Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Niels Peter Lemche <npl AT teol.ku.dk>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: barre AT access1.com [SMTP:barre AT access1.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, 08 February, 2000 19:57
> To:   Biblical Hebrew
> Subject:      More evidence
> 
> The El Amarna letters describe Lab'ayu as surrendering Shechem, while Gen
> 48:23 states 
> that Jacob took it by "his sword and bow," agreeing with the
> archaeological data that the city 
> suffered destruction.  To whom did Lab'aya surrender the city?  Hamor of
> the habiru.
> 
        This is not evidence, it is a hypothesis with almost no hint of
evidence to support it. Jacob is never called a hebrew in the OT. He is
never said to have conquered Shechem (Gen 34); Levy and Simeon are the
agressors. The city is not said to be destroyed, only plundered. So the
above is more fiction than fact. It will not conform with either sort of
evidence, biblical or extra-biblical, it will not conform with any thesis
put forward bu so-called minimalist scholars, neither with anything said by
so-called maximalist scholars...it stays firmly grounded in the blue sky.

        NPL