[b-hebrew] Amarna Letters Once Again
JimStinehart at aol.com
JimStinehart at aol.com
Wed Dec 26 13:13:05 EST 2007
Kenneth Greifer:
You wrote: “It sounds like you are saying that the patriarchal narratives
are a falsified version of Egyptian history that you think is truly explained in
the Amarna letters. I read some of the letters and the patriarchal stories,
and it is obvious that you don't mind saying the writer of the patriarchal
narratives is a liar telling a bunch of lies with only a few vaguely similar
themes in the stories. You have the right to believe that, but I don't feel
convinced that the similarities are enough to make up for all of the differences that
have to be explained as lies by the author of the patriarchal narratives.
Why don't you ever say the patriarchal narratives are full of lies? You keep
saying how great they are, but then you seem to show that they are also false. Am
I misunderstanding what you are saying?”
How could you possibly misunderstand my view of the Patriarchal narratives
like that?
Consider the Decapitation of the Shechem Offensive.
The Wellhausen Documentary Hypothesis holds that the Decapitation of the
Shechem Offensive is a totally fictional event, that was dreamed up by one of four
Hebrew authors in the mid-1st millennium BCE.
My view, on the contrary, is that chapter 34 of Genesis is closely based on
the historical Decapitation of the Shechem Offensive in the secular history of
the mid-14th century BCE. The Patriarchal narratives are not “full of lies”.
On the contrary, the Patriarchal narratives are very closely based on what
actually happened in secular history in the historical Patriarchal Age, which
in my view was the mid-14th century BCE.
In secular history, the first Hebrews probably did get a tempting offer from
the sons of the leader of Shechem. The landless, tent-dwelling Hebrews were
probably promised, as many other tent-dwelling habiru certainly were, the
possibility of being able to become landowners in the future, if they would only
help the men of Shechem take over central Canaan now. That is not a “lie”.
That is actual secular history. In the Amarna Letters, the leader of Shechem
has to make the lame claim to Akhenaten that the leader of Shechem supposedly
did not know that any of this was going on, that is, that he supposedly did not
know that his sons were trying to recruit the landless tent-dwelling habiru
and Hebrews to help Shechem take over central Canaan: “I did not know that my
son was consorting with the habiru.”
The Patriarchal narratives are not “false”. Rather, in this instance they
accurately portray the tempting offer that the first Hebrews historically
received from the city-state of Shechem in the mid-14th century BCE. The Hebrews,
to their great credit, refused to become second-class citizens of Shechem, and
certain of Akhenaten’s allies unilaterally killed the leader of Shechem,
thereby ending the threat that the Hebrews would become dominated by the
city-state of Shechem.
Are you complaining because I do not see Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi as
literally, in secular history, killing the men of Shechem? What I can say on that
score is that historically, the Hebrews supported the historical Decapitation
of the Shechem Offensive, and the Decapitation of the Shechem Offensive is an
historical event from the mid-14th century BCE, rather than being fiction
dreamed up in the mid-1st millennium BCE.
I myself see a tremendous amount of secular historical accuracy in the
Patriarchal narratives. But the author has brilliantly used artistic license to
weave these historical events into a mesmerizing storyline, where actions
actually taken by Gentiles in secular history are often attributed to the early
Hebrews. I do not see the author of the Patriarchal narratives as passively
recording what literally happened in secular history. But he is not telling “lies”
. No, he is weaving these actual historical events from the mid-14th century
BCE into what became the magnificent founding document of the Hebrews. The
author of the Patriarchal narratives was desperate to save Canaan and the new
Hebrews from being wiped out in a possible invasion of Canaan by the dreaded
Hittites.
All of my posts come from this same perspective. I see the Patriarchal
narratives as being composed in the mid-14th century BCE, by the first historical
Hebrew, and as being closely based on the traumatic events that historically
affected the first Hebrews in that time period.
I do not view the Patriarchal narratives as being “a falsified version of
Egyptian history”, as you allege. Rather, I view the Patriarchal narratives as
closely reflecting the dramatic historical incidents that threatened to wipe
out the first Hebrews in the mid-14th century BCE. It’s all told from a Hebrew
perspective, with a Hebrew mindset, and for the purpose of securing a goal
desperately needed by the first Hebrews. The strong Egyptian connection that is
there is simply that the first Hebrews historically needed Egypt at that time
to protect Canaan against the expanding Hittite threat.
So you have totally misunderstood my view. I see the Patriarchal narratives
as being closely based on the well-documented secular history of the mid-14th
century BCE, which in my view was the historical Patriarchal Age. I see the
Patriarchal narratives as always reflecting the Hebrew perspective on such
historical events. I do not think that Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi literally
killed the leader of Shechem and the men who were with him at the time. Such
killings in fact were done by the Gentile men of Jenin, in secular history. But
chapter 34 of Genesis is closely based on the facts of secular history, rather
than being mid-1st millennium BCE fiction, and accurately portrays both (i)
the tempting offer that historically was made by Shechem to the first Hebrews,
and (ii) the stalwart rejection of that tempting offer by the tent-dwelling
first Hebrews.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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