Anakim

ענקים


The original inhabitants of Chevron (Hebron) according to Joshua 11:21 and 14:15, they also inhabited Devir, Anav, and the mountains of Yehudah and of Yisra-El (which is itself an interesting way of phrasing it, because it reflects a description of the divided kingdom, which doesn't happen until three centuries later, after the death of Shelomoh).

Yehoshu'a destroyed them "utterly" (though later texts hint strongly that they were still around). Their chief was named Arba (ארבע), and their principal city was named Kiryat Arba after him; Kiryat Arba later came to be known as Chevron (Hebron).

When Av-Raham bought the shrine of Machpelah (Genesis 23:8 ff)and the oak-grove of Mamre, it was held by Emorim (Amorites) and Hittites. Legends place the bodies of all the key patriarchs and their wives, save only Rachel and Yoseph, in Machpelah at Chevron. We can presume that in fact the skulls found there belong to the aboriginal Anakim.

Anak (ענק) means "to adorn with a necklace" and is also used for a convict's neck-chain and a dog's collar. It appears in the famous derogatory phrase of YHVH for his "stiff-necked" people (Exodus 32:9).

However it is also taken to be a reference to their prehensility, from which the notion that "there were giants in those days". Deuteronomy 9:2 calls them "a people great and tall". We can probably read this as "long-necked" in the Masai sense, and take it as an equivalent of the term "long-headed" used by anthropologists, in contrast to "broad-headed", to describe the two basic types of Palaeolithic peoples (Picts and Celts in Brython/Britain) who spread westwards into Europe and became its aboriginal settlers. This would also enable us to understand better, and distinguish between, the two genera of giants and aboriginals mentioned in the Tanach, the Nephilim as well as the Anakim.

Numbers 13:22 also mentions Anakim, naming three of them: Achi-Man, Sheshai and Talmai, the latter being one of the very many SALM names that will include oth Shelomoh and Yeru-Shala'im later on.




Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
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