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  • From: Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Hoffmeier into the Fray
  • Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:55:14 -0800 (PST)

      The issue of the nameless Pharaoh involves the
approximate date of the earliest sources of Exodus
composition. The Egyptian evidence gives it a
chronological frame. This particular subject does
not touch upon the reality of the events described
in Exodus.    

   George Athas asked, inter alia:

  "And what then do we do with the fact that Pharaohs
are specifically named in the books of Kings?"

  According to Kitchen, the custom of not naming 
the Pharaoh changed later on, both in Egypt and
in the HB: "Again, Egyptian and biblical usage
marched together through changing times."
   
   
James Hoffmeier adds another perspective to the issue -
"It was normal in New Kingdom inscriptions not to
disclose the names of Pharaoh's enemies."

  He gives several examples: from the Annals of
Thotmose III; from a stela of Amenhotep II, from
Seti I and Ramesses II. *

  Surely, the Egyptians and their ruler in Exodus
were enemies, and in the spirit of the time his name
was excluded.
  

Best,

 Uri Hurwitz                                   Great Neck, NY

 
   *  James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt, pp 109/10























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