Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<david.kimbrough AT charter.net>]

Just a technical note, iron and steel are quite different.  
King David may have had iron weapons but he almost 
certainly did not have steel.  Iron must be "steeled" with 
certain alloys by specific processes that were certainly 
not available in the early iron age.

> 
> From: kwrandolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>
> Date: 2004/05/26 Wed PM 10:59:36 GMT
> To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: [b-hebrew] Exodus & Hyksos & dating
> 
> Dear Walter:
> 
> Is this a great list or what? First I get one who 
questions my claim
> that David at about 1000 BC had iron (steel) weapons, now 
you
> question my explanation for iron age villages starting at 
1220 BC.
> 
> First of all, the cities built listed in Numbers were 
east of the
> Jordan River, not the Canaanite hill country.
> 
> Secondly, how do you know that it was 1220-1150 BC that 
there was a
> sudden burst of construction? Why not earlier? A couple 
centuries
> later? To what are the dates correlated? Are the dates 
determined by
> written documents listing the reigning monarch, or just 
the usual
> pottery? How do you know that they were iron age? The 
other poster
> (sorry, I don't mean to forget your name) indicated he 
doubted that
> David had steel weapons precisely because a lack of iron 
implements
> found in "iron age" villages.
> 
> The problem for historians is that the main document 
recording the
> history of Israel has two main focuses: first and 
foremost, the
> cultic life of the people, and secondly, the political 
life. Details
> concerning daily life of the common people got very short 
shrift by
> the writers. Therefore, with the lack of any contemporary 
written
> explanation for the archeological findings, we are left 
with
> speculation (and my detractors claim that I can speculate 
with the
> best of them). To top it off, the most important physical 
artifacts,
> even of the early iron age, may still have been leather, 
wood and
> cloth, precisely those materials least like to survive in 
a tell for
> us to excavate today.
> 
> Since we don't even have the dates firmly established, I 
at this
> point will refrain from speculation.       ;-)
> 
> As I stated before, I believe the Exodus occurred 1450 ± 
50 years BC.
> 
> Karl W. Randolph.
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David Kimbrough
San Gabriel