Asia Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary

Subject: Research in the Old Testament (410-212)

Professor: Dr. Michael R. Janapin
Student Name: Tapon Roy
Reporting Assignment: The Ancient Near East: Hittites

The Ancient Near East: Hittites

Geographical information

Hittite kingdom established from the southern part of Black Sea to northern part of Syria and
down to the Euphrates Rive to Babylonia in 1700-1500 BC. Western part is Javan (new Greece).
South West region is bordered with mountain cliff and slope of Mediterranean Sea. It was Asia
Minor in the form Intertestamntal period and presently modern Turkey.

Historical Background

Hittites earliest existence information dated from 6000 BC, were consisted in small
villages scattering in the region until 3000BC. A town was first build, have named by the
archeologists “Lower City.” This city inhabitant is called Hittusha.

Hittites made their civilization in between 1900 to 1200 BC. Name of this group came from
possibly Heth according to (Gen 10:1-6) of the son of Canaan, of the son of Ham of the son of Noah.
Hittites another name Hatti, (Hurrian possibly) another name is Anatolia and their capital was Hattusha..
Hittais expanded their kingdom from Asia Minor to Egypt. The Old Hittite kingdom was from 1700-1500
BC where Hittite king Anitta ruled and dwelled in the capital of Hattusha. It was a powerful city since
2500 BC but was attacked by Sargon the great kings of Akkad (2334-2279 BC) and his grand son Naram-
Sin (2261-2224 BC).

The Old Kingdom

After Akkadian era King Anitta subjugated the city and burned it, and then he cursed to any one
who rebuilds the city. “Not long after its destruction, however, it was re-built by another king of
Kussara named Hattusili I whose name means `One from Hattusa’. As Hattusili seems to have
been formerly known as `Man from Kussara’, some scholars claim that he took his new name
once he had re-built the city as a symbolic expression of the new prominence of Hattusa over
Kussara (though this claim has been challenged by other scholars). Due to a lack of primary
evidence, it cannot be determined when he took the name or why, but it is clear that Hattusili I
founded the kingdom of the Hittites.”1 An ancient document (The Edict of Telepinu) tells that
King Hattusili was a great warrior had occupied land after lands. According to the “Edict”, he
united his sons, brothers, in laws and family members, and troops to conquered the land.
Wherever he invaded and took control of the regions destroyed the city, lands one by one.

He installed his sons and relative to those occupied country, but later this mighty king
could not hold the unification due to the corruptions of the relatives, consequently ended by
blood shed. Hittusili’s sons were assassinated but were not discovered by whom. The great king
1
Joshua J, Mark, Ancient History Encyclopedia, The Hittites, http://www.ancient.eu/hittite/

1
later installed his grand son Murshilli, was also united his people and conquered lands after land
and made native people as his sea border. He took Babylon and destroyed it and deported
Babylonian and their goods to Hattusa. Finally he fell in an internal conspiracy. Hantili who was
a cup bearer had married to Murshilli’s sister, Hantili, his wife and Zidanta son in law, three of
them killed Murshilli and Hantili became the king.

Hantili ruled the empire around 30 year (1526-1496) but his son in law Zidanta was tired
to see his kingship enjoyment, so he murdered his father in law, and his heirs, and became the
king. Zidanta ruled for 10 years, then assassinated by Ammuna. Ammuna ruled for 20 years
(1486-1466 BC). He was the worse king comparing to last three kings. Due to his worst ruling
from region to region rebellion arose but he could not calm down them until his death. After his
death one of his minor wife’s sons Huzzaiya became king who assassinated Ammuna’s two legal
sons. But Huzzaiya were deposed by Telepinu one of Ammuna’s son or son in law after five
years of reign and sentenced to banishment from the kingdom by 1460 BC. Telepinu tried to
return the previous glory of Hittites kingdom but could do a little. As last king of old kingdom,
his most successful deed was “The Edict of Telepinu” a record of past glory of Hittaites2

New Kingdom

The history of New Kingdom was started from 1400BC and ended around in 1200BC by
the Assyrians. Although there were many kings in the past but in the New Kingdom of Hittites a
king named Suppiluliuma-1 was more noticeable for his kingdom’s power strengthening.
According to the historian Erdam Yavuz, he was installed as a king in 1380 BC and reign for
forty years. He united Hittite homeland and made strong defense in Hittusha. The capital became
prominent and fortified by constructing great wall enclosed with 120 hectares land. During his
reigns he subjugated northern Syria, Kingdom of Mattani, port city Byblos where made his
vassal estates. Byblos was the port of Egyptian. There was strong political good relation in
between Matani and Egypt when Egyptian king was Akhenaten.

After the death of Egyptian king his son Tutankhamen became pharaoh of Egypt and sent
his general Horemheb with army force to bring back their vassal from Hittite, but for the
Suppiluliuma-1’s army they were pathetically defeated. The Pharaoh Tutankhamen died
suddenly in 1327, so his queen wrote a letter to the King Suppiluliuma-1 to send his son to marry
her so that he would be pharaoh of Egypt. The Hittites kings sent his son Zananza to marry the
queen and to become pharaoh. He never reached to the border of Egypt, most provably Egyptian
general Horemheb killed him in order to avoid foreign kingship in Egypt. As a result Hittite king
Suppiluliuma-1 attacked Egypt directly for the reminder their power and conquered. He captive
Egyptian and brought them to Hattusha as slave. Plague spread across the region in 1322 BC,
was made the cause of death of Suppiluliuma-1. Presumably, the slaves from Egypt carried that
plague.

Soon after that Suppiluliuma-1’s son Arnuwanda-II became in the power but died for the
same plague, so his younger brother Mursilli-II got the throne. He was young and less experience
but soon he learnt about all political issues and revolutionaries’ threat in the land, such like
Kaska tribe. He secured the border of the Hittites Empire in his first assignment. He reign for 25
2
Ibid, Joshua J, Mark

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years then he died by succeeding to his son Muwatalli-II. He is famous to facing warfare with
‘Ramesses the Great of Egypt’s 19th dynasty’ at Kadesh. His son Mursilli III succeeded and reign
for five year then his brother Hatusilli-III succeeded, was famous for the world’s first treaty
named, ‘Treaty of Kadesh” in between the Hittites and the Egyptian in 1258BCE.

Since 1245BC Assyrian Armies were growing their power and challenged to get back
their early land Mittani and in1230 BCE Assyrian Army occupied the land Mittani by massive
warfare. Since then Hittite power decline. Historian Yavuz write, “A mass of attacks from [a
people of unknown origin] known as `the Sea Peoples’ destroyed much of Asia Minor, including
the Hittite State, about 1200 BCE and, after that, the Hittites were never able to restore their state
again”3 For the Sea people and Kaska tribe and Assyrian power Hittite pressed them down until
Kaska tribe broken and burnt their city 1190BC.

Hittite Religion

The Hittite mythology was adopted from several culture and tradition. The center element
of religion were gathered from Hattians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hurrians, Luwians
and from other tribes, “The Hittite themselves describes their array of Pagan god as “the
thousand gods.” Among this diversity of deities, there were many names they were Hattic,
Hurrian, Sumerian, and Canaanite in origin. The names of many gods occur in the treaties of the
Hittites people as guardian deities over the parties bound by treaty commitments. Each god was
worshiped in its own native language. A storm god was the chief male god, and a solar goddess
was his mistress.”4

Hittite religion has the concept of gods power distributed on the surface of the earth. The
power had attributed proportionally on the ruler in order to dominate Hittite’s people and
conquered the land. They believe that human give them earthly name but they have their
personal name which they use in the heavenly realm. Gods of Hittites were more larger than
human, they have love and emotion but they can also be the shape of animal, like weather god
was a bull, the god Sharruma a calf, Ishtar a lion, hunting god was a deer.

The conception of man in Hittite religion is quite strange. Looklex Encyclopedia says,
“Humans consisted of two qualities: body and soul. While the king and prominent royal
members ascended to the realm of the gods (they, having the character of gods, themselves),
ordinary humans faced a destiny as spirits in the underworld. The idea of an existence after death
is not very positive in Hittite religion.”5 Hittites myths also elaborated such explanation about the
king: In the Old Anatolian Myths described about the storm god who was the great god and
father of Telipinu. This name (Telipinu) is a name of Hittites famous king who wrote the history
of ancient document “The Edict of Telepinu.”

The myth described about the disappearance of Telipinu, “ 5 (A I 2 – 25) The storm God
thought about his son Telipinu: “My son Telipinu is not there. He became enraged and removed
3
Ibid page 9
4
Ronald F. Youngblood, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary Copyright by Thomas Nelson
Publishers,1995
5
Tore Ljeilen, Looklex Encyclopedia, Index / Religion /Historica / Hittites/ http://i-
cias.com/e.o/hittite_rel.htm

3
everything good. The great and small goose began to search for Telipinu. The Sun god sent the
swift eagle: “go search the high mountains. (A I 26 – 31) Search the deep valleys. Search the
blue deep.” The eagle went, but didn’t find him. But he brought back a message to sun god: I
couldn’t find Telipinu, the noble god”6 Telipinu was a fertile god of land, his father looked for
him, because he went somewhere and slept for a long time, so the land became dry all the trees
and crops were dried up and daughter of famine invaded in the land so gods search him for the
fertility of the land to produce food, finally, he came back by a Bee!

Such like many stories has been written in the myths. Telipinu (male god) and sea god’s
(female god) wedding story also interesting where a river came from the sea and ask to storm
god to give gift for the bride (sea god) as the wedding gift. So the great storm god gave one
thousand cattle, one thousand sheep to sea daughter to be accepted his son’s wife. Hittites
religion also has Hurrian Myths, and Canaanite myths, all are the story of gods and goddesses
and their activities.

The ritual and festival was on of the central activities among Hittites. “The Hittites
performed daily cultic rituals, in which the deities were brought food and drink. The deities were
believed to live in temples, where there were even designated areas to sleep. There were smaller
and larger festivals, on monthly and annual bases. For these festivals the supreme priest
performed the rituals. Magic was central in Hittite religion, and magic was performed by ‘old
women,’ who could perform sorcery, or magic, and cast spells. With the death of a member of
royal family, the Hittites had body burned inside the temple. It was then believed that the soul of
the person continued to be present within the walls of the temple.”7

Language of Hittites

The culture of the Hittites is known so far through the myth of Hittites in the writings
record of the King Telepinu. But the question is about, how they discovered or create their
language? What are those forms? Ancient History Encyclopedia mentioned, “It is known that the
Hittites wrote using Akkadian script but in their own Indo-European language (which is what
made deciphering the tablets so difficult in that scholars of Akkadian could read the words but
could not understand them) and used cylinder seals to sign documents and mark property as
people did throughout Mesopotamia, suggesting to some scholars a clear link between the two
cultures. At the same time, however, Akkadian was the lingua franca of the age, and
Sumer (southern Mesopotamia) had long been in contact through trade with the Hatti, and so
it seems more probable that the Mesopotamian culture had influenced the Hatti, not the Hittites,
and the Hittites appropriated the Hattian culture through conquest.”8

The Historian Marc Van die Mieroop sort out a link about the language, which might
have invaded from India through Aryan. There was a long history about Indo-European, mostly
know Aryan. But about the language, was no evidence in India had their language, so it is

6
Harry A Hoffner, Jr. Hittite Myths, second edition, copyright 1998, society of Biblical Literature, Scholars
Press, Atlanta, USA
7
Ibid, Looklex Encyclopedia
8
Ibid, Joshua J, Mark, Ancient History Encyclopedia

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seemed that since Indo-Europian Language was Anatolia, some how this language carried to
India as well.

Archeological Discovery

Until 19th century nothing was know about Hittite except Biblical story. Since 19th
century it was begun to excavations in Turkey. Vast forted city were discovered, with high wall
and cultic pools and temples. In 1884 CE first Irish missionary William Wright discovered the
writing of Hattite, and then German Archeologist Hugo Winckler in 1906 to 1912CE discovered
10,000 clay tablets from the “Hittite royal Archives.” Those tablets were researched and
translated by historian Erdal Yavuz, along with other historian to process of understanding of
writings of the history of Hittites.

Hittites in the Bible

When Sarah died Abraham bought a land from Ephron the Hittite (Gen 23:10-20). Later
two Hittite women became Esau’s wives (Gen 26:34). Hittite was occupied the land of Canaan
when Israelites were in Egypt as slave. During Israelites’ invasion in Canaan by the leadership of
Joshua, Hittites were driven out (Ex 3:8, 17; Deut 7:1; Judg. 3:5). After declining Hittite empire,
Hittite was being visual seldom in Palestine. Ahimelech the Hittite was a faithful companion of
David during his flight from King Saul. In Davidic story Uriah the Hittite got most importance to
the readers. David committed adultery with the wife of Uriah the Hittite and killed by
commanding him to be spearheaded of the battle (2 Sam 11:15). Solomon had a wife from
Hittites and during the reign of Solomon Hattie enlarged their power. Mostly, Hittites were the
first influence to bring pagan god worship among Israel.

Conclusion

Hittites were not much known with a strong domination such like Babylon in the Bible.
This could not be possible before 19th century because of its earliest century civilization, and also
did not have much clue for the early historian, only Bible implied some of the individual
characters. Although these people were less threat for the Israelites, perhaps their idol worship
invaded in the Israel community. Apparently pagan worship practice in Israel created wrath of
God on Israel. According to the history, Hittite did not conflict with Israel but the storyline says
that they were more involved for the land of northern Mesopotamia.

During Abraham times Hittite were permanently residing in Canaan. When Sara died at
Kiriath Arba (Hebron) Abraham said to Hittites, “I am an alien and stranger among you” (Gen
23:4). So the Hittite (in Canaan) influence of paganism environment was in that land from the
very ancient time. This historical study will help to Old Testament student to excavating the pre-
existence of Canaanite. At the same time this study can be grounded, how people of Israel vastly
influenced by Canaanite and surrounding mixed culture religion, removed themselves from
God’s sight and finally fall and exiled to pagan kingdom.

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Bibliography
Joshua J, Mark, Ancient History Encyclopedia, The Hittites, http://www.ancient.eu/hittite/

Ronald F. Youngblood, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary Copyright by Thomas Nelson
Publishers,1995

Tore Ljeilen, Looklex Encyclopedia, Index / Religion /Historica / Hittites/ http://i-

cias.com/e.o/hittite_rel.htm

Harry A Hoffner, Jr. Hittite Myths, second edition, copyright 1998, society of Biblical Literature, Scholars
Press, Atlanta, USA