Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Eve and the Hivites

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr>
  • To: <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>, <jimstinehart AT aol.com>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Eve and the Hivites
  • Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2010 14:56:44 +0100


From: jimstinehart AT aol.com :
[...]

Although [to the best of my knowledge] no one but me has ever tried to tie together XWH and XWY, scholars routinely do make the following analysis of “Eve”:

1. “Khawwah…is Eve’s name in Hebrew. …Khawwah may be a Hebracized form of Heba, Hebat, Khebat or Kheba, who was the wife of the Hittite storm god worshipped in Jerusalem.” Shoni Labowitz, “God, Sex and Women of the Bible” (2001) at p. 86. [That last comment, though it’s not fully accurate, is based on the fact that in the Amarna Letters, the name of the ruler of Jerusalem is IR-Xeba (where I am using X for heth, instead of H or Kh).]

2. “Eve can be identified with the goddess Hepa, Hiptu, Hebatu, or Hebat, wife of the Hittite storm-god….” Raphael Patai, “Robert Graves and the Hebrew Myths” (1992), at p. 225.

3. “[I]ntervocalic *b [in Hurrian] may develop to West Semitic b > w [w]…. Therefore…there may have been an identification of Hurr. Xeba…with West Semitic Xawwa…‘Eve’.” Martha A. Morrison, “Studies on the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians” (1981), at p. 85. [Here I am rendering the heth in the original as X.]
***

There are in fact excellent reasons to think that Heba, Hebat is not a native Hurrian goddess nor native name.
Hurrian words (especially nouns) normally never end with a -t, and they never end with -a either.
A regular Hurrian noun should end with -i.

One word ending with -a is tiSa "heart", which can be compared with Hatti Sag "heart", quite obviously a Sumerian loanword SHA(G) "heart".

The alternation -a- / -at is in fact highly Semitic, and it's perfectly natural that this goddess has a feminine ending.
So my conclusion is that this goddess is definitely of Semitic origin.

Two other words ending with -a are:
- iSena ‘rain’ < Akkadian zunnu ‘rain’ and zanānu ‘to rain, fall as dew’. Hurrian seems to reflect a feminine word in -at(u).
- zilumba ‘date (fruit)’ < Akkadian saluppu (Laroche 1980:304). Note that the geminate becomes -mb-.
Akkadian loanwords.

By the way, there's an interesting article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdi-Kheba
Quote:
Abdi-Heba (Abdi-Kheba, Abdi-Hepat, or Abdi-Hebat) was king of Jerusalem (called Urusalim at that time) during the Amarna period (mid-1330s BC). Abdi-Heba's name can be translated as "servant of Hebat", a Hurrian goddess. ***Some scholars believe the correct reading is Ebed-Nob. ***

I would indeed recommend the reading as Ebed-Nob.
It makes little sense that a man could have Heba in his name, as mentioned before several times.

Best

Arnaud Fournet
***







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page