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  • From: Brian Roberts <formoria AT carolina.rr.com>
  • To: "Walter R. Mattfeld" <mattfeld12 AT charter.net>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Exodus Miracles and 'elep
  • Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 08:15:45 -0400

Walter,

Then, of course we have this analysis of Wenham regarding the 'lp issue.

From http://www.specialtyinterests.net/hebrew_numbers.html


The size of the Israelite nation

The most interesting, most difficult and (from the historian's point of view) the most important question is the size of the Israelite population at the different stages of its history. The present texts indicate that the 70 souls of Joseph's day had risen to two or three million at the time of the Exodus (Numbers 1) and to at least five million in the time of David (2 Samuel 24:9; 1 Chronicles 21:5). With regard to the latter, R. de Vaux rightly says: '(2 Samuel) lists 800,000 men liable for military service in Israel, and 500,000 in Judah ... The lower total, in 2 Samuel, is still far too high: 1,300,000 men of military age would imply at least five million inhabitants, which, for Palestine, would mean nearly twice as many people to the square mile as in the most thickly populated countries of modern Europe'.4) The solution to the problem of the Exodus numbers is a long story. Suffice it to say that there is good reason to believe that the original censuses in Numbers 1 and 26 set out the numbers of each tribe, somewhat in this form:

Simeon: 57 armed men; 23 'hundreds' (military units).
This came to be written: 57 'lp; 2'lp 3 'hundreds'.

Not realising that 'lp in one case meant 'armed man' and in the other 'thousand', this was tidied up to read 59,300. When these figures are carefully decoded, a remarkably clear picture of the whole military organization emerges. The total fighting force [of the Exodus Israelites] is some 18,000 which would probably mean a figure of about 72,000 for the whole migration".

With this important explanation by Wenham, we can now begin to query whether the number of Israelite men on the march during the Exodus, given as "about 600,000" (Exodus 12:37) - making an overall total of some 2-3 million people - may be a gross over-estimate. I am not saying that the inspired writer got it wrong; but only that a copyist's mistake with numbers may have crept in. It had previously occurred to me in fact that so many fighting men as 600,000 would unlikely have been scared of Egypt's royal force of 600 chariots; especially considering that in Exodus 13:18 we read: "The sons of Israel went out from Egypt fully armed". Though perhaps this last description may apply only to Israel's shock troops; for according to Yahuda, in both Exodus 13:18 & 14:8 (op. cit., 96-97): "... it is emphasized ... that the Hebrews in leaving Egypt went out proudly and triumphantly having troops armed with lances, a well disciplined host. That in Egypt there were troops armed with lances is shown on various Egyptian bas-reliefs ..., and such troops would have formed the advance section at the head of the army". (Emphasis added).5)

We read in II Chronicles about Zerah's invasion of southern Judæa: "Zerah the Ethiopian [Cushite] and an army of one million strong with three hundred chariots made an incursion, and penetrated to Maresha. [King] Asa [of Judah] marched out to intercept him and drew up his battle line in the Valley of Zephathah, at Maresha. He called on Yahweh, his God. 'Yahweh', he said, 'no one but you can stand up for the powerless against the powerful. Come to our help, Yahweh our God! We rely on you, and confront this horde in your name. Yahweh, you are our God. Let man leave everything to you!' Yahweh defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and the Judaeans, the Ethiopians fled, and Asa pursued them with his army as far as Gerar. So many of the Ethiopians fell that recovery was impossible, for they had been shattered before Yahweh and his army" (2.Chronicles 14:8-13).

Two chapters further on, we read that Zerah's Ethiopian army was also composed of Libyans (16:8).

Thanks to Wenham, we can now estimate that this foreign army was more likely 1,000 strong, rather than a most unlikely 1 million. The latter figure is made even more implausible considering that the main Egyptian army apparently did not take part, but only foreign mercenaries, Ethiopians & Libyans, from within the empire. A few years after Solomon's death (c.920 BC), the divided kingdom in Palestine was absorbed into the Egyptian empire by the mighty Pharaoh Thutmose III, and it generally remained so (though apparently the pious king Asa managed to shake off the Egyptian overlordship) until the Assyrians took control of that region in the C8th. That Egypt, during her supremacy, was wont to send into Palestine highly efficient squadrons, at the behest of beleaguered vassal kings (who, in turn, were under Egyptian governors), is attested by the el-Amarna [EA] letters of Pharaoh Akhnaton and his father (a few decades after Asa's time, according to Velikovsky). These government troops were most valued as support by the Syro-Palestinian vassal kings during their interminable conflicts.

Damien Mackey


References and Notes

1) John Wenham, `The Large Numbers of the Old Testament', Tyndale Bulletin 18 (1967): 19-23.
2) One Hebrew manuscript, some Septuagint manuscripts and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts use `8'.
3) A few late manuscripts of the Septuagint; Hebrew does not have `thirty'. KJV does not mention 30 years, NIV does mention 30 years.
4) Figuring population density naturally depends on how many square miles the writer credits Israel to have inhabited at the time. We show in our paper on Jeroboam that the Israel of the time of Solomon may have been quite a bit larger than most historians seem to visualize it.
5) As to the size of the Israelite nation, the figure of 600,000 is not impossible considering that it was not so much the lances of the Egyptians they feared but rather the arrows of their bowmen against which they had little defense. Egyptian bowmen were always the most feared military units of the ancient literature. The estimate of the number of Israelites also should take into account the vast construction projects they took part in during their years of slavery down to the last day of servitude.

On Tuesday, August 3, 2004, at 07:27 AM, Walter R. Mattfeld wrote:

Uri wrote :
"It needs hardly be pointed out that the ancient authors and redactors of
these narratives would have been mortified by the possibility of natural
exlanations that detract in any way Yahweh's ability to perform miracles."

I would have to agree with Uri's observation about an ancient Israelite's
reaction. Yet I do believe that this methodology, for modern scholars, is
"on target."

It is quite evident that a number of physical phenomena associated with the
Exodus wanderings are attested in Nature. Seas do periodically dry up and
then refill. For example the Nile delta is called the tongue of the Egyptian
"sea" which God will dry up. In antiquity this delta became a sea every year
upon the flooding of the Nile. An ancient Greek visitor remarked that the
villages in the delta were built on high landforms that became islands at
the time of the flood, reminding him of islands in the Aegean sea. Then
Nature (God ?) would _dry up_ this sea with the abatement of the flooding.
Another location is the head of the Gulf of Suez, where tides vary by ten
feet, low tides exposing shoals east of the modern port of Suez.

A wind from God blows over the sea, making a path. Powerful winds are
attested in the Spring (when the Exodus is understood to have occured). They
are called Khamasine winds (howling dust storms) and can reach wind gusts of
55 miles per hour ! These winds occur in the Isthmus of Suez area, the very
area associated by some with the route of the Exodus. A recent book
exploring the miracles of the Exodus and relating them to natural phenomena
of Egypt and the Sinai is by Professor Colin J. Humphreys. _The Miracles of
Exodus, A Scientist's Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes of the
Biblical Stories_. HarperSanFrancisco. 2003. pp.362).

Humphreys also explores the notion of Mount Sinai possibly being a volcano,
as noted by Peter Kirk in an earlier post. He suggests it might be Mount
Bedr in Midian, just north of Medina in modern day Saudi Arabia. He
attempted to argue that the Pillar of Cloud which led Israel to the sacred
mount was an erupting Mt. Bedr.

I was fortunate to recently be able to purchase a used copy of Baruch
Halpern's book _The Emergence of Israel in Canaan_. Chico, California.
Scholar's Press. 1983, and was intrigued by his critique of Professor
Mendenhall's earlier proposal that Hebrew _'elep_ meant "clan" instead of
the traditional reading of "thousand" in regards to tribal lists associated
with the Exodus event. I found his arguments convincing that the traditional
reading of 'elep as "thousand" is correct and that Mendenhall was wrong in
arguing it meant "clan."

Halpern noted that a number of scholars have accepted Mendenhall's proposal
because it solved for them the fantastically large numbers involved in the
Exodus, 600,000+ Hebrew armed warriors leaving Egypt, extrapolated with
wives, children, and grandparents to a horde approaching 2 million souls !
By reading "clan" much smaller numbers could be envisioned for the Exodus
trek. By the way, Humpreys has accepted Mendenhall's reading.

Having concluded that the traditional reading of 'elep meaning "thousand" is
correct, Halpern then argued that these huge numbers meant for him that the
tribal numbers were a creation of the Priestly redactor of the Exile, and
not to be trusted as reflecting the real numbers involved in the Exodus.

Regards, Walter
Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, M.A. Ed.
mattfeld12 AT charter.net
www.bibleorigins.net

Below is an excerpt of Halpern's argument on 'elep :

The 'elep problem, "thousand" or "clan" ?

Reference : Baruch Halpern. _The Emergence of Israel in Canaan_. 1983.
Chico, California. Scholar's Press. pp. 334.

Professor Halpern has critiqued Mendenhall's proposal that the tribal lists
appearing in the various Exodus accounts are historical and of that period.
He argues that they are unhistorical and most likely arise from the Priestly
Source (rendered P in the below excerpts) in the Exilic period or later.
Halpern finds fault with Mendenhall's notion that 'elep in the tribal list
means "clan" rather than the traditional reading of "thousand."

Halpern (Emphasis mine) :

"From this brief survey, it should be plain that the P lists represent a
late monarchic or an exilic retrospective view of early Israel"
...Mendenhall maintains that the P lists of Numbers 1 and 26 are
nevertheless pre-monarchic. He bases his claim on the observation that the
term 'elep, usually a "thousands," can also denote "the muster of a
mishpaha, or clan." As a result, he continues, it is legitimate to read a
text such as Numbers 26:18 -"these are the mishpehot of the children of Gad
according to their musters: forty 'elep and five hundreds"- as stating that
Gad consisted of 40 clans: together these fielded 500 warriors. The
attraction of this scheme is immediately apparent: it disposes of population
claims that correlate with no reality in ancient Israelite history, claims
so exhorbitant as in fact to defy the agricultural and industrial realities
of Israel in the pre-Mandatory period. Having thus simultaneously explained
why any author would make such substantial claims (the author did not) and
disembarrassed himself of the claims themselves, Mendenhall finds that the
drastically smaller population figures he has produced are consonant with an
early date for the lists.

The first element of Mendenhall's argument is indisputable. 'elep does have
the meaning "clan," "clan muster" in such passages as Judges 6:15; 1 Samuel
10:19-21. Moreover, the advantages of Mendenhall's reading generally are
manifest. However, there are problems that beset the hypothesis. The first
two of these have to do with the totals of the muster in Numbers 1:46;
26:51.

Numbers 1:46 states that Israel could field 603,550 warriors. Even if one
reads the foregoing list with Mendenhall, it is impossible to regard this as
a statement that Israel's 603 clans produced 550 warriors. First, the
numbers do not tally (Mendenhall's reading produces 5,550 warriors in the
Numbers 1 list). Second, it would tax our imagination to suppose that the
avarage Israelite "clan" could field only .91663 warriors. The only response
to make is that the verse is in error. So, one reads Numbers 1:46 to say
that Israel had 603 clans, which together fielded 5,550 warriors. Similarly,
rather than 730 warriors (the figure there being 601,730).

This is the first weakness of the hypothesis: there is no reason to supply
any figure before the 730 of Numbers 26:51 or the 550 of Numbers 1:46, let
alone the specific figures that must be chosen. Moreover, there is no reason
to suppose that the Israelite reader to whom these texts were directed would
divine that he was expected to supply these figures -how could the Israelite
be expected to understand that the notation 601,730 or 601 thousands and 730
really meant 601 clans and 5,730 people ? But this first difficulty is
compounded by a more serious one. Read with Mendenhall, the lists and the
summations do not tally. Numbers 1, read with Mendenhall mentions 598
"clans" and 5,550 warriors. Numbers 1:46 has the same number of warriors if
we supply the figure 5,000; but it thinks there were 603 "thousands" or
"clans". Numbers 26 has 596 clans and 5,730 warriors. But Numbers 26:51
(601,730), even read with Mendenhall to imply 5,730 warriors, has 601
"clans." (pp. 113-115. Halpern)

...If one reads Numbers 1 and 26 as they have traditionally been read- Gad's
40,500 meaning 40,500- then the totals reported in Numbers 1:46, 26:51 are
accurate...If the traditionalist who arrived at the sums in Numbers 1:46,
26:51 treated the tribal census figures not as encipherments, but as simple
figures, earlier traditionalists may well have done the same. That is, not
only is there no evidence that the Israelite expected to understand
"thousand" = "clan" code as Mendenhall understands it; there is evidence the
Israelite did not understand it so.

(p. 115. Halpern)

Overall the P lists hold out little hope for the recovery of pre-monarchic
traditions. Quite the reverse, the census lists show every sign of
artificiality in their recollection of early eras. The transmissional
process has created an Israel so amply bestowed in its muster that only
technological backwardness could possibly account for its failures on the
field -against enemies numbering in the tens and hundreds. It follows
logically that the P reports are not likely to be fruitful for the study of
pre-monarch Israel." (p. 116. Halpern)




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