Talk:Hivites

Biblical Hittites

Where's the source / proof that all nation in Canaan, except the two mentioned, practiced circumcision? -Shyisc 15:06, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Good point.62.255.75.224 (talk) 10:39, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

Easy Read

A very nicely written article. Thank you! :) 62.255.75.224 (talk) 10:38, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

Cicumcision

There is a section on the "cultural distinctiveness" of Hivites, which reads as if it were a known fact that Hivites did not practice circumcision, and that almost all other Canaanites did. The support for this is extremely flimsy. The case rests on Genesis 34, in a passage which depicts a group of three hundred Hivite men circumcising themselves. Yes, I suppose that one could argue that the Hivites did not practice circumcision because they are uncircumcised before they circumcised themselves. If we assume that, from that time forward, no other Hivites practiced circumcision, then we would indeed have the Hivites not practicing circumcision. But that would be to assume what we cannot prove.

In addition to the problem of proving that Hivites did not practice circumcision, we have to remember what kind of book we're dealing with here. This passage here is in chapter 34, and in the next chapter we read that Isaac died at 180 years old, not to mention the folks who lived 900+ years, giants being born from human/divine hybrids, and the use of peeled sticks to influence animal genetics. To put it mildly, the WP:RS policy would require in this case that we cannot use Genesis as a source unless its claims are backed up in WP:RELIABLE sources. And this brings us to Jonathan Roth.

The only piece of evidence cited for the non-circumcision of the Hivites is a page in a book, in a chapter written by Roth. Roth simply notices the reference to the Hivites. He does not declare the story in Genesis 34, in which two men wipe out an entire city using only knives, to be historically accurate. He does not personally endorse the theory that Hivites didn't circumcise.

That's it -- there's no other references cited in the whole section. I'll edit accordingly. Alephb (talk) 15:11, 25 June 2017 (UTC)

PS: I've spent a while searching for any reliable author who will support the opinion that Hivites did not practice circumcision. I've found no support for the view. Instead, I've found a statement that, according to most scholars, the relevant verse (Genesis 34:2) does not originally reference Hivites at all, but is about Hurrians, on the basis of the Septuagint's reading. The citation is to North, Robert. “The Hivites.” Biblica, vol. 54, no. 1, 1973, p. 55. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42610140.

As a result, the entire section on cultural distinctiveness is unsupported. There is no evidence provided by reliable sources indicating that the Hivite people did not practice circumcision. The whole section can be removed. Alephb (talk) 16:39, 25 June 2017 (UTC)