The Hittites

Lion's Gate at Hattusa

 There is little that can call into question the veracity of the Bible story more than the mention of a major person of whom we have no evidence of. However, this is magnified greatly when it is not an individual who is missing from secular world history, but an entire culture. A book which claims to be historical (the Bible), but includes several references to an entire group of people who are unknown outside of it. It is easy to understand that such could be a major obstacle to some for belief in the Bible.

Such was the case for centuries regarding a group of people with whom Abraham of the book of Genesis interacted with. The people are the Hittites and are spoken of on several occasions in the first book of the Bible. Take a look at a few of the following verses:

“In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” – Genesis 15:18-21

“Now Ephron dwelt among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the presence of the sons of Heth…” - Genesis 23:10

“And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite” - Genesis 25:9

“When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.” - Genesis 26:34

“I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” - Exodus 3:17

They are perhaps referenced most famously in II Samuel 11:3, “So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’”

In all, they are referenced some 48 times in the scriptures, although some of the references are to a group of smaller, later kingdoms that were collectively known as “Neo-Hittites”. Yet, there was no evidence of the existence of such a people for centuries. This gave reason for some to doubt the historicity of the Scriptures, making it tempting to determine that the Bible was merely a mythological book.

The first Hittite ruins were discovered in 1834, but were misidentified. In the 1880’s there began to be smaller widespread finds in the middle east that referred to the Hittites. In Turkey and inscription was discovered referring to the “People of Hattusas”. There were references in Egypt, between Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten, which reference the “Kingdom of Hatti”. It was in 1906 that archaeologist Hugo Winckler discovered the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa while excavating in Boghazköy, Turkey.

Since its discovery and the subsequent study of it, the Hittite Kingdom has been discovered to have been massive, a Bronze Age empire that ruled northern Syria and eastern Turkey. In power it was on par with Egypt and Assyria at the time. It utilized a complex web of trade with these kingdoms as well as the Mycenean civilization on the Greek island of Crete and the ancient city of Troy. Its capital at Hattusa has been estimated to have been the home of some 50,000 people in the years leading up to its demise at the end of the Bronze Age. In the early part of the twelfth century BC, the Hittite Empire, along with Mycenae, Troy, and Ugarit in northern Syria (possibly a Hittite controlled city), experienced mysterious, widespread, upheaval and collapse. The cities were abandoned over a short period of time and were burned.
  Apparently, there were people who were from this empire who at times played a part in the lives of the people we read about in the Bible. Enjoy a few images of the ruins that have been discovered over the past 110 years.

Extent of the Hittite Empire at the beginning of the 13th Century BC

"Land of Hatti" (orange) shows the extent of the Hittite Empire

Hattusa ruins with reconstructed section of the ancient city wall

Have a blessed day!