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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Exodus (dating of)
  • Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 21:34:42 -0500

Dear Walter,

If the Conquest is ca. 1406 BCE (with an Exodus ca. 1446 BCE), then we
should expect to find a number of destroyed Late Bronze Age cities and
villages in Transjordan, rebuilt and occupied by Israelites in Late Bronze
Age times, "to- including- and- through" Iron I and II times. This is NOT
the situation. There's hardly anything in the Late Bronze Age in
Transjordan, and the destruction occurs at the END of the Late Bronze Age
and the REBUILDING occurs in Iron I, but many other sites are New for Iron
I, just as described in the Bible (Israel building OTHER villages beside the
ones destroyed). The situation described in Transjordan in the Bible does
NOT match the Late Bronze Age and ca. 1406 BCE, it MATCHES Iron I. I have
already mentioned Stiebing's work, another excellent work for Transjordan in
particular is Professor Burton MacDonald, _East of the Jordan, Territories
and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures_. 2000. Boston. American Schools of
Oriental Research. He exhaustively covers every known site in Gilead, Ammon,
Moab and Edom, and concludes the best match of the Exodus/Conquest is late
Iron II, the 7th-6th centries BCE.

HH: Anyone who dates the Exodus/Conquest to the seventh/sixth centuries BCE must be kidding. There is no way that the biblical data fits those dates. I believe the Bible. A lot of these archeologists are not even believers. They're not even on God's side. Why should I expect to get the truth from them? Even if they are on God's side, they're just fallible men. They have limited time and resources, and they're claiming to tell me what happened thousands of years ago. They might get it right sometimes, but I would much sooner put my faith in God's word.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





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