[b-hebrew] Amarna Letters
JimStinehart at aol.com
JimStinehart at aol.com
Mon Dec 24 20:39:49 EST 2007
Yahale Yadede:
You wrote: “I'm sorry if this question is repetitious, I missed some
earlier comments, but I'd like to ask what is the "Decapitation of the Shechem
Offensive" discussed by Mr. Stinehart?”
In The Bible
That’s chapter 34 of Genesis. The forces of the first historical
monotheistic leader of a people (in the Bible that’s Jacob), not at his direct command
and using morally questionable tactics, kill the leader of Shechem and the
men who are with him.
In The Mid-14th Century BCE
The forces of the first historical monotheistic leader of a people (in
secular history that’s Akhenaten), not at his direct command and using morally
questionable tactics, kill the leader of Shechem and the men who are with him.
Comparison
In both cases, the men of Shechem were trying to use tent-dwellers (habiru
or Hebrews) to be their troops to take over all of central Canaan.
In both cases, this morally questionable action was a grand success. The
Shechem threat was over and done with. That’s the Decapitation of the Shechem
Offensive.
One of the Amarna Letters has this great quote by the leader of Shechem
(shortly before he was killed), which sounds like it is coming straight out of
chapter 34 of Genesis:
“I did not know that my son was consorting with the habiru [Hebrews].”
Every single major foreign policy event in Akhenaten’s reign like this is
directly reflected in the Patriarchal narratives.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
**************************************See AOL's top rated recipes
(http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)
More information about the b-hebrew
mailing list