Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 17/09/2006 07:07, Yigal Levin wrote:
> ...
> Remember, we get our absolute dates for biblical chronology from Egyptian 
> and (mostly) Mesopotamian documents, not vise-versa.
>
>   
This may be true of Mesopotamian chronology, but not of Egyptian. There 
is no dependence of biblical chronology from the time of Saul onwards on 
Egyptian chronology, but entirely vice versa. The orthodox estimate of 
the date of Shoshenk I is dependent on estimates by Thiele etc of the 
date of the Shishak invasion in 1 Kings. Kitchen et al have fitted other 
Egyptian rulers around this date for Shoshenk I but with a lot of 
uncertainties. And Thiele's dates are derived from the Bible and from 
Mesopotamian data, but not at all from Egyptian. The only biblical dates 
dependent on Egyptian chronology are some scholars' speculative dates 
for a 13th century BCE Exodus, but these dates actually conflict with 
the biblical dates, as well as being based on uncertain Egyptian dates 
and a very speculative identification of Rameses II as the Pharaoh of 
the Exodus, for which the main evidence as far as I can tell is his 
prominence and the feeling of some that it would be appropriate for God 
to humble such a great and proud ruler.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/