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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: furuli AT online.no, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Can absence of evidence be evidence of absence?
  • Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 14:50:02 EST


Rolf Furuli:

You wrote: “By way of conclusion I will say: There is no way to prove that
the
Pentateuch was written in the 15th century by a man called Moses. And
conversely - and this is also corroborated by the lack of scientific tests of
my
hypothesis proposed by list-members - it cannot be proved that the Pentateuch
was written at a later time.”

Not true. The Patriarchal narratives could not possibly have been composed
prior to the mid-14th century BCE. All of the specific historical events
recorded in the received text of the Patriarchal narratives occurred in the
mid-14th century BCE, and could not have been known in the 15th century BCE.

1. Four Rulers Against the Five

Only once in 5,000 years of human history have four rulers, two of whom had
west Semitic names, one of whom had a Hurrian name, and one of whom had a
Hittite kingly name, utterly destroyed a coalition of five princelings in or
near
Canaan, after one of the 4 rulers, who had a west Semitic name, had earlier
been successfully attacked by several of those 5 rebellious princelings.
Once
the ruler with a Hittite kingly name enters the picture, suddenly it’s a
total
men-against-boys mismatch. The military conflict narrated in chapter 14 of
Genesis comes straight out of the well-documented secular history of the
mid-14th
century BCE, per the Amarna Letters.

2. Decapitation of the Shechem Offensive

Only once in 5,000 years of human history was the ruler of Shechem, together
with all the men who were with him at the time, killed in a surprise attack,
on behalf of, but not at the direct order of, an early monotheistic leader,
after the ruler of Shechem had tried to organize tent-dwelling people in
central
Canaan to enable Shechem to dominate all of central Canaan, with a key
element
of the drama being the ruler of Shechem’s disingenuous claim that: “I did
not know that my son was consorting with the [tent-dwellers].” Amarna Letter
EA 254. That’s chapters 34-35 of Genesis, which also accurately report that,
against all odds, no effective reprisals ever occurred against the people who
had taken the law into their own hands and killed the leader of Shechem and
all
the men who were with him at the time, based in large part on the nefarious
actions of a son of such leader. Historically accurately, the early
monotheistic leader, after first being somewhat appalled at this un-ordered,
lawless
violence, later almost nonchalantly takes credit for the incredible,
unexpected
success of this seemingly outrageous bloody attack on the leader of Shechem
and
the men who were with him.

3. Two Generations of Early Monotheists Marry Women from Naharim, With
Vastly Different Consequences

Isaac and Jacob are two generations of early monotheistic leaders who each
marry women from Naharim, on the far-away upper Euphrates River. That only
happened once in 5,000 years of human history. Although Isaac has no trouble
with
his in-laws, his son Jacob rudely and permanently breaks with Jacob’s
father-in-law from Naharim, with the last straw being certain statues that
the
father-in-law is incensed that his early monotheistic son-in-law from far to
the
west never delivers to him. That sequence only happened once in 5,000 years
of
human history, in the mid-14th century BCE, as amply documented by the Amarna
Letters.

* * *

Shall I go on? The Patriarchal narratives are chock-full of historical
events that only happened once, always in the mid-14th century BCE. Scholars
have
missed this for two reasons. First, the author of the Patriarchal narratives
almost always uses nicknames for historical characters (such as “Pharaoh”),
instead of their formal names known to history. The only major exception is
that Abimelek in chapters 20, 21 and 26 of Genesis is historical princeling
Abimilki of mid-14th century BCE Tyre. Secondly, a mid-14th century BCE
Patriarchal Age does not leave room for a 400-year bondage of the Hebrews in
Egypt.

But if you want to approach the matter “scientifically” and let the chips
fall where they may (instead of insisting, as do both Biblical Maximalists
and
Biblical Minimalists alike, on always viewing the Patriarchal narratives
exclusively through the lens of the Book of Exodus), there are dozens of
stories in
the Patriarchal narratives that could not possibly have been written prior to
the mid-14th century BCE. Likewise, most of those stories were lost to
mankind
’s memory long before the 1st millennium BCE, except to the extent they are
preserved in the incomparable Patriarchal narratives. Note that historically
speaking, the standard scholarly view that the Patriarchal narratives are
late
fiction, circa the 7th century BCE, is completely untenable.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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