The Tribal Boundaries in Light of Tarhuntašša Border Descriptions / גבולות שבטי ישראל לאור תיאור גבולות ממלכת תרחונתשה

• Published in: שנתון לחקר המקרא והמזרח הקדום 2000-01, Vol.יב, p.165-186
• Main Authors: ואזנה, נילי, Wazana, Nili
• Format: Article
• Language: Hebrew
• Subjects: Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / ארכיאולוגיה והמזרח הקדום בזיקתם למקרא
• ISSN: 0334-2891

Tarhuntašša, a Hittite kingdom in southern Anatolia, has left us a comprehensive description of its borders from the thirteenth century BCE. The objective of the article is to use this unique Hittite border description as a point of departure for a fresh analysis of the biblical account of the tribal boundaries, set down in great detail in Jos. 15—19. This analysis will help establish the role of the descriptions of the tribal territories in their original Sitz im Leben, the presumed archival documents from which the biblical author drew his material, as well as to illustrate the purpose of their incorporation in their present, most probably secondary setting. The comparison between these sources is valid not only because they both belonged to the same cultural milieu, but also since Anatolia and ancient Israel shared some similar natural features inducing similar agricultural systems, which, we assume, led to resembling concepts of territorial divisions. Furthermore, Tarhuntašša's border description and the biblical account of the tribal boundaries both refer to internal borders, set by an overlord. In Hatti it was the great king who determined the borders of Tarhuntašša, while the Bible portrayed God as the overlord, the owner of the land who prescribed the tribal lots through his human agent, Joshua. According to our reconstruction, the presumed original border descriptions in the administrative documents were internal borders as well. Another common feature is that both accounts delineate areas and present a more or less complete picture of their surrounding boundaries on all four sides. Therefore, literary and conceptual comparison between the descriptions of the borders of Tarhuntašša and the tribal boundaries promise to shed new light on the form and function of the biblical texts. A comparison between the Hittite and biblical border descriptions, and in particular that of the patrimony of the tribe of Manasseh west of the Jordan (Jos. 17, 7—13), reveals another phenomenon. Similarities in form and style, apparent even despite the different methods of description used in each case, point to the utilization of common literary traditions. This suggests the existence of common traditions which underly border descriptions in the ancient Near East, equivalent to what has been recognized in other genres of biblical and ancient Near Eastern literature, and reinforces our view of the ancient Near East as a cultural continuity with considerable cultural inte