Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

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/