Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

In an earlier post to this list I argued that the elusive "kernel of truth"
behind the Pentateuch's "fictious" Exodus account was the Hyksos Expulsion
which occurred in the 16th century BCE; furthermore, I pointed out that the
Pentateuch's own chronology supports an Exodus at some point in time during
the 16th century.

It is widely assumed throughout today's scholarly community that the Exodus
and conquest of Canaan occurred in the course of the 13th century, certainly
before the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah (1225-1215 BCE) who mentions that
"Israel's seed is not" in a victory hymn over Egypt's enemies.

I also noted that excavations at Jericho revealed it was an abandoned ruin
when the Israelites arrived in the 13th century. How are we to account then
for Joshua's conquest of an abandoned ruin ? Doesn't this fact reveal that
the Pentateuchal narratives are "fictional embellishments" and not to be
trusted ?

I share Dr. Jonathan Safren's conviction that although the Pentatechal
narratives are fictious, they nevertheless must contain "kernels of truth".
I have sought for and found what I regard to be the "historical kernels of
truth" regarding certain Pentateuchal motifs arising in the Fall of Jericho
story.

I have briefly quoted a popular work in the 1970's by the English author
Magnus Magnuson about just what was found at Jericho by Dame Kathleen
Kenyon. Magnusson noted that an earlier excavator, Professor John Garstang
in the 1930's identified collapsed walls, burned by fire, which he thought
verified the biblical account. Kenyon's later excavations revealed he was in
error, the walls were Early Bronze Age.

Magnuson:

"She found that there had been a considerable Early Bronze Age city at
Jericho throughout the third millenium BC, whose WALLS HAD FALLEN and been
rebuilt no fewer than seventeen times between 3000 and 2300 BC, when the
city suffered a catastrophic destruction. The last three stages of these
fortifications had been built seven metres beyond the line of the original
walls, farther down the slopes of the tell. These had been Garstang's
celebrated walls that Joshua and the earth quake had apparently destroyed-
except for the fact that they had been destroyed a thousand years before
Joshua came on the scene.

For several centuries after the destruction of 2300 BC, Jericho was occupied
only by squatter nomads. But then, around 1900 BC, a new city arose: the
Jericho of the Middle Bronze Age...This city flourished until the end of the
Egyptian Hyksos period, when once again it came to a violent end, around
1550 BC; this destruction by fire was probably associated with the expulsion
of the Hyksos from Egypt and the Egyptian pursuit.

Once again the site was abandoned...The site seems to have been reoccupied
around 1400 BC on a much smaller scale. No new walls were built...Dame
Kathleen is adamant that the occupation of 1400 BC lasted for less than a
century, before the town was wrecked or abandoned again no later then 1300
BC. Her conclusion is that Jericho, like Ai, must have been a ruin by the
time of the Israelite conquest, if that is correctly dated at 1250-1225 BC,
right at the end of the Late Bronze Age and the start of the Iron Age." (cf.
pp.93-94, Magnus Magnuson, Archaeology of the  Bible, New York, Simon &
Schuster, 1977)

I would argue that the "kernels of truth" are as follows: 1) The motif of
"fallen walls" is a relic of historical events in the Early Bronze Age
3000-2300 BCE, when fallen walls are attested to. 2) The motif of a city
being put to the torch is reflected in "the burning of the walls" at the end
of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages (2300 and 1550 BCE). 3) The motif of the
city experiencing a long period of abandonment before resettlement is
reflected in the 300 year interval between 2300 and 1900 BCE as noted by
Magnuson, as well as the later 150 year abandonment (1550-1400 BCE).

I have argued in earlier posts to this list that the Pentateuch's
fictionalized Exodus is based on the Hyksos Expulsion of the 16th century
BCE, and that the Bible's internal chronology supports a 16th century
Exodus. I note that excavations do reveal Jericho fell and was torched ca.
1550 BCE at the time of the Pentateuch's Exodus, but the motif of "fallen
walls" is of the Early Bronze Age.

So, what I am offering the scholarly community is a new paradigm to explain
the historicity of the Pentateuchal narratives (a 5th century BCE creation,
cf. my "Madai/Medus myth" theory), as well as an explantion for how certain
motifs reflect real events which have been torn out of their original
historical contexts and creatively re-interpreted, transformed and presented
to tell a story of how a merciful God took pity on his people and brought
them to their Promised Land.

It follows, if my identifications are correct, that the Israelites was never
enslaved in Egypt for a period of 400 years as portrayed in the Pentateuchal
narratives, the Hyksos ruled over the Egyptians for some 200 years before
being defeated and expelled.

I am well aware that "I have proved nothing." I can only argue for
plausibilities and implausibilities and tease out of the text to the best of
my abilities the above new paradigm for scholarly consideration on the
dawning of this the 21st Century.

All the best,

Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany