Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Dr. Fournet:
 
On the b-hebrew list, we are trying to figure out the reference at Genesis 
14: 7 to XCC-N TMR.  If that’s a Hurrian phrase, then the locale must be 
north of the Dead Sea, not on the southwest edge of the Dead Sea or southwest 
of the Dead Sea, as has previously been assumed, because the Hurrians were 
never south of the Dead Sea.  So it’s a big deal if XCC-N TMR is or is not 
redolent of Hurrian.
 
The Akkadian/Semitic connection that you stress is also important here.  
The princeling author of Amarna Letter EA 175 from Hasi has a west Semitic 
name.  The Amarna Letters themselves are written in Akkadian cuneiform, by 
scribes who were familiar with Akkadian.  So a Hurrian city name could get 
recast in an Akkadian guise, and vice versa, depending on who was controlling 
the 
city at the time.  Two other Amana Letters from Hasi are written by a 
princeling with a Hurrian-type name.
 
You write:  “…hassissi or hazizi are obviously borrowings from Akkadian 
and not native ‘Hurrian’ words.  Again you chose a Semitic loanword to 
explain a Semitic word.  There's nothing Hurrian in there.”
 
We are discussing XCC-N TMR at Genesis 14: 7.  TMR is the Hurrian word for “
nine”.  It’s not Akkadian.  –N is the ubiquitous Hurrian suffix, often 
meaning “the”, or being an individuating suffix, etc.  It’s not Akkadian.  
The 
Hurrian word for “wisdom” is xa-tsi-tsi.  That’s a perfect match, letter 
for letter, to XCC in Biblical Hebrew.  You may well be right that xa-tsi-tsi 
in Hurrian is a borrowing from Akkadian.  But the Akkadian word for “wisdom”
 is xa-si-su, which is not a perfect match to XCC in Biblical Hebrew.  If 
we stay on the Hurrian side for one moment, “Wisdom-the Nine” in Hurrian is 
a 7-letter exact match to what we see at Genesis 14: 7, knowing that 
Biblical Hebrew, unlike Hurrian, for the most part only records consonants.  
Biblical XCC-N TMR fits perfectly the Hurrian phrase xa-tsi-tsi-ni tam-ri.
 
But that long Hurrian name is not the city name we see at Amarna Letter EA 
175.  No, what we see there, not so unexpectedly, is a shortened Akkadian 
form.  “Nine” and “-the” are dropped off, and we’re left with “wisdom”.  
But even there, we only get the first two syllables, xa-si, being the first 
two syllables of the Akkadian word for “wisdom”, which is xa-si-su.
 
That analysis explains the observed phenomenon:  (i) the Bible has XCC-N 
TMR, being the Hurrian phrase xa-tsi-tsi-ni tam-ri, meaning “Wisdom-the Nine”
, and (ii) Amarna Letter EA 175 has xa-si;  and both sources are talking 
about the same place in the same time period:  Hasi in the Beqa Valley.  In 
the 
first case it’s the full Hurrian name, and in the second case it’s an 
abbreviated Akkadian version.  But the key word in this city name in both 
cases, 
whether Hurrian or Akkadian, is “wisdom”.  The fact that XCC/xa-tsi-tsi in 
Hurrian may well be “a Semitic loanword” helps my case, rather than hurts 
it.  I am trying to get the geography and the time period right by correctly 
identifying this important geographical place name, rather than disputing 
your views as to what Hurrian words are Semitic loanwords.
 
1.  How do you interpret XCC-N TMR at Genesis 14: 7?  Isn’t it a perfect, 
letter-for-letter match to “Wisdom-the Nine” in Hurrian, namely 
xa-tsi-tsi-ni tam-ri?
 
2.  How do you interpret xa-si at Amarna Letter EA 175?  Isn’t that likely 
an abbreviated version of the Akkadian word for “wisdom”, where the full 
Akkadian word is xa-si-su?  
 
>From your other comments, I presume you may agree with me that the 
princeling author of Amarna Letter EA 175 is likely an Amorite.  As you know, 
some 
Amorites lived in the Hurrian-dominated Beqa Valley in the mid-14th century 
BCE.  So Genesis 14: 7 could well be right in referring to Amorites in the 
Hurrian-dominated Beqa Valley, if XCC-N TMR is a Hurrian reference to Hasi.
 
If you have an alternative understanding of XCC-N TMR at Genesis 14: 7, 
please set it forth, and we’ll look at it.  There is no XCC at Ein Gedi, and 
there is no XCC at the Roman-era village of Tamar south of the Dead Sea.  
Scholars don’t claim to have found any name remotely resembling XCC at any 
such 
southern location.  But as a Hurrian scholar, you can’t look at XCC in 
Biblical Hebrew without thinking xa-tsi-tsi/“wisdom” in Hurrian.  Up north, 
with 
the Hurrians, is where to find XCC.  In Amarna Letter EA 175, we find the 
remnant of XCC, in the shortened Akkadian form of xa-si.  That’s my theory of 
the case.  But if you have an alternative theory, we’d all love to see it.  
Just remember, on the b-hebrew list we’re trying to figure out the meaning 
and identity of the Biblical Hebrew geographical place name XCC-N TMR at 
Genesis 14: 7, rather than arguing which Hurrian words may or may not be 
Akkadian loanwords.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois