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  • From: MarianneLuban AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Re: g(r Psa. 106:9
  • Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 20:06:47 EST

I sent the following to Doug Pickrel in a private communication, but I think
it would be of general interest to the list:

I am here mostly to learn, myself, although once in awhile I am able to
chime in with the Egyptian perspective or to offer parallel terms in the
Egyptian
language. My Hebrew is minimal, but I am in the constant pursuit of
information relevant to the Hebrew Bible. For example, I have found that
Jews and
Samaritans--and the Septuagint all agree on one matter at least. That the
430
years mentioned in the Book of Exodus hark back to the time Abraham settled
in
Canaan and did not constitute merely the sojourn of the Hebrews in Egypt from
the time of Jacob coming there with his tribe. The Samaritan Pentateuch and
the
LXX specify this. The Masoretic text does not, but Josephus, a Jew who lived
in the first century after the Common Era, indicates that this was the Jewish
tradition, as well. [In his writings, he does not appear so keen on
Samaritans and would not purposely agree with their writings if he deemed
them in
error]. His words are "...and they left Egypt in the month Xanthicus, on the
fifteenth day of the lunar month; four hundred and thirty years after our
forefather Abraham came into Canaan, but two hundred and fifteen years only
after Jacob
removed into Egypt." [Antiquities of the Jews] In another place, Josephus
provides that Xanthicus corresponds to the Egyptian month of Pharmouti and
the
Nisan of the Jewish calendar. Now--despite the mention of the toponym
"Raamses" in Exodus, on balance, it is not very likely that the exodus of the
Jewish
and Samaritan traditions can have occurred within the 19th Dynasty, which is
when "Raamses" [pr-ramss mryimn] was first built by Ramesses II. In the
Samaritan tradition, Abraham is dated to as early as 2112 BCE and the exodus
to 1682
BCE. These dates were affirmed by a Samaritan scholar with whom I conferred
in person at the beginning of this month. If anything, this tradition harks
back to the routing of the Hyksos [shepherd kings] by King Ahmose I, the
founder
of the 18th Dynasty. And this Josephus appears to corroborate in his
arguments contra some Egyptian historians who argued for a later exodus or
exodoi.
He wrote that one of them, Manetho, "stuck to the Scriptures" when he said
the
Hyksos were evicted and then went on to found Jerusalem--but then Josephus
accused him of manufacturing some "lying tales" about Moses living in the
time
of a pharaoh called "Amenophis". That Manetho was "lying" is far from
evident,
but it is quite clear what the two factions, the Jews and the Samaritans,
believed about the Biblical exodus and its chronological timeframe. Anyone
who
believes they can place this exodus in the era of another pharaoh based on
the
Samaritan chronology will be mistaken. There is really no such thing as a
chronology or chronologies of ancient Egypt. Any that have been constructed
are
based on "Sothic sightings" in the reigns of certain pharaohs but each and
every one of these astronomical concordances with the Egyptian civil calendar
contains severe problems and are based upon more guesswork than the average
layman can possibly imagine. For anyone who cares to know about those
problems,
please see

http://www.specialtyinterests.net/sothic_star.html

I can personally vouch that everything the author says about those ancient
primary sources is true.

Marianne Luban




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