Dead Men Tell Tales

by Harry Rimmer

Plate 18

The famed Black Obelisk, which confirmed the record of Jehu

Hamath Inscription

CHAPTER VII
The Rebirth of an Empire

Among the ancient races that are catalogued in the lists which appear in the pages of the Old Testament, the most important one in the presentation of this thesis is the Hittite race. In the heyday of their brief popularity the higher critics indulged in an orgy of refutation concerning these sections of the Scripture. Since the Hittites are mentioned forty-eight times in the pages of the Bible, if it could be proved that these people were fictitious in character, the critical case against the Old Testament would be demonstrated beyond question. It would almost seem as though the writers of the ancient word had invited this contest with deliberate intention. It is impossible to justify the manifold appearances of the Hittites in the Sacred Word, if they were not an actual people.

In addition to the many other references, in the various lists of races given as occupying different portions of the ancient world, the Bible mentions the Hittite peoples twenty-one separate and distinct times. The eminent dean of higher criticism, the late Canon Driver, ascribes these historical catalogs of peoples to imagination and fiction, and refers to them in such words as these, “The Hittites are also regularly mentioned in the rhetorical lists.” Canon Driver is careful to note that these lists of peoples are found in that section of the Scripture which he calls the “Elohistic Manuscript.” It is not hard to understand that one who starts with the assumption of incredibility, would have trouble believing in the reality of the statements in a document so treated.

The writers of the Scripture, in their dealings with the subject of this forgotten people, sketch an amazing picture indeed. They portray a warlike, powerful, well organized race whose genius at colonization and military ability combined to win for them a veritable world empire. The center of their dominion was Syria, but from thence they reached out to lay their yoke upon Egypt, to overrun Palestine, and to force the early Assyrians to pay tribute to their might and power.

It seems almost inconceivable that in the voluminous records of antiquity there should have been no single word concerning this mighty race. For until the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the Hittites had no place in secular history. They were preserved to the memory of man, simply and only because of the forty-eight Old Testament references which we have previously mentioned. The scholarly critics argued that it would be impossible for a world empire to disappear from history without leaving a single trace. They insisted that if a race of men had ever lived who dominated the world of their day, common sense would incline us to the conclusion that they could not suddenly fade away from the memory of man and leave no evidence of their existence.

But they did! From the very beginning of this argument, it should have been apparent that there were two ways to approach the problem. One way was the method which was adopted by the higher critics, namely, to assume that the Old Testament is fallible. Adopting as the grounds of investigation the pre-conceived conclusion that the records of the Old Testament are fallacious and incredible, the critics then proceeded to search for proof of this basic assumption. By dogmatically asserting that the Old Testament was not historical, but that much of its contents consisted of folklore and myth, inductive conclusions were offered as proof of this presumption.

It did not seem to occur to the higher critical scholars that a better way to study the Word would have been to concede the historicity of the text until it was disproved by evidence. This, of course, has ever been the method used by the orthodox student of the Word. We might say in passing that this is not only the intelligent technique but is also the safer process. To say the very least, it saves the embarrassment that inevitably comes to him who arrays himself against the integrity of the Word of God!

The first appearance of the Hittites in the Bible is in the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Genesis, verse twenty:

“And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims.”

This is perhaps the very earliest coincidence of archeology with the records of the Scripture. In the various lists of races who were to be displaced by Israel, according to the covenant God made with Abraham, the Hittites are frequently named. Without any reservation or qualification whatever, this text which we have just cited states that the Hittites were Canaanites. According to Genesis 10:15, the Canaanitish people came through the line of Sidon and Heth. It is apparent also from Genesis 10:6, where Canaan the son of Ham first comes into the record, that these Hittites, if they had existed, would have been akin to the early population of Chaldea and Babylon. It is an interesting fact to note that the monuments of antiquity which have restored these Hittites to their proper place in secular history, show them to have had a mixture of Semitic and Mongolian characteristics.

In the various appearances of these people in the Old Testament records, it is to be noted that several characters married Hittite wives. Bathsheba, who was the mother of Solomon, and thus infused a Gentile strain into the genealogy of Mary, who was the mother of our Lord, was a Hittite woman. In I Kings 11:1, it is also stated that Solomon, among his many political marriages, had taken to himself wives from among the Hittites.

These people, although unknown in the orderly annals of human history, might have been recognized had the scholarly ability of earlier generations been able correctly to interpret obsolete systems of writings. The Assyrians called them the “Khatti.” In the Egyptian inscriptions they are known as the “Kheta.” The fact that these names referred to the Hittites was not known until the Hittite inscriptions themselves were read and interpreted and the fact of their reality established. It is to be regretted that in a work as short as this one we have not room to recapitulate their long and fascinating history. The romance of their recovery of their rightful place in the annals of human conduct is all that we can present in this chapter. They were thrust by human ignorance into the outer darkness of forgotten things, but we can trace the hand of God in bringing them back into the light of remembrance and establishing them in their proper place of glory and prominence among the empires of antiquity.

Without hesitation we would offer this as the perfect demonstration of the manner in which Almighty God cares for His Word. When His Book is assailed and discredited, He will, if need be, raise the dead to establish the integrity of the Inspired Record. It might be noted in passing that secular history is now often corrected by archeology. The misunderstandings and errors which were alleged to appear in the Bible, and which are common to the production of a purely human document, are being done away with as we read them again in the light of the monuments. Wherever such correction has been made, it has had the effect of bringing secular history into complete harmony with the Bible. So in restoring the empire of the Hittites to the staid columns of accredited history, the Divine Record is again confirmed.

It is inevitable that these Hittites should appear in the Ancient Word, as they largely parallel the history of the Hebrew kingdom in point of time. From the days of Abraham to the end of the kingdom of Israel, the Hittites and the Hebrews walked side by side and hand in hand. During that time Hittites and Israelites alike are the enemies of Egypt. Alike they battled against Babylon and Assyria, they intermarried, had treaties and covenants each with the other, and had a well developed system of commerce between the nations.