Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

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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