Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

Sorry, I did a bad bit of editing, leaving out a few lines thus perhaps
confusing the issue a little.

>>PK: I have read some of the Amarna letters, in translation, most 
>>recently the ones on your website, and my reading so far does not 
>>support your criticism. Perhaps you can tell me which specific Amarna 
>>letters have been misrepresented by Rohl in what way. 
>
>You have his tendentious version of the major one I'm complaining about, EA

256, which Mutba'lu wrote to Yanhamu in Egypt. That the letter has been
preserved in the Amarna archive shows it was sent to Egypt. Then there was EA

>284, which showed Yanhamu in Egypt in the presence of the pharaoh, or EA
>127, which is less sure: "isn't Yanhamu there with you? Ask him!" This last
>is a letter to the pharaoh from Rib-Adda of Byblos. Yanhamu was a wide
>traveler who went as far as the northern extremity of Egyptian influence,
>being mentioned in Amurru, EA 171. When a letter was addressed to him, it
>implies he was in Egypt to receive it. This also implies that Tadua and
>Yashuya were in Egypt as well. Rib-Adda sent to pharaoh EA 84, which talks
>of a courier called Puheya held in Egypt, and EA 85, which asks: "Isn't
>Puheya there with you? Ask him!" There should be little doubt that at the
>time Mutba'lu wrote to Yanhamu, both Tadua and Yashuya were in Egypt with
>him, or had been or would be -- depending on the writer's timing.