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: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: George.Athas AT moore.edu.au, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Eve and the Hivites
  • Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2010 09:37:38 EST


George Athas:

You wrote: “It makes perfect sense to me without assuming your
assumptions, Jim. You don’t need to import foreign elements wholesale into
the
narrative to make sense of it. I really can’t see the need for it.”

Absent the historical presence in Canaan of “foreign elements”, how would
you explain the following aspects of chapter 34 of Genesis?

1. “The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully,
because he had defiled their sister Dinah. They said to them, ‘We cannot do
this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would
be a disgrace to us.’” Genesis 34: 13-14

Why would men with west Semitic names in Canaan be uncircumcised?

2. “Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out
to see the women of the land.” Genesis 34: 1

Why would Dinah, at such a young age [about 3 years after her father Jacob
had worked his last 6 years for Laban] go “out to see the women of the land”
? What’s the significance of that? And why would young Shechem see such
a young female as being wife material?

3. “But they [Simeon and Levi] said [to their father Jacob], ‘Should he
treat our sister like a prostitute?’" Genesis 34: 31

How do you explain that statement? Young Shechem obviously tried very hard
to make Dinah his wife, even going to the extreme of getting all the men of
Shechem to circumcise themselves, rather than treating Dinah like a
prostitute.

* * *

As set forth in my prior post on this thread, the above three questions
answer themselves if XW-Y/“Hivites” means “Xeba worshipping people”. But
absent such “foreign elements”, it’s hard to make sense out of this story.
Many, many scholars have suggested that the Hivites are non-Semitic; that’s
probably the majority view among scholars. Yet to the best of my knowledge,
I am the first one to explain the etymology of XW-Y in a convincing fashion.
The key is that an intervocalic B, known to sound like V, could have a
very similar sound to a W. George, if we’re willing to consider “foreign
elements”, then multiple sources indicate that W could indeed be pronounced V
in
the Late Bronze Age:
“The Indo-Aryan sound v was…rendered at Nuzi…as w in the element wara.
Use of w for v definitely appears in renditions of Indo-Aryan names and words
at Bogaskoy and in the Amarna Letters.” Ignace J. Gelb, Pierre M. Purves
and Allan A. MacRae, “Nuzi Personal Names” (1943), at p. 194.

The key is to consider the “foreign elements”. Then historical
linguistics can solve this longstanding Biblical mystery. The Biblical
“Hivites”
/XW-Y are the historical Xeba worshippers at Late Bronze Age Shechem in
central
Canaan. The setting is fully historical, and the story practically tells
itself, if we consider the notorious pagan goddess Xeba and the other
corresponding “foreign elements”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page