Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Prof. Yigal Levin:

 

1.  You wrote:  “Jim, even if Sulam were a foreign loanword, that in itself would not be proof of how old the story is.”

 

If SLM is a Hurrian loanword, that would tend to indicate an Amarna Age composition date for the Patriarchal narratives, because we know from the Amarna Letters that that was the only time period when Hurrian princelings dominated the ruling class of Canaan.

 

2.  Now consider whether the scribe of Hurrian princeling ruler IR-Heba of Jerusalem may have been the very person who, after IR-Heba was gone, the first Hebrews retained to record in writing an outline of the Patriarchal narratives, using cuneiform to write pre-Hebrew west Semitic words.  We know from Amarna Letter EA 273, which deals with the identical succession crisis that threatened the first Hebrews’ continued ability to live in their beloved homeland, that tent dwellers in the valley in Year 14 sometimes retained scribes to record their thoughts in writing.  Now consider the following truly  s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g  similarities in the peculiarities of the writing style of IR-Heba’s scribe and the peculiarities of the writing style in the received text of the Patriarchal narratives:

 

(a)  These are the only texts from Canaan that use xireq compaginis in common words.

 

(b)  These are the only texts from Canaan that routinely use Hurrian common words in a positive manner.  [The hapax legomenon SLM has been the focus of this thread.]

 

(c)  These are the only ancient texts from Canaan that refer to northern Mesopotamia as “Naharim”.  Genesis 24: 10.  Amarna Letter EA 287: 35.

 

(d)  These are the only texts from Canaan that refer to southern Mesopotamia as “Kassite land”.  Genesis 11: 28, 31;  15: 7.  Amarna Letter EA 287: 36.

 

(e)  Each of these texts refers to the most important princeling in the lives of the first Hebrews, using the same spelling of his historical name:  Milk-i-Ilu.  Genesis 46: 17.  Amarna Letter EA 287: 29.

 

If IR-Heba’s former scribe was retained by the first Hebrews, shortly after Akhenaten’s death, to record in writing an abbreviated outline of the Patriarchal narratives, that would nicely explain both (i) the foregoing remarkable similarities in the writing peculiarities of the received text of the Patriarchal narratives as compared to IR-Heba’s Amarna Letters, and (ii) the  p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t  historical accuracy of the Patriarchal narratives regarding all the many historical details of the traumatic events that happened in the first Hebrews’ valley [Genesis 37: 14] in Years 12-14.

 

Do you see how very important it is to identify various hapax legomenon like SLM in the Patriarchal narratives as being Hurrian loanwords?

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois