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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: jimstinehart AT aol.com, leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] words with the same root letters: XCC-N TMR
  • Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:30:48 EST


Prof. Yigal Levin wrote: “Jim, since I don't know Hurrian I can't argue
with you, but there is no reference to "Amorites" in EA 175, and what in the
world does anything there have to do with Hazazon-Tamar?”

My prior two posts focused on the Hurrian issue of Hazazon-Tamar/XCC-N TMR
being xa-tsi-tsi-ni tam-ri in Hurrian. But perhaps the real focus of Prof.
Levin’s question is whether the name of the princeling ruler in Amana Letter
EA 175 is an Amorite name [with Genesis 14: 7 explicitly mentioning the
Amorites in connection with XCC-N TMR]. Although I touched upon that issue
in
my prior post, let me focus on that key issue here. It will also give us a
chance to take a controversial look at the name of a little-known grandson
of Asher.

Most scholars, including Anson Rainey, Wm. Moran and Richard Hess, see the
name of the princeling ruler of Hasi in Amarna Letter EA 175 as being west
Semitic. A west Semitic princeling in the Beqa Valley in the Amarna Age
would be expected to be an Amorite, since Lebanon was the homeland of the
Amorites at that time.

Anson Rainey and Wm. Moran see the first element of this princeling’s name
as being Ilu or Il. That’s the classic indication of an Amorite name, since
“Ilu” is the Amorite name for their deity. The full name of the Amorite
deity was probably “Ilu Amurru”, but the “Amurru” portion of such deity’s
name virtually never appears in names, whereas “Ilu” is common in Amorite
names. Frank Moore Cross, “Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic” (1997), at pp.
57-58.

The classic Amorite princeling name in the Amarna Letters is Milk-ilu.
Although there are many possible interpretations of this name, one is: “(The
Amorite God) Ilu (Is) King”, or simply: “Ilu King”. Milk-ilu is associated
with Rubutu and Gezer in the Aijalon Valley. He likely represents the
furthest southern extent of the historical Amorites in the mid-14th century
BCE.


Startlingly, at p. 114 of “Amarna Personal Names” (1993), Richard S. Hess
cites a Biblical attestation of what might be this same name: “Hebrew malki’
el, Genesis 46: 17….” That’s MLKY)L, a grandson of Asher. The Blue
Letter Bible gives the innocuous meaning of this name as “my king is God”.
But
another possible interpretation would be that this is an historical name of
an Amorite princeling, and as such might have [or at least might originally
have had] the seemingly blasphemous meaning of “(The Amorite God) Ilu (Is)
King”, or simply: “Ilu King”.

Why would the Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives risk blasphemy in
order to memorialize this particular name? Historical Milk-ilu in the
Amarna Letters has the same name as MLKY)L at Genesis 46: 17, but more
importantly he may be the historical model for Biblical Mamre in chapter 14
of
Genesis. Asher’s grandson MLKY)L is named after the historical Amorite
princeling
Milk-ilu (Biblical nickname ‘Mamre’, meaning “The Amorite”) in the
Aijalon Valley with whom Abraham was allied and who helped Abraham rescue Lot
on
that dangerous mission into Syria. When we look at Genesis 46: 17, we are
seeing the actual historical name of the historical Amorite princeling in the
Aijalon Valley with whom the first Hebrews were historically allied. Rather
than being Biblical fiction, as scholars would have it, this is attested
historical fact, as verified by the Amarna Letters.

In my considered opinion, the princeling ruler of Hasi in Amarna Letter EA
175 has the name Ilu-da-a-ya, which is an Amorite name, featuring Ilu as the
name of the Amorite deity. There was in fact an enclave of Amorite
princelings at and near Hasi in the Hurrian-dominated Beqa Valley in Year 14
(of
Akhenaten’s reign), exactly as the second half of Genesis 14: 7 states the
matter to be. The p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t historical accuracy of the Patriarchal
narratives in a mid-14th century BCE context is utterly astonishing.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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