Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Jim:

You wrote:

“It was Ezra, under horrendous circumstances, who initiated a
radical, ultra-southerly reinterpretation of the geography of the
Patriarchal narratives after the Exile.”
Where is your evidence for this? What historical sources reference this
claim? Or is this just fiction made up to fit your religious beliefs?

As for Egyptian history, most of it is based on the interpretation of a
second century BC priest (so much for “secular”), how accurate was he? Or
was his record ‘enhanced’ by listing some kings more than once, taking
advantage of the ancient Egyptian practice that kings were often called by
multiple names, to emphasize that Egyptian history was older than Greek, to
show the primacy of Egyptian culture over Greek? In short, was he
propagandizing instead of giving an accurate history, a common practice in
those times?

These seem to be two of your main pillars, both of which have to go your way
in order for your theories to be correct. Assuming a random distribution,
that gives a 25% chance of being correct, just from these two. To add
another ‘if’, you assume that (MLQ is Hebrew, or a Hebrew influenced Aramaic
name, again an assumption with no historical evidence to back it up.

Evidences pointing against your thesis include the fact that Thutmosis III
had another name, Sisherke, almost a dead ringer for $$Q, possibly
pronounced “Shishakke”, who lived after Solomon. Another is that Genesis
preserves parts of an ancient literary style that went out of use during the
early to mid bronze age: it is very unlikely that a later writer would have
emulated that style; for example it was not copied in Kings and Chronicles,
both written after the Exile. A third evidence is the archeological record
from the mid to late bronze ages, which closely parallel the record given in
Exodus, Joshua and Judges, indicating an Exodus during the 13th dynasty
centuries after Abraham. All of these and more indicating a non-random
pattern saying that your theories are wrong, that Abraham lived about a
millennium before Thutmosis III and a lot can happen in a millennium, even
to place names.

Seeing as your theories are such a long shot and contradict other evidence,
why should we accept them?

Karl W. Randolph.