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  • From: "Eric Forster" <eric.forster AT american.la>
  • To: JimStinehart AT aol.com, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Wellhausen JEPD Theory re Patriarchal Narratives
  • Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 15:14:28 -0800

Jim,

There are some interesting parallels between the Jacob-Laban narrative and
the Tushratta letters. If the Jacob character is indeed based on Akhenaten,
we find here what's becoming a recurring theme: Jacob's trickery.

In EA 23 Tushratta loans a gold statue of Ishtar to Amenhotep III,
Akhenaten's father. Sometime later, in EA 26, Tushratta complains to his
sister, Queen Tiye of Egypt, that her son Akhenaten sent him back gold-plated
statues of Ishtar, rather than solid-gold ones.

Certainly a tricky son-in-law.


Eric Forster




----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: 12/23/2007 8:23:02 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Wellhausen JEPD Theory re Patriarchal Narratives


*
*Yigal Levin:
*Let’s analyze the following first suggestion of yours as to a story in
*the
*Patriarchal narratives that is redolent of the 1st millennium BCE, and
*that is
*not redolent of the mid-2nd millennium BCE.
*You wrote: “The story of the "treaty" between Jacob and Laban the
* Aramean
*at Gilead
*in Gen. 31, is an obvious reflection of the Israel-Aram frontier in the
*same
*area in the 9-8 centuries BCE.”
* 1. Laban is Jacob’s father-in-law. Jacob/“Israel” is the
*first leader
*of a monotheistic people in the Bible (as Abraham exiled all his sons
*except
*Isaac). Tushratta, the leader of Nahrima/Naharaim on the upper
*Euphrates
*River in the mid-14th century BCE, was the father-in-law of the first
*leader of
* a monotheistic people in secular history, Akhenaten. There is nothing
*remotely like that in “the 9-8 centuries BCE”. (Note that the
*mid-14th century
*BCE word “Naharaim” is right there at Genesis 24: 10,
*referencing the upper
*Euphrates River. The state of Nahrima/Naharaim/Mitanni went extinct
*after
*the 14th century BCE.)
* 1. The last straw in the breakdown of the two men’s relations is
*that
*the father-in-law from the upper Euphrates River (Laban, in Genesis,
*Tushratta
*in the Amarna Letters) is beside himself with rage at the failure of his
*monotheistic son-in-law (Jacob in the Patriarchal narratives,
*Akhenaten in the
*Amarna Letters and the secular history of the mid-14th century BCE)
*to deliver
*certain statues (teraphim in Genesis, gold statues in the Amarna
*Letters).
*There is nothing remotely like that in “the 9-8 centuries BCE”.
* 1. The background to this is that the father of the first historical
*monotheistic leader of a people (Isaac in the Patriarchal narratives,
*Amenhotep
*III in the secular history of the mid-14th century BCE) had married a
*woman
*from the upper Euphrates River, and everything had worked out just
*fine. But
*now when the monotheistic son marries a woman from the same
*Hurrian
*location, relations between the first monotheists and the Hurrians on
*the upper
*Euphrates River break down completely. So when the fearsome
*Hittites, under the
*greatest Hittite king of all time, Suppililiuma I, attack
*Mitanni/Naharima/Naharaim, the first monotheists do not lift a finger
*to help.
*This entire story literally reeks of the Amarna Letters and the
*well-documented secular history of the mid-14th century BCE. One of
*the biggest
*developments in the secular history of the mid-14th century BCE was
*when Akhenaten
*shockingly thumbed his nose at his father’s greatest ally:
*Nahrima/Naharaim.
*And the last straw was the same bizarre item as is faithfully reflected
*in
*the Patriarchal narratives: a virulent dispute over, of all the crazy
*things,
*certain statues that the monotheistic son-in-law from far to the west
*failed
*to deliver to his father-in-law on the upper Euphrates River.
*How close do you want it? How could any story imaginable follow the
*Amarna
*Letters more closely than the very story you point to?
*Heavens, if this is as good as the 100-year-old Wellhausen JEPD
*theory of
*the Patriarchal narratives gets as to a story that allegedly reflects the
*1st
*millennium BCE but not the mid-2nd millennium BCE, then why does
*anyone give
*any credence to that old, outdated, non-historical theory?
*Yigal Levin, anyone who has read the Amarna Letters will recognize
*the story
*of the irate father-in-law from the upper Euphrates River breaking
*with his
*monotheistic son-in-law from far to the west over the bizarre last
*straw
*issue of certain statues that the monotheistic son-in-law failed to
*deliver.
*Every single story throughout the entirety of the Patriarchal narratives
*is
*just like that. The amount of specific details picked up from the
*Amarna
*Letters in the Patriarchal narratives is truly astounding. That was the
*time
*period of the birth of Judaism. That was the historical Patriarchal
*Age. The
*author of the Patriarchal narratives is the first Hebrew in secular
*history,
*who is desperately trying to get Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten to
*defend Canaan
*against the dreaded Hittites, to save his fellow pre-Hebrews from
*annihilation. This story of Tushratta vs. Akhenaten, and Tushratta�
*�s incessant whining
*in the Amarna Letters over and over again about the gold statues that
*his
*son-in-law Akhenaten was supposed to deliver to Tushratta (and
*never did), could
*not be left out of the Patriarchal narratives, because it was a critical
*factor in the first Hebrews fearing an imminent onslaught from the
*Hittites.
*In my humble opinion, you could not have picked a worse story to try
*to make
*your point. Can’t you come up with even one story in the
*Patriarchal
*narratives that is not plastered all over the mid-14th century BCE
*Amarna Letters?
*Isn’t there at least one story somewhere in the Patriarchal
*narratives that
*uniquely reflects the ambience of the 1st millennium BCE, rather than
*the
*historical Patriarchal Age of the mid-14th century BCE?
*Jim Stinehart
*Evanston, Illinois



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