Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dr. Safren wrote:

"Numbers 21:27-30 contains a short poem celebrating the victory of the
Amorite King Sihon over the "first king of Moab" (v. 26). What Israelite
would be interested in writing a thing like that? This alone suffices to
argue for the authenticity of the poem, and for attributing it to a
non-Israelite, Amorite source. It would have entered the Israelite
stream of tradition only after the conquest of Sihon's kingdom,
presumably in the latter part of the 13th century BCE. The poem
resurfaces again in later Israelite tradition, such as Jer. 48:25 (where
part of the Fourth Oracle of Balaam also appears).
This was already pointed out by Menahem Haran (Diman) back in 1947."

Dear Jonathan,

I have in earlier posts to this list explained that I accept nothing written
in the Hebrew Bible at face value. My research has indicated, along with the
research of other Humanist scholars, that the texts must be proved at every
point and not accepted without scrutiny and testing.

We are told Sihon blocked the passage of the Israelites when they wished to
pass through his lands and on to Canaan (Nu. 21:21-31). We are told by
narrator of the National History (Genesis to 2 Kings) that this event
occurred circa 1446/1406 BCE (1 Kings 6:1). Yet, as I pointed out in an
earlier post to this list, archaeologists have demonstrated that Heshbon
(Tell Hesban) was not occupied until after 1200 BCE. I must confess that I
am bewildered by your insistence that Sihon is a real character, living in
the 15th or 13th century BCE when the archaeological evidence declares
otherwise.

I note that in the above song about Sihon, the claim is made that Israel
destroyed Sihon's lands, laying waste as far as Dibon. Yet according to
archaeological work at that city, it was unoccupied in the Middle and Late
Bronze Ages. Are the Israelites being portrayed as victorious over an
abandoned ruin ?  Here's Tushingham's observation:

"While the duration of this early occupation my encompass the Early Bronze
II-IV, there is absolutely no evidence for the Middle Bronze and Late Bronze
Ages at Dhiban. Settlement begins once more in the Iron Age. Pottery
characteristic of the Early Iron Age has been found, but it is still not
possible to assign any structures to this period. At least two Iron Age II
stages of a major gateway are represented..." (p.195, Vol. 2, A.D.
Tushingham, "Dibon," The Anchor Bible Dictionary, New York, Doubleday, 1992)

Joshua's conquest of Canaan is evidently a fiction too, for archaeology has
established that Jericho was an abandoned ruin when the Israelites arrived
circa 1250 BCE as posited by Humanist scholars. Joshua's conquest of the
king of Hebron also appears to be another fiction, as that city was an
abandoned ruin in the Late Bronze Age as noted by Mazar:

"Hebron was an important stronghold during MB II, but it was probably
uninhabited during the whole of the Late Bronze Age until the settlement
revival in Iron Age I." (p.332, Amihar Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the
Bible, 10,000 - 586 BCE, Doubleday, New York, 1990, ISBN 0-385-2370-X)

All the best,

Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany