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  • From: jimstinehart AT aol.com
  • To: George.Athas AT moore.edu.au, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Year 13 Hebrew Grammar
  • Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2011 09:25:29 -0400







George Athas:

In response to my statement that “Perhaps the greatest Biblical mystery of
all time is to know the specific date when Abraham first settled at the
Patriarchs’ Hebron”, you wrote: “No, I wouldn't have thought so.”

But do you or do you not agree that based on Hebrew grammar, the second half
of Genesis 14: 4 (i) seems to be referring to Year 13, and (ii) does not use
the phraseology that is used elsewhere in the Bible when the intended meaning
is “And in the 13th year”?

My theory of the Patriarchal narratives works well only if Abram first
settles at the Patriarchs’ Hebron in Year 12 (the year before the reference
to Year 13 at Genesis 14: 4). Only in Year 12, not earlier and not later,
would we expect Lot to leave Bethel by going east (Genesis 13: 11). And only
in Year 12, not earlier and not later, would we expect Abram, proceeding in
the opposite direction, to come to a place where he allies with an Amorite
princeling (Mamre) who in addition to being attested as operating in concert
with tent-dwellers (with certain aspects of the Apiru lifestyle being similar
to that of the Patriarchs), but also is attested as operating with both
Canaanite (Eshcol) and Hurrian (Aner) allies (Genesis 14: 13).

As you probably know, we have more information about Canaan in Year 12 (if
it’s Year 12 of Akhenaten’s 17-year reign) than virtually any other year in
ancient history. We know who was ruling Shechem, Jerusalem and the Ayalon
Valley, and we know how each of those rulers operated. So we can verify or
falsify each of the many statements that are made in the Biblical text about
the situation in Canaan at the time that Abram chose to sojourn at the
Patriarchs’ Hebron. We know that central hill country had lost 90% of its
population since the end of the Middle Bronze Age. We know that the
Shephelah had lost 50% of its population since the end of the Middle Bronze
Age. Especially exciting in that connection is that we know that there was
not a single village or town in the northeast Ayalon Valley, an area that had
fine land, so that the northeast Ayalon Valley would have been a rural
nirvana for the Patriarchs at that time. We know that the northeast Ayalon
Valley does not have caves, but the southeast Ayalon Valley does, so Abraham
would have had to go a short ways south to buy a cave for Sarah’s burial,
near a Hurrian-dominated city.

In a word, we can document virtually everything the Biblical text says, with
great specificity, if we could confirm the exact year in which Abram is
portrayed as settling at the Patriarchs’ Hebron. That would be Year 12, and
e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g would check out perfectly, if the second half of Genesis
14: 4 says “And Year 13 they rebelled”, while not saying how it is usually
translated: “And in the 13th year they rebelled.”

>From the standpoint of Hebrew grammar, what is your analysis of the second
>half of Genesis 14: 4?

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois







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