ʿApiru
ʿApiru (Ugaritic: 𐎓𐎔𐎗𐎎, romanized: ʿPRM, Ancient Egyptian: 𓂝𓊪𓂋𓅱𓀀𓏥, romanized: ꜥprw), also known in the Akkadian version Ḫabiru (sometimes written Habiru, Ḫapiru or Hapiru; Akkadian: 𒄩𒁉𒊒, ḫa-bi-ru or *ʿaperu) is a term used in 2nd-millennium BCE texts throughout the Fertile Crescent for a social status of people who were variously described as rebels, outlaws, raiders, mercenaries, bowmen, servants, slaves, and laborers.
Due to later findings in Ugaritic and Egyptian which used the consonants ʿ, p and r, and in light of the well-established sound change from Northwest Semitic ʿ to Akkadian ḫ,[8] the root of this term is proven to be ʿ-p-r.[9][10][6][11][12] This root means "dust, dirt", and links to the characterization of the ʿApiru as nomads, mercenaries, people who are not part of the cultural society.
[20] What Idrimi shared with the other ʿApiru was membership of an inferior social class of outlaws, mercenaries, and slaves leading a marginal and sometimes lawless existence on the fringes of settled society.
[21][22] "The Conquest of Joppa" tale[23]in hieroglyphs In the Amarna letters from the 14th century BCE, the petty kings of Canaan describe them sometimes as outlaws, sometimes as mercenaries, and sometimes as day labourers and servants.
[3] Usually they are socially marginal, but Rib-Hadda of Byblos calls Abdi-Ashirta of Amurru (modern Lebanon) and his son ʿApiru, with the implication that they have rebelled against their common overlord, the pharaoh.
[3] In The Taking of Joppa (now Jaffa), an Egyptian work of historical fiction from around 1440 BCE, they appear as brigands, and General Djehuty asks at one point that his horses be taken inside the city lest a passing ʿApir steal them.
[24] Since the discovery of the 2nd millennium BCE inscriptions mentioning the Habiru, there have been many theories linking these to the Hebrews of the Bible.
Most scholars, Anson Rainey and R. Steven Notley among them, deny any linguistic relationship between Abiru and Hebrew,[25][26] or at most admit only "a bare possibility.
[35] The matter was complicated when, in the light of the research on Apiru, scholars examined the context of Hebrews in the Bible.
[37] Naaman finds that all biblical references to the "Hebrews" reflect some traits borrowed from the image of the second millennium Apiru.
[39] Professor Albert D. Friedberg concurs, arguing that Apiru refers to a social class found in every ancient Near Eastern society but in the texts that describe the early periods of the Patriarchs and the Exodus the term Hebrew refers to a broad group of people in the Levant (like the Apiru), among whom the Israelites were a part.
In the earliest Mesopotamian texts mentioning Apiru they appear as military contingents, auxiliaries, or bands of raiders.
Some hypotheses on Genesis 14 suggested a foreign, perhaps Babylonian, document at the core, or a memory of time when Abram belonged to Apiru before the term Hebrew obtained an ethnic meaning.
[51] The Epic of Gilgamesh (1:4:7) uses saggasum for Enkidu describing him as a military leader and nomad native of the wild steppe-lands.
"[55] Whether borrowed from Sumer or not, a similar combination is present in Hebrew, with "abak" (אבק) for "dust" and "maabak" (מאבק) for "struggle."
[57] He notes that while ʿApiru covered the regions from Nuzi to Anatolia as well as Northern Syria, Canaan and Egypt, they were distinguished from Shutu (Sutu) or Shasu (Shosu), Syrian pastoral nomads named in the Amarna letters and likely more closely associated with the Hebrews.
[64][65][63] The ethnic connotation of the term Hebrew synonymous with the people of Israel were attributed to the later Jewish tradition.
"[63] Loretz assigns all mentions of Hebrew in the Bible to post-exilic period centuries after Apiru disappeared from the sources.
