Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>]

Peter Kirk:
 According to David Rohl, the currently accepted dating for Ahmose I is
> 1550-1514 BCE, so that the expulsion of the Hyksos in 11th year falls
> in 1539 BCE. Rohl's revised datings are 1194-1170 BCE and 1183 BCE ("A
> Test of Time", pp.20,131,242). Rohl identifies the Exodus not with a
> celebrated victory (whose known details are quite different from the
> Exodus narratives) but with a disaster recorded by Manetho as "a blast
> from God", in the reign of Dudimose of the 13th dynasty - so before
> the main Hyksos period. Rohl gives archaeological evidence for this
> from Tell el-Daba, Avaris. He dates the Exodus to 1447 BCE. He gets
> this exact date from the Bible and confirms it by reckoning forward
> from Neferhotep I being contemporary with Hammurabi - whom Rohl
> securely dates to 1565-1522 BCE.
>
> With Rohl's dating, the problem you mention in your posting "Dating
> the Pentateuch- Canaan's Conquest Anomalies" disappears: the Amarna
> period becomes that of Saul and David. Read "A Test of Time" for more
> details. The problem also disappears if you follow the generally
> accepted dating.

WM: I have read Dr. Rohl's works and I am not convinced by his arguments
that the current chronology used by Egyptologists is faulty.

PK: If quail migrate south in autumn, surely they migrate north in spring?
> Do they never fall exhausted after crossing the Red Sea? The itinerary
> of Exodus 15-19 closely matches the known route along the eastern side
> of the Gulf of Suez. Manna is also found there.

WM: My understanding is that they alight in the Sinai only after crossing
the Mediterranean Sea, and at no other time.

PK:On what basis do you date the Exodus account in the 5th century BCE?

WM: Please see my previous posts to b-hebrew throughout most of  this month.
You can do this by going to the b-hebrew archives, and keying in
"Pentateuch" and thus pick up the previous posting threads.

PK:  When you write, "Humanist scholars posit a date in the 13th century
> BCE, ca. 1250 BCE, based on archaeological considerations", precisely
> what indications of that date do you have in mind? Not a fair question
> perhaps since you do not hold to that dating. But you do imply that
> this dating has more archaeological basis than the 1440 date. How can
> you justify that?

WM:  Scholars favoring a 1250 BCE Exodus are positing that as Merneptah's
stele in mentioning "Israel seed is not," provides a historical marker for
them that Israel was in Canaan by some time in his rule, 1225-1215 BCE
(according the Egyptologist James Henry Breasted, A History of Egypt, 1912),
they accordingly cannot posit the arrival of the Israelites in Canaan after
his reign, so they place the entry as close as they can, circa 1250 BCE.

I have already pointed out in an earlier post that Heshbon has been
excavated and found not to have been occupied before 1200 BCE, much to the
chagrin of scholars favoring a 1440/1250 BCE Exodus. It doesn't trouble me
at all, athough I date the Exodus to Pharoah Ahmoses I expulsion of the
Hyksos in the 16th century BCE, I take the position that the biblical
narratives are late compositions of the 5th century BCE and full of
historical misinformation, with their fictious dialogues from God, the
serpent, Adam and Eve, Moses, David, etc. I see the Sihon of Heshbon story
as just another fabrication, confirming my own hunches that the Exodus route
was the way of the Philistines, used by the Hyksos, with Egyptians in
pursuit.

All the best,  Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany