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Who Were the Hittites in the Old Testament?

TL;DR

They Hittites of the Old Testament were a Canaanite tribe. They had no connection with the Hittite Empire in what is now Turkey.

The Details

The Hittites ruled a large empire in what is now central Turkey. They were technologically advanced, and some credit them with creating the first iron weapons. Their influence extended to northern Syria, and they had ongoing conflicts with Egypt, including the battle of Kaddesh in 1457 BCE. However, we have no indication of Hittites living in Canaan.

The Hittites show up 47 times in the Old Testament, dating back to when Abraham first entered Canaan. Yet this happened 200 years before the Hittites first arrived in central Turkey. Clearly, something is wrong.

First, Genesis 10:15 identifies the Hittites as the sons of Heth, the son of Canaan. Clearly, they were one of the tribes living in Canaan, and this is how the Old Testament always refers to them.

How, then, did the Hittites get their name? In the mid-1800s, an English scholar decided to name the Hittites of central Turkey after the Hittites in the Bible, since the names were similar. However, there was no other connection.