Although [to the best of my knowledge] no one but me has ever tried to tie together XWH and XWY, scholars routinely do make the following analysis of “Eve”:***
1. “Khawwah…is Eve’s name in Hebrew. …Khawwah may be a Hebracized form of Heba, Hebat, Khebat or Kheba, who was the wife of the Hittite storm god worshipped in Jerusalem.” Shoni Labowitz, “God, Sex and Women of the Bible” (2001) at p. 86. [That last comment, though it’s not fully accurate, is based on the fact that in the Amarna Letters, the name of the ruler of Jerusalem is IR-Xeba (where I am using X for heth, instead of H or Kh).]
2. “Eve can be identified with the goddess Hepa, Hiptu, Hebatu, or Hebat, wife of the Hittite storm-god….” Raphael Patai, “Robert Graves and the Hebrew Myths” (1992), at p. 225.
3. “[I]ntervocalic *b [in Hurrian] may develop to West Semitic b > w [w]…. Therefore…there may have been an identification of Hurr. Xeba…with West Semitic Xawwa…‘Eve’.” Martha A. Morrison, “Studies on the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians” (1981), at p. 85. [Here I am rendering the heth in the original as X.]
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.