Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk"<peter_kirk AT sil.org>]

Dear Walter,

I have read all of your postings this month, but I don't recall any of 
them mentioning the dating of the book of Exodus. You have made some 
unconvincing arguments on the date of Genesis, but there is no reason 
to assume the same dating for Exodus.

As for the 1250 BCE dating of the Exodus event, it seems that this is 
an even more than usual obvious example of the scholars' trick that we 
have seen too much of on this list recently - the move from "X 
happened before Y" to "X happened IMMEDIATELY before Y". In this as in 
so many other cases X, here the Exodus event, may have happened 
centuries or even millennia before Y, here the carving of the 
Merenptah stele. For other X's, read the composition of various books, 
and for other Y's, mentions of certain cities in Assyrian tablets.

As for your last paragraph, if you take Moses as fictitious, why do 
you think there was actually any historical reality behind the Exodus? 
After all, presumably the people who left Egypt had a leader, and the 
tradition gives his name as Moses. If you can't accept that much, you 
are left with almost nothing at all.

Peter Kirk

PS I was glad to see you credit David Rohl with a doctorate, which I 
don't think he has. That's the first indication I have seen on this 
list that anyone considers him a scholar.


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Re: Dating the Exodus (long)
Author:  <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com> at Internet
Date:    24/01/2000 19:15

<snip>

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