Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 9/19/05, Peter Kirk wrote quoting me:
> >So now provide the references to back up your assertion that my
> >original simple statement: that Solomon is usually dated to the
> >late tenth century based on the synchronism with Shoshenq ...
>
> This is your assertion. And it is contradicted by the Kitchen reference
> you cited which shows that the synchronism goes the other way. You will
> also find that most Bible reference books refer to the work of Thiele,
> Galil et al rather than to Egyptology when suggesting dates for Solomon.

My assertion actually originally referenced Biblical scholars.  Nadav Naaman
writes: When was Shishak's campaign?  This question is not insignificant ..
to the discussion of biblical chronology and the dating of Solomon and
Rehoboam.  According to the accepted opinion, Shishak's expedition took
place a short time before his death.  ... It seems that today there are no
hard evidence ... so it seems that the campaign took place a few years before
his death, that is, between the years 930 - 925 BCE, without being able to
determine the exact date.  [Zion 1998, p. 267 (21), Hebrew]

Gosta Ahlstrom writes: The date of Shoshenq's campaign is disputed but
probably can be placed shortly before 926 BC.  The inscription is dated to
the twenty-first year of Shoshenq's reign, ie 926 BC.  We cannot be
certain how long it took to engrave the list of cities ... but it seems likely
that the campaign took place shortly before -- within a few years of the
inscription.  [ History and Traditions of Ancient Israel, 1993, p. 3 ]

Israel Finkelstein observes: A note on the date of Shoshenq's campaign is
in order here.  There can be no doubt that the biblical Shishak refers to
Shoshenq I and that he reigned in the second half of the 10th century BCE.
But the vicious circle of dating the campaign according to 1 Kgs 14,25 and
dating Solomon and Rehoboam according to the campaign must be
eliminated.  1) The complicated chronology of the 21st and 22nd Dynasties
allows a change of several years back or forth in the dates of Shoshenq I.
2) It is not clear whether Shoshenq I carried out his campaign in his early
years on the throne or in his later days.  3) The biblical references to the
reigns of the early Davidides are completely schemitized.  4) The fifth year
of Rehoboam datum may have been schematically arranged to fit the
theology of the Deuteronomistic Historian.  No wonder that several scholars
have recently 'moved' the campaign from the time of Rehoboam to the days
of Solomon. [ZDPV 118 (2002) 2, p. 110]

In the above, Finkelstein quotes Wente who says "Both Kitchen and Baer
set the date for the beginning of the dynasty [the 22nd] at 945 BC primarly on
the basis of Shoshenq I's Palestinian campaign in Year 5 of Rehoboam and
the relations of this campaign to building projects undertaken by Shoshenq I
at Karnak".  Von Beckerath, another Egyptologist, writes "Auch die
Bibel liefert uns
ein sehr wichtiges Datum für die Chronologie Ägyptens.  In den Königs-büchern
des Alten Testaments ist die Regierungsdauer der Herrscher der aus dem Reich
Davids und Salomons entstandenen Teilstaaten Israel und Juda bis zu ihrem Ende
durch die Assyrer beziehungsweise die Babylonier genauestens aufgezeichnet."
[[Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten (1997)] From the little I can
use google
to translate, this seems to regard very highly the details in the
Bible.  Elsewhere,
Elsewhere he tries to relate 1 Kings 9:16, which is sometimes taken by 
Biblical
scholars as another reference to Shoshenq I's campaign, to Siamun based on a
stele or fragment of a stele showing a man wearing Philistine garb being 
struck
down. ("Und Mose schrieb dieses Lied auf" (1998) 91-99)

We have an absurd situation whereby Biblical scholars date Solomon to the late
10th century based on Shoshenq's campaign and Egyptologists date Shoshenq
based on Solomon's date.  Overall, Mazar would seem to want to suggest that
Shoshenq should be dated slightly later: "These 14C dating results
match well with
dates suggested by Egyptologists for the reign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I,
~945 to 924
B.C.E. or slightly younger (25), and for the year of his invasion into
Israel, tentatively
suggested as 925 B.C.E. (25) or 918 B.C.E. (7) in correlation with
biblical texts."
and giving the rather general range 940 to 900 BCE.  See:
http://www.rehov.org/Rehov/publications/p05.html

Someone on ANE suggested that Egyptologists might also be considering dating
Shoshenq I younger, but he appears to be rather involved in
catastrophism studies
and that leads me to be wary of accepting his statements unchecked. 
(But they're
probably accurate):
https://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/ane/2005-September/019563.html

>From what I can surmise, therefore, Shoshenq I's date is not fixed at
925 BCE but
is free to move by some years to some decade or two at most.  In general, a
younger date would probably be more appealing to Egyptologists,
Biblical scholars,
and archaeologists of Israel.  My statement quoted above, in relation
to the late 10th
century, is probably more exact than I originally envisioned it to be.
 Scholars would
date Shoshenq I to the second half of the 10th century and possibly
the very very
early 9th, but probably no more.  The date is not exact, and neither
Bible studies nor Egyptology can furnish a more exact date at this
time, and possibly may never do.
But an 11th century date is not credible and if scholars are leaning
in any direction
it is towards a slightly younger date, but only slightly.

Yitzhak Sapir