Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

I'm not going to post any more on this, James, other than to respond to this 
statement:

"...the very least we could say is that the historical Amenophis III is a 
strong candidate as the Pharaoh that the authors of the Torah were hoping to 
base their story on based on his son dying before he died..."

I don't think there is any evidence that the authors of the Torah had any 
particular Pharaoh in mind for the Exodus narratives. If they did, they would 
have named him, just as Pharaohs are named in the book of Kings. Instead, the 
monarch of Egypt in the Exodus narratives is anonymous. He just goes by the 
title 'Pharaoh' or 'King of Egypt'. His actual personal identity is 
completely beside the point of the narrative. So I think it's an 
overstatement to attribute a motive to the authors of the Torah when there is 
no evidence in the text itself to suggest very much at all.

Over to you for the final say if you wish to have it. I'm done.


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au