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mojobadshah
Guest
Apparently a form of the ethnic designation "Hebrew" exists in Sumerian, but I'm wondering what some of the earliest secondary sources apart my example of the Hebrews/Isrealites/Jews there might be?
bob x
Well-Known Member
Various forms of h-b-r names occur early, but as the root means "to cross over" (Indo-European cognates Greek huper, Latin super, English over) many of the early usages are probably in a generic sense of "nomad" or "merchant" (as someone who frequently travels). In Egyptian, the name Habiru or Hapiru seems to have the meaning "rebel" (one who has crossed over to the enemy) throughout the Amarna Letters (a large archive of luckily well-preserved diplomatic correspondence from the reign of Akhenaton in the 14th century BCE); the period was one of disintegrating royal authority in Canaan. The more specific name "Israel" first appears in the Merneptah Stele 1208 BCE (at this point the Israelites are still a minor group, listed way down among the enemies Merneptah is supposed to have triumphed over; it only says "they are in waste, their crops are not" perhaps describing the wandering-in-the-desert phase). From the reign of king Jehu of the northern kingdom of Israel, who killed off all of bad king Ahab's children, we have an Assyrian tribute stele showing Jehu of Israel among the other kings bowing and giving tribute, and a stele from Tell Dan apparently by king Hazael of Damascus, in which he describes the coup d'etat against Ahab's family as a triumph for Damascus; Ahab is mentioned by an Assyrian chronicler in a list of enemies who stood off the Assyrians in an inconclusive battle at Qarqar (a battle not mentioned in the Bible); and king Mesha's stele in Moab describes the Moabites' generations-long campaign to regain independence from Israel. The southern kingdom of Judah is called simply "Beth Dawid" (house of David) in the Tell Dan stele, but the name Judah (Yehudah) appears in Sennacherib's "Pyramid Stele" describing his campaign about 720 BCE.
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mojobadshah
Guest
So is the Sumerian form used in the same sense? And does the usage of these Sumerian and Egyptian forms imply that these people were the Hebrews or not?
bob x
Well-Known Member
It is now generally thought that the usage just refers to people who do not have a settled location or political allegiance. Maybe some of the groups referred to are related to the later Israelites and some are not, but the early references are too vague to rely on for very much.
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mojobadshah
Guest
Might these forms have any relationship to the word "Pharisee"?
bob x
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what you mean. "Pharisee" doesn't have anything in common with "Hebrew". The root of "Pharisee" is a word meaning "separated" (they broke off from the established order during the Hasmonean dynasty, 2nd century BCE).