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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Qadesh of Genesis 20:1
  • Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 11:00:19 EDT


James Christian:

You like to look at original sources. Let’s compare the exact wording
concerning key foreign policy events in the Patriarchal narratives to similar
wording in the Amarna Letters. In all 4 cases, the underlying situations,
though so peculiar and specific as to be unique in human history, are
nevertheless essentially identical. Note how even the words used are
somewhat
similar.

1. Irate father-in-law from Naharim on the upper Euphrates River reaming
out his monotheistic son-in-law from far to the west, who had been forced to
marry a woman from Naharim that he did not want to marry, for refusing to
hand over certain statues that were wanted by the irate father-in-law from
Naharim:

(a) “[W]hy did you steal my [statues of] gods?" Genesis 31: 30

(b) “Now, may my brother [son-in-law] give me the statues….” Amarna
Letter EA 29: 136-147

2. Early monotheists’ reaction to the fact that the Amorite state of
Amurru was in the process of being sold out to the dreaded Hittites in Year
14:

(a) “…the iniquity of the Amorites….” Genesis 15: 16

(b) “Say to [the] ruler of Amurru: …If for any reason whatsoever you
prefer to do evil, and if you plot evil, treacherous things, then you,
together
with your entire family, shall die….” Amarna Letter EA 162: 33-38

3. Losing defense of the princeling ruler closely associated with Shechem
as to the charge that a son of his had wrongfully consorted with
tent-dwelling people/Apiru/Hebrews, as he says to the first historical
monotheistic
leader of a people, shortly before he is murdered in a sneak attack on behalf
of, but not with the approval of, the first historical monotheistic leader of
a people:

(a) “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her
to him to be his wife.” Genesis 34: 8

(b) “I did not know that my son was consorting with the Apiru
[tent-dwellers].” Amarna Letter EA 254: 30-37

4. Key event in Year 14 in the first year, being the decisive year, of the
Great Syrian War:

(a) “…these kings [including a Hittite king, Tidal] made war with Bera
[and with] B-Risha…” Genesis 14: 2

(b) “Message of Bieri [and] Message of Abdi-Risha: …‘The troops of Hatti
[the Hittites]…set the cities…on fire….’” Amarna Letters EA 174 and EA
363

5. In the 350 Amarna Letters and the entire Hebrew Bible, the only person
who has a major problem getting access to contested water wells is a guy
named: “Abimelek”:

(a) “Message of a-b-mil-ki [Abimelek]: …[T]he ruler of Sidon does not
allow me or my people to go to land to fetch wood or to fetch water for
drinking." Amarna Letter EA 154 from Abimilki of Sur

(b) “And Abimelek [)BYMLK] said to Isaac…. [T]he herdsmen of Gerar
quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." So he called
the
name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug
another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name
Sitnah.”
Genesis 26: 16, 20-21

* * *

How can 100% of mainstream university scholars assert that there’s no
accurate history in the Patriarchal narratives?

“The patriarchal traditions are in no sense history, and the question about
the historicity of the patriarchal stories and figures is a question
wrongly put.” Claus Westermann, “Genesis: An Introduction” (1984), Augsburg
Publishing House, Minneapolis, Minnesota, at p. 135

Are those university scholars blind? How can you get a more accurate
secular history of Years 12-14 of Akhenaten’s reign than the foregoing?
Those
Biblical stories aren’t fiction. They’re telling about the historical time
period of the historical birth of Judaism. Why should we be surprised that
Judaism was born in tough times, when the world seemed about to collapse, and
Egypt was hamstrung with a crazy, ineffectual, headstrong pharaoh? Welcome
to the Middle East, the historical birthplace of Judaism.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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