Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

James Christian:
 
You wrote:  “If I'm understanding you right here you are suggesting that 
the author made up Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Judah and stories about 
them to convince Akhenaton that he wasn't the only person in the world with 
these family problems so that he would save Canaan from the Hittites?”
 
That is one way to put it.  But these Hebrew characters are drawn from the 
Hebrew author’s intimate knowledge of his fellow pre-Hebrew tent-dwellers in 
rural Canaan.  So we get a very accurate historical account of what it was 
like to be the first Hebrews.  We also get an accurate account of the first 
Hebrews’ divinely-inspired religious ideas.  But in fact, most of the 
historical events referenced in the text occurred in Years 12-15 of 
Akhenaten’s 
reign, not over a long period of four generations.  This type of literature 
has great historical accuracy, if we can understand the way in which it is 
historical.  For example, Lot’s wife did not literally turn into a salt 
statue. 
 But that story is not “made up”.  Rather, it accurately reflects Akhenaten
’s very controversial actions toward his own, formerly beloved, original 
main wife #1, Nefertiti, and regarding his young teenage and pre-teenage 
daughters.  That story eternally memorializes what actually happened, 
historically, during the generation of the very first Hebrews.  
 
One of the very few stories that is autobiographical is what Joseph does in 
chapters 39-40.  The first Hebrew probably came to Akhenaten’s attention in 
the same way:  he started out as a mere servant to the captain of the 
guard, but proved very adept at analyzing intelligence for his Egyptian 
master, 
and eventually played a key role in identifying a plot by the “Baker”
/Panhesy to remove pharaoh Akhenaten from power.  Joseph’s undoubled age 
indicates 
that this historically happened in Year 13.  But most of the rest of the 
Patriarchal narratives is not autobiographical in that straightforward sense.
 
That’s my controversial view of the Patriarchal narratives.  There’s a 
close parallel in the Patriarchal narratives for almost everything important 
that happened in Years 12-15 at Amarna.  In my opinion, the historical birth 
of Judaism occurred in Year 15, which is the year in which the bulk of the 
Patriarchal narratives was composed (though the numbers in the text were 
added, by the same author, slightly after Akhenaten’s death).  Year 15 was 
the 
year the last pre-Hebrew became the first Hebrew.  The first Hebrews viewed 
YHWH as having prevented beloved Canaan from being overrun by the dreaded 
Hittites.  To me, that’s the specific historical event that effectively 
caused 
the birth of Judaism.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois