Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

George Athas:

 

You wrote:  “You have not convinced me that there are Hurrians haunting the hallowed halls of Hebrew….”

 

Well then let’s look at the first 7 XTY names in the Patriarchal narratives.  If, as you say, “Maybe we just have a text written in a time when there was a Judah?”, then a 1^st millennium BCE author would have no reason (i) to portray Abraham as buying Sarah’s gravesite from Hurrians [XTY] who are landowners in south-central Canaan, and who have attested Hurrian personal names [Ephron and Zohar] from the Late Bronze Age Hurrian province of Nuzi, or (ii) to portray Esau’s first two wives [Judith and Basemath] as being Hurrians with Hurrian fathers [Elon and Beeri], with such Hurrian women having lived their entire lives in Canaan [per Genesis 27: 46], and with all four such names likewise being attested Hurrian names from Nuzi.  So let’s analyze those first 7 XTY names in the Patriarchal narratives and ask if they reflect the only time in 5,000 years of human history when the ruling class of Canaan was dominated by Hurrian charioteers:  the mid-14^th century BCE.  We want to know (i) if the Patriarchal narratives date all the long way back to the Bronze Age as a  w-r-i-t-t-e-n  text [in cuneiform], and (ii) whether, in particular, the proper names in the Patriarchal narratives [including the XTY names] are vintage Bronze Age names.

 

If the Patriarchal narratives were a written cuneiform text in the Late Bronze Age, then we would expect plenty of references to the Hurrians, who dominated the ruling class of Canaan in the mid-14^th century BCE, per the names of the princelings in Canaan in the Amarna Letters.  Instead of always referring to the Hurrians by their historical name, XRY, the early Hebrew author usually referred to the Hurrians by a series of clever, apt Patriarchal nicknames, based on attested Hurrian personal names.  Of the six such names at Genesis 15: 19-21, the most famous is XTY.  XTY is the name of 92 Hurrian men at the Late Bronze Age Hurrian province of Nuzi:  Xu-ti-ia.  [Pp. 64-65.]  [All page references are to Gelb and Purves, “Nuzi Personal Names” (1943).]  Note the letter-for-letter match, once it is realized that, per the analysis of scholar Edward Lipinski, Hebrew yod/Y is being used to render the Hurrian true vowel A as its own separate syllable [and separate cuneiform sign], and in final position is often -ia or -ya or -a-a.

 

Here are the first 7 XTY names, all of which are closely based on attested Hurrian personal names, that one sees in the Patriarchal narratives:

 

1.  “Hittite” : XTY : Xu-ti-ia.  Genesis 15: 20

2.  “Ephron” : (PRWN : E-pi-ri-i(n)-ne.  Genesis 23: 8

3.  “Zohar” : CXR : Cu-xa-ar.  Genesis 23: 8

4.  “Judith” : YHWDYT : A-xu-ú-di-ia-T.  Genesis 26: 34  [Final -T is the feminine ending.]

5.  “Elon” : )YLN : I-la-nu.  Genesis 26: 34

6.  “Bashemath” : B$MT : Ba-$i-ma-T.  Genesis 26: 34

7.  “Beeri” : B)RY : Bi-ir-ia.  Genesis 26: 34

 

All 7 Biblical Hurrian names feature letter-for-letter spelling accuracy, once one realizes what conventions were adopted, out of necessity, for the Biblical Hebrew rendering of Late Bronze Age Hurrian names.

 

Notes:  Attested Hurrian names at Nuzi that are the basis for the above 7 names, and how the cuneiform originals, recorded in rural Canaan by a scribe retained by the tent-dwelling first Hebrews in the mid-14^th century BCE, were transformed 700 years later into alphabetical Hebrew by a Jewish scribe in late 7^th century BCE Jerusalem.

 

1.  XTY.  [This name was analyzed in the prior two posts.  -yod/Y in final position is -ia, being the cuneiform sign I.A, which was a universal theophoric in Hurrian, Egyptian and west Semitic names in the Amarna Letters.  It is especially commonplace in Hurrian names.  See also #4 and #7.]

 

2.  (PRWN.  The root, (PR, is the root of name E-pi-ri -- tu attested at Nuzi [p. 47].  [The -tu is the feminine ending for this woman’s name, with the root being E-pi-ri.]  Hebrew ayin/( is used to render the Hurrian true vowel E as its own separate syllable in initial position.  The same basic root, but without the initial vowel, is found in the name Pi-ri-e -- en-ni [p. 115], which has the same ending as the Biblical Hurrian name here.  For words and names based on this Hurrian word for “lord”, the individuating suffix is formed by a -Vn-ne ending, where V stands for whatever vowel precedes this ending;  that is the concept of the Hurrian anaptyxe vowel. Starting with the form Pi-ri-e, the -Vn-ne suffix is -en-ni [because the preceding vowel was E], resulting in Pi-ri-e -- en-ni.  If instead we start with E-pi-ri, then adding the -Vn-ne suffix results in:  E-pi-ri-i(n)-ne.  [Hebrew always drops the first of doubled Hurrian consonants.]  With Hebrew vav/W in third or fourth interior position being the Hurrian anaptyxe vowel, so that it’s the same vowel as whatever vowel immediately precedes it, E-pi-ri-i-ne is rendered:  (PRWN, exactly as appears in the text at Genesis 23: 8.

 

With the exception of prosthetic aleph [in #5 and #7 below], each Hurrian syllable/cuneiform sign is rendered by one Hebrew letter.

 

3.  CXR.  An attested Hurrian woman’s name at Nuzi is Cu-xa-ar -- ti-ya (p. 181), where -ti is a feminine ending, and -ya is an express theophoric.  The root is Cu-xa-ar, which is the man’s Hurrian name CXR at Genesis 23: 8.

 

4.  YHWDYT.  Analyzed in two prior posts.  [The Hebrew vav/W in third interior position may be the Hurrian anaptyxe vowel discussed in #2 above.]  Alternatively, if the -Y- is a xireq compaginis [as discussed in a prior post], then the name would be simply HWD-Y –T.

 

5.  )Y-L-N.  5 different men at Nuzi had the Hurrian name I-la-nu [p. 68].  Aleph/) is always prosthetic in the Hebrew rendering of Hurrian names.  Here, )Y in initial position = the true vowel I as its own separate syllable.

 

6.  B$MT.  The root, B-$, is Bi-$a or Ba-$i, which is the root of the following attested man’s name at Nuzi:  Bi-$a -- at-ta [p. 112].  B and P are interchangeable for this name in Hurrian.  The same root, spelled with a P, is Pa-a$-$i, which is the root of the woman’s name Pa-a$-$i -- i$-$e at Nuzi [p. 112].  Instead of the most common Hurrian theophoric, -ya, which appears in the Nuzi name Pa-a$-$i -- ya, here in this Biblical Hurrian name we have -ma as the Hurrian theophoric suffix.  [As an example of -ma and -ya having the same function, the following two names at p. 131 have the same meaning, differing only in whether -ya or -ma is used as the theophoric suffix:  $e-en-ni-ma vs. $e-en-ni-ia.]

 

7.  B-)R-Y.  The root, B-)R, is Bi-ir, which is the root of the attested Hurrian name Bi-ir -- zu at p. 115.  The ending is the standard Hurrian theophoric suffix -ya.  In the Hebrew rendering of Hurrian names, aleph/) is always prosthetic, and when followed by a consonant, it just indicates a VC syllable/cuneiform sign, without mandating any particular vowel.  Here, )R = ir. 

 

*       *       *

 

XTY in Hebrew has nothing to do with the classic Hittites of eastern Anatolia.

 

(PRWN is not a west Semitic name with the incongruous meaning of “Fawn”.

 

YHWDYT is not a west Semitic name with the incongruous and anachronistic meaning of “Jewess”.

 

Rather, all 7 above names are vintage Hurrian names, which reflect with breathtaking accuracy the well-attested history of mid-14^th century BCE Canaan.  The Patriarchal narratives are much older as a  w-r-i-t-t-e-n  text [in cuneiform], and are much more historically accurate in a mid-14^th century BCE historical context, than scholars realize.  One key to that critically important determination lies in analyzing the XTY names in the Patriarchal narratives, which are vintage Late Bronze Age attested Hurrian names.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois