Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Dates of Ezra and Nehemiah

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Dates of Ezra and Nehemiah
  • Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 22:01:16 +0100

On 17/09/2006 22:24, Yigal Levin wrote:
Peter,

While I accept your statement that Iron-Age biblical dates are dependent on
Mesopotamian dates and not Egyptian ones, and that Kitchen used "biblical"
dates for Seshonq and some other TIP kings, the New Kingdom kings are
actually dated independently of anything biblical.

Agreed, although the basis for their dates is far from secure.
Dating the Exodus to Ramses II is not because "it would be appropriate for God to humble such a great and proud ruler". It starts with the city of Ramses at which the Israelites labored, which obviously cannot pre-date the 19th dynasty. ...

Since the city of Ramses is also mentioned in Genesis 47:11, by the same argument Joseph cannot pre-date the 19th dynasty, and so the Exodus must have been several dynasties later. Alternatively, this is a minor anachronism caused by a redactor or copyist updating the name of a city, as has clearly happened with the mention of the city of Dan in Genesis 14:14 and Deuteronomy 34:1 (cf. Judges 18:29).

... And then, the Merneptah Stele, which mentions "Israel" ALREADY IN THE LAND around 1207. ...

This gives only a latest possible date for the Exodus, which might have happened centuries earlier, indeed the biblical date for it is centuries earlier, c. 1450 BCE based on 1 Kings 6:1.

... And the archaeological evidence of massive hill-country settlement, much like the Bible attributes to the Israelites, begins about 1200. And the end of Egyptian control of Canaan, around 1150. All these mean that the initial Israelite settlement (in whatever fashion!) occurred just before 1200, which means that the Exodus would have occurred about 1250 - right in the middle of Ramses II's reign.

This evidence and its interpretation are disputed, and anyway this is evidence not from Egyptian chronology but from archaeology of Canaan.

Of course, all this only if you assume that there WAS something like what the Bible calls the Exodus, at any "real" time.

Indeed.

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





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page