From Habiru to Hebrews: The Roots of the Jewish Tradition

by Robert Wolfe (October 2009)

The Habiru

This scenario sounds plausible, but while there is ample evidence of Habiru participating in armed attacks against the Canaanite city-states, there is little or no indication that Canaanite villagers did the same.

Shechem

Putting it all together, the known facts suggest that sometime towards the end of the 13th century BCE, perhaps following the death of Ramses 2 in 1213 BCE, a small group of Habiru slaves fled Egypt and made their way to Canaan, bearing with them three things:

The Hebrews

The Jews

There remains the Jewish question, which is: what was the legacy of the Habiru for the Jews?

David

Robert Wolfe taught history on the college level off and on for 40 years in the United States.  He is now retired and lives in Israel.  His original field of specialization was European social history, but for the past 25 years or so he has done extensive research on the relationship between Jewish history and world history and written a number of books and articles on this subject.

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