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  • From: "Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>
  • To: "Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>, <JimStinehart AT aol.com>, <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org, LBReich AT alum.mit.edu
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Patriarchal Narratives was TD(L
  • Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:01:13 -0500

Hi Bryant:

EBAI to EBAIV dates from 3300 BCE to 2000 BCE and the so-called "Patriarchal Period" (an uncomfortably imprecise term) would be MBAI to III or 2000 BCE to 1550 BCE. If Joseph is historical (and for various literary reasons I believe he was) his tenure as a vizier in Egypt would best fit the reign of the last Hyksos Pharaoh Apepi I/II at the end of the Second Intermediate Period and the emergence of the New Kingdom and the Tuthmosid 18th Dynasty. I won't speculate about the origins of a contemporary Delta chieftain named "Yakobaam."

Accordingly the chronology does not fit Joseph being aware of a Genesis prophecy given Genesis was not yet written. There was no Hebrew script at this time when proto-alphabetic acrophonic systems in Egypt and the Sinai were just emerging but certainly there was a Canaanite language. Aramaeans settled in Aram around the 13th century BCE and Abraham is reported to have been born in Sumerian UR (not of the Chaldees). Numerous anachronisms occur in the OT simply from the account being written centuries after the events.

Jack

Jack Kilmon
San Antonio, TX

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 2:14 PM
To: <JimStinehart AT aol.com>; <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>; <LBReich AT alum.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Patriarchal Narratives was TD(L

Dear Jim,

Abraham is clearly EBA. It is evident that most of the Patriarchal Narratives
were in the EBA. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph would be found between
2000-1800 BC (BCE). It is also evident that Joseph clearly understood the
prophecy regarding that the Israelites would be in Egypt for 400 years were to
take his body and be buried alongside his father, Jacob. See Genesis 50:24-26;
Exodus 13:19; and Joshua 24:32. This is what the texts say. Every thing else is
speculation. It does mean something when one is looking in the wrong century for
the Patriarchs.

What you postulated is good to do, if and only if, there is clearly evidence
that clearly shows that what you are saying is correct, but the scholarship is
repeatedly not showing that. Furthermore, it does no good to use various
terminology such as, "late date theory", "pin point accuracy," "modern
scholars," "university scholars,"etc., to produce list anxiety and monopoly. It
shows that your theory is redundant in argumentation and not on solid rock, but
is on shifting sand. Back to the drawing board.

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III



----- Original Message ----- From: <JimStinehart AT aol.com>
To: <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>; <LBReich AT alum.mit.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 8:32 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] TD(L



Karl:

1. You wrote: “[F]or ‘pinpoint accuracy’ you need to take the story of
Abraham in its context, a context that indicates that Abraham lived in the
early bronze age, not late.”

Karl, that’s where you’re wrong. The words in the text are thoroughly
redolent of the mid-14th century BCE in the Late Bronze Age.

1. K$DYM at Genesis 11: 28, 31. That references the Kassites, the Late
Bronze Age rulers of southern Mesopotamia.

2. NHRYM in the Amarna Letters and at Genesis 24: 10 is the name of the
Hurrian great power state in eastern Syria during the Late Bronze Age.

3. TD(L is an authentic Hittite kingly name, being a nasty Hebrew nickname
[his murdered older brother’s name] for mighty Hittite King Suppiluliuma I.
The only time the Hittites threatened beloved Canaan was under
Suppiluliuma, at the time of the Great Syrian War in the mid-14th century BCE.

4. )B-Y-MLK. Abraham interacts with Ab-i-Melek, who both in chapter 21 of
Genesis and in eight Amarna Letters is always catatonic about how to get
access to contested water wells.

Even the literary concepts in the Biblical text are redolent of the Great
Syrian War in the mid-14th century BCE, such as the reference at the end of
chapter 14 of Genesis to Abraham not taking a sandal lace: “Speiser
correctly observed that the phrase…neither a string nor a sandal lace is based
on
Near Eastern formulae…. We now have a text from Ugarit remarkably close to
Gen 14 in some ways. Niqmaddu, king of Ugarit, has been plundered by his
enemies [members of the league of 5 rebellious Hurrian princelings]. His
[newly-embraced] suzerain, the Hittite king Suppiluliuma, comes to his rescue
and
drives the invaders away. In response Niqmaddu attempts to give
Suppiluliuma a gift as a sign of his appreciation. The text is damaged at
this point,
but may be restored to read as follows: ‘Suppiluliuma, the Great King, saw
the loyalty of Niqmaddu, and as far as what belongs to Ugarit…Suppiluliuma,
the Great King, will not touch anything, be it straw or splinter….’ Abram
appears to follow similar royal etiquette [at the end of chapter 14 of
Genesis] in refusing anything from the king of Sodom [‘neither a string nor a
sandal lace’] in return for his accomplishments.” Victor P. Hamilton, “The
Book of Genesis Chapters 1-17” (1990), at p. 414. [Niqmaddu of Ugarit is
Biblical “Chedorlaomer”, and Suppiluliuma is Biblical TD(L.]

2. You wrote: “There is no linguistic evidence that TD(L was Tudhaliya.
The only reason we see for you to make that claim, is to make it fit your
theories.”

Au contraire, Tudhaliya is spelled identically at Genesis 14: 1 and in
Ugaritic literature. That’s letter-for-letter accuracy in a Late Bronze Age
historical context. But then again, that’s simply par for the course for the
Patriarchal narratives.






Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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