In separate traditions in the HB, the Rephaim are presented either as a living group of gigantic warriors or as shadowy figures of the underworld of Sheol. They are referred to as the
rp’um in earlier Amorite Ugaritic texts, in which their role
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In separate traditions in the HB, the Rephaim are presented either as a living group of gigantic warriors or as shadowy figures of the underworld of Sheol. They are referred to as the
rp’um in earlier Amorite Ugaritic texts, in which their role and status are much debated. This paper offers a hypothesis that, first, tracks
rp’um/Rephaim antecedent traditions from the Sumerian heroic and funerary practices adopted by the Amorites to the tradition of the
rp’um of the Ugaritic literature, and then tracks them on to the HB, through the Amorite connection to
Mlk/Molech, in two different regional traditions found in the HB. Literary analysis and cross-cultural evidence regarding the Amorites are used to demonstrate the plausibility of this hypothesis. This paper also puts forth that: the name Hammurapi is a reference to a funerary practice and is a titular name;
rpi is employed in its more basic sense of meaning “to restore/mend”;
rp’um, following Good, is the passive participle, “restored/healed ones”; and Deut 2:10–11 and the biblical King Og texts do not support the Israelites having encountered living Rephaim warriors. Tracking the heroic and death-culture traditions shows that the antecedents to the biblical Rephaim were likely originally heroic-age warriors who, upon death, were cared for and were appealed to through funerary rituals for some benefit. However, these Amorite traditions were not fully understood by the Israelites when they encountered them and appropriated aspects in their representation of the Rephaim.
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