Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

1.  Nir Cohen wrote:  “while i agree with jim that final Y may represent -YA 
or -YAH in both ancient hebrew and hurrian, …the NWS endings -WT,-YM used for 
plural and -H,-Y,-AH,-W etc used as verbal suffixes (assuming they were also 
used so in biblical times hebrew) cannot be easily interpreted as 
"consonants" followed by a vowel.”

Let’s use that insight to try to solve the 3,000-year-old Biblical mystery of 
who is being referenced by the following 6 names at Genesis 15: 19-21 that 
have baffled scholars:  QYNY/Qa-a-ni-ya;  QNZY/ Qa-ni-zi-ya;  XTY/Xu-ti-ya;  
PRZY/Pi-ri-zi-ya;  GRG$Y/Ge-ra-ge-$e-ya;  YBWSY/A-bu-u-se-ya.  Note first 
that the classic -YM west Semitic ending is suspiciously absent in all 6 
cases.  Rather, in all 6 cases the ending is -Y, which can be the Hebrew 
rendering of the standard Hurrian theophoric suffix -ya.  Starting with that 
key insight, then on the C-V theory that we’re discussing, it turns out to be 
child’s play to match these 6 names on a letter-for-letter basis to attested 
Hurrian personal names with vintage Late Bronze Age spellings.  We then 
realize that these 6 Hurrian personal names are being used to reference the 
Hurrians [just like the personal name “Knickerbockers” is used as a colorful 
reference to Manhattanites].

2.  Many 3,000-year-old Biblical mysteries can be solved using the C-V 
theory.  Here’s an important example of that.  If the original spelling of 
the name of the Patriarchs’ favorite place to sojourn in Canaan was what we 
still see in the received unpointed Masoretic Text today, namely XBRWN, then 
on the C-V theory we would expect that 5-letter name to be a 5-syllable name. 
 In fact, it’s the expected Hebrew spelling of the Hurrian word for “heaven” 
or “the heaven”:  xa-bu-ru-u-ne.  Syllables 1, 2, 3 and 5 are C-V, with 
Hebrew rendering only the consonant.  The 4th syllable is, as is so often the 
case in Hurrian, a vowel as its own separate syllable [essentially unknown in 
Hebrew common words].  The modern Hebrew mispronunciation of this ancient 
name is as bad as the KJV mistransliteration of this name.  It’s not a 
2-syllable name, with two closed syllables.  No way.  Rather, it’s 5 
syllables, per there being 5 Hebrew letters, with the rule being that there 
is one Hebrew letter per foreign syllable.  There’s no closed syllable in 
sight.  Just as Karl’s C-V theory posits.

As everyone already knows, XBRWN can also, with quite a bit of stretching, be 
stretched to mean “united” in Hebrew.  But the interior vav/W is not plene 
spelling!!!  No, it’s a vowel as its own separate syllable in the primary, 
Hurrian meaning of this name.  The meaning, then, of XBRWN is:  “Being United 
[Is] Heaven”.  Now look at Genesis 14: 13.  One of the best things about the 
Patriarchs’ “Hebron” was that not only was it a rural nirvana, but very 
importantly Abram was in covenant relationship with both the ruling Amorite 
princeling there, whose Patriarchal nickname was Mamre the Amorite, and also 
with such ruler’s fellow princelings, the Hurrian princeling A-ni-ra and the 
Canaanite princeling Eshcol.  Historically that checks out perfectly, as the 
Amorite princeling ruler of the place which is the opposite of east of Bethel 
[Genesis 13: 9, 11] indeed allied with tent-dwellers like the Hebrews and 
with Hurrian princelings and Canaanite princelings as well.  

All analysts have missed the key textual fact here that whereas Abram [before 
his name change] had a valuable alliance with the Amorite princeling ruler of 
the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, nevertheless after the name change to Abraham no 
Patriarch is ever reported as being in alliance with any ruler of the 
Patriarchs’ Hebron.  The “good old days”, whose passing was much lamented by 
the early Hebrews [and whose passing was also the catalyst, in my opinion, 
for the historical birth of Judaism, which would soon find the Hebrews moving 
a few miles east from the Ayalon Valley, up to the secure hill country north 
of Jerusalem], were precisely when the first Hebrew, Abram, had had a close 
alliance with the Amorite ruler of the place west of Bethel.  Indeed, that 
grand old man Amorite ruler was so revered by the first Hebrews that (i) the 
first Hebrews called the place where that Amorite princeling ruled by the 
following Patriarchal nickname:  “Being United [Is] Heaven”/XBRWN;  and (ii) 
the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives paired the root of 
XBRWN, namely XBR, with the Hebrew version of the historical name of “Mamre 
the Amorite”, the Amorite princeling ruler of the Ayalon Valley west of 
Bethel in Year 12, namely Milk-Ilu:  MLK – Y - )L, at Genesis 46: 17 [where 
the interior yod/Y there is a name divider].

If one is willing to  a-s-k  if the 5-letter name XBRWN may originally have 
indicated a 5-syllable name, per the C-V analysis of how the Hebrew language 
originally operated, and then consider that such is the expected Hebrew 
rendering of the Hurrian common word for “the heaven”, namely xa-bu-ru-u-ne, 
in addition to being able to be stretched to mean “united” in Hebrew, then 
all of a sudden one comes to an amazing revelation.  It  a-l-l  checks out!  
The p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t  historical accuracy of the Patriarchal narratives in 
describing south-central Canaan in Year 12 is absolutely stunning.  We even 
have the  e-x-a-c-t  historical name of the Amorite princeling ruler in Year 
12 [one year before the reference to “Year 13” in the second half of Genesis 
14: 4] of the Ayalon Valley west of Bethel, where tent-dwellers are attested 
as recording their thoughts in writing at the time [Amarna Letter EA 273]:  
Milk-Ilu.  

3.  As I was saying, many 3,000-year-old Biblical mysteries can readily be 
solved, if we’re willing to  a-s-k  if early Hebrew writing was done on a C-V 
basis, as verified by the unchanged Hebrew renderings of Late Bronze Age 
Hurrian names.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois