For much of the nineteenth century, higher criticism treated the Old Testament references to Hittites — from Abraham's purchase of the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 23), to David's servant Uriah (2 Samuel 11), to the trading relationships described in 2 Kings 7:6 — as evidence of the Bible's fictional character. No secular source confirmed their existence.\n\nIn 1876, A. H. Sayce identified the Hittite empire from inscriptions; in 1906-1907, Hugo Winckler excavated Boğazköy (ancient Hattusa) and uncovered the royal archive. Over 30,000 cuneiform tablets have since been recovered, including treaty texts, diplomatic correspondence with Egypt, and religious literature. The empire ruled central Anatolia from approximately 1750 BC to 1180 BC and for a time rivaled Egypt.\n\nThe Hittite confirmation is a textbook case of a specific biblical claim, long ridiculed, later vindicated by excavation. It does not prove inspiration, but it does demonstrate that the Old Testament preserves accurate geopolitical detail from periods long before its final editing.
highNations Confirmed
Hittite Empire Confirmation
The Hittites, mentioned more than fifty times in the Old Testament, were dismissed by nineteenth-century critics as a fictional people; the 1906 excavation of Hattusa in modern Turkey uncovered their capital, tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets, and a sprawling empire that dominated Anatolia from the eighteenth to the twelfth centuries BC.
Key arguments
- Pre-1906 higher criticism held the Hittites to be literary fiction.
- Hattusa's royal archive contains ~30,000 tablets.
- Hittite-Egyptian treaties (Treaty of Kadesh) corroborate Bronze Age geopolitics.
- OT mentions span cultural, economic, military, and legal contexts.
Key verses
- Genesis 23:3-20
- 2 Samuel 11:3
- 1 Kings 10:29
- 2 Kings 7:6
Sources
- A. H. Sayce — The Hittites: The Story of a Forgotten Empire (1888)
- Trevor Bryce — The Kingdom of the Hittites (2005)
- Harry Hoffner — Hittite Myths (1998)