Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Hi,

Quoting 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?

I have to agree Jim. This claim you have made several times without  
providing your reasons for such an assertion.

> As for Egyptian history, most of it is based on the interpretation of a
> second century BC priest

Hi Karl. Really? I didn't know that. That is interesting to know. Do  
you have the name of the priest and/or of his 'historical' works? I'd  
like to find out more about this guy.

> (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.

Are you implying that the aforementioned Egyptian priest made up a King?

> Another is that Genesis
> preserves parts of an ancient literary style that went out of use during the
> early to mid bronze age:

Do you have any evidence for this? As far as I am aware we don't have  
any Hebrew manuscripts dated to that age (wish we did) and this line  
of 'evidence' merely furnishes new issues for debate.

> 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.

Again, while you may have a point with Chronicles you are furnishing  
further questions for debate rather than providing 'evidence' that  
everybody accepts. There are many that have their reasons to assert  
that most of Kings was written before the exile. But in any case, I've  
lost your flow of logic here. What wasn't copied into Kings? A  
patriarchal narrative? Or just the place name? You've lost me.

> 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.

Agreed, but not sure what bearing this has on Jim's theory. Could you  
be a bit more explicit?

> 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.

Ok. I think I've got you now. You're saying that the evidence from the  
TIII list is inadmissable in court because he lived so much longer  
after Abraham's time. But I don't think Jim was implying that TIII was  
one of Abraham's contemporaries was he? He was just proposing lines of  
evidence for a place name.

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