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.
Plate 19
[Illustration: Small ivory lion from Ahab’s palace
Author’s collection (Photo by Dworshak)]
Plate 20
[Illustration: Fragmentary frieze showing ancient chariots (Museum
of the University of Pennsylvania)]
King Solomon, the merchant prince, had developed business relations with
all of the many chieftains and kings of the Hittite peoples, and had a
well developed trade in the horses and chariots for which the Hittites
were famous in their day. (See Plate 20.) This coincidence of affairs
began when Abraham consummated the first commercial transaction that is
mentioned in human history. Before Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees to
begin his strange pilgrimage, the Hittites were already established in
Canaan. It must not be thought that Abraham at that time was the ancient
prototype of our modern hobo, wandering from point to point with no
estate! The pastoral pursuits of Abraham had built up for him flocks and
herds that made him enormously wealthy. He was an able strategist, and
his military skill, combined with his personal valor, had elevated him
to a high position of power and influence.
In the land of Canaan he was treated with honor and admiration as
befitted his station and position. His armed retainers constituted a
formidable army for that day, and this trained manpower compelled
respect for Abraham, the wandering prince. When Sarah died, the Hittites
were in possession of the land and Abraham recognized the validity of
their title when he opened the negotiations for a burial plot for Sarah,
by defining himself as a stranger and a sojourner in their land. With
typical oriental courtesy in bargaining, the Hittites replied to his
request for a burying place for his dead wife by saying, “Hear us, my
lord, thou art a mighty prince among us,” and they offered him freely
and without price the choice of a plot for a sepulchre. Abraham
designated the cave of Machpelah as his choice and offered to pay the
full value of the site. This courtesy, of course, was expected of him.
Though it had been offered as a free gift, it would have been a breach
of manners of the worst type, according to the customs of that day, for
him to have accepted the gift.
It will be noted in this account in Genesis that when Abraham weighed
out the requested price of four hundred shekels of silver, the statement
was made that it was the shekel which was the current money with the
merchants. The sum was equivalent to about $300 in our present system of
values. This is the first reference made to coinage, and it fits in
beautifully with the archeological indications that the Hittites were
the inventors of the principle of coining both gold and silver as a
medium of exchange.
From this first moment of their contact with Abraham there is no period
of Hebrew history, up to the time of the fall of Samaria, where the
people of Israel lost contact with the nation of the Hittites. Their
mercenary soldiers became captains in the army of David and Solomon, and
they were occasionally allied in important battles in which the people
of Israel fought side by side with them. It is amazing that the critics,
in the face of the tremendous emphasis laid upon the Hittite empire by
the writers of the Scripture, did not exercise some discretion in their
repudiation of the historicity of this people. Even while the tongues of
the unbelieving were clamoring with loud denunciations of the text of
the Word of God, Libya, Syria, and Asia Minor in general exhibited
magnificent sculpture, incised stones, and monuments written in a
strange system of hieroglyphics that none had been able to read. These
proved later to be the records of the Hittite peoples as they themselves
had cut them with their own hands.
We shall later refer to the great work of Dr. A. H. Sayce in deciphering
these hieroglyphics. His achievement in that instance was, in the annals
of human history, one of the greatest triumphs of pure reason. Before
this was done, however, the Hittites had begun to stretch themselves and
stir in the tomb of oblivion. Their long sleep was ended and they began
to rise from the dead, when experts in Egyptology read the record of
Ramses the Second. It is not too much to say that these early
discoveries threw the camp of higher criticism into utter confusion.
Ramses the Second successfully ended a period of warfare with the
Hittites which had vexed and distressed Egypt for more than five hundred
years. So great was the power of the Hittite empire that no previous
conqueror or king in Egypt had been able to shake off their yoke
completely. Indeed, Ramses the Second succeeded in so doing only by
contracting an important political marriage with a Hittite princess.
The center of the Hittite empire was Charchemish. On the site of
Megiddo, which was so often the scene of battles in successive years,
the forces of Ramses fought with the armed forces of the Hittites. There
the Egyptian monarch successfully defeated the Hittites in one of the
most stirring battles preserved to us in ancient records. The Hittites
at this time were governed by a number of kings who had a close
confederation in all affairs pertaining to the empire. In the day of
Ramses the confederation was headed by the king of Kadesh. According to
Ramses’ record, which is preserved for us on the walls of Karnak, all
“the kings and peoples from the water of Egypt to the river-land of
Mesopotamia obeyed this chief.”
This army of the confederation massed itself on the bloody field of
Megiddo in a battle which lasted six hours. Ramses tells in detail how
he marched and maneuvered his forces to gain strategic advantages.
It was a coincidence that the battle began on the morning of the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the ascension of Ramses the Second. He
celebrated the anniversary of his crowning by throwing off the yoke of
the Hittites. A complete victory was denied Ramses, due to the fact that
when the Hittite force broke and fled before him, his army failed to
take advantage of the rout. Falling upon the rich plunder, they fought
among themselves over the spoils so long that the Hittites were able to
enter their fortified city and barricade it against the Egyptians. An
element of humor enters into the final statement. Ramses recounts that
he besieged the city for a number of days, but since “Megiddo had the
might of a thousand cities, the king graciously pardoned the foreign
princes.” In the list of the spoil that the Egyptians gathered from this
battle, there occurred the names of one hundred nineteen towns and
cities which henceforth paid tribute to Egypt. The next important item
was the capture of nine hundred twenty-four chariots, including the
personal chariot of the Hittite king which was plated and armored with
gold. (See Plate 20.)
Although Ramses boasted that he had “completely overthrown the might and
power of the Hittites,” the future history of this Pharaoh depicts
campaign after campaign lasting until the end of his life. At least nine
campaigns are recorded on the walls of Karnak, in each of which the
Hittites were singularly exterminated, completely overthrown, and
defeated for all time hereafter. The only trouble seems to have been
that the Hittites didn’t realize how completely they were defeated, so
that they came back again and again! The nearest to peace that Ramses
ever achieved, in his dealings with this race, was when upon his
marriage with a Hittite princess, a great treaty was signed. In the
records of his battles, Ramses refers to the Hittite king as “the
miserable lord of the despised Hittites.” When he records the treaty
that he made at the time of his marriage, he refers to the same man as
“his noble and magnificent brother, a fellow to sit with the god of the
sun by the side of Ramses himself.” It is evident, then, that some of
Ramses’ records must be taken with a grain of salt. We noticed recently,
as we were studying and photographing the battle scene of Megiddo which
is portrayed on the north side of the great temple at Karnak, that
Ramses is shown as having thrown to the ground all the Hittites and as
having slain their king. Seven years later, however, the king is still
alive to give his daughter in marriage to Ramses!
Since the Hittites were at this time the central power of the ancient
world, peace with them meant peace with all the other enemies of Egypt.
Perhaps, for this reason, Ramses’ boasting of his great victory might be
pardoned.
This great battle is also immortalized by a contemporary poet. The
papyrus copy of this poem is now in the possession of the British
Museum. Many stanzas from this notable work, however, are to be seen in
connection with the magnificent battle pictures at Karnak. Some of these
are also repeated in the temple at Luxor, as well as on the great
monument at Abydos.
Professor Wright refers to this poem as “the earliest specimen of
special war correspondence.” This work is known as the poem of Pentauer.
Pentauer is the name of a Theban poet who wrote his dramatic ode two
years after the battle between Ramses the Second and the Hittite horde.
The boastful extravagance of his language becomes a bit wearisome as he
sings the praises of Ramses and chants of the impossible feats of the
monarch. An example of hyperbole is offered in this verse:
“King Pharaoh was young and bold. His arms were strong, his heart
courageous. He seized his weapons, and a hundred thousand sunk before
his glance. He armed his people and his chariots. As he marched
towards the land of the Hittites, the whole earth trembled. His
warriors passed by the path of the desert, and went along the roads of
the north.”
The “miserable and deceitful king of the Hittites,” however, had
prepared an ambush. When the Hittites sprang their trap with their king
in their midst, Pharaoh called on his mighty men to follow him. Leaping
into his chariot, he assaulted the numberless horsemen and the armored
footmen of the horde of the Hittites, and plunged into the midst of
their ablest and bravest warriors. As he fought his way into the press
of these noble horses, Ramses looked around to see how his force was
getting along. To his surprise he found that they had not followed him;
and he was hemmed in by two thousand five hundred chariots which were
manned by the mightiest of the Hittite champions. Deserted by his entire
army, Pharaoh saw that he had to rely upon his own ability, so “shouting
for joy, with the aid of the god Amon, he hurled darts with his right
hand and thrust with the sword in his left hand!” He “slew two thousand
five hundred horses which were dashed to pieces!” He “laid dead the
noble Hittite knights until their limbs dissolved with fear and they had
no courage to thrust!” He swept them into the river Orontes and slew as
long as it was his pleasure.
It is quite evident that Pentauer relied largely upon his imagination
for the details of this great battle. However exaggerated this poem may
be, nevertheless it has some historical value. Especially is this so
since the poem of Pentauer and the Karnak record of Ramses the Second
are in virtual agreement as to the essential details of this battle.
Plate 21
[Illustration: {hieroglyphs}]
divinity
king
country
plurality
supremacy
e, i.
u, o.
dimes, di
tu, to
kus
ku
khat, khattu
si
es
tar
sis
sar
tarku, tarkus
kue, mesi
seal, inscription
“to speak”
sun-god: “behold”
[Illustration: From such funerary papyri much valuable information
regarding Egyptian beliefs and customs is derived]
Incidentally, the walls of Karnak yielded from the records of other
kings the historic evidence of an actual Hittite empire. Tuthmosis the
Third immortalized the Hittites on the walls of Karnak when he gave a
list of towns in the land of the Hittites over which he was victorious.
Unquestionably this list contains the first and oldest authentic account
of ancient cities, which are frequently afterwards mentioned in the
Assyrian records as well. This record is found in the splendid temple
which is called the “Hall of Pillars” and which was erected by this
notable pharaoh. It has been said that in this work the art of Egypt
reached its highest point. Certainly the walls and pillars are literally
covered with the beautifully engraved pictures and names of the races
and cities which the pharaoh had conquered.
When the Department of Antiquities was working upon the wall of a lower
section, a catalog of one hundred nineteen conquered places came to
light. This record showed that, more than three hundred years before the
Israelites entered the land of Canaan, the Hittites were established in
a powerful dominion over that lovely land. There are seven separate
records of the contacts of this pharaoh with the people who were the
Hittites.
Ramses the First has also left a record of the treaty of peace that he
made with the Hittite king Seplal at the end of the war that he
unsuccessfully fought to throw off the yoke of this people. On the north
wall of the temple at Karnak, he gives the route of his march and tells
of the victories that he won. He did not, however, delineate his final
capitulation. This conflict resulted in a treaty of peace which is
recorded in this account.
The successor of Ramses the First was Seti the First, and in his day the
treaty was broken. According to Seti, it was the Hittites who offended
against the covenant, and he also engraved on the walls at Karnak an
account of the consequent battle with its result. To bring just a short
line from his voluminous record, he acknowledges his own greatness in
such an inscription as the following:
“Seti has struck down the Asiatics; he has thrown to the ground the
Kheta. He has slain their princes.”
Telling them how he concluded a treaty with the Hittites, to the
enhancement of his own glory, Seti’s record concludes with these words:
“He returns home in triumph. He has annihilated the people. He has
struck to the ground the Kheta. He has made an end of his adversaries.
The enmity of all people is turned into friendship.”
With just this brief reference to the voluminous records to be found in
Egyptian archeology, we would be able to establish the triumph of the
Bible in the realm of historical accuracy, had we no other sources. The
fact of the matter, however, is that the Assyrian and Babylonian
accounts of the Hittites are at least as numerous as are the Egyptian.
It may be noted in passing that, although filled with consternation at
these marvelous discoveries in Egyptology, the critics were by no means
silenced. It would have been better for their later reputation had they
graciously accepted their defeat and acknowledged that they were in
error. Instead, they rushed into vociferous refutation of the newly
discovered Egyptian records. Unfortunately, their denunciations and
renewed claims were given wide publicity by being included in the then
current edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. It is to be regretted
that this great encyclopedia has often been a tremendous aid to
criticism in spreading its errors and fallacies. This in large measure
is due to the fact that there is a common reverence for this great work
in the mind of the average human. There is a certain class of readers
who hold this notable reference work in such great reverence that its
authority to them is greater than that of the Word of God. It must be
remembered, however, that the encyclopedia of each generation represents
only the current thought of that brief period of human experience.
Anything that is written by man is subject to later revision or
repudiation, as human knowledge increases. So in this great compendium
of human wisdom it is unfortunate that much space was given to the famed
critic, the Rev. T. K. Cheyne.
This eminent authority was a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. In the
above cited article, he treated the statements of the Bible as
unhistorical and classified them as pure folklore. Concerning the
Biblical references to the Hittites, he used these exact words, “They
cannot be taken as of equal authority with the Egyptian and Assyrian
inscriptions!” In dealing with Abraham’s purchase of the burial plot for
Sarah, he had a great deal to say in refutation of the possibility of
any accuracy in the record. At the conclusion of his criticism he
stated, “How meager the tradition respecting the Hittites was in the
time of the great Elohistic narrator, is shown by the picture of Hittite
life in this reference.”
Dr. Cheyne fell into the great error of claiming that the Hittites were
only warriors. Because they are thus shown on the walls of Karnak, he
concluded that they were mercenary troops who never entered into
business transactions. In his article on the Canaanites in this above
cited encyclopedia, he goes so far as to say, “The Hittites seem to have
been included among the Canaanites by mistake. Historical evidence
proves convincingly that they dwelt beyond the borders of Canaan.” These
conclusions were also advocated by his great colleague and collaborator,
Prof. W. H. Newman.
Dr. Newman was also a Fellow of Balliol College at Oxford and is the
author of the once famous “History of the Hebrew Monarchy.” In all of
this work he maintained that the Hittite references in the Old Testament
were unqualifiedly unhistorical. They prove beyond question, according
to the author, that the writers of the Old Testament were totally
unacquainted with the times of which they wrote. His conclusion was that
the Old Testament was written many centuries after the events which it
purports to depict. He stated with finality, along with Dr. Cheyne, that
the Hittite people were limited to Syria and had no place in Palestine.
Thus the story of Abraham buying territory from them at Hebron is
unquestionably mythological.
These ardent advocates of a collapsing theory should have waited! It was
not long after these utterances were printed that Prof. Sayce deciphered
certain of the Assyrian records of Tiglath-pileser. These showed that in
the reign of this monarch, as late as 1130 B. C., _the Hittites were
still in command of all the territory from the Euphrates to Lebanon_!
Again the Word of God was vindicated, when the monuments, as they were
deciphered, yielded the interesting information that the Hittites were
notable colonizers. They also covered all the ancient world as
merchants, and their caravans and trade-routes were the earliest to be
established. They are in Assyrian annals depicted as artisans and
artists. Although all of them could fight when war was inevitable, they
had a standing army for the casual and necessary protection of the
realm. Dr. Newman was unfortunate also in choosing the time in which he
charged the Bible with error. At a most unfortunate period for criticism
in the history of archeology he questioned the details of Hittite
prowess in the incidental references of the Scripture. As though the
scientists of that day were in league with the Lord, they laid bare in
site after site a refutation of all the critics maintained!
It will be remembered that in connection with the siege of Samaria, as
the story is given in II Kings, the seventh chapter, there is a peculiar
but important reference to the Hittites and their known power. The
people of Israel who were commanded by Jehoram were distressed by the
siege of their capital when Benhadad of Damascus had pressed them to the
limit of their resistance. Famine and disease had swept Samaria, so that
the remnant faced the choice of surrendering or perishing. Elisha had
prophesied a deliverance, and in verses six and seven in the seventh
chapter of II Kings, the fulfillment of God’s promise is given in this
way:
“For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of
chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and
they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us
the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come
upon us.
“Wherefore, they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents,
and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled
for their life.”
Professor Newman found a great deal of grounds for hilarity in what he
called this “childish narrative.” He says, “The unhistorical tone is too
manifest to allow of our easy belief in it.” He admits that there may
have been some unusual deliverance of Samaria, because of collateral
records of dangerous night panics among various hordes of antiquity. He
adds, however, in reference to the Bible account, “The particular ground
of alarm attributed to them does not exhibit the writer’s acquaintance
with the times in a very favorable light. No Hittite kings can have
compared in power with the king of Judah, the real and near ally, who is
not named at all. Nor is there a single mark of acquaintance with the
facts of contemporaneous history.”
Two sources of information, however, have since been derived that flatly
refute the learned Professor and vindicate the accuracy of the record of
God’s Word. The Assyrian sources show conclusively, upon the examination
of their records, that the Hittites at that time were the greatest power
with which the monarchs of Chaldea had to deal. In the records of
Assur-Nasir-pal a long and powerful tribute is paid to the military
might of the Hittites. So in that day they were still a strong and
warlike people. They were especially dreaded by the armies of antiquity
because of the unique distinction of their chariots. It is to this fact
that the writer of II Kings refers when he speaks of “the noise of
chariots.”
The walls of Karnak give us a clear and illuminating description of
these ancient weapons of battle. Each chariot was drawn by two horses,
armored and shod with spikes. Three warriors rode in each chariot. One
of these handled the reins, while the other two plied arrow, javelin,
sword, and dart, working untold havoc in the closely packed ranks of
ancient infantry. (See Plate 20.)
Plate 22
[Illustration: Monuments of Petra, showing extent of the ruins in
one direction]
Plate 23
[Illustration: Looking the opposite way from Plate 22]
It is also noted that Assur-Nasir-pal has given a detailed account of
the treasures that he derived from the defeated Hittites. Among them he
lists with great delight “swift chariots with horses therefor.” Whenever
this monarch won a victory over the Hittites, he refers again and again
to their chariots. One such reference is seen in this statement: “The
chariots and warlike engines of the general of Charchemis I laid up in
my magazines.”
We have already noted that Solomon was engaged in trade with the people
called Hittites, taking chariots and horses in exchange for his
merchandise.
Ramses the Second states that the Hittite chiefs were distinguished
among the nations “for their swift chariots and horses and their engines
of war.”
It would seem indeed that the writer of II Kings was better acquainted
with the times of which he wrote than was the later critic who disdains
the authority of the ancient scribe!
Shalmaneser made five references to the Hittites, in every one of which
he refers to their chariots. In the monument of Shalmaneser, which is
now found in the British Museum, the inscription represents the Hittites
at Charchemish with various of their allies fighting against
Shalmaneser. He concludes this record by saying, “With them I fought;
their corpses like chaff through the country I scattered. Multitudes of
chariots and horses trained to the yoke I seized.”
Sargon also tells of his overthrow of the Hittite kingdom, and mentions
the chariots that were so formidable an aid to their military campaigns.
It may be noted in passing that Dr. Cheyne, like the eminent Dr. Sayce,
was later converted to faith in the integrity of the Word of God. This
might be called one of the later victories of the Hittite empire. Its
people have risen from the dead to fight for the faith and for the Book
which alike were delivered unto the saints by the Spirit of God. Some of
the later writings of Dr. Cheyne constitute a frank repudiation of his
earlier position. His lectures and sermons, after his discovery of the
integrity of the Bible, still linger in the memory of those who were
privileged to hear them.
The summary of the matter presents a complete victory for the orthodox
school. First, as to the extent of their empire, the Egyptian and
Israelite inscriptions give three hundred geographical names in
connection with the domain and rule of the Hittites. These cover almost
every section of the ancient civilized world. These same inscriptions
also present a long list of the allies and the dependencies which paid
tribute to the Hittite kings. Lists of the satraps who reigned as
vassals to the Hittites have also been recovered.
Secondly, the Hittite inscriptions themselves have now yielded their
secrets to the earnest student. The earliest note of Hittite writings
comes from a traveler, who in 1812 discovered some incised stones and
engraved mounds which were covered with unknown hieroglyphics. These
finds were made at Hamath, a small city in Syria. In the light of the
archeological interest of our generation it seems incredible that these
inscriptions were then ignored completely for threescore years. Then Dr.
William Wright, a Protestant missionary in Damascus, was enabled, by the
authority he wielded through his friendship with high government
officials, to procure these stones and to remove them. Some of these
relics had been built into the houses of Hamath and were part of the
walls of occupied domiciles. One at least was so heavy that it took
eight hours for four oxen to move it one mile. The romance and adventure
of his indomitable pursuit of these stones is covered in Dr. Wright’s
own memoirs and writings.
At this time, Dr. A. H. Sayce, one of the greatest archeologists of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, began the tedious task of
deciphering these hieroglyphics. With no aid, such as the Egyptologists
received from the Rosetta Stone, Dr. Sayce started out on a cold trail.
His ultimate victory constitutes one of the greatest triumphs of pure
reason in the long record of human endeavor. To show something of the
difficulty that Dr. Sayce faced, we have portrayed on page 194 one of
these Hittite inscriptions written in the hieroglyphics of their time.
We have also shown in plate 21 the key that was worked out by Dr. Sayce.
Dr. William Wright, working independently, arrived at practically the
same conclusions.
When these records were publicized as Hittite inscriptions a storm of
protest came from the critics of the Scripture, who utterly rejected the
findings of both Sayce and Wright. They attempted to minimize any
historical value that might be derived from the translation of these
inscriptions. Having built their case against the integrity of the Bible
so strongly upon the error presumed to be found in the Hittite
references, they could not give up their demonstration without a
struggle.
At this time there came to light a reference to a silver disk that had
previously been offered to the British Museum. This consisted of a
convex silver plate. It had every resemblance to the ordinary boss which
is found on the top of the handle of a dagger when such instruments are
decorated. This boss, or plate, had in its center a picture of a warrior
standing upright. He was dressed in the typical garb of a Hittite
soldier. Around this warrior were two rows of hieroglyphics, one on
either side. These hieroglyphics were enclosed in a circle. Outside the
circle was an inscription in the cuneiform script. When this boss was
offered to the British Museum, they kept it a while for study and
rejected it on the grounds that it was probably spurious. Fortunately,
however, they had made an electrotype copy of this article.
When the conclusions of Sayce and Wright were rejected by the critics,
Dr. Sayce heard of this exhibit. Thinking that it might be a way to the
Hittite inscriptions, he prosecuted his search for the original. It had
disappeared, but he fortunately recovered the copy that was in the
British Museum. This copy then became paramount evidence. At a glance,
Dr. Sayce identified the hieroglyphics as being Hittite in origin. Using
the key that he had worked out for the translation of the hieroglyphics,
he translated the boss to be the possession of one Tarkondemos. Having
read this in the Hittite hieroglyphics, he then translated the cuneiform
text and found the two to be identical.
This vindication of the accuracy of this earlier work won the confidence
of the scholarly world in the Hittite inscriptions. This was the
deciding voice. The Hittites became _historical_ to the modern scholar
from the records of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. They become _real_ to
us from their own inscriptions.
Nowhere in all the records of human research and endeavour is it
possible to find a greater and more complete assembling of the
vindication of the integrity of the Word of God. Even though the hand of
the Almighty must shake the very foundations of ancient history, He has
sworn that His Word shall be maintained. Thus He has called from the
limbo of forgotten races an entire nation in an archeological
resurrection, that they, though dead, may tell their tale of the
credibility of the Word of God.