Thursday, 27 April 2023

From Joseph to Moses to Joshua: Part 2 Apiru, Evri (עִבְרִי) and the Israelites (יִשְׂרָאֵל ינֵבְּ)

The Amarna Letters

The Amarna Letters, a trove of 382 clay tablets in cuneiform found at Pharaoh Akhenaton’s newly built capital of Amarna, contain some 3 dozen letters sent from Canaan and the upper eastern Mediterranean coast to Egypt complaining of invaders and the need for military assistance from Egypt – their overlord and ‘protector’.

The invaders are called Apiru, a term also pronounced Hapiru or Habiru, and found in numerous other records from throughout the Fertile Crescent covering some 600 years as far back as the 18th century BCE.[i]

The term means in ancient Sumerian ‘dusty/dirty’ and was used for outlaws, robbers, raiders, mercenaries and rebels, and also for servants, slaves and labourers.  As such,   it was a derogatory label for any group who were considered ‘outsiders’, ‘troublemakers’ or of low social status[ii].

Now the Amarna Letter pleas for aid against Apiru invaders are normally dated to at most the  30 years or so between 1360 and 1332 BCE as other of the letters name the recipients as Pharaoh Amenhotep III, his successor Amenhotep IV (who changed his name to Akhenaton), and an unnamed young third pharaoh -- possibly his son, Tutankhamen. [iii]   

 

Are the children of Israel under Joshua the Apiru of the letters?

Wikipedia notes that there is no scholarly consensus as to the origin of the term ‘Hebrew’ – עִבְרִי

It cites Josephus who in his Antiquities of the Jews, book 1:6:4 states the term means “descended from Eber”, Abraham’s ancestor (going back 6 generations).[iv]

This is also the only etymology Strong’s Concordance lists -- with the caveat of “perhaps” -- for its entry #5680.[v]

The more likely origin, as acknowledged by Wikipedia, is the Hebrew word for “to go across”.  Namely, a term someone would use for himself or that others would use for someone who travelled or migrated from across the Euphrates River, the natural southern border of ancient Mesopotamia.[vi]

As such, it could apply to not just Abraham and his descendants, but to any migrating Mesopotamians.

Eventually, however, during the time in Egypt, it became the common tribal name of the descendants of Jacob.

 

Early use of adjective “Hebrew” עִבְרִי in the Bible

The descriptor ‘Hebrew’ עִבְרִי is first used in the Bible for Abraham in Gen. 13:14  when mentioning  that ‘Hebrew’ Abraham lives beside his Amorite neighbours and allies.

It appears next when the wife of Potiphar accused Joseph of attempted rape, calling Joseph a ‘Hebrew’ (i.e., foreigner) in Gen. 39:14 and 17.

In Gen. 40:15, Joseph, explaining where he came from before being sold as a slave, says he was kidnapped while living in the land of the ‘Hebrews’.

Rabbinic commentaries by Radak, Shadal, Tur HaAroch and Rav Hirsch follow Ramban’s lead that it refers to the ‘well-known’ settlement of Abraham and Isaac in Hebron.[vii]

More likely, as Joseph was not kidnapped per se but sold off by his half-brothers, Joseph’s account here is probably a misrepresentation and he probably intended to   say he was kidnapped from above the Euphrates.

In Gen. 41:12, Joseph is again called a “Hebrew youth” by pharaoh’s restored cupbearer, meaning Joseph is a foreigner.

Then, in Gen. 43:32, when Joseph shares a banquet meal with his 11 brothers and Egyptian companions, the text stresses that the Egyptians would not eat beside the brothers –referred to as ‘Hebrews’ --as the latter were eating sheep and goat meat which was considered by Egyptians as deities.  Here, again, the term Hebrew probably means foreigners.

 

 Hebrews as a tribal name

But from Exodus chapter one onward, the term Hebrew is clearly used as a tribal name for the descendants of Jacob.

When pharaoh calls the (Jewish) midwives who assist birthing among the (Jewish) women, they are called “Hebrew midwives”  הָעִבְרִיּוֹת לַמְיַלְּדֹת in Exod. 1;15 and  their pregnant clients as  “(female) Hebrews”  הָעִבְרִיּוֹת in Exod. 1:16 and Exod. 1:19.

 

When baby Moses is found on the Nile by pharaoh’s daughter, the instant she sees him she knows he is a ‘Hebrew’ (probably due to circumcision) and sends for a ‘Hebrew’ wet-nurse who turns out to be his biological mother  (Exod. 2: 6 and 7).

When adult Moses sees an Egyptian severely beating a slave, the slave is called a ‘Hebrew’ and Moses intervenes to save a tribal kinsman (Exod. 2:11).

Then when in Exod. 2:13 Moses sees two men –  called ‘Hebrews’ -- fighting and tries to stop them, the text criticizes them for betraying Moses to pharaoh and forcing Moses to flee.

The most powerful evidence that the term ‘Hebrews’ was used as a tribal name is  Exod. 3:18 where God reveals Himself to Moses in the burning bush and orders him to go to pharaoh for the release of His people: referring to Himself as “the God of the Hebrews”  עִבְרִיִּים֙הָֽ אֱלֹהֵ֤י.

Moses thereafter uses this wording: הָֽעִבְרִיִּים֙ אֱלֹהֵ֤י, when speaking to pharaoh to release the descendants of Jacob in Exod. 7:16, Exod. 9:1 and 13, and Exod.10:3.

The tribal name Hebrews appears twelve (12) more times in the Tanach re: laws of Hebrew slaves in the Chumash and Jeremiah, battles between Philistines and King Saul’s forces[viii] and in Jonah, when he identifies himself to the ship’s crew as a Hebrew who worships the one true God (Jonah 1:9).

 

Tribal term יִשְׂרָאֵל נֵיבְּ -- Israelites 

The second, more august tribal name,  יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּנֵ, first appears in Gen. 50:25 when Joseph is dying and asks his brothers, to ensure his body is eventually buried in Canaan when they exit Egypt in future. He asks them this as fellow offspring of their common father Jacob, who gained the august second name of יִשְׂרָאֵל decades before when successfully overcoming an angel in hand-to-hand battle (Gen. 32:28): a name which means “victorious in the struggle with God”.

After all, his birth name, Jacob, is not very noble, as it literally means ‘heel’.

For at birth he was grabbing onto the heel of his twin brother Esau, who was being born first (Gen. 25:26).

So, starting with Exodus 1:1, the term יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּנֵ appears numerous times, with a sense of nobility and pride in the new tribe and nation.[ix]

 

Hebrews עִבְרִי and Apiru

The word עִבְרִי (EVRIM), normally pronounced in English as ‘Hebrews’, and the word ‘Apiru/Hapiru/Habiru’ sound very similar and some have suggested they refer to one and the same group.

In particular, Steve Rudd, a devout Christian, in his analysis of the three dozen Amarna letters re: Apiru invaders, sees the letters as independent evidence of the conquest of Canaan by Joshua and the Israelites as presented in the Bible, and translates Apiru as ‘Hebrews’ in every letter. [x]

Wikipedia acknowledges this identification of Apiru with the Israelites under Joshua has been fairly common but, as noted earlier, it stresses the term Apiru was long used before any Israelite nation emerged[xi].

 

More importantly, while the term Apiru/Hapiru/Habiru sounds similar to the term Hebrews עִבְרִי, they having different linguistic origins and meanings.

Apiru was always a derogatory term from its Sumerian origin as ‘dusty/dirty’ onward, and was a term based on class: being an outsider to normal society or of lowly status.  The term Hebrews עִבְרִי is geographical in nature and denotes being from beyond the Euphrates river, the natural southern boundary of ancient Mesopotamia.

The term Hebrews יעִבְרִ in the Bible is never an insult.

Instead, it first marks one’s Mesopotamian origins during the time of the patriarchs and during the stay in Egypt it became commonly used by and for the descendants of Jacob – as a basic tribal name.

 

CONCLUSION re: names יעִבְרִ and Apiru

Yes, it is possible that the descendants of Jacob were labelled by the ancient slur of Apiru in Egyptian or Canaanite records, but it is wrong and dangerous to assume every time the term Apiru appears that it refers to the tribal descendants of Jacob.

[xi] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habiru 

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