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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr, George.Athas AT moore.edu.au, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Pharaoh Khepera'a in Jeremiah 44:30
  • Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:13:56 EDT


Dr. Arnaud Fournet:

You wrote: “How do you tell a "fact" from something that is not a "fact"
and something that is "historical" from something that is not?”

No Biblical Maximalist has been able to figure out the historical facts
that support the pinpoint historical accuracy of the “four kings against
five”
at Genesis 14: 1-11. But as a linguist, you can verify the following
objective linguistic facts, which in turn will lead us to the historical
explanation of the “four kings against five”.

1. The first three letters of the name “Chedorlaomer” are KDR.

2. The word KDR is splattered all over Ugaritic literature, having many
meanings, including “sacred religious vessel”.

3. No university scholar has ever asked whether “Chedorlaomer” may be a
nasty nickname that is a Ugaritic curse: kdr + l + (mr, being three
well-attested words in Ugaritic that work nicely as a Ugaritic curse.

4. No university scholar has ever asked where Chedorlaomer’s kingly title,
in its original defective spelling, MLK (LM, is attested in non-biblical
sources as to a human king. The answer is: only at Ugarit. It was Ugarit
that instigated the Great Syrian War in western Syria by calling in the
Hittites in response to raids by Ugarit’s Hurrian princeling neighbors.

5. But now we get to your area of expertise. You are presumably one of
the very few people on earth who know the best potential support for the
scholarly view that Chedorlaomer’s kingly title, (LM, references Elam [or at
least could be reasonably viewed as referencing Elam]. Biblical scholars
have
only come up with Elammatum in Akkadian, but the prominent T there is not at
Genesis 14: 1. But you know the Hurrian word for Elam, which is Elami.
That’s a perfect linguistic match! As to the absence of the vowels A and I,
that’s what’s expected in early Biblical Hebrew defective spelling. Thus
tu-ud-xa-li-ya in Hittite comes out as TDGL in Ugaritic, and TD(L at Genesis
14: 1 (“Tidal”), with all non-essential vowels being routinely dropped in
Late Bronze Age alphabetic spelling.

6. But now we come to the really exciting part. (LM at Genesis 14: 1 is a
dead ringer for Elami in Hurrian. So the Hebrew ayin there is representing
the Hurrian vowel E. Your most potent attack on my views last week was
your excellent point that I had failed to show what Hurrian letter is
attested
as being the equivalent of Hebrew ayin. I have now revised my former view
to a significant degree, in reaction to your well-founded attack. Now
relying heavily on (LM at Genesis 14: 1, we see that Hebrew ayin represents
Hurrian E. With Hurrian E and Hurrian I often being interchangeable (per the
Fournet/Bomhard Hurrian language website), Hebrew ayin represents either E or
I
in recording Hurrian words at Genesis 14: 1-2. Meanwhile, “Arioch” at
Genesis 14: 1, whose initial Hebrew letter is an aleph, is either Arawa-ka in
Akkadian-style spelling, or Eriwi-ka in Hurrian-style spelling. So we see
that Hebrew aleph represents either Hurrian A or Hurrian E in spelling
Hurrian
words or names at Genesis 14: 1. Per the F/B website, Hurrian E and Hurrian
A are often interchangeable (but by contrast, Hurrian A is not
interchangeable with Hurrian I).

7. So now we have objective linguistic facts (not Jim’s idiosyncratic
guesses, as before) to show that each of the four personal names at Genesis
14:
2 is a Hurrian common word meaning “Hurrian princeling”. Those Hurrian
common words are brilliantly being used by the early Hebrew author as apt
generic (non-pejorative) nicknames for the Hurrian princelings who
historically
comprised the league of five rebellious princelings. $M)BR is $umi-ebri-[w]e
in Hurrian, meaning “on behalf of a (Hurrian) lord”, and hence meaning: “
Hurrian princeling”. The first E there is expressed as a Hebrew aleph, per
the Hurrian-style spelling of “Arioch”, whose first Hebrew letter at
Genesis 14: 1 is aleph. From the “Tidal” example above, we know that the
rest of
the vowels will not be represented at all in early Biblical Hebrew
defective spelling, including the entire ending. In two other similar
personal
names at Genesis 14: 2, we imply the same E before the B. So BR( is ebri in
Hurrian, meaning “(Hurrian) lord”, and hence meaning: “Hurrian princeling”.
Note that the final ayin is Hurrian I, per our analysis above of (LM, which
showed that Hebrew ayin can be expected to represent Hurrian E or Hurrian
I. BR%( is ebri-ssi, meaning “your (Hurrian) lord”, and hence meaning: “
Hurrian princeling”. The final Hebrew ayin is Hurrian I once again, per the
above analysis. Finally, $N)B is $ena-b in Hurrian, meaning “your (Hurrian)
brother”, and hence meaning: “Hurrian princeling”. The expected Hurrian I
at the end of the Hurrian word $eni/“brother” changes to Hurrian A with
the addition of this particular suffix, so to show that Hurrian peculiarity,
the Hebrew aleph is there, indicating Hurrian A.

The foregoing objective linguistic facts point the way to seeing the “four
kings against five” as being a pinpoint historically accurate report by an
early Hebrew contemporary of the well-documented Great Syrian War in the
Orontes River Valley in mid-14th century BCE western Syria. All the Biblical
Maximalists have missed it, along with all the mainstream university scholars
and all the Biblical Minimalists. But as a linguist who knows Hurrian, you
can see that (1) (LM at Genesis 14: 1 is a dead ringer for Elami in Hurrian,
being the Hurrian word for Elam, and (2) on that basis, Hebrew ayin is
being used to represent Hurrian E or Hurrian I in Hurrian words at Genesis
14:
1-2. Consequently, all four personal names at Genesis 14: 2 are Hurrian
common words that are apt generic nicknames for Hurrian princelings like
Aki-Te$$up, who historically comprised the 5-member league of rebellious
Hurrian
princelings in the Orontes River Valley in the Great Syrian War. Scholars
generally agree that chapter 14 of Genesis, unlike the rest of the Bible,
pre-dates J, E and P, and hence is truly ancient. But with a little help
from a
Hurrian expert like yourself, maybe we can show Biblical scholars the
pinpoint historical accuracy of the “four kings against five” at Genesis 14:
1-11.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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