MOSES OUR TEACHER

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by

©Robert F. Smith

2010

version 3

Was There an Exodus?

. . . there is no evidence, archaeological or literary, of

any great movement of Semites from Egypt later than

the expulsion of the Hyksos, . . .1

A number of scholars (and even some rabbis ) have raised2

serious doubts about whether there was in fact an Exodus, even if

the literal interpretation of the biblical Exodus is reduced in terms to

a considerably smaller episode of a group of Canaanites leaving

Egypt – something which happened to very small groups on a

regular basis as they moved back and forth across the Sinai for the

purpose of trade or to escape the occasional Canaanite famine. If3

we are to be dependent upon typical, regular movements of small

groups of semi-nomads or pastoralists for an explanation of the

Exodus, then, logically, there may as well have been no Exodus at

all! Other scholars have defended the traditional date and mode of

the large-scale biblical Exodus, or some variation of it, all to no4

avail.

Of course, there was a very large exodus of Canaanites from

the Delta of Egypt several centuries prior to the one described so

E. C. B. McLaurin, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 27/2 (Apr 1968), 95.1

Hershel Shanks, “Did the Exodus Really Happen?” Moment, 26/5 (Oct 2001), 62-65,102; Rabbi2

David Wolpe, “‘We Were Slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt’,” Moment, 26/6 (Dec 2001), 67-69; Shanks, “ForWolpe, the Exodus is Metaphor,” Moment, 26/6 (Dec 2001), 67-69; Wolpe and others comment in thePBS-TV “Kingdom of David,” available on DVD (PBS Paramount, 2003), which is #9 in the PBS“Empires” Series.

See PBS-TV’s “The Bible’s Buried Secrets,” Nova (Boston: WGBH, 2008), in which Bill3

Dever refers to these proto-Israelites or Shasu refugees from Egypt as “a motley crew.”

J. de Moor, “Egypt, Ugarit, and Exodus,” in N. Wyatt, et al., eds., Ugarit, Religion and Culture4

(Münster, 1996), 213-247; Abraham Malamat, “The Exodus: Egyptian Analogies,” in Frerichs & Lesko,eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence (Eisenbrauns, 1997), 15-26.

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specifically in the biblical book of Exodus. Josephus describes this

earlier event as he read of it in Manetho, and Egyptology fills in5

the blanks, courtesy of Sturt Manning:

Circa 1540 B.C. a native Egyptian Pharaoh from the south

.(Thebes) named Ahmose laid siege to Avaris (Tell el-Dab)a) in

northern Egypt. Avaris was the great and prosperous 250 hectare

capital city of the Canaanites/Hyksos of the 14 & 15 Dynastiesth th

(no city in Egypt, Palestine, or the Aegean was larger). Unable to

.penetrate the 8.5 m thick walls of the city, King Ahmose made a

deal with the Hyksos, allowing them to leave Egypt and return to

Canaan – with which they had maintained close ties in any case. 6

. .So the Hyksos (Eg. hq1w h1Ñwt “rulers of foreign lands”) left en

masse and returned to Canaan.

.King Ahmose then destroyed the empty city and attempted to

blot out any memory of the Hyksos rule, and he and several of his

successors of the 18 Dynasty even conducted revenge militaryth

campaigns in southern Palestine, destroying the major Hyksos city of7

Sharuhen (Tell el-)Ajjul). Not until the reign of King Merneptah (son

of Ramesses II) of the 19 Dynasty, however, do we hear a reportth

of the existence of a people in Palestine called “Israel” (see below)

– and that is over 300 years later!! So what possible relationship

could this early “exodus” have to the Israelite Exodus known from

the Bible? We have otherwise only the legend of Apophis and

Josephus, Contra Apionem, I, 14 (§§88-89), cited by Manning, A Test of Time, 84 n. 375, who5

discusses the entire episode.

Manning, A Test of Time, 67-68,77-107,405-410; 87, “Palestine . . . was intimately linked with6

the Hyksos.” These assertions are based on Josephus, but are supported by archaeological evidence(Bietak, “Tell el-Dab’a,” in Bard, ed., Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 781).

Manning, A Test of Time, 5 (n. 263), 92, including Amenhotep I, Thutmosis I, and Thutmosis7

III, all of whom campaigned in Syro-Palestine, citing Breasted, ARE, II:73,81,85,125.

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Seqenenre, which uses the names of two of the primary opposing8

kings of the 15 and 17 Dynasties, respectively.th th

As it happens, Avaris (Tell el-Dab)a) has been subject to

systematic archaeological excavation by an Austrian team for many

years now, and the results (as described by director Manfred9

Bietak) have been quite instructive: During the 12 Dynasty, shortlyth

after it was first established in the FIP (First Intermediate Period),

the village of Avaris became a primarily Canaanite settlement, and

remained so until its end ca. 1540 B.C. (Exodus 12:40-41 and

Galatians 3:17 suggest that Jacob and his sons went down into

Egypt and stayed there for 430 years, which by this measure would

place the beginning of their stay at circa 1970 B.C.).

Indeed, the fresco fragments found at Avaris are all of a late

Middle Kingdom or Second Intermediate Period (SIP) type, employing

a style and themes which Manning describes as “hybrid Egyptian-

Aegean (or Levantine in view of Tel Kabri, Alalakh and Tell el-10

Dab)a examples) themes and representation modes” developed

“especially during the special period of west Asian-Egyptian fusion

during the SIP [Second Intermediate Period].” Bietak found the11

Minoan style wall paintings at Avaris “a major surprise.”12

Redford, “Textual Sources for the Hyksos Period,” in Oren, ed., The Hyksos: New Historical8

and Archaeological Perspectives (Phila.: Univ. of Penn., 1997), 17-18, cited by Manning, A Test of Time,90 n. 397.

Manfred Bietak, “Tell el-Dab’a, Second Intermediate Period,” in K. Bard, ed., Encyclopedia of9

the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (Routledge, 1999), 778-782.

See now on Tel Kabri, “Remains of Minoan-Style Painting Discovered During Excavations of10

Canaanite Palace,” ScienceDaily, Nov 9, 2009, online at www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091109121119.htm .

Manning, A Test of Time, 54 (n. 242),56-58 (figs. 18-20), 80-81,106-107.11

Bietak, “Tell el-Dab’a,” in Bard, ed., Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 781.12

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There is, however, a “total absence of LMIA finds in Egypt

outside the Canaanite-Hyksos capital in the Delta,” i.e., “Upper Egypt

(and the 16 and 17 Dynasties of Thebes) was in effect . . . cutth th

off from the Mediterranean world.” Of course, this was not true in13

the preceding period, and some Egyptian items with Aegean

iconography were found in 13 and 17 Dynasty contexts.th th 14

There is some suggestion that the close of the Hyksos period

was not abrupt, but was merely the culmination of a long process

of deterioration (of which Ahmose took advantage) which may even

have involved pressure on Canaan from the Hurrians and the state

of Mitanni to the north. Whatever the case, a number of Middle

Bronze Age sites in Syro-Palestine come to an end then, and there

is an overall drop in number of occupied sites in the southern

Levant. Perhaps this was merely the result of the vengeful efforts15

.by King Ahmose and his successors.

It is also worthy of note that the monotheism of Amarna soon

follows. What sort of “cultural memory” was left in its wake?

Manning believes “the great religious revolution of Akhenaten to be

the basis in human memory of the figure of Moses in the Bible.” 16

And there are other potential Mosaic parallels:

Manning, A Test of Time, 110, citing Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the13

Second Intermediate Period c. 1800-1550 B.C. (1997), and Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel inAncient Times (Princeton Univ. Press, 1992), 112-115,118-121.

Manning, A Test of Time, 78-79 (Lisht dolphin vase, which is a Syro-Palestinian import, citing14

Bourriau, “Beyond Avaris,” in Oren, ed., The Hyksos [1997],165-166),112, and for example, fig. 26,from Morgan, The Miniature Wall Paintings of Thera (1988), plate 63, the Axe of Ahmose (with Aegeangriffin) from the Tomb of Ahhotep.

Manning, A Test of Time, 62, citing Kempinski (1997), 329, and Ryholt (1997), 307.15

Manning, A Test of Time, 146 n. 711, citing Assman, Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of16

Egypt in Western Monotheism (Harvard Univ. Press, 1997).

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The cataclysmic eruption of Thera (Santorini) in the Aegean in

1628 B.C. may have been remembered in Egypt, and in the Exodus

story as the Ninth Plague, via the palpable darkening of the sky

and sun (Amun-Re)), leading to famine (Joseph in Genesis 41), and17

stories of “pestilence, storms, pillar of cloud/fire and parting of the

sea (Exodus 8-9,13-14)” ; does Exodus 7:20-24 allude to or quote18

from the late Middle Egyptian "Admonitions of Ipuwer" (Papyrus

Leiden 344), recto, 2:10, "Lo, the river is blood, As one drinks of it

one shrinks from people and thirsts for water"? etc. Moreover,19

does the Seventh Plague (Exodus 9:22-24) follow the typical Egyptian

disaster “topos as in the Ahmose stele” (cf. Artapanus’ account of20

Moses versus the Egyptian King)? John Currid discusses other21

such literary topoi applicable to Moses’ time.22

Being unaware of the presence of volcanic ash in the

northeastern Delta of Egypt (at Tell el-Dab’a and Tell Hebwa),23

Ziony Zevit has attempted to argue that Theran ash never reached

Egypt and could not, therefore, be part of the series of legendary

Manning, A Test of Time, 197, 201 (and nn. 938, 951).17

Including Hesiod’s Theogony – Manning, A Test of Time, 202, sources in n. 952 (esp. M. T.18

Greene, Natural Knowledge [1992], 46-63).

19th Dynasty copy, translated by Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, I, The Old19

and Middle Kingdoms (1975), 151. Cf. also Ipuwer, recto, 4:3-4 on children and infant deaths.

Manning, A Test of Time, 197, citing the Ahmose Tempest Stele from Karnak (Thebes).20

Artapanus quoted in Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, 9.27.33, cited in Mannning, A Test of21

Time, 197 n. 934. See generally, James Hoffmeier, “Egypt, Plagues in,” in Freedman, ed., Anchor BibleDictionary, II:374-378.

Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 92-93, and passim.22

And at Tell el-Ajjul in Palestine; D. Stanley and H. Sheng, “Volcanic Shards from Santorini23

(Upper Minoan Ash) in the Nile Delta, Egypt,” Nature, 320/6064 (1986), 733-735; J.-D. Stanley in BAR,31/1 (Jan-Feb 2005), 63; Katarina Kratovac (AP), “Scholars Abuzz Over Pumice in Egypt,” DailyBreeze, April 3, 2007, A7.

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plagues recounted in the book of Exodus. Moreover, Max Bichler24

said the ash could not have been windborne, thus ignoring the25

possibility of tsunamis – the Thera eruption clearly resulted in

tsunamis at Crete at least 60 feet high as it hit the coast!! – thus26

ending Minoan civilization, any survivors being finished off thereafter

by Myceneans. Sturt Manning’s calling the Stanley and Sheng

tephra into question is thus beside the point.27

Reconciliation

How do we reconcile these various approaches and

interpretations of text and archeology? S. D. Sperling has

maintained that the biblical tradition of Hebrew slavery in Egypt

stems from the political submission of Canaan to Egyptian suzerainty

during the Amarna period. However, it seems far likelier that real28

slavery of West Asiatic Semites in Egypt during the Hyksos and/or

post-Hyksos period is the source of such a tradition – telescoped

though it may be – as though, indeed, a southern Pharaoh arose

who didn’t know Joseph (Exodus 1:8). Even where anachronistic

Zevit, review of “Moses and the Exodus,” a BBC-TV documentary (Jeremy Bowen, host), in24

BAR, 30/5 (Sept-Oct 2004), 60-62, and Zevit’s rejoinder to J.-D. Stanley in BAR, 31/1 (Jan-Feb 2005),63.

According to Manfred Bietak in BAR, 32/6 (Nov-Dec 2006), 63,65, citing the Atomic Institute25

of the Austrian Universities, and the special research program SCIEM2000 (Synchronisation ofCivilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C.) of the Austrian Academy ofSciences.

“Sinking Atlantis,” episode of Secrets of the Dead (Quickfire Media, 2008), broadcast on PBS-26

TV, May 14, 2008 (available on DVD at 800/336-1917), noting that Minoan use of Linear A was alsosnuffed out with the explosion of Thera-Santorini; Evan Hadingham, “Did a Tsunami Wipe Out a Cradleof Western Civilization?” Discover, Jan 4, 2008, online at http://discovermagazine.com/ 2008/jan/did-a-tsunami-wipe-out-a-cradle-of-western-civilization/article_view?b_start:int=2&-C= .

Manning, Test of Time, 11 n. 61.27

Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel, 61-62, citing S. D. Sperling, Original Torah (1998), 41-28

58.

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references in an early text seem to invalidate an early date of

composition, it is as likely that late scribal transmission and editing

may account for the oddity via telescoping of sources. Of course,29

Redford and Assmann have each concluded the obvious, i.e., the

story of Joseph and his brothers down to the time of Moses’

Exodus may have originated with the entry into Egypt of the Hyksos

and their eventual expulsion. For archeologist Bryant Wood the30

solution is equally simple: abandon the standard biblical dating and

push the date of the Exodus back two centuries! Apparently31

unaware of this alternative, Bill Dever makes the consensus assertion

that some such accommodation is required by the incompatibility of

a late Exodus with archeological reality:

The Biblical narratives about Abraham, Moses, Joshua and

Solomon probably do reflect some historical memories of actual

people and places, but the “larger-than-life” portraits of the

Bible are unrealistic and are, in fact, contradicted by the

archaeological evidence. Some of Israel’s ancestors probably

did come out of Egyptian slavery, but there was no military

conquest of Canaan, and most early Israelites were displaced

Canaanites.32

Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel, 7, and n. 88, re the Persian name Parnoch/ Farnaka at29

Numbers 34:25.

Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel (1992), 408-422, and Assmann, Moses the Egyptian30

(1997), 28-43, both cited in Manning, A Test of Time, 197 n. 939. Cf. H. Shanks, “The Exodus and theCrossing of the Red Sea According to Hans Goedicke,” BAR, 7/5 (1981), 42-50..

Bryant G. Wood, “The Rise and Fall of the 13 Century Exodus-Conquest Theory,” Journal of31 th

the Evangelical Theological Society, 48/3 (Sept 2005), 475-489; Wood, “From Ramesses to Shiloh:Archaeological Discoveries Bearing on the Exodus-Judges Period,” in D. M. Howard, Jr., and M. A.Grisanti, eds., Giving the Sense: Understanding and Using Old Testament Historical Texts (GrandRapids: Kregel, 2003), 256-282; cf. Paul J. Ray, Jr., “Another Look at the Period of the Judges,” in G. A.Carnagey, Sr., ed., Beyond the Jordan (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2005), 93-104.

William Dever, “The Western Cultural Tradition Is at Risk,” Biblical Archaeology Review,32

32/2 (Mar-Apr 2006), 76; cf. Dever, “Is There Any Archaeological Evidence for the Exodus?” inFrerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 67-86.

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Jo Ann Hackett likewise states what seems to her the obvious here,

while adhering to that same consensus position:

. . . the number of years given in the book for the period

of the Judges is over four hundred, much too long a span

considering the dating of the Exodus accepted by the majority

of scholars, . . .33

Where does she get that 400+ period for the Judges? (see

immediately below) She herself rejects the notion that the

apparently sequential list of judges in that book is either realistic or

chronologically sequential. For one thing, the fact that the major

judges are listed along with numbers in multiples of 20 is

suspicious. In addition, where the locality of each judge can be

established, there is a clear-cut geographical sequence from south to

north, then east. Thus, simple addition of each successive judge’s34

term or after-term leading to 336+ years cannot be taken seriously.

The overall period is indeterminate on that basis alone. The book

of Judges is not a set of annals. Moreover, the book of Judges

doesn’t even bother to mention the major attack by Pharaoh

Merneptah!!35

However, the Bible does claim a period of 300 years from

Joshua to Jephthah (Judges 11:25-26), 480 years from the beginning

of the Exodus till Solomon’s 4 year (I Kings 6:1), and about 450th

years of judges until Samuel the Prophet (Acts 13:20; cf. I Sam

25:1). Since we know that Solomon died after 40 years reign in

924 B.C. (I Kings 11:42), and that King Shishak I of Egypt invaded

Hackett in M. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World (Oxford Univ. Press,33

1998), 185.

Hackett in M. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World, 183-187.34

See the Merneptah Stele (“Israel Stele”) in J. Pritchard, ed., ANET, 3 ed., 378.35 rd

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Israel in 920 B.C. (I Kings 14:25), we can work backward

chronologically from these relatively secure dates: Solomon’s 4 yearth

was around 966 B.C., while David began his reign in about 1004

B.C. (II Samuel 2:4), shortly after Samuel died. That the earlier

dates can only be approximated by this means should be abundantly

clear:36

966 + 480 = 1446 B.C. for the Exodus (- 340 years ! Jephthah in

1100 B.C.)37

1004 + 450 + 80 = 1534+ B.C. for the Exodus (- 340 years !

Jephthah in 1194 B.C.)

Likewise clear should be the fact that, by any means, the date of

the Exodus cannot be placed as usually assumed in the mid-13th

century B.C. Neither archeology nor biblical chronology support such

a low date. Why then is it the consensus position? Certainly

because of the mention of “Ramesses” as the place from which the

Exodus began, causing Kitchen to place the Exodus in the mid-13th

century B.C. I cover such toponyms below, even though they are38

likely late glosses in Exodus.

Whatever date is applied to the Exodus, the Patriarchs Jacob

& Joseph came down to Egypt around 430 years earlier than the

Exodus (Ex 12:40-41), which might place that earlier event within the

mid-20 to early 19 centuries B.C. Kitchen prefers a later date ofth th

1690-1680 B.C., which is just before the entry of the Hyksos. But39

that is unnecessary.

John Davis, Biblical Numerology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1968), 66 n. 55.36

966 + 553 = 1519 B.C., if we follow K. Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor37

Bible Dictionary, II:702.

Kenneth Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:702-703.38

Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:705.39

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Textual Indicators of the Exodus

How did the Exodus come about? We may find a hint in the

Dynasty 19 Papyrus Harris 1, in which there is a Syro-Palestinian

()1mw) usurpation of Egypt under a leader called Irsu, possibly

connected to the Asiatic incident depicted in the Elephantine Stele

discussed below, in the next paragraph. Irsu (Egyptian "He-who-

made-himself; Self-made-man") was equated by Gardiner, �erný, and

others, with an important Egyptian official with a Semitic name,

Beya, who was active during the reigns of Kings Sety II, Siptah,

and Queen Tausert. An Akkadian letter from Beya to the last ruler

of Ugarit would thus date a late Asiatic usurpation to about 1195-

1190 B.C., and some scholars understandably equate Irsu / Beya40

with Moses. Again, an interesting, but unnecessary correlation.41

Another Asiatic incident is described in the 20 Dynastyth

Elephantine Stele of Pharaoh Sethnakht about a gold, silver, and

copper bribe paid to the Asiatics (sttw) to overthrow Pharaoh

Sethnakht, but which resulted in the Asiatics being expelled from

Egypt. Similarly, British Museum papyri 10053 and 10054 have 342

and 4 gold qedet bribes being paid to officials during the reign of

Ramesses II. On the Exodus booty and bribes being paid43

elsewhere in the Bible and in the Mormon Canon, see especially

Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, Exodus, 24-25, citing C. Maderna-Sieben, "Der historische40

Abschnitt des Papyrus Harris I," Göttinger Miszellen, 123 [1991], 57-90, and M. Yon, In the CrisisYears: The 12th Century B.C.E., ed. W. A. Ward, and M. Sharp Joukowsky (Dubuque, 1992), 119-120.

E. A. Knauf, Midian (Wiesbaden, 1988), 135ff.; J. C. de Moor, The Rise of Yahwism (Leuven,41

1990), 136-151.

D. Bidoli, MDAIK, 28 (1972), 195-200, pl. 49; Rosemarie Drenkhahn, Die Elephantine-Stele42

des Sethnacht (Wiesbsden, 1980); Friedrich Junge in Elephantine 11 (1988), 55-58.

B. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization (Routledge, 1992), 244.43

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Exodus 3:21-22, 11:2, 12:35-36; Psalm 105:37 (booty), and Alma

11:22 (Zeezrom's 6-onti bribe offer).44

The forgoing are merely indicators, certainly not proof, but while

it is quite true that there is no direct, explicit archeological evidence

for the traditional Exodus, there are many collateral matters to be

considered – including intriguing parallels with the modern Bedouin

tribes of the Sinai, and including other indirect ways of establishing45

the backround of the biblical texts, e.g., covenant/treaty language,

onomastica, cross-cultural comparisons, etc.

The Sinai Covenant

Within limits, for example, texts can be dated: The Sinai

Covenant of Exodus 20 (and the traditions associated with it)

resembles nothing so much as a Late Bronze Age suzerainty treaty,

with “Yahweh as king and Israel as vassal,” although the text was

subject to later editors or redactors. The later Deuteronomic46

materials merely reflect the earlier Late Bronze Age forms, and could

not have been based on contemporary (late Iron Age) Assyrian

For general Exodus parallels, see I Nephi 2 - 3, 16 - 18; Abraham Malamat, "The Exodus:44

Egyptian Analogies," in E. Frerichs & L. Lesko, Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence (Eisenbrauns, 1997),22-24; Terrence L. Szink, "Nephi and the Exodus," in Sorenson & Thorne, eds., Rediscovering the Bookof Mormon (FARMS & Deseret, 1991), 38-51; Monford Harris, Exodus and Exile: The Structure of theJewish Holidays (Fortress, 1992); Bruce J. Boehm, "Wanderers in the Promised Land: A Study of theExodus Motif in the Book of Mormon and Holy Bible," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 3/1 (Spring1994), 187-203.

Ze’ev Meshel, “Wilderness Wanderings: Ethnographic Lessons from Modern Bedouin,”45

Biblical Archaeology Review, 34/4 (July-Aug 2008), 32-39, citing especially B. Mazar, “The Exodus andConquest of Israel,” Canaan and Israel (Israel Exploration Society, 1974), 100 (Hebrew).

G. Mendenhall and G. Herion, “Covenant,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:1183-1188, citing46

esp. H. Huffmon, CBQ, 27 (1965), 101-113.

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loyalty oaths. As Richard Friedman has noted, the similarity of the47

structure and legal terminology of biblical covenant to the earlier

legal contracts and international treaties is very important as a

diagnostic tool in the dating of texts, although Kitchen rules out48

any date earlier than 1380 B.C. on the grounds that the applicable

covenant-format had not been invented until then! That is likely49

an attribution to the evidence a chronological precision it does not

have.

Culture

Ziony Zevit has commented on Baruch Halpern’s approach to

the question of the authenticity of a Late Bronze Age Exodus as

follows:

B. Halpern argues that the story of the enslavement and

exodus and the poem in Exodus 15 was told within a milieu

aware of some Late Bronze socio-political realities in Egypt:

building activities of Raameses, the rise in use of forced

labor, the drafting of immigrants into the Nile Delta for such

work, the presence of Sea Peoples settled in Philistia.

Assuming that Halpern is correct and that such realities were

not also characteristic of Iron Age Egypt, the question remains

G. Mendenhall, “Covenant Forms in Israelite Tradition,” Biblical Archeologist, 17 (1954), 50-47

76; Mendenhall and Herion in Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:1184, re Deut 6 and 28; arguing to the contraryare R. Frankena, “The Vassal-Treaties of Esarhaddon and the Dating of Deuteronomy,”Oudtestamentische Studien, 14 (1965), 122-154; M. Weinfeld, “The Loyalty Oath in the Ancient NearEast,” Ugarit-Forschungen, 8 (1976), 392-393; discussed in W. Schniedewind, How the Bible Became aBook: The Textualization of Ancient Israel (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004), 135,230-231.

R. Friedman in part one of “Kingdom of David: Saga of the Israelites,” PBS-TV Empires48

Series, #9 (PBS/Paramount, 2003). However, Friedman failed in the application of this tool to the casehe commented on.

Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:703.49

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whether or not such awareness indicates a kernel of historical

memory and hence, perhaps, a remembered event.50

Again, possibly a matter of later glossing from a known period, but

unrelated to the the original event, as follows:

Names & Places

Edmund S. Meltzer (Egyptologist formerly of the Claremont

Colleges, but now residing in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, in retirement)

has noted that the personal names of Kings Merneptah and

Ramesses are used as place-names in the Hebrew Bible. 51

Together with other toponyms connected to the Exodus story, such

factors dovetail with what is known of actual toponyms and events

of the period. I add here to Meltzer’s notes by referring to

additional information culled from the Anchor Bible Dictionary:

Ramesses = 22/39 – the city and land in Gen 47:11, Ex 1:11,

12:37, Num 33:3,5, and Judith 1:9 = Pharaonic residence Pi-

Rameses located in the northeast Egyptian Delta at Khatana

Qantir, to which West Asiatic )Apiru (Hebrews) hauled huge52

stones for the main temple (Papyrus Leiden 348, 6:6), just as53

foreign slaves (Canaanite-Syrian & Nubian) are depicted on the

Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel (Continuum, 2001), 687, n. 134, citing Halpern, “The50

Exodus and the Israelite Historians,” Eretz Israel, 24 (1993), 92-93.

Meltzer letter in Bible Review, XVIII/6 (Dec 2002), 12.51

Labib Habachi, Tell el-Dab)a I: Tell el-Dab)a and Qantir the Site and Its Connection with52

Avaris and Piramesse (Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2001).

A. Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence (Eisenbrauns, 1997),53

18; J. Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt: The Archaeological Context of the Exodus,” Biblical ArchaeologyReview, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 35, citing his Israel in Egypt, 114, and adding that )Apiru also appear in the19 Dynasty Tomb of Intef; see the examples and discussion by James E. Hoch, Semitic Words in theth

Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period (Princeton Univ. Press, 1994), 60-63.

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walls the 15 century Tomb of Rekhmire making mud bricksth

for a storehouse of the Temple of Amun at Karnak. 54

Egyptian texts from the Ramesside period speak both of the

lack of straw essential to brick-making, as well as brick-making

quotas which sometimes could not be met, both of which are55

directly reminiscent of biblical texts in Exodus. Moreover,

Manfred Bietak thinks that he can distinguish proto-Israelite

dwellings in Egypt in the late 12 century B.C. (Dyn XX): four-th

room houses or huts (with typical pillar separation of the center

room/ courtyard from one side room, but in this case with

entry from the broad room, rather than the courtyard/middle

long room) excavated by the Univ. of Chicago at Medinet Habu

opposite Luxor. Those living there “were probably slaves

descended from prisoners of war from Palestine or the desert

of Seir–perhaps early or proto-Israelites.” These are quite late,56

however.

Merneptah = (&;51 */ (Me-Nephtoach) Josh 15:9 (BHS n), 18:15

(Well of Merneptah), a place-name also mentioned in Papyrus

Anastasi III (ANET 258 “wells of Merneptah”). Merneptah, son3

of Rameses II, lived at Pi-Rameses for a time. Mention of a

people known as “Israel” somewhere in Canaan (most likely

Transjordan) in the 1208 B.C. Merneptah Stele from Western

Thebes.57

Shown in J. Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 32.54

Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 34-35 and nn. 12-15, citing especially55

R. A. Caminos, Late-Egyptian Miscellanies (Oxford Univ. Press, 1954), 106,188; and K. Kitchen, “Fromthe Brickfields of Egypt,” Tyndale Bulletin, 27 (1976), 141-144.

Bietak, Manfred, “Israelites Found in Egypt,” BAR, 29/5 (Sept-Oct 2003), 40-47,49,82-83. 56

A. Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 18-19; F. Yurco in57

Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 27-55.

15

Pi-Atum = Pithom .;5 Ex 1:11 (cf. Coptic Bohairic Gen 46:28), Tell

el-Retabeh = Ancient Egyptian Pr-&Itm, or Pi-‘Atum “Temple of

Atum.” During the reign of Merneptah, some Edomite tribesmen

were allowed to “pass the fortress Merneptah-hetep-hir-maat

which is in Tjeku (Succoth)” to gain access to “the pools of

Pi-Atum,” as described in Papyrus Anastasi VI.58

Succoth = Sukkot ;&,2 Ex 12:37, Num 33:5 (Tell el-Maskhuta) =

Egyptian Tkw, Tkw, mentioned in Papyrus Anastasi V (ANET3

259) and VI (see above).

Red Sea = “Sea of Reeds” Yam-Suf 4&2 .* Ex 14:21, 23:31 (LXX

¦DL2D�H 2"8VFF0H “Red Sea”) = Ancient Egyptian p1 twf(y) “the

Marsh, Wetlands; Reeds” = Tjaru / Sile (on the eastern border,

at the northernmost point of the El-Ballah Lakes) in the

Ramesside Onomastica of Amenemopet.59

Thus, as Abraham Malamat and others have argued, the

Israelites appear to be part of a larger group of H. abiru / )Apiru /

.*9"3 “Hebrews” (a widespread class of people), who are mentioned

in the Amarna Letters, for example, as a Late Bronze Age

seminomadic people in Palestine, some of whom were in fact

Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 34, citing A. Gardiner, Late-Egyptian58

Miscellanies (Brussells, 1937), 77; cf. Tom Wei, “Pithom,” in D. Freedman, Anchor Bible Dictionary,V:376-377.

Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 40-41, citing A. Gardiner, Ancient59

Egyptian Onomastica (1947), II:122-202; Manfred Bietak, Tell el-Dab)a (Vienna, 1975), II:136-137; andWilliam Ward, “The Biconsonantal Root Sp and the Common Origin of Egyptian Cwf and the HebrewSup: Marsh (-Plant),” Vetus Testamentum, 24 (1974), 339-349. Cf. Aramaic: yamma’ œimmoqa’ !/* !8&/: (cf. Heb 8/2 “red”), “Red Sea,” referring to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, as noted byJoseph A. Fitzmyer in his The Genesis Apocryphon of Qumran Cave I: A Commentary (Rome 1966 /2nded., 1971), re 1QapGn 21:17-18 (= Erythrean Sea/ zÅñõèñÜí... èÜëáóóáí, citing Josephus, Antiquities,I,1,3 §39; Herodotus 1:180, 2:11,158, 4:42; Pliny Hist. Nat. 6:28; Jubilees 8:21, 9:2, I Enoch 32:2, 77:7-9; 4QEn frag 2:20; Berossus; Xenophon; cf. J. T. Milik, RB, 65 [1958], 71).c

16

enslaved in Egypt, and (if the biblical account is to be taken60

seriously) a small number of whom presumably escaped and found

refuge in the Land of Midian (east of Aqaba and perhaps near61

Wadi Rumm in present-day southern Jordan and northwestern Saudia

– the northern Hijaz), where they remained for an extended period

(40 years in the wilderness is probably symbolic), later crossing over

the Jordan River and inhabiting the central hill country of Palestine

near the large population of already-present, urban Canaanites, i.e., it

is very difficult to differentiate the material culture of either group at

that early stage. The assumption has been that this is true

linguistically and ethnically as well. However, it is not in fact62

proven that highland “agriculture, religion, and language” is continuous

“with the Canaanite culture of the western coastal plains” – a notion

which Anson Rainey called “a pipe dream,” loosely based on “a

‘continuity’ in the ceramic repertoire of the Early Iron Age settlements

(1200-1000 B.C.E.).” In fact, Rainey pointed out that “the same

continuity can be found between the Late Bronze Age pottery from

Jordan, east of the river.” Such broadly based continuity in63

ceramics masks any non-material distinctions which may have been

Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 18; cf. A. Mazar,60

Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 237,241,355 (n. 55, “In one Egyptian document the land of Shasuis called ‘Yahu,’ possibly a distortion of the name of the God of Israel.”); Lawrence Stager in M Coogan,

¯ed., Oxford History of the Biblical World, 138; cf. Nadav Na'aman, "Habiru and Hebrews: The Transferof a Social Term to the Literary Sphere," JNES, 45 (1986), 271-288.

Also known as Cushan (Hab 3:7); cf. Ex 2:21, Num 10:29, 12:1.61

A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 366-367 (n. 55), 554; cf. Ann E. Killebrew,62

Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines and EarlyIsrael (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005).

Anson Rainey letter in Biblical Archaeology Review, 33/3 (May-June 2007), 78, replying to63

William Dever’s remarks in the Jan-Feb 2007 BAR. Cf. Rainey. “Whence Came the Israelites and TheirLanguage?” Israel Exploration Journal, 57 (2007), 41-64; Rainey, “Inside, Outside: Where Did the EarlyIsraelites Come From?” BAR, 34/6 (Nov-Dec 2008), 45-50,84.

17

present. At the same time, Rainey rejected any linguistic or ethnic

connection of the early Israelites/ Hebrews with the H. abiru / )Apiru.64

Rainey argued that “Israel” in the Merneptah Stele is an

ethnicon referring to a people then in Transjordan, not in the central

hill country of Palestine. He notes that, like all other Egyptian

kings, Merneptah lists his victories in geographical order. In this

case, Ashkelon, Gezer, and Yano)am are known city-states, the last

of which is in Transjordan. Since Israel is next in order, the

conclusion is obvious. Moreover, Rainey recalled for us that it was

precisely in Transjordan that the Patriarch Jacob was renamed Israel

(Gen 32:28). This is a very strong, well-established tradition.65

Surveys show that, in the nine key areas known to have been

occupied by Israel by Iron I, "eighty-eight Late Bronze Age sites"

occupied "a built-up area of more than 200 hectares (500 acres), for

an estimated total population of about 50,000." The same surveys

show that by Iron I, there were 678 settlements, each a hectare or

less, "for a total of about 600 hectares (nearly 1,500 acres), with

an estimated 150,000 inhabitants" – most such sites on new

foundations. This increase cannot be explained by a natural birth-

rate, but only by "a major influx of people into the highlands in the

twelfth and eleventh centuries" B.C. "Settlement is especially dense

in the territories of Manasseh and Ephraim in the west and in

Anson Rainey, review in JAOS, 107 (1987), 539-541, of O. Loretz, Habiru-Hebräer: Eine64

sozio-linguistische Studie über die Herkunft des Gentiliziums )ibri zum Appellativum H.abiru, BZAW 160(Berlin: de Gruyter, 1984); Rainey, “Shasu or Habiru: Who Were the Early Israelites?” BAR, 34/6 (Nov-Dec 2008), 51-55; cf. Moshe Greenberg, The Hab/piru (New Haven: AOS, 1955).

Rainey letter in BAR, 33/3 (May-June 2007), 78; cf. Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible: A65

Historical Geography, rev. ed., trans. A. Rainey (Phila.: Westminster, 1979), in which such geographicalsequencing is systematically employed.

18

Gilead and Moab in the east," both of which were only lightly

populated in the L.B.66

Midian

If we backtrack just a bit, we will at the outset have to

contend with the biblical claim that Moses first fled to Midian, made

his home there, raised a family there, and much later returned there

from Egypt with the refugee Israelites. His own father-in-law, the

Priest of Midian, advised him both on the route to follow in

escaping from Egypt (Numbers 10:29-32) and on how to administer

justice within his newly formed tribal league or amphictyony (Exodus

18:13-27). Was the Israelite destination indeed Midian in the67

northern Hijaz? Can we deny the obvious?

Midian was, of course, the eponymous son of Abraham and

Keturah (Gen 25:2), his descendants being a complex culture of

tribal chiefs and camel caravaneers associated with the highly

developed tribes of Moab and Sinai, both in South Transjordan, as

well as with the Ishmaelites (Gen 36:35, 37:25-36, 39:1, Num 22:4,7,

Judges 8:24, Isaiah 10:26 = II Nephi 20:26). Hebrew 0*$/ / 0$/

Midyan / Medan (Gen 25:2) both appear as towns east of Aqaba in

Hellenistic sources, leading Frank Moore Cross, Jr., P. Kyle68

McCarter, Jr., and Lawrence E. Stager to posit that the Midian

Lawrence E. Stager, "Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel," in M. D. Coogan,66

ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World (N.Y./Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998), 134-135.

The concept of amphictyony has gone out of fashion, but, as A. Gunneweg has observed,67

something very much like it is needed to explain the nature of the early Israelite tribal confederation(Gunneweg, Understanding the Old Testament (London: SCM/ Phila.: Westminster, 1978], 100-104,cited in John Goldingay, Approaches to Old Testament Interpretation, rev. ed. [InterVarsity Press, 1990],45).

G. E. Mendenhall in Anchor Bible Dictionary, IV:815,817, citing E. Knauf in ZDMG, 13568

(1985), 16-21, and Knauf, Midian, ADPV (1988).

19

known to Moses and to the Israelite refugees was in that very area

– not in the Sinai. This is actually a revival of the Old Midianite

Hypothesis, suggesting that the Israelite Exodus came across south-

central Sinai, the Arabah (camping on a kewir – mud flat), and69 70

Aqaba (with a detour through Kadesh Barnea), into the Hijaz of

southern Transjordan and northwestern Sa#udia – where the highest

mountain is Jebel el-Lawz, at 8,465 feet (22,856 m), although Sinai

/ Horeb could be anywhere in Midian (which included later south

Edom). The traditional Mount Sinai in the Sinai peninsula is just71

not a realistic option.

M. Macdonald has said that “[f]rom the late second

millennium, parts of the Hejaz and Tabuk region in the north were

intensively settled.” George Mendenhall has said that Midianites72

were obviously present in that area from at least the 13 centuryth

B.C., “with numerous town and village sites . . . from the end of

the LB into the early Iron ages.” He states that they had “walled

cities, sophisticated irrigation installations, and” engaged in “mining

John D. Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, 136-137, citing I. Beit-Arieh, “The69

Route through Sinai: Why the Israelites Fleeing Egypt Went South,” BAR, 14/3 (1988), 28-37.

K. Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:706(4), citing Lucas, Route of the70

Exodus (London, 1938), 58-63,81, and Beit-Arieh (above). However, he seems unaware of the MidianiteHypothesis.

F. M. Cross, interviewed by H. Shanks in Bible Review, August 1992; F. M. Cross, From Epic71

to Canon (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ., 1998), 63-68; L. Stager, "Forging an Identity: TheEmergence of Ancient Israel," in M. D. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World(N.Y./Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998), 122-175, citing especially Peter Parr, "Qurayya," in Freedman,ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, V:594-596; Thomas Levy, “King Solomon’s Mines and the Archaeologyof the Edom Lowlands: Recent Excavations in Southern Jordan,” delivered at Bible & Archaeology FestX, Part 3:Beyond the Bible: Exploring Relevant Sites and Texts, available on DVD in BAS Lecture Series(BAS item 9HLX3). Cf. Howard Blum, The Gold of Exodus: The Discovery of the True Mount Sinai(N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1998), reviewed in BAR, 25/4 (Jul-Aug 1999), 54,56.

M. C. A. MacDonald, “Along the Red Sea,” in Jack Sasson, et al., eds., Civilizations of the72

Ancient Near East, 4 vols. (N.Y.: Scribner’s Sons, 1995), 2:1350.

20

and smelting operations, . . .” Below, I discuss the very73

significant archeological work of Thomas Levy and Mohammad Najjar

at nearby Edomite Khirbet el-Nahas, and the similar conclusions

which can be drawn from it.74

The advantage of this Arabian Hijaz area is that it provides

the mountain caves, food, abundant water, and advanced culture

lacking at the traditional Sinai desert site. Moreover, the75

Midianites, like the Edomites and Nabataeans after them, were very

much involved in the incense trade from South Arabia. It has been

suggested that interference with that Midianite trade led to the battle

in Judges 5. This also ties in particularly well with the Qenite76

(Kenite) tendencies evident in Lehi's much later clan activities early

in the Book of Mormon, with his naming his son Lemuel (localized

to the nearby area of Massa ), with his close kinship with Ishmael,77

and in his other archaizing tendencies as well. Note, for example,

Mendenhall in Anchor Bible Dictionary, IV:817, citing P. Paar, et al., Bulletin of the Institute73

of Archaeology, 8-9 (1970), 193-242; and M. Ingraham, et al., Atlal, 5 (1981), 59-84. See also H. St.John Philby, The Land of Midian (London: Ernst Benn, 1957).

Thomas E. Levy & Mohammad Najjar, “Edom & Copper: The Emergence of Ancient Israel’s74

Rival,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 24-35,70; cf. John N. Wilford, “In a RuinedCopper Works, Evidence That Bolsters a Doubted Biblical Tale,” New York Times, June 13, 2006, onlineat www.nytimes.com .

M. C. A. MacDonald, “Along the Red Sea,” in Jack Sasson, et al., eds., Civilizations of the75

Ancient Near East (N.Y.: Scribner’s Sons, 1995), 2:1350, claims that “[f]rom the late second millennium,parts of the Hejaz and Tabuk region in the north were intensively settled.”

J. David Schloen, "Caravans, Kenites, and Casus Belli: Enmity and Alliance in the Song of76

Deborah," Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 55 (1993), 18-38, cited by Stager.

Lemu’el is biblical King of Massa’ (Proverbs 31:1,4; cf. 30:1-4), a city in northwest Arabia,77

probably near Tayma, and mentioned in eighth and seventh century Assyrian Annals. Massa’ is also thename of a son of biblical Ishma’el (Gen 25:14, I Chron 1:30). W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods ofCanaan, 253 n. 133, maintaining an archaic Aramaic and Canaanite background for Lemu’el, Agur, andBalaam, and citing his “The Biblical Tribe of Massa’ and Some Cogeners,” in Studi orientalistici inonore di Giorgio Levi della Vida (Rome, 1957). That Lehi takes both Lemu’el and Ishma’el into thewilderness with him is remarkable only in the absence of such information..

21

Lehi's willingness to sacrifice where and when he pleases (I Nephi

2:7, 5:9, 7:22), in violation of Deuteronomy 12:13-14, but in line with

earlier Exodus 20:21-24 – following the practice of the Patriarchs. 78

This also has implications for our understanding of Yahwe /

Jehovah, KJV “LORD,” since (according to F. M. Cross) Pre-Mosaic

Yahweh "He who creates" (= the tetragram YHWH), must originally

be read as verbally descriptive of "’El as patron deity of the

Midianite League in the south, . . ." As a name by itself, YHWH

first appears in 14th & 13th century B.C. lists of Edomite toponyms

in Egyptian as yhw3, to be read as ya-h-wi, or the like (cf.79

YHWH in the Mesha Stele, line 18, in Moabite ). South Canaanite80

.Yahwe Seba’ot means "He creates the (divine) Hosts" (Yahwe ’lohe

Bernard Levinson, Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation (N.Y.: Oxford78

Univ. Press, 1997); cf. S. Kent Brown, From Jerusalem to Zarahemla (Provo: BYU Religious StudiesCenter, 1998), 1-8, and Brown in Parry, Peterson, and Welch, eds., Echoes and Evidences of the Book ofMormon (Provo: FARMS, 2002), 63, citing Psalm 107:4-6,19-30, Job 1:5, and Lev 1 and 3 à la JacobMilgrom, Leviticus 1 - 16, Anchor Bible 3 (N.Y.: Doubleday, 1991), 175-177, 218-219, 267-268; 858;David R. Seely, “Lehi’s Altar and Sacrifice in the Wilderness,” Journal of Bok of Mormon Studies, 10/1(2001), 62-69; Michael L. Ingraham, et al., “Saudi Arabian Comprehensive Survey Program: C.Preliminary Report on a Reconnaissance Survey of the Northwestern Province (with a Note on a BriefSurvey of the Northern Province),” Atlal: The Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology, 5 (1981/1401A.H.), 59-84. See generally H. St. John Philby, The Land of Midian (London: Ernst Benn, 1957); BenoRothenberg and Jonathan Glass, “The Midianite Pottery,” in J. F. A. Sawyer and D. J. A. Clines, eds.,Midian, Moab and Edom: The History and Archaeology of Late Bronze and Iron Age Jordan and North-West Arabia, JSOT Supplement 24 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1983), 65-124.

Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, 60-75; cf. Cross, From Epic to Canon, 67 n. 51; A.79

Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 355 n. 55, on Yahu for Shasu; note that in both his Yahwehand the Gods of Canaan: A Historical Analysis of Two Contrasting Faiths (London, 1968), 147-149, nn.44-52; and his From the Stone Age to Christianity (1957), 15-16, William F. Albright reasoned from theHebrew-Aramaic root hwy “fall; become, come into existence,” through to its late 3MS qal-causative-indicative form Yahwe (jussive Yahu), “He-(Who)-Causes-to-Come-Into-Existence; It-Is-He-Who-Creates” (Ex 3:14), which is very similar to use of the ancient Egyptian verb h.pr “become, come intoexistence; occur, happen, come to pass,” in its 3MS causative form sh.pr.f, which is commonly used inpersonal names. Both verbs also appear in the consecutive narrative use “It came to pass, it happened.”

G. Reynolds, Book of Abraham (1879), 47; André Lemaire, "'House of David' Restored in80

Moabite Inscription," BAR, 20:3 (May-June 1994), 30-37.

22

.Seba’ot is thus secondary) ; cf. also Judges 5:20, I Sam 17:45, I

81

Ki 22:19, Isa 6:1-5, Amos 4:13.

That half-Manasseh later settles in the well-forested

Transjordanian hills and plateau of Gilead and in the Succoth Valley

enroute into the Promised Land does conform “to the biblical sources

about Ammon” and to the archeological evidence of that period in

Transjordan. Moreover, a painted pottery unique to Midian is also82

found at this time “in the Jordan valley and Palestine proper.” 83

Both!! This and other evidence certainly suggests that the Israelite

settlement could have, and probably did take place as described,

from east to west across the Jordan River.84

Jo Ann Hackett notices another significant indicator: In the

earliest biblical accounts (mostly the early poetry in Deuteronomy

33:2-3, Judges 5:4-5, Habakkuk 3:1-6, Psalm 68:7-18, etc.), she finds

that Yahweh the Warrior typically “begins his battles by marching out

to war, usually from the region to the south or southeast of biblical

Israel,” i.e., Midian.85

F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, 65, 69.81

A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 359.82

Mendenhall in Anchor Bible Dictionary, IV:817, citing P. Paar, in A. Hadidi, ed., Studies in the83

History and Archaeology of Jordan (Amman, 1982), 127-133; B. Isserlin, The Israelites, 171, 187 fig.46; Beno Rothenberg and Jonathan Glass, “The Midianite Pottery,” in J. F. A. Sawyer and D. J. A.Clines, eds., Midian, Moab and Edom: The History and Archaeology of Late Bronze and Iron AgeJordan and North-West Arabia, JSOT Supplement 24 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1983), 65-124.

Anson Rainey, “Inside, Outside: Where Did the Early Israelites Come From?” BAR, 34/684

(Nov-Dec 2008), 45-50,84.

J. Hackett in M Coogan, ed., Oxford History of the Biblical World (Oxford Univ. Press, 1998),85

212-215; quote from 212.

23

Egypticity

If the Exodus is to be given any credence at all, however,

why is there not strong evidence of Egyptian material culture – or

the remnants of it – among the Israelite refugees who inhabit the

central hill country of Palestine at the beginning of the Iron Age?

One answer is that centuries had already gone by from the time of

the actual Exodus and entry into Canaan. The other answer is that

there are indeed many examples of Egypticity in certain key aspects

of early Israelite culture: linguistic and architectural.

Thus, whether we are considering the numerous technical terms

for religious paraphernalia which the Israelites had borrowed from

ancient Egypt, including the actual Egyptian structure and method of86

transport (#ag~lâ) of the Israelite tabernacle (tent) in the wilderness87

(similar to one used at Midianite Timna), and the highly Egyptian88

John A. Tvedtnes, “Egyptian Etymologies for Biblical Cultic Paraphernalia,” in S. Israelit-86

Groll, ed., Scripta Hierosolymitana, 28 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1982), 215-221 (Tvedtnes expandedon this in his November 1997 SBL San Francisco presentation); Shmuel Yeivin, “Canaanite RitualVessels in Egyptian Cultic Practice,” JEA, 62 (1976), 110-114 (with illus.); Abraham S. Yahuda, TheLanguage of the Pentateuch (Oxford, 1933), translation of his Die Sprache des Pentateuch in ihrenBeziehungen zum Aegyptischen, I (Berlin/Leipzig, 1929).

Kenneth A. Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Anchor Bible Encyclopedia, II:706(5.c). Hebrew87

#agâlâ = Egyptian #grt “wagon, cart” (Demotic #klt = Coptic aèolte, akolte).

Kitchen, "The Tabernacle–A Bronze Age Artifact," Eretz-Israel, 24 (1993), 119-129; Michael88

M. Homan, “The Divine Warrior in His Tent: A Military Model for Yahweh’s Tabernacle,”Bible Review,16/6 (Dec 2000), 22-33,35; Kenneth A. Kitchen, “The Desert Tabernacle: Pure Fiction or PlausibleAccount?” Bible Review, 16/6 (Dec 2000), 14-21; Peter Cooper, “Of Badger Skins and Dugong Hides: ATranslator’s Guide to Tabernacle Covers,” Bible Review, 16/6 (Dec 2000), 30-31 (sidebar); Frank MooreCross, Jr., “The Priestly Tabernacle,” Biblical Archeologist Reader, I (1961), 201-228; Cross, “ThePriestly Tabernacle in the Light of Recent Research,” in T. Madsen, ed., The Temple in Antiquity:Ancient Records and Modern Perspectives, BYU Religious Studies Center Monograph Series, 9 (SLC:Bookcraft, 1984), 91-105; previously published in A. Biran, ed., Temples and High Places in BiblicalTimes (Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College, 1981), 169-180; Richard Elliott Friedman, “The Tabernacle inthe Temple,” Biblical Archeologist, 43 (1980), 241-248; Friedman, “Tabernacle,” in D. N. Freedman,ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols. (Doubleday, 1992), VI:292-300.

24

features of the Ark of the Covenant and the Brazen Serpent, the89

long silver trumpets, the two-fold division of the priesthood into90

ordinary w#b-priests and high priests, and the more general linguistic

patterns taken over from Egyptian literary and poetic practice, we91

are left to explain how these archaic features could have embedded

themselves at such an early horizon among a people who do not

show many other easily recoverable Egyptian aspects of material

culture once they have entered Canaan.

Nor are we concerned with the tremendously strong cultural ties

between Israel and Egypt in later centuries. These have been well

covered in a variety of detailed works.92

Did Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho?

Joshua 6 recounts the extraordinary destruction of the walls of

Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) during the early Israelite assault. Yet

evidence of such a breach in the walls there has yet to be

discovered, and this has led to unnecessary consternation in some

John Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, 146-149; Kitchen in ABD, II:706-707(5.c).89

Kitchen in ABD, II:706-707(5.c).90

P. C. Craige, “An Egyptian Expression in the Song of the Sea (Ex XV:4)," VT, XX/1 (Jan91

1970), 83-86; A. S. Yahuda, The Language of the Pentateuch (1933); O. Goelet, “Moses’ EgyptianName,” Bible Review, 19/3 (June 2003), 12-17,50-51; J. G. Griffiths, “The Egyptian Derivation of theName Moses,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 12 (1953), 225-231.

Bernd Ulrich Schipper, Israel und Ägypten in der Königszeit: Die kulturellen Kontakte von92

Salomo bis zum Fall Jerusalems, OBO 170 (Freiburg/Göttingen, 1999); Gregory Mumford,"International Relations Between Egypt, Sinai, and Syria-Palestine in the LB Age to Early Persian Period(Dynasties 18-26; cf. 1950-525 B.C.): A Spatial and Temporal Analysis of the Distribution andProportions of Egyptian(izing) Artefacts and Pottery in Sinai and Selected Sites in Syria-Palestine," 4vols., doctoral dissertation (University of Toronto, 1998); Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israelin Ancient Times (Princeton, 1992); Yoshiyuki Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords inNorth-West Semitic, SBL Dissertation Series 173 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999); O. Goldwasser, “AnEgyptian Scribe from Lachish and the Hieratic Tradition of the Hebrew Kingdoms,” Tel Aviv, 18 (1991),248-253.

25

quarters. Following the biblical chronology, however, John Bimson

and Bryant Wood have responded by suggesting a mid-15 centuryth

B.C. date for the Exodus, and by identifying “a Late Bronze I93

destruction level at Jericho,” which Amihai Mazar off-handedly94

regards as “naive and irrelevant.” In fact, the first excavator there,95

John Garstang, dated the destruction level at Jericho to ca. 1400

B.C. based on careful and accurate ceramic analysis.96

Wood goes on to recount other instances in which an

unseemly rush to debunk the Bible has been based quite literally on

bunk! The early Israelite shrine at Shiloh was supposed by the

Bible to have been “destroyed and abandoned around the middle of

the 11 century B.C.,” and excavations confirm this. Archeologyth 97

shows that the sophisticated city of Dan-Laish, stratum VII (with its

Mycenaean and Sidonian ceramics), was destroyed in the 12th

century B.C. (Judges 18), and the population then replaced “by

squatters who used collared-rim store jars, typically associated with

Israelite settlement, made from clay foreign to the Tel Dan area.” 98

Wood goes on to cite his excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir (less

J. J. Bimson, Redating the Exodus and Conquest (Sheffield, 1981).93

Bryant G. Wood, “Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological94

Evidence,” Biblical Archaeological Review, 16/2 (Mar-Apr 1990), 44-58; Wood, “The Rise and Fall ofthe 13 Century Exodus-Conquest Theory,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 48/3 (Septth

2005), 475-489; Michael Coogan, “Question Authority!” BAR, 32/3 (May-June 2006), 24.

A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 10,000-586 B.C.E. (Doubleday, 1990/1992),95

553-554.

Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-April 2007), 78, citing his article in BAR, 16/2 (Mar-Apr 1990), 44-58,96

and B. Halpern, “The Assassination of Eglon,” Bible Review, 4/6 (Nov-Dec 1998), 33-41,44, re Judges 3.

Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 26, citing his pieces in D. Howard & M. Grisanti, eds.,97

Giving the Sense (2003), 256-282, and JETS, 48 (2005), 475-489, as well as Paul Ray in G. Carnagey,ed., Beyond the Jordan (2005), 93-104.

Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 26.98

26

than a mile from et-Tell) as indicative of identification with the

ancient )Ai of Joshua – it had “a small border fortress dating to the

15 century B.C. that had been destroyed by fire.” Heretofore, )Aith 99

(Joshua 7 - 8) = Hai (Gen 12:8, 13:3) has been considered a

major stumbling block to any sort of verification of a biblical

Conquest theory – as had long been the case for Jericho.100

Shechem (Tell Balatah)

Shechem was already an important site in Late Bronze Age

Canaanite times (Gen 34:11-26, I Ki 12), and the Temple of Baal /

El-Berith (Judges 9:4), and the Oak of Moreh just outside of town

(Gen 12:6, 35:4) continued to be important sanctuaries or cult

centers into Israelite times. Lawrence Stager’s excavation found101

the gate, temple, and city destruction as described for the mid-12th

century B.C. Shechem in Judges 9. The Israelites again.102

Was King David a Real King?

Though the issue remains controversial, the late Yigal Shiloh

found a very large Proto-Aeolic capital (typical of Israelite palace

construction) near the monumental stepped stone structure (a

Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 78, citing his “The Search for Joshua’s Ai,” in R. Hess, G.99

Klingbeil, and P. Ray, eds., Critical Issues in the Early History of Israel (Eisenbrauns, 2008), and JosephCallaway, “Was My Excavation of Ai Worthwhile?” BAR, 11/2 (Mar-Apr 1985), 68, and Z. Zevit, “TheProblem of Ai,” BAR, 11/2 (Mar-Apr 1985), 58-69.

Joseph Callaway, “Ai,” in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:125-130.100

Miller & Hayes, History of Ancient Israel and Judah, 262-263, 277-278, citing esp. I.101

Finkelstein & N. Na’aman, “Shechem of the Amarna Period and the Rise of the Northern Kingdom ofIsrael,” IEJ, 55 (2005), 172-193.

L. Stager, “The Shechem Temple Where Abimelech Massacred a Thousand,” BAR, 29/4102

(July-Aug 2003), 26-31, 33-35, 66, 68-69, cited by B. Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 26.

27

revetment?) of the City of David, and recent excavations there by103

Eilat Mazar have disclosed a huge 10 century B.C. public structure,th

just south of the Temple Mount / Haram el-Sharif. She interprets it

as David’s Palace, underneath which she has found 11 & 12th th

century B.C. Canaanite pottery. She has also found 9 & 10th th

century pottery in the rooms of the supposed Palace, and a late 7th

century bulla of Yehucal son of Shelemiah son of Shevi (Jer 37:3,

38:1) from later levels.104

Larry Stager points to Hazael’s Stele found at Dan mentioning

a Bet David “House of David.” That is indicative of something more

than the “dimorphic chiefdom” claimed by Israel Finkelstein. 105

Indeed, how could such a poor Judah have been able to pay a tax

to Rehoboam? Or to King Shishak? Perhaps Judah was not so

poor. In fact, the archival list of government officials in I Kings 4

suggests a patrimonial state as defined by Max Weber. Thus, a

tribal confederation had become a tribal kingdom by the 10 centuryth

B.C. The Moabites and Arameans certainly viewed Israel-Judah as

a full-fledged state long before the 8 century. According to Stager,th

Finkelstein creates a “house of delusion” in his flawed theory of the

development of the Israelite State.106

A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 427; cf. 474, citing Y. Shiloh, The Proto103

Aeolic Capital and Israelite Ashlar Masonry, Qedem 11 (Jerusalem, 1979).

Eilat Mazar, “Did I Find King David’s Palace?” BAR, 32/1 (Jan-Feb 2006), 16-27,70; Etgar104

Lefkovitz, “Eilat Mazar: Uncovering King David’s Palace,” Moment, 31/2 (April 2006), 39-40; cf.Michael D. Coogan in BAR, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 59-60.

According to Stager, the evolutionary schema of clan, tribe, chiefdom, and state is too105

simplistic and linear. Is David a big chief, or a little king?

Stager made these observations during his four-hour formal debate with Israel Finkelstein at106

UCLA, May 30, 2003, based on my notes taken at the time.

28

Stager has gone on to note, moreover, that there was

meaningful scribal activity at Jerusalem in the 10 century – whichth 107

can be gauged by 10 century style Egyptian hieratic numerals beingth

used by Jewish scribes in the 8 century – when the Egyptians noth

longer used that style of numeral (and neighboring states did not

use that style either). The implication is clear: Egyptian scribal

schools strongly influenced Jewish scribes at the courts of David &

Solomon, even if they recorded things mostly on perishable materials

(Papyrus plants flourished in the Huleh Valley marshes and lakes,

and vellum was always an option).108

From the recently published results of the Oriental Institute

(Univ. of Chicago) excavations at Megiddo of the 1920s and 1930s,

we can now say that the Stratum VI destruction is probably due to

Israelite expansion under King David, not to mention Amnon Ben109

Tor’s conclusion that the 6-chambered gates at Gezer, Megiddo, and

Hazor are clearly Solomonic (I Kings 9:15-17). Taken together with

epigraphic evidence, such as the 9 century B.C. Mesha Inscriptionth

from Moab, and the nearly contemporary “House of David”110

inscription (Hazael Stele) from Tel Dan, it appears that King David111

Cf. R. N. Whybray, Wisdom in Proverbs (London: SCM, 1965), 71; Nili Shupak, Revue107

Biblique, 94 (1987), 98.

It is sometimes suggested that it is likely that David inherited the Jebusite/Amorite108

bureaucracy following his conquest of Jerusalem. These comments follow additional notes from theabove Stager-Finkelstein 2003 debate at UCLA.

Timothy P. Harrison, Megiddo 3 (Chicago: Oriental Institute, 2004). This book was selected109

as the 2005 Best Scholarly Book on Archaeology by the Biblical Archaeology Society, and was declareda model for doing “biblical archaeology,” even though it was published over half-a-century late!!

Andrew Dearman, ed., Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab (Atlanta: Scholars Press,110

1989); P. M. Michèle Daviau & Paul-Eugène Dion, “Moab Comes to Life,” Biblical ArchaeologyReview, 28/1 (Jan-Feb 2002), .

Avraham Biran & Joseph Naveh, “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan,” Israel111

Exploration Journal, 43 (1993), 81-98; “‘David’ Found at Dan,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 20/2

29

and his dynasty was far more formidable than the minimalists, such

as Israel Finkelstein, are willing to credit.

Early biblical accounts of Edom and the Edomites (Gen 36:31)

likewise appear now to be very credible, based on the recent

archaeological work of Thomas Levy and Mohammad Najjar at

Khirbet el-Nahas “Ruins of Copper.” That is, the Edomite lowlands112

were already occupied in the early Iron Age, and Edom was then

at least a “super chiefdom,” if not an archaic state, engaged in

large-scale and complex copper mining and metallurgy. Radiocarbon

dating of workshop and slag mounds (12th-11th centuries B.C.), and

the gatehouse (late 11th-early 10 centuries B.C.), makes thatth

abundantly clear. Highland sites were occupied only later (8th-6th

centuries B.C.). In other words, the early dates are in line with

the dating by Nelson Glueck over half-a-century ago.

Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman have called these

excavation results into question, and have attributed any mining or

building activity in Khirbet el-Nahas to the 8 century B.C., whenth

(they say) fictional tales about the legendary King David were being

composed in order to add glory to the legacy of the tribe of Judah.

However, the problem with that is the absence of copper production

in the 8 century B.C., as well as lack of any 8 century B.C.th th

pottery or carbon dates at Khirbet el-Nahas, along with the presence

of about 3,500 Early Iron Age burials in an Edomite cemetery in

(Mar-Apr 1994); Avraham Biran and Rachel Ben-Dor, Dan II: A Chronicle of the Excavations and theLate Bronze Age “Mycenaean” Tomb (Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College, Nelson Glueck School ofBiblical Archaeology, 2002); James D. Muhly, “Mycenaeans Were There Before the Israelites:Excavating the Dan Tomb,” BAR,31/5 (Sept-Oct 2005), 44,48; Hershel Shanks, “Happy Accident: DavidInscription,” BAR, 31/5 (Sept-Oct 2005), 46,48.

Thomas E. Levy & Mohammad Najjar, “Edom & Copper: The Emergence of Ancient Israel’s112

Rival,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 24-35,70; John N. Wilford, “In a RuinedCopper Works, Evidence That Bolsters a Doubted Biblical Tale,” New York Times, June 13, 2006, onlineat www.nytimes.com .

30

nearby Wadi Fidan. All the more reason to credit the Old113

Midianite Hypothesis!

Hershel Shanks, “Could the Edomites Have Wielded an Army to Fight David?” BAR, 33/1113

(Jan-Feb 2007), 67, citing Finkelstein & Silberman, David and Solomon (2006), which was thoroughlyreviewed by M. D. Coogan in BAR, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 56-60.

31

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