Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

Hi Karl,

The next question: is there any archaeological evidence for the Exodus? The
> answer is “Yes.” During the 13th Dynasty.
>
> Historical evidence from the 12th and 13th Dynasties shows that there were
> large numbers of “Asiatic“ slaves in Egypt, many with Hebrew names. They
> then left so suddenly that some men abandoned their tools, and some women
> forgot their jewelry, as later found by archaeologists. After that, the
> Hyksos were able to take over Egype “without a battle” as there was no
> Egyptian army to oppose them (it was drowned in the Red Sea).
>
>
 I remember you pointing me to this theory some time ago and read the
interesting article you linked me to. There are several inviting features to
this theory as you suggest but there are some problems as well.

Firstly, in an 18th dynasty temple we get the earliest extra biblical
mention of the Hebrew god. Yhw of the land of the Shashu. How could we
interpret this data in favour of a 13th dynasty Pharaoh?

Secondly, we have have letters from Canaan written in Akkadian to 18th
dynasty Pharaohs complaining about his lack of reaction to skirmishes from
Habiru in Canaan. No mention or hint of an Israelite nation. How could we
reconcile these observations with a 13th dynasty Pharaoh? Surely, Canaan
would have been sufficiently conquered by now and even if there were still
some Canaanite towns left the tone of the letters surely we would expect to
be different. They would be complaining about their entire territory having
already been conquered and not skirmishes to a few fringe towns.

Secondly, in a late 19th dynasty Stele, the Merneptah stele, we get the
first mention of Israel (ysrir) referred to as a nomad people occupying
Canaan along with 3 city states one of which we know well to be the
Phillistine city state of Ashkelon, another we believe we can identify with
Tel Gezer not too far away from Jerusalem, the location of the third is
contentious but the  proximity of Ashkelon and Gezer suggest to me that the
rough location of the Shashu was in and around the Jerusalem/Jericho areas
and so I would expect the third city state to also not be too far away. How
could we reconcile the still relatively small and nomadic status of Israel
in Canaan with a 13th dynasty Pharaoh?

I fully appreciate the limitations of Manetho as a source. And I am willing
to accept that there may have been some exaggerations of length of reigns
along the way. But here we are dealing with physical archaeological evidence
in the form of written on stone testimonies. While we could argue that each
Pharaoh ruled for much less time than claimed by Manetho between the 13th
and 18th dynasties as far I know each of these Pharaohs is archaeologically
confirmed to have existed and so we seem to have a 5 dynasty bridge to gap
to explain the lack of existence of Israel in Canaan if we are to support a
13th dynasty Pharaoh hypothesis.

Finally, beyond all else the most identifying hall mark of an Exodus Pharaoh
must undoubtedly be that of a firstborn son who died before he got chance to
be fully fledged Pharaoh. Is there any suggestion of this being the case for
any of the 13th dynasty Pharaohs?

James Christian

James Christian