I too use Judges 11:26 to date the Exodus, but in a completely different
way. The important thing for me is to find an historical basis for
determining when this letter was written, who really wrote it and too whom
was it really written.
The contents of the letter suggests that the first words ("this says
Jephthah") and the last words ("and between the Beni-Ammon") are highly
suspect. For after first giving the history of why Israel was justified in
claiming control of the lands between the Jabbok and Areor (Judges
11:15-22), the remainder of the letter (Judges 11:23-27) surely concerns a
Moabite (not Ammonite) conquest of this region.
Are people on this list aware of Professor Manfred Görg's article "Israel in
Hieroglyphen" in Biblischen Notizen 106 (2001) 21-27? I have not seen it but
it concerns an inscription (Berlin block CG 34035 = JE 31408) which
preserves a fragment of a damaged geographic list containing the names
Ashkelon, j3-s^3-j-r, and Pa-Canaan (=Gaza). The stela is said to be from
the time of Ramesses 2 but it is noted that the list may have been copied
from an inscription written during the mid 18th dynasty (c. time of
Amenhotep 2), with the writing of the name Israel following the Middle
Kingdom use of 3 for r. That is, the inscription may mention Israel some 150
years before the inscription of Merenptah.
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