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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ephron
  • Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:26:12 EDT


1. I believe that George Athas was thinking primarily about linguistics,
not history, when he responded to my claim that Ephron in chapter 23 of
Genesis is portrayed as being an important Hurrian landowner in Canaan as
follows: “This is all highly tendentious and speculative, Jim.”

In fact, there is nothing tendentious or speculative about the following
key facts. The best-known Hurrian word is ep-ri, meaning “lord”, especially
in the form ep-ri-ni, meaning “the lord”. We know from the Amarna Letters,
as augmented by other sources such as the Taanach Letters, that a majority
of the landowners in Canaan in the mid-14th century BCE were Hurrians. So
the early Hebrews in the mid-14th century BCE were very familiar with Hurrian
landowners, and would have known the best-known Hurrrian word, which was
very relevant to those Hurrian landowners in Canaan: ep-ri-ni. The question
I am raising on this thread is whether (PRWN in chapter 23 of Genesis is a
dead ringer for the Hurrian word ep-ri-ni, meaning “the (Hurrian) lord”. If
an early Hebrew had tried to produce the Hurrian word ep-ri-ni using
defective Hebrew spelling, the best he could have done is what we see in the
received text: (PRWN. The first syllable is (P, representing EP in Hurrian.

The vav/W being present in defective spelling strongly indicates that there
is
a second syllable, as distinct from the final syllable. That second
syllable is RW, representing RI in Hurrian, just as is attested on two
occasions
in the Amarna Letters. The final syllable is N-, being Ni in Hurrian, but in
defective Hebrew spelling that does not require the final vowel sound to be
set forth as a Hebrew letter. Using defective Hebrew spelling, I do not
see how the Hurrian word ep-ri-ni could be expressed in old Biblical Hebrew
better than precisely what we see in chapter 23 of Genesis: (PRWN.

2. On the other hand, Prof. Yigal Levin focused exclusively on history
(not linguistics) in his response to my post: “WITHIN THE BIBLE, there is NO
indication that the "Hittites" are anything other than a Canaanite sub-group.
There is NO indication anywhere that the Hittites are "non-Semitic" or have
anything to do with "Hurrians".”

Is that true? How could a people called “sons of the Hittites” at Genesis
23: 3 be thought to be “a Canaanite sub-group”? Is there anything in
history to support that view? No. The Hurrians were closely connected to
the
historical Hittites from a Hebrew point of view in the mid-14th century BCE.
As such, it makes perfect sense for a slightly derogatory Patriarchal
nickname for the Hurrians to be “sons of the Hittites”. In the mid-14th
century
BCE, the Hittites conquered a majority of the Hurrians and brought a
majority of Syria into the newly-formed Hittite Empire, in the Great Syrian
War.
After that, the Hurrians were in some sense “sons of the Hittites”, in that
the Hurrians were now junior to the Hittites in terms of controlling Syria.
Moreover, the Hurrians had close cultural affinities to the Hittites. Most
of the Hittite kings had Hurrian wives. The Hittites adopted Hurrian names
and Hurrian gods and goddesses. The Hurrians’ fame throughout Syria as
fine metalworkers actually owed a lot to the Hurrians’ close (if not always
friendly) contact with the best metalworkers in the world, the Hittites. So
near the end of the Amarna Age, for a short period of time the phrase “sons
of
the Hittites” is an apt, if somewhat pejorative, Patriarchal nickname for
the Hurrians, from an early Hebrew point of view.

3. Though not expressly so stated, I presume that both George Athas and
Prof. Yigal Levin accept the scholarly view that (PRWN is a west Semitic
name.
But does that seemingly unanimous scholarly view make sense? Let’s take a
look.

For the scholarly analysis of (PRWN as allegedly being a west Semitic name,
we start with the fact that (PR in Hebrew means “a fuzzy, tawny, harmless
young animal”, or “fawn”. Yes, (PR could easily be the root of a Hebrew
name (PR + WN = (PRWN [although in the defective spelling of old Biblical
Hebrew, the presence of that vav/W in this proper name is somewhat
unexpected].
But then notice what the meaning of that name would be: “a person who acts
like a fuzzy, tawny, harmless young animal” or “fawn”. A loose, but
telling, American English paraphrase of the Hebrew name Ephron, if it’s a
west
Semitic name, would be: “Bambi”. If Ephron is a west Semitic name, as
scholars would have it, then that’s exactly what the name would mean:
“Bambi”.

Now compare how Ephron acts when Abraham desperately needs to buy a
gravesite for Sarah from him. Does he act like “the lord”, “Mr. Great”,
being an
imperious Hurrian nobleman, the Hurrian ruler of a Hurrian-dominated city,
who takes Abraham to the cleaners in extorting a gargantuan sum for this
gravesite? Yes. Does he act like “Bambi”? No. Biblical Ephron in no way,
shape or form acts like “a fuzzy, tawny, harmless young animal” or “fawn”
in dealing with Abraham. It’s so clear that anyone should be able to see it.
Ephron [“the lord” or “Hurrian princeling” or “Mr. Great” in Hurrian]
charges Abraham an arm and a leg for that gravesite:

“Land for four hundred shekels. A comparison with the prices stipulated
for the purchase of property elsewhere in the Bible suggests that this
[alleged] pittance [that Abraham pays Ephron for Sarah’s gravesite] is
actually a
king’s ransom[, a] huge sum….” Robert Alter, “Genesis: Translation and
Commentary” (1996), at p. 111.

(PRWN works perfectly as a Hurrian name, EP-RI-Ni, meaning “the lord”. In
a mid-14th century BCE historical context, if Abraham wanted to buy a
gravesite for Sarah, then he likely would have had to make that land purchase
from a Hurrian lord, which is the very meaning, in Hurrian, of the Biblical
name (PRWN: (P-RW-N[i] = ep-ri-ni = “the (Hurrian) lord”. The scholarly
claim that Abraham is non-historically portrayed as buying Sarah’s gravesite
from an indigenous Canaanite, a “son of the Hittites”, whose west Semitic
name
is, in effect, “Bambi”, is completely untenable on all counts.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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