Map of the Hittite Empire at its greatest extent, with Hittite rule c. 1300 BC

There are over 50 mentions in the Bible of a people called Hittites. However, no such people are mentioned in the histories of Greece, Egypt or any other ancient national group. By the 19th century, skeptical scholars had relegated these Biblical accounts to the realm of myth. With no archaeological evidence and no mention in known ancient sources, the Hittites seemed to be just another Biblical “myth.” However, archaeological discoveries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced evidence that the critics were wrong and the Bible right about the Hittites.

In 1884 archaeologist Willian Wright discovered a monument near the modern Turkish city of Bogazky identifying the city as Hattusas, which was the capital of the Hittite empire. Then, in 1905, Hugo Winckler excavated sections of the city, including the royal archives .These discoveries helped explain Egyptian documents found in 1887 in el-Amarna containing letters between the Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaton and a previously unknown kingdom that the Egyptians called “Kheta”. Historians generally regard this Kheta as the Egyptian word for Hittites. 

Bible skeptics and critics have gone from denying (in the 1880’s), the Hittites never existed, to claiming (in the 21st century) that the Hittites discovered are not the same as the people called Hittites in the Bible. 

“The Hittites answered Abraham: ‘Please, sir, listen to us! You are a mighty leader among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial sites. None of us would deny you his burial ground for the burial of your dead'” (Genesis 23:5,6 NAB).

“The Hittites: in the Bible the term is applied to several different groups–inhabitants of the second millennium Hittite empire in Asia Minor and northern Syria, residents of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms in northern Syria in the first part of the first millennium, and (following Assyrian terminology) the inhabitants of Syria and Palestine. The third group is meant here”—NAB note on Genesis 23:3

“Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Cilicia, where the king’s merchants purchased them. A chariot imported from Egypt cost six hundred shekels of silver, a horse one hundred and fifty shekels; they were exported at these rates to all the Hittite and Aramean kings”—1 Kings 10:28,29 NAB

“The Hittites and Arameans were significant powers in the ancient Near East, and trade with them would have strengthened political alliances and economic ties”—Bible Hub Study Bible

“Modern academics propose, based on much onomastic and archaeological evidence, that Anatolian populations moved south into Canaan as part of the waves of Sea Peoples who were migrating along the Mediterranean coastline at the time of the collapse of the Hittite Empire. Many kings of local city-states are shown to have had Hittite and Luwian names in the Late Bronze to Early Iron Age transition period.”—Biblical Hittites, Wikipedia

This shows that the Hittites were a real people in Bible times. They were not just fiction. The skeptics and critics have been proven wrong and the Bible right, once again. “God is true, even if everyone else is a liar. As it is written, ‘You are right when you speak, and win your case when you go into court'” (Romans 3:4 ISV).

After all the facts are uncovered, God always wins, and his “word” always proves “true” (John 17:17).