Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 22/08/2004 18:42, MarianneLuban AT aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 8/22/2004 3:33:10 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
> leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il writes:
>
>
>  
>
> > And now a few questions:
> >
> > 1. What's the conventional wisdom on the length of Sheshonq I's reign?
> > Manetho gives him 21 years, and the Silsileh quarry inscription is dated to
> > his 21st year. However Wente and Redford claim that he ruled 33 years.
> >    
>
>
> While there were four kings named Sheshonq, I presume you mean Sheshonq II.  
> The length of his rule is certain open to question.  Clayton just assigns him 
> "c. 890".
>
>  
>
> ...
>
>
> Yes, there is the triumphant relief at Karnak, partially damaged, showing the 
> Canaanite town he captured.
>  

I presume that you mean "towns" in this last sentence, and are referring
to the same Sheshonq who is commonly identified with the biblical
Shishak (hence the subject line), and discussed in detail in David
Rohl's "A Test of Time" under the name "Hedjkheperre Shoshenk I". Isn't
this the Sheshonq whose victories are listed on this relief? But why
does Rohl call him Shoshenk I and date him to 945-924 even in his
"conventional chronology" which he takes from Kitchen. Or are you
referring to a different ruler, Hekakheperre Shoshenk II in Rohl's
spelling, 890-889 in his "conventional chronology"? Which of them is
named in the Silsileh quarry inscription? As the latter seems to have
ruled only one year, he cannot have had a 21st year.

Incidentally, Rohl lists six Shoshenks in this table, four in the 22nd
dynasty and two in the 23rd, and argues in his Appendix A for a seventh one.

Anyway, how is the Karnak relief independent evidence of his date? Since
there is no mention of a capture of Jerusalem in this relief (or the
part of it which survives), it cannot even be used as a speculative
synchronism with Shishak's sack of Jerusalem recorded in the Bible. And
it would be rather inconsistent for anyone who has rejected as
unreliable the date in 1 Kings 6:1 ("In the 480th year after the
Israelites had come out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign
over Israel,...") to put very much reliance on 1 Kings 14:25 ("In the
fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem").

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