Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

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Rob Acosta:

 

I have decided to respond to your post on-list, because several of your assertions bear directly on the meaning of the following key Biblical words in the Patriarchal narratives:  “Chief Baker”;  XRY;  )LN.  In this first post I will relate what you say to the Bible’s references to the first two above words.  Then in a second post I will show that preeminent historians do not agree with Campbell’s unsupported claim [which you assert] that Maya allegedly fell into disgrace prior to Year 9.

 

You wrote:  “…a new commissioner, Maya is put in place as commissioner with the successor Milikilu of Gezer.  The point is this.  According to E. F. Campbell in his book "the Chronology of the Amarna letters"...from which all the details are taken, ALL of Maya's letters from Gezer were written before Year 9 of Akhenaten.”

 

In order for this topic to be of interest to people on the b-hebrew list, we must first ask who Maya is Biblically.  What’s comparable in the Patriarchal narratives to Maya’s fall into disgrace, though exaggerated for storytelling purposes, is obviously Genesis 40: 22, when the “Chief Baker” is impaled by Pharaoh.  [Historically, Maya was only figuratively “impaled” by pharaoh Akhenaten, not actually killed.  Maya later shows up as a top official under both King Tut and Horemhab.]  Who would be the “Chief Baker” in Egypt?  One of the most peculiar features of Amarna was that, uniquely in 5,000 years of human history, huge amounts of bread and other food were routinely placed on hundreds of offering stands for Aten.  The Great Aten Temple had at least 791 offering tables!  http://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/amarna_the_place/central_city/   Why would such vast quantities of food be offered to a sun-god?  One has to wonder if Akhenaten had had some version of the famous dream reported in Genesis that warned of 7 consecutive years in which the Nile River would fail to flood, and Akhenaten hoped to prevent that from happening by propitiating his sun-god with extraordinary amounts of food offerings, especially bread.  As to how all this affects Maya, in addition to his important military duties one of Maya’s key non-military titles [in his tomb 14 at Amarna] is “Overseer of the House of Pacifying the Aten”.  Thus Maya could well be referenced by the Biblical title “Chief Baker”, who was in charge of sacrificing great quantities of bread and other food to Aten in an attempt to accomplish “Pacifying the Aten”.  Note that in Panhesy’s rock tomb at Amarna we see:  “On the left Akhenaten is followed by Nefertiti wearing a Khat headdress.  Both seem to be offering loaves”.  http://euler.slu.edu/~bart/egyptianhtml/tombs/Tombs%20at%20Amarna.htm  Outside of Amarna, the title “Chief Baker” seems virtually impossible for a top official of a great king or pharaoh;  Gesenius was so baffled by this that he ad-libs as to this title:  “a dignity that also exists amongst the Moguls”.  We see that the Biblical title “Chief Baker” fits Amarna perfectly, while seeming to be almost impossible in any other context.

 

With historical Maya appearing to correspond to the Biblical “Chief Baker” in chapter 40 of Genesis, the next question to ask is when the Chief Baker [the historical “Overseer of the House of Pacifying the Aten”, namely Maya] is portrayed in Genesis as being disgraced by Pharaoh.  [Then in my next post I will confirm that this is the same Year in which Maya historically was disgraced by Akhenaten.]

 

To determine the timing that is portrayed Biblically, we start with Genesis 41: 46 and work our ways backwards.  Genesis 41: 46 tells us that Joseph is age 30 shanah when he is named chief vizier by Pharaoh.  Genesis 41: 12 and 41: 1 tell us that two years earlier, Joseph was a nar/“boy”.  Mark Cohen, the leading expert in the world on cultic calendars in the ancient Near East, says that in the Bronze Age the Israelites had an archaic understanding of shanah, by which shanah could be viewed as being “the turn of the year”, which is a 6-month period.  That archaic meaning of shanah is used in setting forth people’s stated ages in the Patriarchal narratives.  Joseph had witnessed 30 “turns of the year”/shanah when he became vizier, meaning that he was un-doubled age 15 years in 12-month years.  That is nicely confirmed by the fact that 2 Egyptian years [12-month years] earlier, Joseph at age 13 years [in 12-month years] was still a mere nar/“boy”.  So Joseph is age 13 years when the Chief Baker is disgraced.

 

That is the Hebrew author’s way of telling us that historically, the Chief Baker [the historical “Overseer of the House of Pacifying the Aten”, namely Maya] was disgraced by Pharaoh Akhenaten in Year 13.

 

Moving now to the historical side for a moment, if Maya did come under disgrace [which per Amarna Letter EA 292 from the Ayalon Valley does seem quite likely, as we will see in my next post], then that would have occurred in Year 13.  The political reason why Year 13 could have engendered what Akhenaten viewed as being “treason” was Egyptian nobles grumbling about Akhenaten’s bizarre decision in mid-Year 12 to cut off all relations with the XRY/Hurrian state of Midtanni/MDYN/Naharim in eastern Syria and his father-in-law Tushratta.  [Jacob likewise cuts off all relations with his father-in-law Laban who lived in the XRY/Hurrian state of Midtanni/MDYN/Naharim in eastern Syria 12.7 tenfold years after Abraham’s birth, with the last straw in both cases being certain family statues that were never turned over by the early monotheist to his irate father-in-law.]  This occurred just when such longstanding alliance with the Hurrians/XRY was needed the most to counter the threat of the mighty Hittites north of Syria [Genesis 14: 1 has the authentic Hittite kingly name “Tidal”], who soon thereafter launched the deadly Great Syrian War [which featured four attacking rulers destroying a coalition of five rebellious princelings:  the “four kings against five” referenced at Genesis 14: 9].   

 

The early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives knows all of these many details that are unique to Amarna in Years 12-14.  In particular, he deftly slips the word XRY into the text regarding the Chief Baker’s dream at Genesis 40: 16.  Not knowing Amarna, XRY there has baffled translators and Biblical analysts, who translate XRY as anything from “white” to “wicker” to “bread” to “open-work”, etc., but  n-e-v-e-r  grasp its actual historical meaning:  “Hurrian” [in the phrase “Hurrian/XRY baskets”;  the Hurrians were world-famous for their fine baskets].  Presumably Akhenaten suspected military man Maya [the “Chief Baker” Biblically] of harboring treasonously pro-Hurrian/XRY sentiments after mid-Year 12, and that is why Maya, the “Overseer of the House of Pacifying the Aten”, was disgraced in Year 13, which comes out Biblically as the Chief Baker being impaled when Joseph is un-doubled age 13 years.

 

On the b-hebrew list we’re trying to understand words in the Bible like XRY and )LN and “Chief Baker”, but sometimes words like that in the Patriarchal narratives make no sense whatsoever outside of the context of Amarna in Years 12-14.

 

In my next post I will correct the factual errors in your post, and show that the Amarna Letters are fully consistent with Maya not being disgraced until Year 13.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois