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Was there an Exodus such as described in the Bible? Yes, but one has to take into consideration the latest in archeology linguistics, and chronology.
Citation preview
MOSES OUR TEACHER
&1"9 %:/
by
©Robert F. Smith
2010
version 3
Was There an Exodus?
. . . there is no evidence, archaeological or literary, of
any great movement of Semites from Egypt later than
the expulsion of the Hyksos, . . .1
A number of scholars (and even some rabbis ) have raised2
serious doubts about whether there was in fact an Exodus, even if
the literal interpretation of the biblical Exodus is reduced in terms to
a considerably smaller episode of a group of Canaanites leaving
Egypt – something which happened to very small groups on a
regular basis as they moved back and forth across the Sinai for the
purpose of trade or to escape the occasional Canaanite famine. If3
we are to be dependent upon typical, regular movements of small
groups of semi-nomads or pastoralists for an explanation of the
Exodus, then, logically, there may as well have been no Exodus at
all! Other scholars have defended the traditional date and mode of
the large-scale biblical Exodus, or some variation of it, all to no4
avail.
Of course, there was a very large exodus of Canaanites from
the Delta of Egypt several centuries prior to the one described so
E. C. B. McLaurin, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 27/2 (Apr 1968), 95.1
Hershel Shanks, “Did the Exodus Really Happen?” Moment, 26/5 (Oct 2001), 62-65,102; Rabbi2
David Wolpe, “‘We Were Slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt’,” Moment, 26/6 (Dec 2001), 67-69; Shanks, “ForWolpe, the Exodus is Metaphor,” Moment, 26/6 (Dec 2001), 67-69; Wolpe and others comment in thePBS-TV “Kingdom of David,” available on DVD (PBS Paramount, 2003), which is #9 in the PBS“Empires” Series.
See PBS-TV’s “The Bible’s Buried Secrets,” Nova (Boston: WGBH, 2008), in which Bill3
Dever refers to these proto-Israelites or Shasu refugees from Egypt as “a motley crew.”
J. de Moor, “Egypt, Ugarit, and Exodus,” in N. Wyatt, et al., eds., Ugarit, Religion and Culture4
(Münster, 1996), 213-247; Abraham Malamat, “The Exodus: Egyptian Analogies,” in Frerichs & Lesko,eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence (Eisenbrauns, 1997), 15-26.
1
2
specifically in the biblical book of Exodus. Josephus describes this
earlier event as he read of it in Manetho, and Egyptology fills in5
the blanks, courtesy of Sturt Manning:
Circa 1540 B.C. a native Egyptian Pharaoh from the south
.(Thebes) named Ahmose laid siege to Avaris (Tell el-Dab)a) in
northern Egypt. Avaris was the great and prosperous 250 hectare
capital city of the Canaanites/Hyksos of the 14 & 15 Dynastiesth th
(no city in Egypt, Palestine, or the Aegean was larger). Unable to
.penetrate the 8.5 m thick walls of the city, King Ahmose made a
deal with the Hyksos, allowing them to leave Egypt and return to
Canaan – with which they had maintained close ties in any case. 6
. .So the Hyksos (Eg. hq1w h1Ñwt “rulers of foreign lands”) left en
masse and returned to Canaan.
.King Ahmose then destroyed the empty city and attempted to
blot out any memory of the Hyksos rule, and he and several of his
successors of the 18 Dynasty even conducted revenge militaryth
campaigns in southern Palestine, destroying the major Hyksos city of7
Sharuhen (Tell el-)Ajjul). Not until the reign of King Merneptah (son
of Ramesses II) of the 19 Dynasty, however, do we hear a reportth
of the existence of a people in Palestine called “Israel” (see below)
– and that is over 300 years later!! So what possible relationship
could this early “exodus” have to the Israelite Exodus known from
the Bible? We have otherwise only the legend of Apophis and
Josephus, Contra Apionem, I, 14 (§§88-89), cited by Manning, A Test of Time, 84 n. 375, who5
discusses the entire episode.
Manning, A Test of Time, 67-68,77-107,405-410; 87, “Palestine . . . was intimately linked with6
the Hyksos.” These assertions are based on Josephus, but are supported by archaeological evidence(Bietak, “Tell el-Dab’a,” in Bard, ed., Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 781).
Manning, A Test of Time, 5 (n. 263), 92, including Amenhotep I, Thutmosis I, and Thutmosis7
III, all of whom campaigned in Syro-Palestine, citing Breasted, ARE, II:73,81,85,125.
3
Seqenenre, which uses the names of two of the primary opposing8
kings of the 15 and 17 Dynasties, respectively.th th
As it happens, Avaris (Tell el-Dab)a) has been subject to
systematic archaeological excavation by an Austrian team for many
years now, and the results (as described by director Manfred9
Bietak) have been quite instructive: During the 12 Dynasty, shortlyth
after it was first established in the FIP (First Intermediate Period),
the village of Avaris became a primarily Canaanite settlement, and
remained so until its end ca. 1540 B.C. (Exodus 12:40-41 and
Galatians 3:17 suggest that Jacob and his sons went down into
Egypt and stayed there for 430 years, which by this measure would
place the beginning of their stay at circa 1970 B.C.).
Indeed, the fresco fragments found at Avaris are all of a late
Middle Kingdom or Second Intermediate Period (SIP) type, employing
a style and themes which Manning describes as “hybrid Egyptian-
Aegean (or Levantine in view of Tel Kabri, Alalakh and Tell el-10
Dab)a examples) themes and representation modes” developed
“especially during the special period of west Asian-Egyptian fusion
during the SIP [Second Intermediate Period].” Bietak found the11
Minoan style wall paintings at Avaris “a major surprise.”12
Redford, “Textual Sources for the Hyksos Period,” in Oren, ed., The Hyksos: New Historical8
and Archaeological Perspectives (Phila.: Univ. of Penn., 1997), 17-18, cited by Manning, A Test of Time,90 n. 397.
Manfred Bietak, “Tell el-Dab’a, Second Intermediate Period,” in K. Bard, ed., Encyclopedia of9
the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (Routledge, 1999), 778-782.
See now on Tel Kabri, “Remains of Minoan-Style Painting Discovered During Excavations of10
Canaanite Palace,” ScienceDaily, Nov 9, 2009, online at www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091109121119.htm .
Manning, A Test of Time, 54 (n. 242),56-58 (figs. 18-20), 80-81,106-107.11
Bietak, “Tell el-Dab’a,” in Bard, ed., Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 781.12
4
There is, however, a “total absence of LMIA finds in Egypt
outside the Canaanite-Hyksos capital in the Delta,” i.e., “Upper Egypt
(and the 16 and 17 Dynasties of Thebes) was in effect . . . cutth th
off from the Mediterranean world.” Of course, this was not true in13
the preceding period, and some Egyptian items with Aegean
iconography were found in 13 and 17 Dynasty contexts.th th 14
There is some suggestion that the close of the Hyksos period
was not abrupt, but was merely the culmination of a long process
of deterioration (of which Ahmose took advantage) which may even
have involved pressure on Canaan from the Hurrians and the state
of Mitanni to the north. Whatever the case, a number of Middle
Bronze Age sites in Syro-Palestine come to an end then, and there
is an overall drop in number of occupied sites in the southern
Levant. Perhaps this was merely the result of the vengeful efforts15
.by King Ahmose and his successors.
It is also worthy of note that the monotheism of Amarna soon
follows. What sort of “cultural memory” was left in its wake?
Manning believes “the great religious revolution of Akhenaten to be
the basis in human memory of the figure of Moses in the Bible.” 16
And there are other potential Mosaic parallels:
Manning, A Test of Time, 110, citing Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the13
Second Intermediate Period c. 1800-1550 B.C. (1997), and Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel inAncient Times (Princeton Univ. Press, 1992), 112-115,118-121.
Manning, A Test of Time, 78-79 (Lisht dolphin vase, which is a Syro-Palestinian import, citing14
Bourriau, “Beyond Avaris,” in Oren, ed., The Hyksos [1997],165-166),112, and for example, fig. 26,from Morgan, The Miniature Wall Paintings of Thera (1988), plate 63, the Axe of Ahmose (with Aegeangriffin) from the Tomb of Ahhotep.
Manning, A Test of Time, 62, citing Kempinski (1997), 329, and Ryholt (1997), 307.15
Manning, A Test of Time, 146 n. 711, citing Assman, Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of16
Egypt in Western Monotheism (Harvard Univ. Press, 1997).
5
The cataclysmic eruption of Thera (Santorini) in the Aegean in
1628 B.C. may have been remembered in Egypt, and in the Exodus
story as the Ninth Plague, via the palpable darkening of the sky
and sun (Amun-Re)), leading to famine (Joseph in Genesis 41), and17
stories of “pestilence, storms, pillar of cloud/fire and parting of the
sea (Exodus 8-9,13-14)” ; does Exodus 7:20-24 allude to or quote18
from the late Middle Egyptian "Admonitions of Ipuwer" (Papyrus
Leiden 344), recto, 2:10, "Lo, the river is blood, As one drinks of it
one shrinks from people and thirsts for water"? etc. Moreover,19
does the Seventh Plague (Exodus 9:22-24) follow the typical Egyptian
disaster “topos as in the Ahmose stele” (cf. Artapanus’ account of20
Moses versus the Egyptian King)? John Currid discusses other21
such literary topoi applicable to Moses’ time.22
Being unaware of the presence of volcanic ash in the
northeastern Delta of Egypt (at Tell el-Dab’a and Tell Hebwa),23
Ziony Zevit has attempted to argue that Theran ash never reached
Egypt and could not, therefore, be part of the series of legendary
Manning, A Test of Time, 197, 201 (and nn. 938, 951).17
Including Hesiod’s Theogony – Manning, A Test of Time, 202, sources in n. 952 (esp. M. T.18
Greene, Natural Knowledge [1992], 46-63).
19th Dynasty copy, translated by Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, I, The Old19
and Middle Kingdoms (1975), 151. Cf. also Ipuwer, recto, 4:3-4 on children and infant deaths.
Manning, A Test of Time, 197, citing the Ahmose Tempest Stele from Karnak (Thebes).20
Artapanus quoted in Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, 9.27.33, cited in Mannning, A Test of21
Time, 197 n. 934. See generally, James Hoffmeier, “Egypt, Plagues in,” in Freedman, ed., Anchor BibleDictionary, II:374-378.
Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 92-93, and passim.22
And at Tell el-Ajjul in Palestine; D. Stanley and H. Sheng, “Volcanic Shards from Santorini23
(Upper Minoan Ash) in the Nile Delta, Egypt,” Nature, 320/6064 (1986), 733-735; J.-D. Stanley in BAR,31/1 (Jan-Feb 2005), 63; Katarina Kratovac (AP), “Scholars Abuzz Over Pumice in Egypt,” DailyBreeze, April 3, 2007, A7.
6
plagues recounted in the book of Exodus. Moreover, Max Bichler24
said the ash could not have been windborne, thus ignoring the25
possibility of tsunamis – the Thera eruption clearly resulted in
tsunamis at Crete at least 60 feet high as it hit the coast!! – thus26
ending Minoan civilization, any survivors being finished off thereafter
by Myceneans. Sturt Manning’s calling the Stanley and Sheng
tephra into question is thus beside the point.27
Reconciliation
How do we reconcile these various approaches and
interpretations of text and archeology? S. D. Sperling has
maintained that the biblical tradition of Hebrew slavery in Egypt
stems from the political submission of Canaan to Egyptian suzerainty
during the Amarna period. However, it seems far likelier that real28
slavery of West Asiatic Semites in Egypt during the Hyksos and/or
post-Hyksos period is the source of such a tradition – telescoped
though it may be – as though, indeed, a southern Pharaoh arose
who didn’t know Joseph (Exodus 1:8). Even where anachronistic
Zevit, review of “Moses and the Exodus,” a BBC-TV documentary (Jeremy Bowen, host), in24
BAR, 30/5 (Sept-Oct 2004), 60-62, and Zevit’s rejoinder to J.-D. Stanley in BAR, 31/1 (Jan-Feb 2005),63.
According to Manfred Bietak in BAR, 32/6 (Nov-Dec 2006), 63,65, citing the Atomic Institute25
of the Austrian Universities, and the special research program SCIEM2000 (Synchronisation ofCivilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C.) of the Austrian Academy ofSciences.
“Sinking Atlantis,” episode of Secrets of the Dead (Quickfire Media, 2008), broadcast on PBS-26
TV, May 14, 2008 (available on DVD at 800/336-1917), noting that Minoan use of Linear A was alsosnuffed out with the explosion of Thera-Santorini; Evan Hadingham, “Did a Tsunami Wipe Out a Cradleof Western Civilization?” Discover, Jan 4, 2008, online at http://discovermagazine.com/ 2008/jan/did-a-tsunami-wipe-out-a-cradle-of-western-civilization/article_view?b_start:int=2&-C= .
Manning, Test of Time, 11 n. 61.27
Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel, 61-62, citing S. D. Sperling, Original Torah (1998), 41-28
58.
7
references in an early text seem to invalidate an early date of
composition, it is as likely that late scribal transmission and editing
may account for the oddity via telescoping of sources. Of course,29
Redford and Assmann have each concluded the obvious, i.e., the
story of Joseph and his brothers down to the time of Moses’
Exodus may have originated with the entry into Egypt of the Hyksos
and their eventual expulsion. For archeologist Bryant Wood the30
solution is equally simple: abandon the standard biblical dating and
push the date of the Exodus back two centuries! Apparently31
unaware of this alternative, Bill Dever makes the consensus assertion
that some such accommodation is required by the incompatibility of
a late Exodus with archeological reality:
The Biblical narratives about Abraham, Moses, Joshua and
Solomon probably do reflect some historical memories of actual
people and places, but the “larger-than-life” portraits of the
Bible are unrealistic and are, in fact, contradicted by the
archaeological evidence. Some of Israel’s ancestors probably
did come out of Egyptian slavery, but there was no military
conquest of Canaan, and most early Israelites were displaced
Canaanites.32
Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel, 7, and n. 88, re the Persian name Parnoch/ Farnaka at29
Numbers 34:25.
Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel (1992), 408-422, and Assmann, Moses the Egyptian30
(1997), 28-43, both cited in Manning, A Test of Time, 197 n. 939. Cf. H. Shanks, “The Exodus and theCrossing of the Red Sea According to Hans Goedicke,” BAR, 7/5 (1981), 42-50..
Bryant G. Wood, “The Rise and Fall of the 13 Century Exodus-Conquest Theory,” Journal of31 th
the Evangelical Theological Society, 48/3 (Sept 2005), 475-489; Wood, “From Ramesses to Shiloh:Archaeological Discoveries Bearing on the Exodus-Judges Period,” in D. M. Howard, Jr., and M. A.Grisanti, eds., Giving the Sense: Understanding and Using Old Testament Historical Texts (GrandRapids: Kregel, 2003), 256-282; cf. Paul J. Ray, Jr., “Another Look at the Period of the Judges,” in G. A.Carnagey, Sr., ed., Beyond the Jordan (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2005), 93-104.
William Dever, “The Western Cultural Tradition Is at Risk,” Biblical Archaeology Review,32
32/2 (Mar-Apr 2006), 76; cf. Dever, “Is There Any Archaeological Evidence for the Exodus?” inFrerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 67-86.
8
Jo Ann Hackett likewise states what seems to her the obvious here,
while adhering to that same consensus position:
. . . the number of years given in the book for the period
of the Judges is over four hundred, much too long a span
considering the dating of the Exodus accepted by the majority
of scholars, . . .33
Where does she get that 400+ period for the Judges? (see
immediately below) She herself rejects the notion that the
apparently sequential list of judges in that book is either realistic or
chronologically sequential. For one thing, the fact that the major
judges are listed along with numbers in multiples of 20 is
suspicious. In addition, where the locality of each judge can be
established, there is a clear-cut geographical sequence from south to
north, then east. Thus, simple addition of each successive judge’s34
term or after-term leading to 336+ years cannot be taken seriously.
The overall period is indeterminate on that basis alone. The book
of Judges is not a set of annals. Moreover, the book of Judges
doesn’t even bother to mention the major attack by Pharaoh
Merneptah!!35
However, the Bible does claim a period of 300 years from
Joshua to Jephthah (Judges 11:25-26), 480 years from the beginning
of the Exodus till Solomon’s 4 year (I Kings 6:1), and about 450th
years of judges until Samuel the Prophet (Acts 13:20; cf. I Sam
25:1). Since we know that Solomon died after 40 years reign in
924 B.C. (I Kings 11:42), and that King Shishak I of Egypt invaded
Hackett in M. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World (Oxford Univ. Press,33
1998), 185.
Hackett in M. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World, 183-187.34
See the Merneptah Stele (“Israel Stele”) in J. Pritchard, ed., ANET, 3 ed., 378.35 rd
9
Israel in 920 B.C. (I Kings 14:25), we can work backward
chronologically from these relatively secure dates: Solomon’s 4 yearth
was around 966 B.C., while David began his reign in about 1004
B.C. (II Samuel 2:4), shortly after Samuel died. That the earlier
dates can only be approximated by this means should be abundantly
clear:36
966 + 480 = 1446 B.C. for the Exodus (- 340 years ! Jephthah in
1100 B.C.)37
1004 + 450 + 80 = 1534+ B.C. for the Exodus (- 340 years !
Jephthah in 1194 B.C.)
Likewise clear should be the fact that, by any means, the date of
the Exodus cannot be placed as usually assumed in the mid-13th
century B.C. Neither archeology nor biblical chronology support such
a low date. Why then is it the consensus position? Certainly
because of the mention of “Ramesses” as the place from which the
Exodus began, causing Kitchen to place the Exodus in the mid-13th
century B.C. I cover such toponyms below, even though they are38
likely late glosses in Exodus.
Whatever date is applied to the Exodus, the Patriarchs Jacob
& Joseph came down to Egypt around 430 years earlier than the
Exodus (Ex 12:40-41), which might place that earlier event within the
mid-20 to early 19 centuries B.C. Kitchen prefers a later date ofth th
1690-1680 B.C., which is just before the entry of the Hyksos. But39
that is unnecessary.
John Davis, Biblical Numerology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1968), 66 n. 55.36
966 + 553 = 1519 B.C., if we follow K. Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor37
Bible Dictionary, II:702.
Kenneth Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:702-703.38
Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:705.39
10
Textual Indicators of the Exodus
How did the Exodus come about? We may find a hint in the
Dynasty 19 Papyrus Harris 1, in which there is a Syro-Palestinian
()1mw) usurpation of Egypt under a leader called Irsu, possibly
connected to the Asiatic incident depicted in the Elephantine Stele
discussed below, in the next paragraph. Irsu (Egyptian "He-who-
made-himself; Self-made-man") was equated by Gardiner, �erný, and
others, with an important Egyptian official with a Semitic name,
Beya, who was active during the reigns of Kings Sety II, Siptah,
and Queen Tausert. An Akkadian letter from Beya to the last ruler
of Ugarit would thus date a late Asiatic usurpation to about 1195-
1190 B.C., and some scholars understandably equate Irsu / Beya40
with Moses. Again, an interesting, but unnecessary correlation.41
Another Asiatic incident is described in the 20 Dynastyth
Elephantine Stele of Pharaoh Sethnakht about a gold, silver, and
copper bribe paid to the Asiatics (sttw) to overthrow Pharaoh
Sethnakht, but which resulted in the Asiatics being expelled from
Egypt. Similarly, British Museum papyri 10053 and 10054 have 342
and 4 gold qedet bribes being paid to officials during the reign of
Ramesses II. On the Exodus booty and bribes being paid43
elsewhere in the Bible and in the Mormon Canon, see especially
Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, Exodus, 24-25, citing C. Maderna-Sieben, "Der historische40
Abschnitt des Papyrus Harris I," Göttinger Miszellen, 123 [1991], 57-90, and M. Yon, In the CrisisYears: The 12th Century B.C.E., ed. W. A. Ward, and M. Sharp Joukowsky (Dubuque, 1992), 119-120.
E. A. Knauf, Midian (Wiesbaden, 1988), 135ff.; J. C. de Moor, The Rise of Yahwism (Leuven,41
1990), 136-151.
D. Bidoli, MDAIK, 28 (1972), 195-200, pl. 49; Rosemarie Drenkhahn, Die Elephantine-Stele42
des Sethnacht (Wiesbsden, 1980); Friedrich Junge in Elephantine 11 (1988), 55-58.
B. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization (Routledge, 1992), 244.43
11
Exodus 3:21-22, 11:2, 12:35-36; Psalm 105:37 (booty), and Alma
11:22 (Zeezrom's 6-onti bribe offer).44
The forgoing are merely indicators, certainly not proof, but while
it is quite true that there is no direct, explicit archeological evidence
for the traditional Exodus, there are many collateral matters to be
considered – including intriguing parallels with the modern Bedouin
tribes of the Sinai, and including other indirect ways of establishing45
the backround of the biblical texts, e.g., covenant/treaty language,
onomastica, cross-cultural comparisons, etc.
The Sinai Covenant
Within limits, for example, texts can be dated: The Sinai
Covenant of Exodus 20 (and the traditions associated with it)
resembles nothing so much as a Late Bronze Age suzerainty treaty,
with “Yahweh as king and Israel as vassal,” although the text was
subject to later editors or redactors. The later Deuteronomic46
materials merely reflect the earlier Late Bronze Age forms, and could
not have been based on contemporary (late Iron Age) Assyrian
For general Exodus parallels, see I Nephi 2 - 3, 16 - 18; Abraham Malamat, "The Exodus:44
Egyptian Analogies," in E. Frerichs & L. Lesko, Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence (Eisenbrauns, 1997),22-24; Terrence L. Szink, "Nephi and the Exodus," in Sorenson & Thorne, eds., Rediscovering the Bookof Mormon (FARMS & Deseret, 1991), 38-51; Monford Harris, Exodus and Exile: The Structure of theJewish Holidays (Fortress, 1992); Bruce J. Boehm, "Wanderers in the Promised Land: A Study of theExodus Motif in the Book of Mormon and Holy Bible," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 3/1 (Spring1994), 187-203.
Ze’ev Meshel, “Wilderness Wanderings: Ethnographic Lessons from Modern Bedouin,”45
Biblical Archaeology Review, 34/4 (July-Aug 2008), 32-39, citing especially B. Mazar, “The Exodus andConquest of Israel,” Canaan and Israel (Israel Exploration Society, 1974), 100 (Hebrew).
G. Mendenhall and G. Herion, “Covenant,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:1183-1188, citing46
esp. H. Huffmon, CBQ, 27 (1965), 101-113.
12
loyalty oaths. As Richard Friedman has noted, the similarity of the47
structure and legal terminology of biblical covenant to the earlier
legal contracts and international treaties is very important as a
diagnostic tool in the dating of texts, although Kitchen rules out48
any date earlier than 1380 B.C. on the grounds that the applicable
covenant-format had not been invented until then! That is likely49
an attribution to the evidence a chronological precision it does not
have.
Culture
Ziony Zevit has commented on Baruch Halpern’s approach to
the question of the authenticity of a Late Bronze Age Exodus as
follows:
B. Halpern argues that the story of the enslavement and
exodus and the poem in Exodus 15 was told within a milieu
aware of some Late Bronze socio-political realities in Egypt:
building activities of Raameses, the rise in use of forced
labor, the drafting of immigrants into the Nile Delta for such
work, the presence of Sea Peoples settled in Philistia.
Assuming that Halpern is correct and that such realities were
not also characteristic of Iron Age Egypt, the question remains
G. Mendenhall, “Covenant Forms in Israelite Tradition,” Biblical Archeologist, 17 (1954), 50-47
76; Mendenhall and Herion in Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:1184, re Deut 6 and 28; arguing to the contraryare R. Frankena, “The Vassal-Treaties of Esarhaddon and the Dating of Deuteronomy,”Oudtestamentische Studien, 14 (1965), 122-154; M. Weinfeld, “The Loyalty Oath in the Ancient NearEast,” Ugarit-Forschungen, 8 (1976), 392-393; discussed in W. Schniedewind, How the Bible Became aBook: The Textualization of Ancient Israel (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004), 135,230-231.
R. Friedman in part one of “Kingdom of David: Saga of the Israelites,” PBS-TV Empires48
Series, #9 (PBS/Paramount, 2003). However, Friedman failed in the application of this tool to the casehe commented on.
Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:703.49
13
whether or not such awareness indicates a kernel of historical
memory and hence, perhaps, a remembered event.50
Again, possibly a matter of later glossing from a known period, but
unrelated to the the original event, as follows:
Names & Places
Edmund S. Meltzer (Egyptologist formerly of the Claremont
Colleges, but now residing in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, in retirement)
has noted that the personal names of Kings Merneptah and
Ramesses are used as place-names in the Hebrew Bible. 51
Together with other toponyms connected to the Exodus story, such
factors dovetail with what is known of actual toponyms and events
of the period. I add here to Meltzer’s notes by referring to
additional information culled from the Anchor Bible Dictionary:
Ramesses = 22/39 – the city and land in Gen 47:11, Ex 1:11,
12:37, Num 33:3,5, and Judith 1:9 = Pharaonic residence Pi-
Rameses located in the northeast Egyptian Delta at Khatana
Qantir, to which West Asiatic )Apiru (Hebrews) hauled huge52
stones for the main temple (Papyrus Leiden 348, 6:6), just as53
foreign slaves (Canaanite-Syrian & Nubian) are depicted on the
Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel (Continuum, 2001), 687, n. 134, citing Halpern, “The50
Exodus and the Israelite Historians,” Eretz Israel, 24 (1993), 92-93.
Meltzer letter in Bible Review, XVIII/6 (Dec 2002), 12.51
Labib Habachi, Tell el-Dab)a I: Tell el-Dab)a and Qantir the Site and Its Connection with52
Avaris and Piramesse (Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2001).
A. Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence (Eisenbrauns, 1997),53
18; J. Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt: The Archaeological Context of the Exodus,” Biblical ArchaeologyReview, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 35, citing his Israel in Egypt, 114, and adding that )Apiru also appear in the19 Dynasty Tomb of Intef; see the examples and discussion by James E. Hoch, Semitic Words in theth
Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period (Princeton Univ. Press, 1994), 60-63.
14
walls the 15 century Tomb of Rekhmire making mud bricksth
for a storehouse of the Temple of Amun at Karnak. 54
Egyptian texts from the Ramesside period speak both of the
lack of straw essential to brick-making, as well as brick-making
quotas which sometimes could not be met, both of which are55
directly reminiscent of biblical texts in Exodus. Moreover,
Manfred Bietak thinks that he can distinguish proto-Israelite
dwellings in Egypt in the late 12 century B.C. (Dyn XX): four-th
room houses or huts (with typical pillar separation of the center
room/ courtyard from one side room, but in this case with
entry from the broad room, rather than the courtyard/middle
long room) excavated by the Univ. of Chicago at Medinet Habu
opposite Luxor. Those living there “were probably slaves
descended from prisoners of war from Palestine or the desert
of Seir–perhaps early or proto-Israelites.” These are quite late,56
however.
Merneptah = (&;51 */ (Me-Nephtoach) Josh 15:9 (BHS n), 18:15
(Well of Merneptah), a place-name also mentioned in Papyrus
Anastasi III (ANET 258 “wells of Merneptah”). Merneptah, son3
of Rameses II, lived at Pi-Rameses for a time. Mention of a
people known as “Israel” somewhere in Canaan (most likely
Transjordan) in the 1208 B.C. Merneptah Stele from Western
Thebes.57
Shown in J. Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 32.54
Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 34-35 and nn. 12-15, citing especially55
R. A. Caminos, Late-Egyptian Miscellanies (Oxford Univ. Press, 1954), 106,188; and K. Kitchen, “Fromthe Brickfields of Egypt,” Tyndale Bulletin, 27 (1976), 141-144.
Bietak, Manfred, “Israelites Found in Egypt,” BAR, 29/5 (Sept-Oct 2003), 40-47,49,82-83. 56
A. Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 18-19; F. Yurco in57
Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 27-55.
15
Pi-Atum = Pithom .;5 Ex 1:11 (cf. Coptic Bohairic Gen 46:28), Tell
el-Retabeh = Ancient Egyptian Pr-&Itm, or Pi-‘Atum “Temple of
Atum.” During the reign of Merneptah, some Edomite tribesmen
were allowed to “pass the fortress Merneptah-hetep-hir-maat
which is in Tjeku (Succoth)” to gain access to “the pools of
Pi-Atum,” as described in Papyrus Anastasi VI.58
Succoth = Sukkot ;&,2 Ex 12:37, Num 33:5 (Tell el-Maskhuta) =
Egyptian Tkw, Tkw, mentioned in Papyrus Anastasi V (ANET3
259) and VI (see above).
Red Sea = “Sea of Reeds” Yam-Suf 4&2 .* Ex 14:21, 23:31 (LXX
¦DL2D�H 2"8VFF0H “Red Sea”) = Ancient Egyptian p1 twf(y) “the
Marsh, Wetlands; Reeds” = Tjaru / Sile (on the eastern border,
at the northernmost point of the El-Ballah Lakes) in the
Ramesside Onomastica of Amenemopet.59
Thus, as Abraham Malamat and others have argued, the
Israelites appear to be part of a larger group of H. abiru / )Apiru /
.*9"3 “Hebrews” (a widespread class of people), who are mentioned
in the Amarna Letters, for example, as a Late Bronze Age
seminomadic people in Palestine, some of whom were in fact
Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 34, citing A. Gardiner, Late-Egyptian58
Miscellanies (Brussells, 1937), 77; cf. Tom Wei, “Pithom,” in D. Freedman, Anchor Bible Dictionary,V:376-377.
Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 40-41, citing A. Gardiner, Ancient59
Egyptian Onomastica (1947), II:122-202; Manfred Bietak, Tell el-Dab)a (Vienna, 1975), II:136-137; andWilliam Ward, “The Biconsonantal Root Sp and the Common Origin of Egyptian Cwf and the HebrewSup: Marsh (-Plant),” Vetus Testamentum, 24 (1974), 339-349. Cf. Aramaic: yamma’ œimmoqa’ !/* !8&/: (cf. Heb 8/2 “red”), “Red Sea,” referring to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, as noted byJoseph A. Fitzmyer in his The Genesis Apocryphon of Qumran Cave I: A Commentary (Rome 1966 /2nded., 1971), re 1QapGn 21:17-18 (= Erythrean Sea/ zÅñõèñÜí... èÜëáóóáí, citing Josephus, Antiquities,I,1,3 §39; Herodotus 1:180, 2:11,158, 4:42; Pliny Hist. Nat. 6:28; Jubilees 8:21, 9:2, I Enoch 32:2, 77:7-9; 4QEn frag 2:20; Berossus; Xenophon; cf. J. T. Milik, RB, 65 [1958], 71).c
16
enslaved in Egypt, and (if the biblical account is to be taken60
seriously) a small number of whom presumably escaped and found
refuge in the Land of Midian (east of Aqaba and perhaps near61
Wadi Rumm in present-day southern Jordan and northwestern Saudia
– the northern Hijaz), where they remained for an extended period
(40 years in the wilderness is probably symbolic), later crossing over
the Jordan River and inhabiting the central hill country of Palestine
near the large population of already-present, urban Canaanites, i.e., it
is very difficult to differentiate the material culture of either group at
that early stage. The assumption has been that this is true
linguistically and ethnically as well. However, it is not in fact62
proven that highland “agriculture, religion, and language” is continuous
“with the Canaanite culture of the western coastal plains” – a notion
which Anson Rainey called “a pipe dream,” loosely based on “a
‘continuity’ in the ceramic repertoire of the Early Iron Age settlements
(1200-1000 B.C.E.).” In fact, Rainey pointed out that “the same
continuity can be found between the Late Bronze Age pottery from
Jordan, east of the river.” Such broadly based continuity in63
ceramics masks any non-material distinctions which may have been
Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 18; cf. A. Mazar,60
Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 237,241,355 (n. 55, “In one Egyptian document the land of Shasuis called ‘Yahu,’ possibly a distortion of the name of the God of Israel.”); Lawrence Stager in M Coogan,
¯ed., Oxford History of the Biblical World, 138; cf. Nadav Na'aman, "Habiru and Hebrews: The Transferof a Social Term to the Literary Sphere," JNES, 45 (1986), 271-288.
Also known as Cushan (Hab 3:7); cf. Ex 2:21, Num 10:29, 12:1.61
A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 366-367 (n. 55), 554; cf. Ann E. Killebrew,62
Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines and EarlyIsrael (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005).
Anson Rainey letter in Biblical Archaeology Review, 33/3 (May-June 2007), 78, replying to63
William Dever’s remarks in the Jan-Feb 2007 BAR. Cf. Rainey. “Whence Came the Israelites and TheirLanguage?” Israel Exploration Journal, 57 (2007), 41-64; Rainey, “Inside, Outside: Where Did the EarlyIsraelites Come From?” BAR, 34/6 (Nov-Dec 2008), 45-50,84.
17
present. At the same time, Rainey rejected any linguistic or ethnic
connection of the early Israelites/ Hebrews with the H. abiru / )Apiru.64
Rainey argued that “Israel” in the Merneptah Stele is an
ethnicon referring to a people then in Transjordan, not in the central
hill country of Palestine. He notes that, like all other Egyptian
kings, Merneptah lists his victories in geographical order. In this
case, Ashkelon, Gezer, and Yano)am are known city-states, the last
of which is in Transjordan. Since Israel is next in order, the
conclusion is obvious. Moreover, Rainey recalled for us that it was
precisely in Transjordan that the Patriarch Jacob was renamed Israel
(Gen 32:28). This is a very strong, well-established tradition.65
Surveys show that, in the nine key areas known to have been
occupied by Israel by Iron I, "eighty-eight Late Bronze Age sites"
occupied "a built-up area of more than 200 hectares (500 acres), for
an estimated total population of about 50,000." The same surveys
show that by Iron I, there were 678 settlements, each a hectare or
less, "for a total of about 600 hectares (nearly 1,500 acres), with
an estimated 150,000 inhabitants" – most such sites on new
foundations. This increase cannot be explained by a natural birth-
rate, but only by "a major influx of people into the highlands in the
twelfth and eleventh centuries" B.C. "Settlement is especially dense
in the territories of Manasseh and Ephraim in the west and in
Anson Rainey, review in JAOS, 107 (1987), 539-541, of O. Loretz, Habiru-Hebräer: Eine64
sozio-linguistische Studie über die Herkunft des Gentiliziums )ibri zum Appellativum H.abiru, BZAW 160(Berlin: de Gruyter, 1984); Rainey, “Shasu or Habiru: Who Were the Early Israelites?” BAR, 34/6 (Nov-Dec 2008), 51-55; cf. Moshe Greenberg, The Hab/piru (New Haven: AOS, 1955).
Rainey letter in BAR, 33/3 (May-June 2007), 78; cf. Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible: A65
Historical Geography, rev. ed., trans. A. Rainey (Phila.: Westminster, 1979), in which such geographicalsequencing is systematically employed.
18
Gilead and Moab in the east," both of which were only lightly
populated in the L.B.66
Midian
If we backtrack just a bit, we will at the outset have to
contend with the biblical claim that Moses first fled to Midian, made
his home there, raised a family there, and much later returned there
from Egypt with the refugee Israelites. His own father-in-law, the
Priest of Midian, advised him both on the route to follow in
escaping from Egypt (Numbers 10:29-32) and on how to administer
justice within his newly formed tribal league or amphictyony (Exodus
18:13-27). Was the Israelite destination indeed Midian in the67
northern Hijaz? Can we deny the obvious?
Midian was, of course, the eponymous son of Abraham and
Keturah (Gen 25:2), his descendants being a complex culture of
tribal chiefs and camel caravaneers associated with the highly
developed tribes of Moab and Sinai, both in South Transjordan, as
well as with the Ishmaelites (Gen 36:35, 37:25-36, 39:1, Num 22:4,7,
Judges 8:24, Isaiah 10:26 = II Nephi 20:26). Hebrew 0*$/ / 0$/
Midyan / Medan (Gen 25:2) both appear as towns east of Aqaba in
Hellenistic sources, leading Frank Moore Cross, Jr., P. Kyle68
McCarter, Jr., and Lawrence E. Stager to posit that the Midian
Lawrence E. Stager, "Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel," in M. D. Coogan,66
ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World (N.Y./Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998), 134-135.
The concept of amphictyony has gone out of fashion, but, as A. Gunneweg has observed,67
something very much like it is needed to explain the nature of the early Israelite tribal confederation(Gunneweg, Understanding the Old Testament (London: SCM/ Phila.: Westminster, 1978], 100-104,cited in John Goldingay, Approaches to Old Testament Interpretation, rev. ed. [InterVarsity Press, 1990],45).
G. E. Mendenhall in Anchor Bible Dictionary, IV:815,817, citing E. Knauf in ZDMG, 13568
(1985), 16-21, and Knauf, Midian, ADPV (1988).
19
known to Moses and to the Israelite refugees was in that very area
– not in the Sinai. This is actually a revival of the Old Midianite
Hypothesis, suggesting that the Israelite Exodus came across south-
central Sinai, the Arabah (camping on a kewir – mud flat), and69 70
Aqaba (with a detour through Kadesh Barnea), into the Hijaz of
southern Transjordan and northwestern Sa#udia – where the highest
mountain is Jebel el-Lawz, at 8,465 feet (22,856 m), although Sinai
/ Horeb could be anywhere in Midian (which included later south
Edom). The traditional Mount Sinai in the Sinai peninsula is just71
not a realistic option.
M. Macdonald has said that “[f]rom the late second
millennium, parts of the Hejaz and Tabuk region in the north were
intensively settled.” George Mendenhall has said that Midianites72
were obviously present in that area from at least the 13 centuryth
B.C., “with numerous town and village sites . . . from the end of
the LB into the early Iron ages.” He states that they had “walled
cities, sophisticated irrigation installations, and” engaged in “mining
John D. Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, 136-137, citing I. Beit-Arieh, “The69
Route through Sinai: Why the Israelites Fleeing Egypt Went South,” BAR, 14/3 (1988), 28-37.
K. Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:706(4), citing Lucas, Route of the70
Exodus (London, 1938), 58-63,81, and Beit-Arieh (above). However, he seems unaware of the MidianiteHypothesis.
F. M. Cross, interviewed by H. Shanks in Bible Review, August 1992; F. M. Cross, From Epic71
to Canon (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ., 1998), 63-68; L. Stager, "Forging an Identity: TheEmergence of Ancient Israel," in M. D. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World(N.Y./Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998), 122-175, citing especially Peter Parr, "Qurayya," in Freedman,ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, V:594-596; Thomas Levy, “King Solomon’s Mines and the Archaeologyof the Edom Lowlands: Recent Excavations in Southern Jordan,” delivered at Bible & Archaeology FestX, Part 3:Beyond the Bible: Exploring Relevant Sites and Texts, available on DVD in BAS Lecture Series(BAS item 9HLX3). Cf. Howard Blum, The Gold of Exodus: The Discovery of the True Mount Sinai(N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1998), reviewed in BAR, 25/4 (Jul-Aug 1999), 54,56.
M. C. A. MacDonald, “Along the Red Sea,” in Jack Sasson, et al., eds., Civilizations of the72
Ancient Near East, 4 vols. (N.Y.: Scribner’s Sons, 1995), 2:1350.
20
and smelting operations, . . .” Below, I discuss the very73
significant archeological work of Thomas Levy and Mohammad Najjar
at nearby Edomite Khirbet el-Nahas, and the similar conclusions
which can be drawn from it.74
The advantage of this Arabian Hijaz area is that it provides
the mountain caves, food, abundant water, and advanced culture
lacking at the traditional Sinai desert site. Moreover, the75
Midianites, like the Edomites and Nabataeans after them, were very
much involved in the incense trade from South Arabia. It has been
suggested that interference with that Midianite trade led to the battle
in Judges 5. This also ties in particularly well with the Qenite76
(Kenite) tendencies evident in Lehi's much later clan activities early
in the Book of Mormon, with his naming his son Lemuel (localized
to the nearby area of Massa ), with his close kinship with Ishmael,77
and in his other archaizing tendencies as well. Note, for example,
Mendenhall in Anchor Bible Dictionary, IV:817, citing P. Paar, et al., Bulletin of the Institute73
of Archaeology, 8-9 (1970), 193-242; and M. Ingraham, et al., Atlal, 5 (1981), 59-84. See also H. St.John Philby, The Land of Midian (London: Ernst Benn, 1957).
Thomas E. Levy & Mohammad Najjar, “Edom & Copper: The Emergence of Ancient Israel’s74
Rival,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 24-35,70; cf. John N. Wilford, “In a RuinedCopper Works, Evidence That Bolsters a Doubted Biblical Tale,” New York Times, June 13, 2006, onlineat www.nytimes.com .
M. C. A. MacDonald, “Along the Red Sea,” in Jack Sasson, et al., eds., Civilizations of the75
Ancient Near East (N.Y.: Scribner’s Sons, 1995), 2:1350, claims that “[f]rom the late second millennium,parts of the Hejaz and Tabuk region in the north were intensively settled.”
J. David Schloen, "Caravans, Kenites, and Casus Belli: Enmity and Alliance in the Song of76
Deborah," Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 55 (1993), 18-38, cited by Stager.
Lemu’el is biblical King of Massa’ (Proverbs 31:1,4; cf. 30:1-4), a city in northwest Arabia,77
probably near Tayma, and mentioned in eighth and seventh century Assyrian Annals. Massa’ is also thename of a son of biblical Ishma’el (Gen 25:14, I Chron 1:30). W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods ofCanaan, 253 n. 133, maintaining an archaic Aramaic and Canaanite background for Lemu’el, Agur, andBalaam, and citing his “The Biblical Tribe of Massa’ and Some Cogeners,” in Studi orientalistici inonore di Giorgio Levi della Vida (Rome, 1957). That Lehi takes both Lemu’el and Ishma’el into thewilderness with him is remarkable only in the absence of such information..
21
Lehi's willingness to sacrifice where and when he pleases (I Nephi
2:7, 5:9, 7:22), in violation of Deuteronomy 12:13-14, but in line with
earlier Exodus 20:21-24 – following the practice of the Patriarchs. 78
This also has implications for our understanding of Yahwe /
Jehovah, KJV “LORD,” since (according to F. M. Cross) Pre-Mosaic
Yahweh "He who creates" (= the tetragram YHWH), must originally
be read as verbally descriptive of "’El as patron deity of the
Midianite League in the south, . . ." As a name by itself, YHWH
first appears in 14th & 13th century B.C. lists of Edomite toponyms
in Egyptian as yhw3, to be read as ya-h-wi, or the like (cf.79
YHWH in the Mesha Stele, line 18, in Moabite ). South Canaanite80
.Yahwe Seba’ot means "He creates the (divine) Hosts" (Yahwe ’lohe
Bernard Levinson, Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation (N.Y.: Oxford78
Univ. Press, 1997); cf. S. Kent Brown, From Jerusalem to Zarahemla (Provo: BYU Religious StudiesCenter, 1998), 1-8, and Brown in Parry, Peterson, and Welch, eds., Echoes and Evidences of the Book ofMormon (Provo: FARMS, 2002), 63, citing Psalm 107:4-6,19-30, Job 1:5, and Lev 1 and 3 à la JacobMilgrom, Leviticus 1 - 16, Anchor Bible 3 (N.Y.: Doubleday, 1991), 175-177, 218-219, 267-268; 858;David R. Seely, “Lehi’s Altar and Sacrifice in the Wilderness,” Journal of Bok of Mormon Studies, 10/1(2001), 62-69; Michael L. Ingraham, et al., “Saudi Arabian Comprehensive Survey Program: C.Preliminary Report on a Reconnaissance Survey of the Northwestern Province (with a Note on a BriefSurvey of the Northern Province),” Atlal: The Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology, 5 (1981/1401A.H.), 59-84. See generally H. St. John Philby, The Land of Midian (London: Ernst Benn, 1957); BenoRothenberg and Jonathan Glass, “The Midianite Pottery,” in J. F. A. Sawyer and D. J. A. Clines, eds.,Midian, Moab and Edom: The History and Archaeology of Late Bronze and Iron Age Jordan and North-West Arabia, JSOT Supplement 24 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1983), 65-124.
Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, 60-75; cf. Cross, From Epic to Canon, 67 n. 51; A.79
Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 355 n. 55, on Yahu for Shasu; note that in both his Yahwehand the Gods of Canaan: A Historical Analysis of Two Contrasting Faiths (London, 1968), 147-149, nn.44-52; and his From the Stone Age to Christianity (1957), 15-16, William F. Albright reasoned from theHebrew-Aramaic root hwy “fall; become, come into existence,” through to its late 3MS qal-causative-indicative form Yahwe (jussive Yahu), “He-(Who)-Causes-to-Come-Into-Existence; It-Is-He-Who-Creates” (Ex 3:14), which is very similar to use of the ancient Egyptian verb h.pr “become, come intoexistence; occur, happen, come to pass,” in its 3MS causative form sh.pr.f, which is commonly used inpersonal names. Both verbs also appear in the consecutive narrative use “It came to pass, it happened.”
G. Reynolds, Book of Abraham (1879), 47; André Lemaire, "'House of David' Restored in80
Moabite Inscription," BAR, 20:3 (May-June 1994), 30-37.
22
.Seba’ot is thus secondary) ; cf. also Judges 5:20, I Sam 17:45, I
81
Ki 22:19, Isa 6:1-5, Amos 4:13.
That half-Manasseh later settles in the well-forested
Transjordanian hills and plateau of Gilead and in the Succoth Valley
enroute into the Promised Land does conform “to the biblical sources
about Ammon” and to the archeological evidence of that period in
Transjordan. Moreover, a painted pottery unique to Midian is also82
found at this time “in the Jordan valley and Palestine proper.” 83
Both!! This and other evidence certainly suggests that the Israelite
settlement could have, and probably did take place as described,
from east to west across the Jordan River.84
Jo Ann Hackett notices another significant indicator: In the
earliest biblical accounts (mostly the early poetry in Deuteronomy
33:2-3, Judges 5:4-5, Habakkuk 3:1-6, Psalm 68:7-18, etc.), she finds
that Yahweh the Warrior typically “begins his battles by marching out
to war, usually from the region to the south or southeast of biblical
Israel,” i.e., Midian.85
F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, 65, 69.81
A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 359.82
Mendenhall in Anchor Bible Dictionary, IV:817, citing P. Paar, in A. Hadidi, ed., Studies in the83
History and Archaeology of Jordan (Amman, 1982), 127-133; B. Isserlin, The Israelites, 171, 187 fig.46; Beno Rothenberg and Jonathan Glass, “The Midianite Pottery,” in J. F. A. Sawyer and D. J. A.Clines, eds., Midian, Moab and Edom: The History and Archaeology of Late Bronze and Iron AgeJordan and North-West Arabia, JSOT Supplement 24 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1983), 65-124.
Anson Rainey, “Inside, Outside: Where Did the Early Israelites Come From?” BAR, 34/684
(Nov-Dec 2008), 45-50,84.
J. Hackett in M Coogan, ed., Oxford History of the Biblical World (Oxford Univ. Press, 1998),85
212-215; quote from 212.
23
Egypticity
If the Exodus is to be given any credence at all, however,
why is there not strong evidence of Egyptian material culture – or
the remnants of it – among the Israelite refugees who inhabit the
central hill country of Palestine at the beginning of the Iron Age?
One answer is that centuries had already gone by from the time of
the actual Exodus and entry into Canaan. The other answer is that
there are indeed many examples of Egypticity in certain key aspects
of early Israelite culture: linguistic and architectural.
Thus, whether we are considering the numerous technical terms
for religious paraphernalia which the Israelites had borrowed from
ancient Egypt, including the actual Egyptian structure and method of86
transport (#ag~lâ) of the Israelite tabernacle (tent) in the wilderness87
(similar to one used at Midianite Timna), and the highly Egyptian88
John A. Tvedtnes, “Egyptian Etymologies for Biblical Cultic Paraphernalia,” in S. Israelit-86
Groll, ed., Scripta Hierosolymitana, 28 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1982), 215-221 (Tvedtnes expandedon this in his November 1997 SBL San Francisco presentation); Shmuel Yeivin, “Canaanite RitualVessels in Egyptian Cultic Practice,” JEA, 62 (1976), 110-114 (with illus.); Abraham S. Yahuda, TheLanguage of the Pentateuch (Oxford, 1933), translation of his Die Sprache des Pentateuch in ihrenBeziehungen zum Aegyptischen, I (Berlin/Leipzig, 1929).
Kenneth A. Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Anchor Bible Encyclopedia, II:706(5.c). Hebrew87
#agâlâ = Egyptian #grt “wagon, cart” (Demotic #klt = Coptic aèolte, akolte).
Kitchen, "The Tabernacle–A Bronze Age Artifact," Eretz-Israel, 24 (1993), 119-129; Michael88
M. Homan, “The Divine Warrior in His Tent: A Military Model for Yahweh’s Tabernacle,”Bible Review,16/6 (Dec 2000), 22-33,35; Kenneth A. Kitchen, “The Desert Tabernacle: Pure Fiction or PlausibleAccount?” Bible Review, 16/6 (Dec 2000), 14-21; Peter Cooper, “Of Badger Skins and Dugong Hides: ATranslator’s Guide to Tabernacle Covers,” Bible Review, 16/6 (Dec 2000), 30-31 (sidebar); Frank MooreCross, Jr., “The Priestly Tabernacle,” Biblical Archeologist Reader, I (1961), 201-228; Cross, “ThePriestly Tabernacle in the Light of Recent Research,” in T. Madsen, ed., The Temple in Antiquity:Ancient Records and Modern Perspectives, BYU Religious Studies Center Monograph Series, 9 (SLC:Bookcraft, 1984), 91-105; previously published in A. Biran, ed., Temples and High Places in BiblicalTimes (Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College, 1981), 169-180; Richard Elliott Friedman, “The Tabernacle inthe Temple,” Biblical Archeologist, 43 (1980), 241-248; Friedman, “Tabernacle,” in D. N. Freedman,ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols. (Doubleday, 1992), VI:292-300.
24
features of the Ark of the Covenant and the Brazen Serpent, the89
long silver trumpets, the two-fold division of the priesthood into90
ordinary w#b-priests and high priests, and the more general linguistic
patterns taken over from Egyptian literary and poetic practice, we91
are left to explain how these archaic features could have embedded
themselves at such an early horizon among a people who do not
show many other easily recoverable Egyptian aspects of material
culture once they have entered Canaan.
Nor are we concerned with the tremendously strong cultural ties
between Israel and Egypt in later centuries. These have been well
covered in a variety of detailed works.92
Did Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho?
Joshua 6 recounts the extraordinary destruction of the walls of
Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) during the early Israelite assault. Yet
evidence of such a breach in the walls there has yet to be
discovered, and this has led to unnecessary consternation in some
John Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, 146-149; Kitchen in ABD, II:706-707(5.c).89
Kitchen in ABD, II:706-707(5.c).90
P. C. Craige, “An Egyptian Expression in the Song of the Sea (Ex XV:4)," VT, XX/1 (Jan91
1970), 83-86; A. S. Yahuda, The Language of the Pentateuch (1933); O. Goelet, “Moses’ EgyptianName,” Bible Review, 19/3 (June 2003), 12-17,50-51; J. G. Griffiths, “The Egyptian Derivation of theName Moses,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 12 (1953), 225-231.
Bernd Ulrich Schipper, Israel und Ägypten in der Königszeit: Die kulturellen Kontakte von92
Salomo bis zum Fall Jerusalems, OBO 170 (Freiburg/Göttingen, 1999); Gregory Mumford,"International Relations Between Egypt, Sinai, and Syria-Palestine in the LB Age to Early Persian Period(Dynasties 18-26; cf. 1950-525 B.C.): A Spatial and Temporal Analysis of the Distribution andProportions of Egyptian(izing) Artefacts and Pottery in Sinai and Selected Sites in Syria-Palestine," 4vols., doctoral dissertation (University of Toronto, 1998); Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israelin Ancient Times (Princeton, 1992); Yoshiyuki Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords inNorth-West Semitic, SBL Dissertation Series 173 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999); O. Goldwasser, “AnEgyptian Scribe from Lachish and the Hieratic Tradition of the Hebrew Kingdoms,” Tel Aviv, 18 (1991),248-253.
25
quarters. Following the biblical chronology, however, John Bimson
and Bryant Wood have responded by suggesting a mid-15 centuryth
B.C. date for the Exodus, and by identifying “a Late Bronze I93
destruction level at Jericho,” which Amihai Mazar off-handedly94
regards as “naive and irrelevant.” In fact, the first excavator there,95
John Garstang, dated the destruction level at Jericho to ca. 1400
B.C. based on careful and accurate ceramic analysis.96
Wood goes on to recount other instances in which an
unseemly rush to debunk the Bible has been based quite literally on
bunk! The early Israelite shrine at Shiloh was supposed by the
Bible to have been “destroyed and abandoned around the middle of
the 11 century B.C.,” and excavations confirm this. Archeologyth 97
shows that the sophisticated city of Dan-Laish, stratum VII (with its
Mycenaean and Sidonian ceramics), was destroyed in the 12th
century B.C. (Judges 18), and the population then replaced “by
squatters who used collared-rim store jars, typically associated with
Israelite settlement, made from clay foreign to the Tel Dan area.” 98
Wood goes on to cite his excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir (less
J. J. Bimson, Redating the Exodus and Conquest (Sheffield, 1981).93
Bryant G. Wood, “Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological94
Evidence,” Biblical Archaeological Review, 16/2 (Mar-Apr 1990), 44-58; Wood, “The Rise and Fall ofthe 13 Century Exodus-Conquest Theory,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 48/3 (Septth
2005), 475-489; Michael Coogan, “Question Authority!” BAR, 32/3 (May-June 2006), 24.
A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 10,000-586 B.C.E. (Doubleday, 1990/1992),95
553-554.
Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-April 2007), 78, citing his article in BAR, 16/2 (Mar-Apr 1990), 44-58,96
and B. Halpern, “The Assassination of Eglon,” Bible Review, 4/6 (Nov-Dec 1998), 33-41,44, re Judges 3.
Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 26, citing his pieces in D. Howard & M. Grisanti, eds.,97
Giving the Sense (2003), 256-282, and JETS, 48 (2005), 475-489, as well as Paul Ray in G. Carnagey,ed., Beyond the Jordan (2005), 93-104.
Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 26.98
26
than a mile from et-Tell) as indicative of identification with the
ancient )Ai of Joshua – it had “a small border fortress dating to the
15 century B.C. that had been destroyed by fire.” Heretofore, )Aith 99
(Joshua 7 - 8) = Hai (Gen 12:8, 13:3) has been considered a
major stumbling block to any sort of verification of a biblical
Conquest theory – as had long been the case for Jericho.100
Shechem (Tell Balatah)
Shechem was already an important site in Late Bronze Age
Canaanite times (Gen 34:11-26, I Ki 12), and the Temple of Baal /
El-Berith (Judges 9:4), and the Oak of Moreh just outside of town
(Gen 12:6, 35:4) continued to be important sanctuaries or cult
centers into Israelite times. Lawrence Stager’s excavation found101
the gate, temple, and city destruction as described for the mid-12th
century B.C. Shechem in Judges 9. The Israelites again.102
Was King David a Real King?
Though the issue remains controversial, the late Yigal Shiloh
found a very large Proto-Aeolic capital (typical of Israelite palace
construction) near the monumental stepped stone structure (a
Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 78, citing his “The Search for Joshua’s Ai,” in R. Hess, G.99
Klingbeil, and P. Ray, eds., Critical Issues in the Early History of Israel (Eisenbrauns, 2008), and JosephCallaway, “Was My Excavation of Ai Worthwhile?” BAR, 11/2 (Mar-Apr 1985), 68, and Z. Zevit, “TheProblem of Ai,” BAR, 11/2 (Mar-Apr 1985), 58-69.
Joseph Callaway, “Ai,” in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:125-130.100
Miller & Hayes, History of Ancient Israel and Judah, 262-263, 277-278, citing esp. I.101
Finkelstein & N. Na’aman, “Shechem of the Amarna Period and the Rise of the Northern Kingdom ofIsrael,” IEJ, 55 (2005), 172-193.
L. Stager, “The Shechem Temple Where Abimelech Massacred a Thousand,” BAR, 29/4102
(July-Aug 2003), 26-31, 33-35, 66, 68-69, cited by B. Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 26.
27
revetment?) of the City of David, and recent excavations there by103
Eilat Mazar have disclosed a huge 10 century B.C. public structure,th
just south of the Temple Mount / Haram el-Sharif. She interprets it
as David’s Palace, underneath which she has found 11 & 12th th
century B.C. Canaanite pottery. She has also found 9 & 10th th
century pottery in the rooms of the supposed Palace, and a late 7th
century bulla of Yehucal son of Shelemiah son of Shevi (Jer 37:3,
38:1) from later levels.104
Larry Stager points to Hazael’s Stele found at Dan mentioning
a Bet David “House of David.” That is indicative of something more
than the “dimorphic chiefdom” claimed by Israel Finkelstein. 105
Indeed, how could such a poor Judah have been able to pay a tax
to Rehoboam? Or to King Shishak? Perhaps Judah was not so
poor. In fact, the archival list of government officials in I Kings 4
suggests a patrimonial state as defined by Max Weber. Thus, a
tribal confederation had become a tribal kingdom by the 10 centuryth
B.C. The Moabites and Arameans certainly viewed Israel-Judah as
a full-fledged state long before the 8 century. According to Stager,th
Finkelstein creates a “house of delusion” in his flawed theory of the
development of the Israelite State.106
A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 427; cf. 474, citing Y. Shiloh, The Proto103
Aeolic Capital and Israelite Ashlar Masonry, Qedem 11 (Jerusalem, 1979).
Eilat Mazar, “Did I Find King David’s Palace?” BAR, 32/1 (Jan-Feb 2006), 16-27,70; Etgar104
Lefkovitz, “Eilat Mazar: Uncovering King David’s Palace,” Moment, 31/2 (April 2006), 39-40; cf.Michael D. Coogan in BAR, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 59-60.
According to Stager, the evolutionary schema of clan, tribe, chiefdom, and state is too105
simplistic and linear. Is David a big chief, or a little king?
Stager made these observations during his four-hour formal debate with Israel Finkelstein at106
UCLA, May 30, 2003, based on my notes taken at the time.
28
Stager has gone on to note, moreover, that there was
meaningful scribal activity at Jerusalem in the 10 century – whichth 107
can be gauged by 10 century style Egyptian hieratic numerals beingth
used by Jewish scribes in the 8 century – when the Egyptians noth
longer used that style of numeral (and neighboring states did not
use that style either). The implication is clear: Egyptian scribal
schools strongly influenced Jewish scribes at the courts of David &
Solomon, even if they recorded things mostly on perishable materials
(Papyrus plants flourished in the Huleh Valley marshes and lakes,
and vellum was always an option).108
From the recently published results of the Oriental Institute
(Univ. of Chicago) excavations at Megiddo of the 1920s and 1930s,
we can now say that the Stratum VI destruction is probably due to
Israelite expansion under King David, not to mention Amnon Ben109
Tor’s conclusion that the 6-chambered gates at Gezer, Megiddo, and
Hazor are clearly Solomonic (I Kings 9:15-17). Taken together with
epigraphic evidence, such as the 9 century B.C. Mesha Inscriptionth
from Moab, and the nearly contemporary “House of David”110
inscription (Hazael Stele) from Tel Dan, it appears that King David111
Cf. R. N. Whybray, Wisdom in Proverbs (London: SCM, 1965), 71; Nili Shupak, Revue107
Biblique, 94 (1987), 98.
It is sometimes suggested that it is likely that David inherited the Jebusite/Amorite108
bureaucracy following his conquest of Jerusalem. These comments follow additional notes from theabove Stager-Finkelstein 2003 debate at UCLA.
Timothy P. Harrison, Megiddo 3 (Chicago: Oriental Institute, 2004). This book was selected109
as the 2005 Best Scholarly Book on Archaeology by the Biblical Archaeology Society, and was declareda model for doing “biblical archaeology,” even though it was published over half-a-century late!!
Andrew Dearman, ed., Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab (Atlanta: Scholars Press,110
1989); P. M. Michèle Daviau & Paul-Eugène Dion, “Moab Comes to Life,” Biblical ArchaeologyReview, 28/1 (Jan-Feb 2002), .
Avraham Biran & Joseph Naveh, “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan,” Israel111
Exploration Journal, 43 (1993), 81-98; “‘David’ Found at Dan,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 20/2
29
and his dynasty was far more formidable than the minimalists, such
as Israel Finkelstein, are willing to credit.
Early biblical accounts of Edom and the Edomites (Gen 36:31)
likewise appear now to be very credible, based on the recent
archaeological work of Thomas Levy and Mohammad Najjar at
Khirbet el-Nahas “Ruins of Copper.” That is, the Edomite lowlands112
were already occupied in the early Iron Age, and Edom was then
at least a “super chiefdom,” if not an archaic state, engaged in
large-scale and complex copper mining and metallurgy. Radiocarbon
dating of workshop and slag mounds (12th-11th centuries B.C.), and
the gatehouse (late 11th-early 10 centuries B.C.), makes thatth
abundantly clear. Highland sites were occupied only later (8th-6th
centuries B.C.). In other words, the early dates are in line with
the dating by Nelson Glueck over half-a-century ago.
Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman have called these
excavation results into question, and have attributed any mining or
building activity in Khirbet el-Nahas to the 8 century B.C., whenth
(they say) fictional tales about the legendary King David were being
composed in order to add glory to the legacy of the tribe of Judah.
However, the problem with that is the absence of copper production
in the 8 century B.C., as well as lack of any 8 century B.C.th th
pottery or carbon dates at Khirbet el-Nahas, along with the presence
of about 3,500 Early Iron Age burials in an Edomite cemetery in
(Mar-Apr 1994); Avraham Biran and Rachel Ben-Dor, Dan II: A Chronicle of the Excavations and theLate Bronze Age “Mycenaean” Tomb (Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College, Nelson Glueck School ofBiblical Archaeology, 2002); James D. Muhly, “Mycenaeans Were There Before the Israelites:Excavating the Dan Tomb,” BAR,31/5 (Sept-Oct 2005), 44,48; Hershel Shanks, “Happy Accident: DavidInscription,” BAR, 31/5 (Sept-Oct 2005), 46,48.
Thomas E. Levy & Mohammad Najjar, “Edom & Copper: The Emergence of Ancient Israel’s112
Rival,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 24-35,70; John N. Wilford, “In a RuinedCopper Works, Evidence That Bolsters a Doubted Biblical Tale,” New York Times, June 13, 2006, onlineat www.nytimes.com .
30
nearby Wadi Fidan. All the more reason to credit the Old113
Midianite Hypothesis!
Hershel Shanks, “Could the Edomites Have Wielded an Army to Fight David?” BAR, 33/1113
(Jan-Feb 2007), 67, citing Finkelstein & Silberman, David and Solomon (2006), which was thoroughlyreviewed by M. D. Coogan in BAR, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 56-60.
31
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