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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Re: PS /g/

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Karl Randolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • Cc: Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Re: PS /g/
  • Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 13:55:57 +0000

On 18/11/2004 01:09, Karl Randolph wrote:

...

From all of these, I get the picture that Joseph was stationed in Thebes
under an Egyptian pharaoh. He was a distance away, but close enough that he
could make regular trips to visit his family.


It is now possible to make regular trips from Thebes/Luxor to the Delta area, courtesy of the comfortable night train or a flight, but in Joseph's time it would have been many days' journey each way, something very rarely possible for a busy government minister. More likely Joseph lived in the Delta or not far from it, e.g. Memphis or the nearby Middle Kingdom capital of Itj-tawy, if not at the Hyksos capital Avaris which was in the eastern Delta near to the other Israelites.

...

As for the name Raamses for a city name, it is mentioned in Genesis from
before the Hyksos period. It was one of the major production cities during
the Hyksos period. Is there enough information to rule out that that was a
city that was destroyed when the Hyksos were expelled, and never rebuilt? Or
if rebuilt, had a different name?


There is good evidence that the city of Rameses or Pi-Ramesse was built on or near the site of the Hyksos capital of Avaris, both at modern Tell ed-Daba, which is the site of Bietak's excavations which you mention. So this is simply a case of a later redactor of the biblical text using the contemporary name in place of the ancient one - as clearly happens with the place name Dan in the Pentateuch.

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






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