Re: Eve and the Hivites
Karl and George Athas:
George Athas wrote: “‘Tent Village’ in Hebrew is חַוָּה. ‘To declare’ in Hebrew is
חוה. How ‘bout that! Must be a lot of announcements made in tent villages. I wonder what language
they’re made in?”
Before following up on the key clue that George Athas’s apt comment presents [as noted by many scholars,
three of whom are quoted below], let me first note that the main meaning of “Eve”/XWH is “life”,
based on the Hebrew verb XWH, literally meaning “to breathe”, but hence meaning “to live”. Karl
makes an interesting point when he says: “This is an etymological error in that the noun for Eve is a
feminine with the final -H part of the noun, not an add-on.” The underlying verb is XWH, with a final he/H,
and the name “Eve” is XWH, with that same final he/H. But to me, the archaic 2-consonant root here is XW,
and the final he/H is a suffix. But having said that, and be that as it may, on this thread we should give
careful consideration to the sound of XWH, including the final he/H, in trying to understand the names XWH
and XWY.
Note that the meaning “life” is super-positive as the main meaning of the name “Eve”/XWH. But
something seems askew here. Adam does not give his woman that name until after Eve has first led him [and
hence all mankind] astray, and after YHWH has reamed out both of them but good for their improper actions in
the Garden of Eden. Thus one would rightly expect that the name XWH may well have a secondary meaning, which
is not positive. The XW-Y/Hivites for their part are certainly viewed negatively in the Bible, that’s
for sure. It seems odd that the Hivite bad guys would be given a fictional name based on the super-positive
word for “life”. Perhaps for that reason the traditional etymology of “Hivites” is “tent
villagers”, a meaning that George Athas specifically references [though George rightly does not
purport to tie that meaning to the Biblical Hivites at Shechem]. But a meaning of “tent villagers” for
XWY in fact makes no sense at all in chapter 34 of Genesis, where we’re dealing with the city of Shechem
[which both Biblically and historically had a “gate”, per Genesis 34: 20], not a tent village.
The new idea I want to explore on this thread is whether there may be some connection of XWY/“Hivites” to
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