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  • From: peter_kirk AT sil.org
  • To: <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Rohl: An Evaluation
  • Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 15:52:29 -0400


I have now finished reading through David Rohl's controversial book "A
Test of Time" (Century, London 1995, also known as "Pharaohs and
Kings"). I am offering the following evaluation to the b-hebrew list,
in the light of the recent discussions on the list on Rohl's
chronology. I am trying to keep to aspects of this which are relevant
to b-hebrew.

It seems to me that Rohl's thesis can be divided into two. I choose to
present them in the opposite order to that which he does:

1) He has found (or borrowed from others e.g. Bimson) a number of
plausible correspondences between people and events named in the
Hebrew Bible (from the time of Jacob to the middle of the Divided
Monarchy) and archaeological finds in Egypt and Palestine, which are
not generally accepted because the Bible apparently dates these
considerably later than the conventional chronologies for Egypt and
for Palestinian archaeology.

2) He has found some internal inconsistencies in the conventional
chronology of Egypt and other Near Eastern nations, and has developed
his own new chronology in the light of these inconsistencies. Perhaps
inevitably, in eliminating some inconsistencies he has, according to
his critics, introduced new ones. But with this new chronology (which
is fairly flexible) the date discrepancies disappear for the
correspondences which he has noted between Egypt and Palestine. One
noteworthy point here is that, while Rohl is very sceptical about
traditional chronologies of Egypt, he generally sticks rigidly to a
chronology for the Israelites derived straight from the Biblical text,
as interpreted by Thiele.

Rohl's chronology differs from the conventional chronology by as much
as 377 years, in the dating of the start of the 18th dynasty (p.241)
and of the start of the Iron Age (pp.173, 175). He does this by
compressing the time from the Palestinian campaign in the 8th year of
Rameses II (conventionally 1272 BCE, according to Rohl 925 BCE i.e.
the 5th year of Rehoboam by Thiele's dating) to the sacking of Thebes
(undisputed date 664 BCE) from 608 years down to 261 years. To do this
he also has to compress the lengths of the Third Intermediate Period
and of the early Iron Age subdivisions very severely (Iron Age IB is
compressed from 150 years to 10!), whereas he has stretched the Hyksos
period (so that the discrepancy between the chronologies is less again
at the earlier end). There does seem to be a problem here.

A partial solution to the problem may be to realise that the Israelite
chronology may also need to be reexamined. For example, it is far from
impossible that some reigns have been omitted from the Israelite
record so that Rohl's correspondence between the time of Saul and
David and the Amarna period can be maintained, but with a conventional
dating or at least one not so severely adjusted. Perhaps a later
editor confused the invasions of Palestine by Rameses II and Shoshenk
I and simply omitted a long period of Israelite weakness between them.
This is of course not compatible with a literal understanding of
Biblical chronological data, but most scholars accept that omissions
may be made in genealogies and that such periods as the 480 years of 1
Kings 6:1 are conventional rather than literal.

On the other hand, Rohl has provided some clear evidence for the absolute
dating of his own scheme, independent of any Israelite chronology. The
most impressive is his evidence of a total solar eclipse at Ugarit in
1012 BCE, indirectly reported in an Amarna letter. If Rohl's
interpretation of this evidence is right, the Amarna period indeed
corresponds to that of David and Saul by the Thiele's chronology, but
Rohl's compressed Iron Age is required.

Peter Kirk

Appendix 1: Some Israel-Egypt correspondences noted by Rohl

It may be possible to maintain these correspondences even without
redating Egyptian chronology, by redating the Israelite events in
accordance with the conventional dates given here. (Rohl presents no
real evidence for his Jehoahaz and Jeroboam II correspondences, so
these could easily be dropped). Note that this scheme allows about 320
years from the Exodus to year 4 of Solomon, less than the 480 years of
1 Kings 6:1 which Rohl accepts but a bit more than the conventional
280 or so. This scheme allows 176 years for the Israelite sojourn in
Egypt, less that the 215 years which Rohl derives from Josephus, who
probably got this simply by halving the 430 years of Exodus 12:40 LXX.
On this scheme Neferhotep I might quite literally have been the first
Pharaoh who did not know Joseph (Exodus 1:8). Of course the larger
problem remains of how to fill the extra 350 years between Rehoboam
and Manasseh.

Event for Israel Approx historical setting Conventional date

Jacob moves to Egypt Year 21 of Amenemhat III 1797
Death of Joseph Early 13th dynasty 1725 (??)
Start of Oppression Reign of Neferhotep I (??) 1696-1685
Birth of Moses Year 3 of Sobekhotep IV 1683
Exodus End of reign of Dudimose 1621
Conquest MB IIB destruction of Jericho 1750-1550
Sheshai, ex-Hebron Sheshi, 15th dynasty (??) king 1633-1525
Abimelech at Shechem LB I destruction of Shechem 1550-1400
Battle of Ebenezer LB I destruction of Shiloh 1550-1400
Death of Saul Amarna letter EA 245 1380-1330
David captures Jerusalem Amarna letter EA 288 1380-1330
Solomon's Egyptian wife Daughter of Haremheb (late) c.1300
Solomon rebuilds Megiddo Megiddo VIII, LB IIA 1400-1300
Solomon builds Millo Millo discovered by Kenyon 1370-1310
Year 5 of Rehoboam Year 8 of Rameses II 1272
Jehoahaz of Israel (??) Year 20 of Shoshenk I 925
Jeroboam II (??) Megiddo VA/IVB 1000-900
Manasseh of Judah Sack of Thebes 664

Appendix 2: Some details of Rohl's redating
(all data from "A Test of Time")

Conventional Rohl Discrepancy (at start)

Amenemhat III 1817-1772 1682-1636 135
Sobekhotep IV 1685-1678 1529-1508 156
End of 13th dyn 1621 1447 174
Ahmose 1539-1514 1194-1170 345
Akhenaten 1352-1336 1022-1006 330
Rameses II 1279-1213 932- 347
Rameses III 1184-1153 c.880-853 (Omri/Ahab) c.300
Shoshenk I 945-924 823- 122
Osorkon II 874-850 789-762 85
Shoshenk III 825-773 762-723 63
Osorkon III 730-715 723- 7
Shabataka 702-690 698- 4
sack of Thebes 664 664 0

Assyrian rulers mentioned in Amarna and Hittite letters:
Ashuruballit (I) 1362-1327 c.1007 c.355
Adad-nirari (I) 1304-1273 (II) 911-891 393
Shalmaneser (I) 1272-1243 (III) 858-828 414
Tukulti-Ninurta (I) 1242-1206 (II) 890-884 352

Ammisaduga 1702/1646/1582- 1419-1398 283/227/163
(of Babylon, 3 alternative conventional chronologies)

Mid Bronze I 2150-2000
Mid Bronze IIA 2000-1750 c.1700- ?? c.300 ??
Mid Bronze IIB 1750-1550 c.1400- ?? c.350 ??
Late Bronze I 1550-1400 c.1200- ?? c.350 ??
Late Bronze IIA 1400-1300
Late Bronze IIB 1300-1200 930-820 370
Iron Age IA 1200-1150 820-800 380
Iron Age IB 1150-1100 800-790 350
Iron Age IIA 1000-900 790- 210
Iron Age IIB 900-800
Iron Age IIC 800-600






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