Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Karl:
 
You wrote:  “You have taken Genesis 31:30 out of context, a logical 
fallacy. Not only have you taken it out of its linguistic context, but also 
its 
cultural
 context. Once you restore Genesis to its context, then it is talking about 
a
 completely different event than the Amarna letter, a difference that is
 easily recognized.” 
 
How have I taken Genesis 31: 30 out of context?  Here is how I view the 
context.
 
1.  Jacob was forced by his father-in-law from Naharim to marry a woman 
from Naharim that he did not want to marry (Leah).  Likewise, Akhenaten was 
forced by his father-in-law from Naharim to marry a woman from Naharim that 
he 
did not want to marry (Tadu-Heba).  Note that even the name “Naharim” 
matches between the Amarna Letters and Genesis 24: 10.  In 5,000 years of 
human 
history, this was the only time when a monotheistic man from far to the west 
married, against his will, a woman from a far-off place then called “Naharim”
.
 
2.  Jacob’s father (Isaac) had likewise married a woman from Naharim 
(Rebakah), but so unlike the first historical monotheistic leader of a 
people, the 
father never had any trouble at all getting along with his in-laws from 
far-off Naharim on the upper Euphrates River.  Everything’s the same at 
Amarna. 
 Akhenaten’s  father (Amenhotep III) had married a woman from Naharim 
(Gilu-Heba), but so unlike the first historical monotheistic leader of a 
people, 
the father never had any trouble at all getting along with his in-laws from 
far-off Naharim on the upper Euphrates River.  Indeed, the monotheist’s 
father, both in the Bible and at Amarna, strongly supported the first 
historical 
monotheistic leader of a people marrying a woman from Naharim.
 
3.  Jacob rudely broke off relations with his father-in-law from Naharim 
(Laban).  Likewise, Akhenaten rudely broke off relations with his 
father-in-law from Naharim (Tushratta).  In Genesis, this happens 12.7 
tenfold regular 
years after Abraham’s birth, and in the Amarna Letters it happens 12 years, 7 
months into Akhenaten’s reign.  Even the exact timing of this important 
event matches.
 
4.  The monotheistic son-in-law from far to the west had many legitimate 
grievances against his father-in-law from Naharim, who was untrustworthy to a 
fault.  Yet the last straw in both cases was both identical and quite 
bizarre.  The irate father-in-law from Naharim imperiously demanded that the 
monotheistic son-in-law from far to the west turn over certain desired 
statues to 
the irate father-in-law.  But such statues were never forthcoming.
 
Karl, how can you get the stories closer than that?  How can mainstream 
university scholars say, on a unanimous basis, that this Biblical story is 
pure 
1st millennium BCE fiction?  No one in the 1st millennium BCE knew, or 
cared a fig about, Akhenaten’s breaking off relations with his irate 
father-in-law from Naharim over the issue of certain statues that were never 
handed 
over.
 
That story in chapter 31 of Genesis sure looks to me like it’s coming 
straight out of the mid-14th century BCE and the Amarna Age.  Otherwise, how 
could all of the many details above match so precisely?
 
Karl, if I’m understanding you correctly, here is your view of the 
foregoing.  The above events narrated in the Bible are historical, and 
occurred in 
the Early Bronze Age.  Then in the 8th century BCE, well over a thousand 
years later, the above events from the Amarna Letters occurred.  The fact 
that 
the above aspects of the above events seem to be the same is pure 
coincidence.  Siding with 100% of university scholars, you view it as pure 
coincidence 
that Akhenaten and his father, just like Jacob and his father, married women 
from a far-off place on the upper Euphrates River then called Naharim, and 
in the son’s case married a woman from Naharim against his will, and then 
the monotheistic son in each case rudely broke off all relations with his 
untrustworthy father-in-law, with the last straw in both cases being certain 
statues that the irate father-in-law from Naharim imperiously demanded, but 
which were never turned over.  How can you and all university scholars see 
all 
that as being pure coincidence?  It only happened  o-n-c-e  in 5,000 years 
of human history. 
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois