Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

On 27 Jan. 2000 I posted to this list, a proposal that the Exodus must have
occurred in 1540 BCE based on my research undertaken earlier that same day,
utilizing statements from Acts 13:18-21, 1 Kings 2:10-11, and 1 Kings 6:1,
arriving at a total of 574 yrs between the Exodus and Solomon's 4th yr. when
he commenced the Temple.

Today, 29 Jan.,  I received in the mail, Professor James K. Hoffmeier's book
titled "Israel in Egypt, The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus
Tradition" (Oxford University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-19-513088-X).

Everyone can imagine my amazement when I read that eminent scholars like
K.A. Kitchen and R. Krauss had listed the Hyksos dynasty as reigning from
1648-1550 _or_ 1540 BCE, Hoffmeier citing R. Krauss and K.A. Kitchen in
"High, Middle or Low ?" Acts of an International Colloquiium on Absolute
Chronology Held at the University of Gothenburg 20th-22nd August 1987, parts
1-3, ed. Paul Astrom (Gothenburg: Astroms Forlag. 1987-1989); said
information also laid out in convenient chart form in The Anchor Bible
Dictionary vol. 2 pp. 328-329 (cf. p.xviiii, Hoffmeier).

The 1540 BCE end of the Hyksos dynasty was not something I was aware of
until just today when I read of it in Hoffmeier's work. The internal
chronology preserved in the sacred writings of the Jews and the Early
Christians, matched to the year, the alternate end date  _1540 BCE_  of the
Hyksos dynasty. I must confess, that for once in this humanist sceptic's
life the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

All the best,    Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany