Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Walter Mattfeld wrote:
>
> > I have also pointed out that the Hebrew Bible's chronology supports an
> > Exodus date sometime in the 16th century BCE (contra 1 Ki.6:1), the same
> > century as the Hyksos expulsion. It follows that the destroyed
archaelogical
> > ruins found in Canaan in the 13th century cannot be "Joshua's conquest".
In
> > order for scholars to maintain that it is, they have had to "butcher up"
the
> > Bible's chronology, denying an Exodus circa 1440 BCE (cf. 1 Kings 6:1).
>
> Jonathan D. Safren:
> How can you on the one hand accept the artificial chronology of the Torah
and Kings
> (480 yrs. from the Exodus to Solomon's temple =  12 x 40 = typological x
typological =
> fictitious) and on the other hand not accept Mosaic authorship of the
Pentateuch and
> date it instead to Exilic times? Do you mean to say that when the
Pentateuch was
> finally edited and the chronological framework was added, someone actually
had records
> of the length of time from the Exodus to the completion of the Solomonic
Temple?
> Aren't you being inconsistent in dealing with the veracity of the Biblical
material?

WM: Just because a chronology has been correctly preserved, and a historical
event attested to by it (the Hyksos Exodus), doesn't mean that later
generations could not have transformed all this into the historical fiction
we currently have in the Exodus narratives. Look at the historical fiction
novel, Gone with the Wind, set in Civil War times in America. The novel's
internal chronology correctly preserves the event, while the story is wholly
fictious. I see the Pentateuch in a similar light, Historical Fiction, whose
chronology was evidently preserved through the generations (remember the
Hyksos were literate, and therefore could have preserved  chronologically
this event in some kind of written form).

I have already presented arguments against Mosaic authorship of the
Pentateuch, such as Genesis' mention of Calah and Lydia, impossible before
the 9th and 7th centuries BCE, but I would like to point out that my
research has found "some relics" preserved in the Pentateuch which could
plausibly date to Moses' times, that being certain aspects of the blessings
and curses of the Covenant in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

I note that Hammurabi's law code,as preserved on the stone cylinder he had
created and set up,mirrors some of the curses found in the Mosaic covenant.
The Hyksos exodus is set in the 16th century BCE, and the Pentateuch's
chronology agrees in placing the Israelite Exodus in the same century. I
note that Hammurabi is dated 1728-1686 BCE, so it is quite possible that
Deuteronomy could be correctly drawing on ancient traditions going back to
the 16th century BCE.

Among the curses of the Hammurabi Law code, are statements that the gods
will raise up revolts against the unworthy king, end his reign, destroy his
kingdom and end his posterity, deliver him into the hand of his enemies,
destroy his land, disperse his people in exile, famine will haunt his land,
he will die at the hand of his enemies, may the gods cause the days, months,
and years of his reign end in sighing and tears. All of these curses are
reflected in the Mosaic covenant (cf. pp.517-518, "The Laws of Hammurabi,"
T.G. Pinches, The Old Testament In the Light of the Historical Records and
Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, S.P.C.K, London, 1908)

Of course, some scholars have noted clay tablets dated to Neo-Babylonian
times, the 6th century BCE that are copies of Hammurabi's Law Code, so one
could argue just as well I suppose, for a later date for the inclusion of
the curses in Deuteronomy.

I agree fully with you Johnathan, that the Pentateuch is "fiction", but, as
you have pointed out, there are "kernals of truth" to be teased out of this
fiction, that is, real events in history have been transformed into fictious
"embellished" accounts. For me, the real kernals are the Hyksos Exodus, it's
correct chronology, and perhaps the possibility of ancient Law Codes and
their Curses arising from the 18-16th centuries BCE as preserved in
Hammurabi's Law Code.

Neo-Assyrian chronicles, like Genesis, claim that the origins of their
nation (Assyria) were kings who dwelt at first in tents, whose succeeding
generations settled down upon the land, building cities. So Genesis' notion
of a time when the ancestors were nomadic tent dwellers reflectsAssyria's
historical notions. Did Genesis draw from the Assyrian concept of kings who
were tent dwellers ?

All the best, Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany