Biblical Hebrew Forum

["G. Zack" <atdgz AT hotmail.com>]

Further to your mention of Hoffmeier and, in partial challenge to Yigal's 
somewhat categorical claim that there is no extra-biblical support to the 
Exodus narrative, in a recent article in BAR Hoffmeier does argue for the 
availability of such evidence, arguing against deniers such as Finkelstein 
and others.

He points out to recent excavations in the Nile Delta and other Egyptian 
sources and establishes, e.g. that Delta towns such as Pi'Atoum were not in 
existence in later centuries and could not be the basis to late narrative 
projected backwards.

If memory serves I believe that Hoffmeier shows that Ramssess existed as a 
town only betweem 1275 and 1075 BC.

He uses other places mentioned in the narrative as well as practices of 
Semetic slave-labour, the practice of mus brick making, harsh quotas and 
straw deprivation etc. as, again, all pointing to mid 1200 bc as the likely 
period.

Indeed, if accepted,  the numbers would always remain an issue as well as the 
biblical narrative that claims Exodus as the SOLE demographic source of the 
emerging  Israelite nation, as opposed to being only one component as much 
evidence suggests, that managed, however, to imprint its lore as central in 
the Israelites annals known as the Bible. 

But away from such "historicity"-- there is, according to Hoffmeier, 
archaeological and topographical evidence that supports the Exodus narrative 
as a plausible account of some people's/clans'/families' departure from an 
abusive sejourn in Egypt circa 1230...

Gad Za'k
Canada

> Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:50:19 -0800
> From: uhurwitz AT yahoo.com
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [b-hebrew] Year of Exodus 
>   
>    Yigal has written:
>  
>  "So, while the match is not perfect, the most logical time for an 
> Israelite 
> conquest (or whatever historical process came to be described as the 
> conquest) is around 1200, with the Exodus occuring around 1240 BCE. Of 
> course, there IS no actual evidence of either..."
> 
>   
>  There is always the possibility that Exodus does retain general memories.
>  
>  That some ancestors of Israelites had indeed been in Egypt; that they were
> in bondage; and , significantly, picked up  there a belief in a single 
> deity 
> intolerant of other gods, can be supported, though not proven, by much 
> extra-biblical material .
>  
>   Therefore, one can fully accept the outline of the Exodus story, as well 
> as the
>  Patriarchs narratives, as Outline History. This was of course done before, 
> see e.g  A.Malamat. As for Egypt, no serious discussion of the subject can 
> exclude
>  the views of K. Kitchen and Hoffmeier.
>  
>   What is difficult to accept are the large numbers involved in the Exodus 
> narratives;
> further, that not all Hebrews had gone to Egypt was assumed by major 
> scholars such as Albright, and Meek a long time ago.
>  
>    Uri Hurwitz                                                            
> Great Neck, NY
>  
>  
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
>       
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