Toponymic And Anthroponymic Evidence For An Anatolian Presence In Eretz-yisrael (bible, Indo-european, Theophores, Hebrews, Hittite).

In a pair of separate studies, which originally appeared in the J. Alexander Kerns Memorial Vol. (1981) and Scripta Mediterranea III (1982) respectively, here provided with an Introduction and Conclusion, the author undertakes to examine and determine who the Hittites of the Abrahamic and Davidic periods were. He concentrates his investigations on toponyms specifically associated with Hittites in the Patriarchal period and on the anthroponym of Uriyah the Hittite of David's soldiery. The tools employed are primarily those of Indo-European and Semitic linguistics. In the first study the author attempts to determine what, if any, sense can be made of the two alternate biblical names of Hebron, viz. Mamre and (Qiryat) Arba. He reaches the conclusion, buttressed by a plethora of semantically nearly perfect cognates in numerous Indo-European languages, that both Mamre and Arba are toponyms deriving from Hittite words, both of which have quasi-identical covenantal significance. A similar function is appropriate for the N.W. Semitic name Hebron. This triad of names for the same site (a) refers to a significant event that occurred there and (b) the actors were Hebrews and actual Anatolian Hittites, not a local Canaanite quasi-homophonous tribe. In the second study the author examines 70 years of proposals concerning a supposed alien (for the most part, Hurrian) source for a name which appears like the Hebrew Uriyah (Yah is my Light) and which could have been the original form of Bath-Sheba's husband's name. He offers a detailed summary of all former proposals and concludes that none is sufficiently suitable for the facts. He ultimately proposes a Luwian source name which was intentionally altered to indicate that the bearer was a worshipper of David's God. The Abrahamic Hittites and the Davidic Hittites are both from people that in their respective periods were known by their neighbours as Hittites. In our present-day terminology, we recognize them as related peoples, but temporally separated by centuries of history and actually speakers of related languages of the Anatolian family. The (Neo-)Hittites of David's time were actually speakers of East Luwian.Ph.D.Ancient languagesLanguage, Literature and LinguisticsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127740/2/8520860.pd