The Hapiru: Ancient Hebrews
Historical scholars remain mostly divided on the issue of whether or not the Hapiru, or Habiru were actually the first of the Hebrews, –whether or not this is because it paints quite a muddy picture of Jewish past, is insignificant. The reasoning is actually more of a disagreement of the pronunciation of a dad language that’s thousands of years old, i.e., Egyptian. Some scholars assert that the etymological evidence for Hapiru meaning Hebrew is lacking, because it was surely spelt IBRI in Egyptian. This is most unlikely, considering that the Egyptian language consists only of consonants.
When the evidence and discovery of the Habiru culture emerged, many historians and archaeological scholars immediately attributed to the Apiru the role of the first Hebrews, because of mainly, the similarity in names. Both Egyptian and Hebrew, are consonant only languages. “BRY” in the Hebrew language, literally means “Hebrew”, making the two words very alike in their pronunciation. This isn’t the only reason, however, –even today, there are still several homonyms in our own language, and in others, that sound alike but still mean very different things. Forming an entire ancestral theory based on a possible homonym that was trans-lingual three thousand years ago, is ridiculous.
However, there is yet more connections from the Habiru, to the Biblical Hebrews from the rough and angry first testament, that at least warrant more speculative consideration from scholars. There were Biblical references to the Hebrews as the invaders of certain cities in Canaan, which is yet another historical similarity to the Hapiru, who also invaded the Canaanites. Other similarities exist when referencing and comparing the Habiru to the Hebrew, in the act of taking over the lands, as well as rallying against Saul, which the Hebrews did while being led by Joshua.
