Giants_in_the_Bible

GIANTS IN THE BIBLE
PROF. M. M. NINAN
If modern-day scholarship is accurate about the patriarchs of Israel descending from the Amorites,
then there must have been some reason why the Hebrew scribes went to so much trouble to separate
their own identity from that of the Amorites.
It is thought that Terah, in taking his family from Sumer, retained the tribe’s original ethnic identity and
brought that cultural heritage with him to Canaan where Abraham, then Isaac, and then Jacob would
establish that culture as `the children of Israel’ (Jacob’s name).
The Book of Genesis tells the story of Joseph, Jacob’s youngest son, and his sojourn in Egypt and rise
to power there, and the Book of Exodus relates how the Hebrews were later enslaved by the Egyptians
and were led from captivity to freedom back in Canaan by Moses. These biblical narratives would
have served to separate the Israelites' national identity from their actual ancestors by creating
new histories that highlighted their uniqueness among the people of the world.
In Cappadocian Zircirli inscriptions he is called Hi Abi-a, 'the god of my father'. .Accordingly, it has
been suggested by L. R. Bailey (1968) and Jean Ouelette (1969), that this Bel Sade might be the
same as the Biblical El Saddai who is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the "Priestly source" of
narrative, according to the documentary hypothesis. It is possible that Saddai means 'He of the
mountains'.
Historically, these Amorites seem to have been linked to the Jerusalem region, and the Jebusites
(which means People of the Mountains) may have been a subgroup of them. The southern slopes of
the mountains of Judea are called the "mount of the Amorites" (Deut. 1:7, 19, 20). One possible
etymology for "Mount Moriah" is "Mountain of the Amorites,"
The way of Amorites
To the apocryphal writers of the first and second pre-Christian century the Amorites are the main
representatives of heathen superstition, loathed as idolaters, in whose ordinances Israelites may not
walk (Lev. xviii. 3). A special section of the Talmud (Tosef., Shab. vi.-vii. [vii.-viii.]; Bab. Shab. 67a et
seq.) is devoted to the various superstitions called "The Ways of the Amorites."
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