- -, ANE: DISCUSSION LIST FOR THE STUDY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST, [], 26 Feb 2005 Ian Hutchesson: Does anyone know when the Jewish system of using letters for numbers can
first definitely be seen in literature?
Thomas L. Thompson: To be first in literature is particularly difficult when we find it so difficult to date the literature. However, "first" in Genesis is Gen 14, 14's 318 servants born into Abraham's house, flirting with Gen 15,2's Eliezer (=318).
Vertaling Bijbel, Kanttekeningen SV, [], Als Abram hoorde, dat zijn [30]broeder gevangen was, zo wapende hij zijn [31]onderwezenen, de ingeborenen van zijn huis, driehonderd en achttien, en hij jaagde hen na tot [32]Dan toe. 30. Dat is, zijn neef, zijns broeders Harans zoon; zie boven hfdst.11 vs.27. 31. Of, leerlingen. Het Hebr. woord betekent een, die van jongsaf in enig ding onderwezen is, zij in religie, krijgszaken, of in iets anders. Anders toegeeigenden van zijn huis. 32. Een stad aan den voet van het gebergte Libanon en de noordelijke grens van het land Palestina, tevoren genoemd Leschem, Joz.19:47, of Lais, Richt.18:27.
, [], January 19, 2007 An Egyptian Word in the Vocabulary of an Akkadian Letter to Taanach
The Akkadian reads ˹ḫa˺-na-ku-u-ka (TT 6:8) and refers to some kind of guard or mission, "your ḫanakū." Albright, 221, first pointed out the relationship between this word and Egyptian ḥnk.w. The meaning of the Egyptian word is in the range of "armed retainers." Albright, following Yahuda, 282, also noted the likelihood that חניכיו, "his trained men (NRSV)" in Genesis 14:14, is itself related to this Egyptian word. But unlike Yahuda, Albright argued that the Hebrew and Canaanite words were borrowed from the Egyptian rather than the other way around. More precisely, I would suggest that the Hebrew is a reflection of an Egyptian word that already had a very long currency in the West Semitic dialects spoken in Canaan although its continued use may have been reinforced from time to time by contact with contemporary (ancient) Egyptian. Here is what Albright, 221, said of the word,
The word is unquestionably connected with Egyptian ḥnkw, used in the Aechtungstexte, about 2000 B. C., for the armed retainers of the chieftains of Palestine and Syria. . . . There is no suitable Semitic etymology; the verb חנך, حنك, though originally identical with Egyptian ḥnk, possesses a different meaning, and has developed in a different way.
Rainey, 1996: I 140, takes the word to be West Semitic or Egyptian. But he apparently misread Albright and thought that Albright supported a West Semitic origin of the word. However, by 1999, Rainey 1999, 159* seems to have more fully adopted an Egyptian origin for the word. Horowitz and Oshima, 142, say, "ha-na-ku is most probably an Egyptian loan word" and site Genesis 145:14 and Rainey 1999. Lambdin, 150, also cites this word in Tanaach letter 6 and notes the Egyptian origin of it and its Hebrew equivalent.
ḫanakū is the subject of the verb i-ba-šu, ibāšū, 3rd person, masculine, plural, preterite tense of bašu, "to be, to exist" in TT 6. The complete syntax of the sentence negates the verb. Horowitz and Oshima, 142, translate the whole sentence, "Furthermore, your retainers are not on guard." Is ḫanakūka a collective or is the long u an example of the standard nominative plural with suffix as Rainey, 1996: I 140, thinks? The orthography lacks MEŠ or LU.MEŠ. My guess is that one should treat it as a plural but I can imagine that the scribe was trying to emulate the Egyptian.