Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Harold Holmyard:
 
You wrote:  “The fact that such a coalition happened in the 14th century 
 indicates that it could have happened earlier, too. The biblical dates for 
Abraham suggest that he was born in 2166 B.C. and died in 1991 B.C.  So the 
events in Genesis 14 happened long before the 15th century, according to the 
biblical evidence.”
 
Your proposed dates are impossible in secular history.
 
1.  No Hittites Yet
 
Per Trevor Bryce, “The Kingdom of the Hittites” (1998) at p. 16:
 
“The Hittite kingdom was founded in the early or middle years of the 
seventeenth century.”
 
So a ruler with the vintage Hittite kingly name of “Tidal” could not have 
been operating near Canaan prior to the 17th century BCE at the earliest.
 
2.  No Hurrians in Canaan Yet
 
Per Amelie Kuhrt, “The Ancient Near East, Volumes I and II” (1995), at p. 
286:
 
“[I]n the period c. 1850 and 1600, Hurrians appear to be present in 
increasing numbers throughout northern Mesopotamia and Syria, as well as in 
the areas 
where they were located earlier (north-west Iran and north-east Iraq).”
 
There is no support in secular history for seeing any Hurrian presence in the 
greater Canaan area prior to the Late Bronze Age.  Indeed, the only Hurrian 
state was Naharim (accurately referenced by that very name at Genesis 24: 
10), 
on the upper Euphrates River, in the 15th -14th centuries BCE.  Note also 
that 
the Patriarchal narratives reference the historical Hurrians, a people who 
died out in the Late Bronze Age.  To cite Amelie Kuhrt again, at p. 283:
 
“The term ‘Hurrian”…reminds the present-day reader of the Old Testament ‘
Horites’ (Gen. 14.6;  36.20…)”.
 
“Arioch” is a vintage Hurrian princeling name.  The Hurrians do not appear 
in greater Canaan, in any capacity, prior to the Late Bronze Age. 
 
3.  Four Rulers Against the Five Only Happened Once
 
Only once in recorded history did 4 rulers, one with a kingly Hittite name, 
one with a princeling Hurrian name, and two with west Semitic names, destroy 
a 
coalition of 5 princeling rulers in or near Canaan.  That was in the mid-14th 
century BCE.
 
Pinpoint historical accuracy is the hallmark of the Patriarchal narratives.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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