Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Dr. Fournet:
 
1.  You wrote:  “…an affricate [ts]…should be rendered by Samekh which was 
also an affricate [ts] at that time.  Tsade means that this word cannot be 
Hurrian.”
 
Scholars have varying opinions about that.  Richard Steiner is famous for 
arguing that Hebrew tsade was an affricate in ancient times:
 
“Other works on Hebrew phonology include Cardona (1968) on the historical 
development of the tsade and Steiner (1977), who discussed the case for 
fricative laterals in Proto-Semitic.  Steiner (1983) argues that the 
affricate 
pronunciation of tsade in Hebrew and Aramaic is not a late Ashkenazic 
development but is an ancient variant of the fricative [s] pronunciation….”  
Nahum 
M. Waldman, “The Recent Study of Hebrew” (1989), at p. 20.
 
In the dozens of Hurrian names that appear in the Patriarchal narratives, 
C/tsade is sometimes used, but S/Samekh is never used even a single time.  
Chapter 14 of Genesis is often considered to be older than most of the rest 
of 
the Bible, so it is possible that its author used early Hebrew C/tsade to 
record a Hurrian affricate, even if other Biblical authors, centuries later, 
might not have used C/tsade in that way.  Moreover, Gelb and Purves at p. 6 
of “Nuzi Personal Names” refer to “the interchange of tsade and z values”. 
 One of your transliterations of xa-tsi-tsi is xa-zi-zi, with Z, and per 
Gelb and Purves, Hurrian Z could interchange with tsade.
 
2.  The Hurrian suffix –nni would be spelled –N in Biblical Hebrew.  
Doubled consonants in Hurrian routinely are represented by a single consonant 
in 
Hebrew in the Patriarchal narratives.
 
3.  The Hurrians focused on the number nine in their primeval mythology.  
Here’s a snippet:  
 
The Hurrian primeval myth “‘Kingship in Heaven’ begins with the reign of 
Alalu in heaven;  after nine years, he was overthrown by Anu (Sky) and went 
down to the "dark earth";  Anu ruled for nine years and then was attacked by 
Kumarbi and fled to the sky….”  Richard S. Caldwell, “The Origin of the Gods
” (1993), at p. 82.
 
Accordingly, the Hurrian culture may be the only culture where the 
following city name would make sense:  “Wisdom-the Nine”.  The Hurrians’ 
“wisdom” 
concerning primeval matters centered on the number “nine”.  The expected 
spelling of “Wisdom-the Nine” in Hurrian is xa-tsi-tsi-ni tam-ri.  The early 
Biblical Hebrew rendering of that Hurrian city name would, subject to the 
open question of how to represent a Hurrian affricate in early Hebrew, be 
expected to be XCC-N TMR, which is exactly what we see at Genesis 14: 7, 
letter-for-letter.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois