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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] 1446 BCE Exodus ? Aper = Apiru ?

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: MarianneLuban AT aol.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] 1446 BCE Exodus ? Aper = Apiru ?
  • Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 11:01:41 +0100

On 26/07/2004 02:06, MarianneLuban AT aol.com wrote:

... For me, the Hebrews came out of Egypt in waves--not in one fell swoop--but they ultimately had to wait, no matter what were their victories and defeats in the interim, for Egypt to grow so weak that it no longer had any holdings in the Levant before Israel could establish itself as a united kingdom. ... For David Rohl to maintain that the Lebayu of the Amarna Letters is none other than Saul is, in my opinion, a ridiculous assertion


I'm not sure of all the grounds on which you consider Rohl's conclusion ridiculous. But there is no contradiction with the notion that Egypt had to grow weak. For Rohl puts the rise of Labayu/Saul (whose reign he cuts down to just one year as in the Hebrew text) and David into the one earlier time when Egypt was weak and unable to assert its authority in Canaan, the reign of Akhenaten. In Rohl's reconstruction, David and Solomon became too powerful for Egypt to overthrow easily during the following chaotic period, but when Solomon died Rameses II (= Shishak) took the opportunity first to divide the Israelite kingdom by getting his protege Jeroboam (see 1 Kings 11:40) to rebel, and a few years later to sack Jerusalem. After that Judah and Israel remained weak until a partial revival when Egypt returned to weakness in the Third Intermediate Period.


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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