Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Yigal:

Thank you for your quick response.

The claim that I heard of has its roots in the temple of Karnak, with the
claim of 300 gold shields being carved in the walls. I did a Google search
and found a few sites that repeated this claim.

http://www.specialtyinterests.net/thutmose.html This is a site that I have
found as questionable. This page actually shows an photograph of the
symbols claimed to show that there were 300 shields collected. I found a
couple of other sites that basically repeated the claims from this site. As
I wrote before, I take the claims of this site with a big grain of salt,
neither accepting nor rejecting its claims.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2012/03/02/feedback-shishak-and-megiddoalso
points to Thutmosis III being Shishaq. Again reference is made to 300
gold shields.

http://www.hshideaway.com/chap15.htm gives a detailed explanation as to why
the image should be read as 300 gold shields.

Solomon made 300 gold shields 1 Kings 10:17, 2 Chronicles 9:16.

The Tel Amarna letters show a political and social situation consistant
with the divided kingdom period of Biblical history.

Now the linguistic reason I ask this question:

Previously I mentioned on this list that I suspected that the Hebrew
alphabet was in reality a syllabary, with each letter standing for a
syllable consisting of a consonant followed by a vowel. My reason was from
reading the Hebrew text using the pre-Babylonian Exile font on my computer.
Because that font totally lacks any pronunciation dots found in the
medieval MSS, it led me to question the multiple pronunciations for BGD-KPT
letters, making many words impossible to pronounce without adding vowels.

Later I noticed that poetry seems to have a rhythm when each letter is
pronounced as a consonant followed by a vowel.

The latest is that I had a chance to look at Waltke & O’Connor and in their
discussion on the roots of Hebrew. cited the Amarna texts as evidence that
the language of Canaan at the time these letters were written appeared to
be consonant followed by a vowel. Different evidence, but coming to the
same conclusion.

If Thutmosis III was Shishaq as proposed by the sites above, that will
indicate that the pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew probably continued to
have a consonant-vowel construction throughout the pre-Babylonian Exile
period, as the Amarna letters were written during the divided kingdom
period.

I’m not 100% convinced of the theory that Biblical Hebrew had the
pronunciation of consonant / vowel, not yet, but the more I see of the
evidence, the more it appears that way.

Thanks again,

Karl W. Randolph.

On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 4:37 AM, Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il> wrote:

> Hi Karl,
>
> I just skimmed through the translation of Thutmose's annals that appear in
> Halo's Context of Scripture (vol. II, Brill, 2000) and interestingly enough
> found no reference there to any number of shields at all. Gold, silver,
> lapis-lazuri, chariots, coats of mail, bows, prisoners, hands, heads, cows,
> goats, sheep and so on, but no shields.
>
> Sorry to disappoint.
>
> Yigal Levin
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:
> b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of K Randolph
> Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2012 5:18 AM
> To: B-Hebrew
> Subject: [b-hebrew] historical question with linguistic import
>
> Dear All:
>
> I recently heard that prominent among the booty that Thutmosis III brought
> back from the Levant was 300 golden shields. Is that true?
>
> The linguistic reason I ask this, I don’t want to say at the moment, but
> it is connected with Waltke & O’Connor, my own research and deals with
> ancient Hebrew pronunciation.
>
> Yours, Karl W. Randolph.
>