Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Jack:

On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 8:20 PM, Jack Kilmon <jkilmon AT historian.net> wrote:

Karl:

    Would you be good enough to explain “Sisaq” to me as it relates to Tuthmosis (Djehuty-mes)II? 

This can be a long, involved answer bringing in archaeological and historical evidence going back to Joseph and the Exodus, forward to the Amarna Letters which describe a ninth to eighth centuries BC Levant, and in between all pointing to that the pharaoh that we today call Thutmosis II was the same as Sesiq in the Bible.

I don’t try to correlate the names, for a few reasons: Sesiq could have been a name by which he was known in the Levant and not an official name used in Egypt, could have been a corruption of an Egyptian name, the pronunciation that we presently give the ancient Egyptian names could have been wrong for that time, and so forth.

 

Although I don’t totally discount some portions in the Hellenistic Period, the Aramaic of Daniel points to the last two centuries BCE.

There you’ll have to discuss that with Rolf, who claimed in an earlier message that the Aramaic of Daniel is consistent with a sixth century BC authorship, and not Hellenistic period Aramaic. I know barely enough Aramaic to read the Aramaic portions of Tanakh so I have to depend on people like Rolf.

Clues that I noticed in post-Babylonian Exile books indicate to me that those who were born and reared in Babylonia returned to Judea as native Aramiac speakers, not Hebrew. Therefore a sixth century author such as Daniel using Aramaic in his writings is not out of place.

 

  Isn’t it possible that the author of Daniel was inventing a midrash for the Seleucid/Maccabaean Period?

Are you speculating that Daniel, who lived during the Babylonian Exile, was writing a midrash concerning the future?

 

Jack

Jack Kilmon

Houston, TX

Karl W. Randolph.