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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: greifer AT hotmail.com, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] anything about Amarna
  • Date: Mon, 10 May 2010 15:13:57 EDT


Kenneth Greifer:

1. You wrote: “I also would like to say that even if you convince people
that every place in Genesis is really north of where they currently believe,
that won't prove that the patriarchal stories are based on the Amarna
letters because they are totally different.”

You have misunderstood my argument. What I am saying is that the early
Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives lived at the same time as when
the
Amarna Letters were written. I agree that the Patriarchal narratives are
not based on the Amarna Letters. But in my view the Patriarchal narratives
and the Amarna Letters are differing reactions, in the same time period, to
the turbulent reign of Akhenaten and the manifest threat from the dreaded
Hittites up north.

2. You wrote: “ Someone died in Shechem in Genesis and someone died there
in the Amarna letters, but the stories are totally different.”

In fact, the stories are very similar. In both cases, the ruler of Shechem
was killed in a sneak attack on behalf of, but not with the approval of,
the first historical monotheistic leader of a people. In both cases, the
losing defense by the ruler of Shechem was virtually the same, verbatim: “”I
did not know that my son was consorting with the Apiru.” Amarna Letter EA
254: 30-37. In both cases, quite surprisingly there were almost no bad
repercussions from this dramatic action. I see chapter 34 of Genesis as
being the
Hebrew account of the same Decapitation of the Shechem Offensive that is
recounted in the Amarna Letters.

3. You wrote: “Even if you give 10,000 proofs that every place is north,
you still can't give one proof that any of the stories match. We have to
assume only one person in the ancient times fought over a well or only one
person ever lent someone an idol and wanted it back.”

In the entirety of the Bible, and in the entirety of the Amarna Letters,
only one person is consumed with the issue of getting access to contested
water wells: Abimelek. Isn’t that telling us something? Abimelek in
chapters
20, 21 and 26 of Genesis is not fictional, as university scholars insist is
the case. No way! He’s fully historical Abimelek of the arrogant island
city-state of Shur [Greek “Tyre”], with whom the Hebrews have a long
love-hate relationship throughout the Bible.

As to someone wanting an idol back, remember that in both cases, the first
historical monotheistic leader of a people, and his father, both had married
women from the odd, far-away location of Naharim on the upper Euphrates
River. In each case, the monotheistic son broke off relations with his irate
father-in-law from Naharim on the basis of certain statues that the
monotheistic son-in-law never returned to that irate father-in-law from
Naharim. That
’s a pretty close match to the stories. in my view.

4. You wrote: “ All of these stories don't match at all, so your attempt
to prove that the Torah in Genesis is phony is going to fail no matter what
you say about locations in the north.”

On the contrary, I am trying to supply the rock-solid historical anchor to
the Torah, which university scholars say is totally lacking. Rather than
being “phony”, as university scholars would have it, the “four kings against
five” at Genesis 14: 1-11 has pinpoint historical accuracy, in my considered
opinion.

The historical Patriarchal Age is the mid-14th century BCE, when the first
Hebrews were terribly threatened (though only for a few years) by the
seemingly unstoppable Hittite war machine. In a single year, the Hittites
conquered most all of Syria, the northern coast of Lebanon, and severely
pressured
both the Transjordan and the Beqa Valley in eastern Lebanon. Who could
blame the early Hebrews for fearing that beloved Canaan might be next on the
mighty Hittites’ hit list?

My goal is to show that the “four kings against five” was written the year
after the first year of the Syrian War, and is an accurate account of the
first year of the Syrian War that potentially threatened the very existence
of the early Hebrews. I am trying to supply a rock-solid Bronze Age
historical beginning date for Judaism, in the face of the claim by university
scholars that it’s all 1st millennium BCE fiction.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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