (like “the Sharon
(Plain)”, for example) (i) is often preceded by a he/H, meaning “the”, and
(ii)
often has an “-on”/-vav-nun/-WN suffix at the end, meaning “place”, with
these two items surrounding the root. If JBR on the Thutmosis III list is
the
pre-Hebrew west Semitic root (where J is an aleph, and R is either resh or
lamed), then in Biblical Hebrew format (similar to how the geographical name
“the
Sharon”/H$RWN was formed, with yod-shin-resh/Y$R/“level” being the root of “
the Sharon”), would H + JBR + WN, meaning “the JBR place”, get us pretty
close to XBRWN/“Hebron”? Since a heth/X has both an H/he sound and a
guttural
sound (such as )/aleph), the H + J here could be represented by a single
Biblical Hebrew letter: X/heth (as is done in the pun embodied in the name
“Hamor”
in chapter 34 of Genesis, as discussed in a prior post). On that analysis,
the Patriarchs’ “Hebron” is “the JBR place”.

“JBR” on the Thutmosis III list is almost certainly not a city (whether the
city of Hebron, south of Jerusalem, or any other city), because JBR appears
four separate times on that list. As discussed in a prior post, JBR/aleph-BR
is
probably the same word as the later aleph-BL Biblical Hebrew spelling (Judges
11: 33; Daniel 8: 3, 6), meaning “well-watered meadowland”, i.e., ideal
pastureland. Remember, Genesis 13: 12 explicitly tells us that Abraham,
unlike
Lot, did n-o-t live in a city. Rather, according to Genesis 13: 12,
Abraham
sojourned with his large flock of sheep and goats in the
c-o-u-n-t-r-y-s-i-d-e of Canaan. So logically, we should be looking for a
rural location in
Canaan which, so unlike the mountainous city of Hebron, would be a good place
for
Abraham to maintain his large herd of sheep and goats. The Patriarchs’ “
Hebron” should be fine pastureland that, unlike the city of Hebron high “up”
in “
hill” country, could support both Abraham’s large flock of sheep and goats
and Abraham’s 318 armed retainers referenced at Genesis 14: 14. The
Patriarchs’
“Hebron”, unlike the city of Hebron, should have a magnificent grove of oak
trees “in” it, per Genesis 13: 18, as is the case with the Aijalon Valley,
which is also i-d-e-a-l pastureland. Genesis 37: 14 says that the
Patriarchs’
“Hebron” is a “valley”. And note that the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, unlike
the city of Hebron in later books in the Bible, is never stated to be “up”,
and is never stated to be in the “hills”, so there’s no reason to restrict
our
search for the Patriarchs’ “Hebron” to hill country. Indeed, nothing about
the city of Hebron, located 20 miles south of Jerusalem, fits what the text
of
Genesis tells us about the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”! It seems likely that the
city name of “Hebron”, which is unattested as a city name in the secular
history of the ancient world prior to the Judean monarchy in the Iron Age,
was
adopted by the Hebrews in h-o-n-o-r of the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, with the
city
of Hebron not being located anywhere near the Patriarchs’ rural “Hebron”
place.

If the linguistic analysis being developed here is correct in seeing “Hebron”
as meaning “the well-watered meadowland place”, then the name “Hebron”
fits the Aijalon Valley perfectly, while not fitting the city of Hebron at
all.

The mid-15th century BCE “JBR” on the Thutmosis III list may be the same
place as the Patriarchs’ “Hebron” (in the northeastern Shephelah), and may
also
be the linguistic basis for the Hebrew name “Hebron”. Perhaps we on the
b-Hebrew list can do what no historian, archaeologist or Egyptologist has
ever
accomplished -- find Abraham’s “Hebron” in a secular historical inscription
from
the Late Bronze Age.

As discussed in a prior post regarding the names “Nahor”, “Hamor” and “
Hebron”, the Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives sometimes uses a
heth/X
to represent the two letters he-aleph/H), since a heth has both an H sound
and
a guttural sound. If that is the case here, then “the JBR place” = “the
well-watered meadowland place” = H + “JBR” + WN = H + )BR + WN =
XBRWN/“Hebron”
[where X = H)/he-aleph, as in “Hamor”, where XMWR = XMR = H + )MR = “the
Amorite”]. If we pay close attention to the unending puns used throughout
the
Patriarchal narratives, such as the key pun embodied in the name “Hamor”
(where
heth/X represents H)/he-aleph), we can see how “Hebron” is the Biblical
Hebrew version of the pre-Hebrew west Semitic aleph-BR/“JBR”: “the
well-watered
meadowland place”/the Aijalon Valley.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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