ʿApiru

File:SA.GAZ.png

Cuneiform of Sumerian Template:Smallcaps and corresponding West Semitic ha-bi-ru

ʿApiru (Template:Langx, Template:Langx), also known in the Akkadian version Ḫabiru (sometimes written Habiru, Ḫapiru or Hapiru; Akkadian: 𒄩𒁉𒊒, ḫa-bi-ru or *ʿaperu) is a term used in 2nd-millennium BCE texts throughout the Fertile Crescent for a social status of people who were variously described as rebels, outlaws, raiders, mercenaries, bowmen, servants, slaves, and laborers.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref>

EtymologyEdit

style="background: {{hiero/{{#ifexist:Template:hiero//bgcolour	default}}/bgcolour}}; color:black; border-bottom: 1px solid {{hiero/{{#ifexist:Template:hiero//bordercolour	ꜥpr.w<ref>Other versions: <hiero>a:p:r-A1-Z3</hiero> <hiero>a:pW-y:r-Z1-T14-A1-Z3</hiero> See: Ernest Alfred Wallis, An Egyptian hieroglyphic dictionary*, John Murray, 1920, p. 119</ref> in hieroglyphs
left = clear: left; float: left; margin-left: 0;	center = margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;	right = clear: right; float: right; margin-right: 0; }} "
Template:Trim
{{#if:Template:Hiero/era \| Template:Hiero/era \| Era: Template:Hiero/era \|}}
Gardiner: }}
Unicode: U+{{#INVOKE:STRING\|REPLACE\|SOURCE=\| PATTERN=^[UU]%+ *([A-FA-F%D]+)\| REPLACE=%1\| PLAIN=FALSE}}}}

The term was first discovered in its Akkadian version "ḫa-bi-ru" or "ḫa-pi-ru". Due to later findings in Ugaritic and Egyptian which used the consonants ʿ, p and r, and in light of the well-established sound change from Northwest Semitic ʿ to Akkadian ḫ,<ref>Cf. Template:Cite book</ref> the root of this term is proven to be ʿ-p-r.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":2"/><ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":4">Template:Cite journal</ref> This root means "dust, dirt", and links to the characterization of the ʿApiru as nomads, mercenaries, people who are not part of the cultural society.<ref name=":2"/><ref name=":3"/> The morphological pattern of the word is qatilu,<ref name=":1"/> which point to a status, condition.<ref name=":2"/>

The Sumerogram Template:SmallcapsEdit

The Akkadian term Ḫabiru occasionally alternates with the Sumerograms Template:Smallcaps. Akkadian dictionaries for Sumerograms added to Template:Smallcaps the gloss ḫabatu "raider", which raised the suggestion to read the Sumerograms as this word. However, the Amarna letters attested the spelling Template:Smallcaps, and letters from Ugarit attested the spelling Template:Smallcaps, which points that these Sumerograms were read as written and did not function as ideograms. The only Akkadian word that fits such spelling is "šagašu" (barbarian), but an Akkadian gloss to an Akkadian word seems odd, and the meaning of šagašu doesn't fit the essence of the Ḫabiru. Therefore, the meaning of Template:Smallcaps should probably be found in a West Semitic word such as Aramaic [[wikt:שגש|Template:Smallcaps]], which means "muddy, restless",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> while the word ḫabatu should be interpreted as "nomad", which fits the meaning of the word Ḫabiru/ʿApiru.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Hapiru, Habiru, and ʿApiruEdit

In the time of Rim-Sin I (1822 BCE to 1763 BCE), the Sumerians knew a group of Aramaean nomads living in southern Mesopotamia as Template:Smallcaps, which meant "trespassers".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> The later Akkadians inherited the term, which was rendered as the calque Ḫabiru, properly ʿApiru. The term occurs in hundreds of 2nd millennium BCE documents covering a 600-year period from the 18th to the 12th centuries BCE and found at sites ranging from Egypt, Canaan and Syria, to Nuzi (Upper Mesopotamia near Kirkuk, northern Iraq) and Anatolia (now Turkey).Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

File:Idrimi of Alalakh.jpg

Idrimi of Alalakh

Not all Habiru were brigands:Template:Sfn in the 18th century BCE, a north Syrian king named Irkabtum (c. 1740 BCE) "made peace with [the warlord] Shemuba and his Habiru,"Template:Sfn while the ʿApiru, Idrimi of Alalakh, was the son of a deposed king, and formed a band of ʿApiru to make himself king of Alalakh.Template:Sfn What Idrimi shared with the other ʿApiru was membership of an inferior social class of outlaws, mercenaries, and slaves leading a marginal and sometimes lawless existence on the fringes of settled society.Template:Sfn ʿApiru had no common ethnic affiliations and no common language, their names being most frequently West Semitic, but also East Semitic, Hurrian or Indo-European.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

File:AreasOfHabiruActivityInAmarnaLettersLBIIA.svg

Areas of reported Habiru activity during the Late Bronze IIA period (based on the Amarna letters corpus)

style="background: {{hiero/{{#ifexist:Template:hiero//bgcolour	default}}/bgcolour}}; color:black; border-bottom: 1px solid {{hiero/{{#ifexist:Template:hiero//bordercolour	The spelling of singular ꜥApiru in "The Conquest of Joppa" tale<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> in hieroglyphs
left = clear: left; float: left; margin-left: 0;	center = margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;	right = clear: right; float: right; margin-right: 0; }} "
Template:Trim
{{#if:Template:Hiero/era \| Template:Hiero/era \| Era: Template:Hiero/era \|}}
Gardiner: }}
Unicode: U+{{#INVOKE:STRING\|REPLACE\|SOURCE=\| PATTERN=^[UU]%+ *([A-FA-F%D]+)\| REPLACE=%1\| PLAIN=FALSE}}}}

In the Amarna letters from the 14th century BCE, the petty kings of Canaan describe them sometimes as outlaws, sometimes as mercenaries, and sometimes as day labourers and servants.Template:Sfn Usually they are socially marginal, but Rib-Hadda of Byblos refers to Abdi-Ashirta of Amurru (modern Lebanon) and his son Aziru as ʿApiru, with the implication that they have rebelled against their common overlord, the pharaoh.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In The Taking of Joppa (now Jaffa), an Egyptian work of historical fiction from around 1440 BCE, they appear as brigands, and General Djehuty asks at one point that his horses be taken inside the city lest a passing ʿApir steal them.Template:Sfn

Habiru and the biblical HebrewsEdit

Since the discovery of the 2nd millennium BCE inscriptions mentioning the Habiru, there have been many theories linking these to the Hebrews of the Bible.<ref name=":0" /> Most of these theories were based on the supposed etymological link and were widely denied basing on the Egyptian sources and later following the Ugaritic and Hittite discoveries.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3"/><ref name=":4"/> There are two main barriers, linguistic and group identity.

Some scholars, Anson Rainey and R. Steven Notley among them, deny any linguistic relationship between Ḫabiru and Hebrew,<ref>Rainey, Anson & Notley, R. Steven (208). The Sacred Bridge (Jerusalem: Carta, 2006), p. 89.</ref><ref>Rainey, Anson (2008). Biblical Archaeological Review, vol 34 (6), 53-54, "Who were the early Israelites?"</ref> or at most admit only "a bare possibility".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> But this view remains short of academic consensus. Philologically, argued Moshe Greenberg, Apiru and Hebrew though not transparently related are not irreconcilable.<ref>Greenberg, Moshe (1964). "Hab/piru and Hebrews," World History of the Jewish People, (ed. Mazar, Benjamin, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press), vol 2, p 197.</ref><ref>Also יואל בן-נון (2012). "העברים וארץ- העברים," (מכללת הרצוג: הוצאות תבונות), עמוד 18, https://www.herzog.ac.il/vtc/tvunot/mega15_ybn.pdf</ref> Nadav Na’aman had no doubt that the term "Hebrew" was derived from "Habiru".<ref>Na’aman, Nadav (1986). “Habiru and Hebrews, The transfer of a social term to the literary sphere,” JNES, vol 45 (4): p 278.</ref> The Christian priestly scholars, such as Manfred Weippert, Henri Cazelles and Oswald Loretz, are the least ready to give up the relation between Apiru and Hebrew. For them the linguistic equation between Apiru and Hebrew is easy and comfortable.<ref>Weippert, Manfred (1967). Die Landnahme der israelitischen Stämme in der neueren wissenschaftlichen Diskussion. Ein kritischer Bericht. (GoÂ ttingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht)., p 66-102.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Page needed<ref>Cazelles, Henri (1973). "The Hebrews," Peoples of the Old Testament Times, (Oxford: Clarendon Press), p 4-5.</ref> Loretz, however, admits the etymological possibility despite denying all equations between Apiru and Hebrew.<ref>Loretz, Oswald (1984). Habiru-Hebräer: Eine sozio-linguistische Studie über die Herkunft des Gentiliziums cibrí vom Appellativum habiru, (Berlin: De Gruyter), chapters 8 and 10.</ref>

Regarding the identity, the academic consensus is well established that Apiru and Hebrews represent two different groups. The Biblical Hebrews are an ethnic group while Apiru were a much wider multi-ethnic group distinguished by social status. The morphological pattern of the word ʿApiru is, as mentioned above, qatilu, which point a status, as opposed to the morphological pattern of the ethnonym עִבְרִי (Hebrew) which is based on nisba (like מִצְרִי – Egyptian).<ref name=":2" /> Moreover, Meredith Kline finds that Apiru were not even Semitic peoples.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The matter was complicated when, in the light of the research on the Apiru, scholars examined the context of Hebrews in the Bible. The new analysis indicated a group broader than the Israelites and more associated with the Apiru, best seen in 1 Samuel 13, 14.<ref>Kline, Meredith G. (1958). "The Habiru - kin or foe of Israel," Westminster Theological Journal, 20, part III: p 49-50.</ref> Na’aman and Yoel Bin-Nun point out that "Hebrew" is typically used to describe "Israelites in exceptional circumstances", in particular, wandering, oppressed or enslaved Israelites struggling for liberation.<ref>יואל בן-נון (2012). "העברים וארץ- העברים," (מכללת הרצוג: הוצאות תבונות), עמוד 17, https://www.herzog.ac.il/vtc/tvunot/mega15_ybn.pdf</ref> Na’aman finds that all biblical references to the "Hebrews" reflect some traits borrowed from the image of the second millennium Apiru.<ref>Nadav Na’aman, “Habiru and Hebrews, the transfer of a social term to the literary sphere,” JNES, 45 (1986): p 278.</ref> Greenberg confirms that Hebrew is an archaic term predating Israelites.<ref>Greenberg, Moshe (1964). "Hab/piru and Hebrews," World History of the Jewish People, (ed. Mazar, Benjamin, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press), vol 2, p 198.</ref> Professor Albert D. Friedberg concurs, arguing that Apiru refers to a social class found in every ancient Near Eastern society but in the texts that describe the early periods of the Patriarchs and the Exodus term Hebrew refers to a broad group of people in the Levant (like the Apiru), among whom the Israelites were a part.<ref name=":02">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Joseph Blenkinsopp makes one exception: Except for its first appearance (Genesis 14:13), the biblical word "Hebrew" can be interpreted as a social category.Template:Sfn For some scholars, however, the passage is confirmation rather than exception. Here Abram appears as a leader of host in a military alliance. He pursues and smites his enemy. The passage presents a warrior Abram, with a rather different character from that of other episodes in Genesis, in which Abram is never a warrior.<ref>Cazelles, H. (1973). "The Hebrews," Peoples of the Old Testament Times, (Oxford: Clarenderon Press), p 22.</ref><ref>Kline, Meredith G. (1958). "The Habiru - kin or foe of Israel," Westminster Theological Journal, 20, part III: p 51.</ref> This associates with the Apiru too. In the earliest Mesopotamian texts mentioning the Apiru they appear as military contingents, auxiliaries, or bands of raiders.<ref>Greenberg, Moshe (1964). "Hab/piru and Hebrews," World History of the Jewish People, (ed. Mazar, Benjamin, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press), vol 2, p 189, 199-200.</ref> Babylonian and Mari tablets mention them particularly as military auxiliaries. Elsewhere in the Fertile Crescent they are also often depicted as auxiliary warriors.<ref>West, Stuart A. (1979). The World Jewish Bible Society, vol 7, (3), p 103-104, "The Habiru and the Hebrews"</ref> In the Amarna letters, Apiru are most prominent in military activity. Some hypotheses on Genesis 14 suggested a foreign, perhaps Babylonian, document at the core, or a memory of time when Abram belonged to Apiru before the term Hebrew obtained an ethnic meaning.<ref>אנציקלופדיה מקראית, "חברו," עמוד 51.</ref> Elsewhere in the Bible, the Israelites are called Hebrews when enslaved or oppressed and struggling for liberation.<ref>Yoel Bin-Nun (2012). "העברים וארץ- העברים," (מכללת הרצוג: הוצאות תבונות), עמוד 17, https://www.herzog.ac.il/vtc/tvunot/mega15_ybn.pdf</ref>

The military context associates with one of the interpretations suggested for Apiru. In the Sumerogram Template:Smallcaps, Template:Smallcaps could mean "muscle" and Template:Smallcaps "to strike" or "kill".<ref name="Kline, Meredith G. 1958 p 6-7">Kline, Meredith G. (1958). "The Habiru - kin or foe of Israel," Westminster Theological Journal, 20, part I, p 6-7.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The meaning "murderer" or "killer" was suggested for the combination Template:Smallcaps,<ref name="Kline, Meredith G. 1958 p 6-7"/><ref>In Hebrew, "Habiru," Biblical Encyclopedia, p 13.</ref> or literally "muscle killer". Template:Smallcaps was supposed to be a transliteration of the Akkadian pseudo-ideogram šaggāšum or "murderer".<ref>Anchor Bible, "Habiru" vol III, p 7.</ref> The Epic of Gilgamesh (1:4:7) uses šaggāšum for Enkidu, describing him as a military leader and nomad native of the wild steppe.<ref name="Kline, Meredith G. 1958 p 6-7"/> In the Old Babylonian tradition, Šaggāšu is a ghost-murderer of the steppe.<ref>Fincke, Jeanette C. (2013). "Šaggāšu ('Murderer'), the demon from the steppe," Bibliotheca Orientalis, vol 70 (1-2), 17-24.</ref>

Research defined "dust" or "dirt" as the most probable meaning of Apiru. The wandering Apiru, Rainey suggested, had to "hit the road", thus they were covered with dust and were called dusty.Template:Sfn But this is a hypothetical suggestion not found in primary sources.Template:Cn

The consensus remains that Apiru and Hebrews were not identical groups, but scholars became divided whether the two groups were related. Some scholars remained unmoved and deny any relation. Those relating Apiru and Hebrews were mistaken, states Rainey. All attempts to relate the two are wishful thinking.Template:Sfn He notes that while ʿApiru covered the regions from Nuzi to Anatolia as well as northern Syria, Canaan and Egypt, they were distinguished from Shutu (Sutu) or Shasu (Shosu), Syrian pastoral nomads named in the Amarna letters and likely more closely associated with the Hebrews.Template:Sfn Kline suggests that Apiru, besides being non-Semitic, were foes of Israel and their first oppressors in Canaan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Other scholars, by contrast, allowed the possibility of relation.<ref>Cazelles, Henri (1973). "The Hebrews," Peoples of the Old Testament Times, (Oxford: Clarenderon Press), p 23.</ref> As pointed out by Moore and Kelle, while the ʿApiru/Ḫabiru appear to be composed of many different peoples, including nomadic Shasu and Shutu, the biblical Midianites, Kenites, and Amalekites, as well as displaced peasants and pastoralists, they also may be related to the biblical Hebrews.Template:Sfn A hypothesis emerged that Hebrews were one offshoot of Apiru, a larger whole from which the Hebrews originated.<ref>Kline, Meredith G. (1958). "The Habiru - kin or foe of Israel," Westminster Theological Journal, 20, part III, p 46.</ref><ref name="jbqnew.jewishbible.org">West, Stuart A. (1979). The World Jewish Bible Society, vol 7, (3), p 106, "The Habiru and the Hebrews"</ref> It has become a commonplace assumption that all Israelites were Hebrews but not all Hebrews were Israelites.<ref name="jbqnew.jewishbible.org"/><ref>Greenberg, Moshe (1955). American Oriental Society, vol 39, (New Haven: Connecticut), p 92, "The Hab/piru"</ref><ref name="Waterhouse 2001">Waterhouse, S. Douglas (2001). Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, vol 12 (1): p 42, "Who are the Ḫabiru of the Amarna Letters?"</ref>

S. Douglas Waterhouse said that the political situation during Joshua's conquests was similar to the political situation in Canaan during the Amarna period, with the largest exception being that the role of the Egyptians in Canaan during the Amarna period was not mentioned in the Bible.<ref>Waterhouse, S. Douglas (2001). Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, vol 12 (1): p 35-40, "Who are the Ḫabiru of the Amarna Letters?"</ref> Kline stated that the Ḫabiru of the Amarna period and the biblical Hebrews had a different relationship with the Canaanites, different goals and used different tactics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The ethnic connotation of the term Hebrew synonymous with the people of Israel were attributed to the later Jewish tradition.<ref>Greenberg, Moshe (1955). American Oriental Society, vol 39, (New Haven: Connecticut), p 11, 90-93, "The Hab/piru"</ref> "It could well be", writes Stuart A. West, "that the word Hebrew was originally only a sociological designation, indicating status or class - in which case the words Hebrew and Habiru are synonymous. The fact that in the later Books of the Bible and in its usage in post-biblical times, the word Hebrew has been used as an ethnic designation simply means that the original meaning of the word has been changed."<ref name="jbqnew.jewishbible.org"/> Loretz assigns all mentions of Hebrews in the Bible to the post-exilic period, centuries after Apiru disappeared from the sources.<ref>Loretz, Oswald (1984). Habiru-Hebräer: Eine sozio-linguistische Studie über die Herkunft des Gentiliziums cibrí vom Appellativum habiru, (Berlin: De Gruyter), p 50-51.</ref>

Greenberg concluded his research: The ʿApiru were ethnically diverse but this term can be related to the term "Hebrew" both in etymology<ref>Greenberg, Moshe (1955). American Oriental Society, vol 39, (New Haven: Connecticut), p 11, 90-92, "The Hab/piru"</ref><ref>Greenberg, Moshe (1964). "Hab/piru and Hebrews," World History of the Jewish People, (ed. Mazar, Benjamin, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press), vol 2, p 197</ref> and meaning. The ethnic and social spheres may have met in Abraham the Hebrew, who may at once have been an Apiru as well as the ancestor of the Israelites. "Hebrew" will then be a peculiarly Biblical adaptation of the social term. A considerable possibility remains that the beginnings of the Israelite history are bound with the wandering Apiru.<ref>Greenberg, Moshe (1955). American Oriental Society, vol 39, (New Haven: Connecticut), p 96, "The Hab/piru"</ref> The Bible might have preserved a vague memory that the Patriarchs had once been Apiru.<ref name="Waterhouse 2001"/><ref>Greenberg, Moshe (1964). "Hab/piru and Hebrews," World History of the Jewish People, (ed. Mazar, Benjamin, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press), vol 2: p 199-200.</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Weippert, Manfred (1971). "The settlement of the Israelite tribes in Palestine." Studies in Biblical Theology, second series 21 (Naperville, IL: Alec R. Allenson), 74-82.</ref>