Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

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