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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Sahaduta at Genesis 31: 47
  • Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:28:10 EDT


Dear Dr. Fournet:

1. You wrote: “Something that puzzles me is that a Hurrian or Mitanni
Aryan could be attested as late as the 1st millenium BCE.”

In my view, the Patriarchal narratives were composed in the mid-14th
century BCE, and have no knowledge of the 1st millennium BCE (except for a
handful
of later editorial additions). For a small sampling of the evidence I have
to support that dating, see my earlier post today to Uzi.

2. You wrote: “Leaving that aside, another issue is that NHRYM cannot be
completely equated with Mitanni or Hurrian-peopled areas.”

NHRYM is all over the Amarna Letters, with that precise meaning. Amarna
Letters EA 75: 39; EA 140: 32; EA 194: 23; EA 288: 35. NHRYM is vintage
mid-14th century BCE nomenclature for Mitanni in eastern Syria.

3. You wrote: “Actually TeSSub is a thunder-god. Apart from that minor
issue, the problem is that -ta or maybe even -tta with a geminate can only be
suffixed to a passive verb or an intransitive verb. In addition this kind
of person-name formation is unattested. Personally I would favor a purely
Indo-Aryan analysis: Su-war-da-ta, Su-ar-da-ta "given by the sun". It's
unclear to which extent Sahaduta can be equated with *suwardata. This would
entail that Sahaduta is a distortion of an original *suhadata. What is
interesting is that the laryngeal of "sun" *saH2w- seems to be still there!?
All
this would be coherent with this name being very much older than the 1st
millenium. I have no idea if we have the right to push the dating back that
much.”

As I noted in my earlier post today to Uzi, there are many reasons for
viewing the Patriarchal narratives as having been composed in the mid-14th
century BCE. Your main point seems to be that the presence of a Sanskrit
word
Sahaduta used by a Hurrian is out of place in the 1st millennium BCE. I
agree
completely! But consider that the o-n-l-y time in 5,000 years of human
history when Hurrian princelings were widespread throughout Canaan was the
14th century BCE. So the only time when it makes sense for a Biblical text
like the Patriarchal narratives to have so many Hurrian words is precisely if
such text was composed in the mid-14th century BCE.

4. You wrote: “This meaning is not possible. Hurrian never had
person-names with that syntax or formation.”

You may well be right about that. But then again, the early Hebrew author
of the Patriarchal narratives was no expert in Hurrian. He only knew a few
Hurrian words. He might well have known the Hurrian princeling name
$u-wa-ar-da-ta/$u-ar-da-ti, because that princeling in Year 13 lost Qiltu
(later
called the city of Hebron, 20 miles south of Jerusalem), operated in the
Shephelah (at or near where the Patriarchs’ “Hebron” was located) while
trying
to find some non-Hurrian allies, and then ended up at the end of Year 13
having regained Qiltu/Hebron in hill country, but only after embracing as
allies
the Hurrian princelings referenced in Amarna Letter EA 366: 20-28:
IR-Heba, Surata, and Endaruta. Sahaduta at Genesis 31: 47 can be seen as
being a
variant of Suwardata. If the Biblical name is improper Hurrian as to syntax
or formation, we must remember that (i) the name is Sanskrit, as filtered
though the Hurrians, not Hurrian per se, and (ii) the early Hebrew author was
no linguistic expert, knew very few Sanskrit words and very few Hurrian
words, and was simply trying to come up with a word which would sound like a
Sanskrit word the Hurrians might use, and which would have an appropriate
meaning.

5. Your post seemed to focus on the issue of dating, more than on purely
linguistic issues. In order to keep my own post fairly short, I have
responded primarily regarding the issue of dating, which is an issue I have
studied
for many years. When I have time, I will re-examine the linguistic issues
here. I am only gradually coming to appreciate the subtleties of Hurrian
and the Hurrian use of Sanskrit. Both of those languages are totally
different than Hebrew. Moreover, I have recently modified my prior views as
to how
Hurrian words were rendered in Biblical Hebrew, and I have not yet gone back
to re-examine my old analysis of Sahaduta on that basis.

For example, the Hurrian W plays several different roles in Hurrian, and it’
s not immediately obvious how an early Hebrew author who knew only a little
Hurrian might react to that. The Hebrew vav/W in $HDWT) at Genesis 31: 47
may be more important than I originally thought.

But let me react tentatively to your fascinating comment: “What is
interesting is that the laryngeal of "sun" *saH2w- seems to be still there!?
All
this would be coherent with this name being very much older than the 1st
millenium.”

If *saH2w- is in the Biblical word $HDWT), then the literal meaning could
be “sun” or “sky”, and the implied meaning could be “the
sky-god/thunder-god (Tessup)”, who was the main Hurrian god. So instead of
your “given by
the sun”, which is a more literal meaning, the implied meaning could be “
given by the (Hurrian) sky-god (Tessup)”. If Biblical $HDWT) has a similar
meaning to Suwardata, and if one then pairs that with the Hebrew word YGR
meaning “fear”, then one gets the following Biblical phrase at Genesis 31:
47: “
fear, given by the (Hurrian) sky-god (Tessup)”. That could be an
appropriate oath (primarily in Hurrian, using Sanskrit, but being preceded by
a west
Semitic word) for bi-lingual Laban to give in a mid-14th century BCE
historical context. A few lines later, at Genesis 31: 53, Jacob mentions the
“fear
of his father Isaac”, which ambiguous phrase may imply: “fear, being the
righteous fear of YHWH that Jacob shared with his father Isaac”. That’s
roughly comparable to a Hurrian phrase “fear, given by the (Hurrian) sky-god
(Tessup)”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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