Moses Our Teacher / Moshe Rabbenu

MOSES OUR TEACHER

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©Robert F. Smith 2010 version 4

Was There an Exodus? . . . there is no evidence, archaeological or literary, of any great movement of Semites from Egypt later than 1 the expulsion of the Hyksos, . . . 2

A number of scholars (and even some rabbis ) have raised 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 3 purpose of trade or to escape the occasional Canaanite famine. If 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 4 the large-scale biblical Exodus, or some variation of it, all to no avail. Of course, there was a very large exodus of Canaanites from the Delta of Egypt several centuries prior to the one described so

1

E. C. B. McLaurin, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 27/2 (Apr 1968), 95.

2

Hershel Shanks, “Did the Exodus Really Happen?” Moment, 26/5 (Oct 2001), 62-65,102; Rabbi David Wolpe, “‘We Were Slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt’,” Moment, 26/6 (Dec 2001), 67-69; Shanks, “For Wolpe, the Exodus is Metaphor,” Moment, 26/6 (Dec 2001), 67-69; Wolpe and others comment in the PBS-TV “Kingdom of David,” available on DVD (PBS Paramount, 2003), which is #9 in the PBS “Empires” Series. 3

See PBS-TV’s “The Bible’s Buried Secrets,” Nova (Boston: WGBH, 2008), in which Bill Dever refers to these proto-Israelites or Shasu refugees from Egypt as “a motley crew.” 4

J. de Moor, “Egypt, Ugarit, and Exodus,” in N. Wyatt, et al., eds., Ugarit, Religion and Culture (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 5 earlier event as he read of it in Manetho, and Egyptology fills in 6 the blanks, courtesy of Hans Goedicke, Sturt Manning, and others : Circa 1540 B.C. a native Egyptian Pharaoh from the south (Thebes) named Ah. mose laid siege to Avaris (Tell el-Dab)a) in northern Egypt. Avaris was the great and prosperous 250 hectare th th capital city of the Canaanites/Hyksos of the 14 & 15 Dynasties (no city in Egypt, Palestine, or the Aegean was larger). Unable to penetrate the 8.5 m thick walls of the city, King Ah. mose made a deal with the Hyksos, allowing them to leave Egypt and return to 7 Canaan – with which they had maintained close ties in any case. So the Hyksos (Egyptian h. q1w h. 1Ñwt “rulers of foreign lands”) left en masse and returned to Canaan. King Ah. mose I then destroyed the empty city and attempted to blot out any memory of the Hyksos rule, and he and several of his th successors of the 18 Dynasty even conducted revenge military 8 campaigns in southern Palestine, destroying the major Hyksos city of Sharuhen (Tell el-)Ajjul). Until recently the first report of a people in Palestine called “Israel” came from about 1207 B.C., during the th reign of King Merneptah (son of Ramesses II) of the 19 Dynasty –

5

Josephus, Contra Apionem, I, 14 (§§88-89), cited by Manning, A Test of Time, 84 n. 375, who discusses the entire episode. 6

Hans Goedicke, Egypt and the Early History of Israel (Baltimore, 1981); cf. the video by Simcha Jacobovici, “The Exodus Decoded” (History Channel/Discovery Channel Canada, 2005), online at http://www.hulu.com/watch/740807 , and http://www.theexodusdecoded.com . 7

Manning, A Test of Time, 67-68,77-107,405-410; 87, “Palestine . . . was intimately linked with 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). 8

Manning, A Test of Time, 5 (n. 263), 92, including Amenhotep I, Thutmosis I, and Thutmosis III, all of whom campaigned in Syro-Palestine, citing Breasted, ARE, II:73,81,85,125.

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and that is over 300 years later!! However, we now have a likely report of “Israel” already ca. 1400 B.C., which is about 200 years 9 earlier, making an early “exodus” quite likely, and making any later Exodus seem absurd. We also have the legend of Apophis and 10 Seqenenre, which uses the names of two of the primary opposing th th kings of the Hyksos and Theban dynasties (15 and 17 Dynasties, respectively). As it happens, Avaris (Tell el-Dab)a) has been subject to systematic archaeological excavation by an Austrian team for many 11 years now, and the results (as described by director Manfred th Bietak) have been quite instructive: During the 12 Dynasty, shortly 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 Egyptian12 Aegean (or Levantine in view of Tel Kabri, Alalakh and Tell el9

P. van der Veen, C. Theis, and M. Görg, “Israel in Canaan (Long) Before Pharaoh Merneptah? A Fresh Look at Berlin Statue Pedestal Relief 21687,” Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, 2/4 (2010), 15-25; H. Shanks, “When did Ancient Israel Begin?” BAR, 38/1 (Jan-Feb 2012), 59-62,67. 10

Redford, “Textual Sources for the Hyksos Period,” in Oren, ed., The Hyksos: New Historical and Archaeological Perspectives (Phila.: Univ. of Penn., 1997), 17-18, cited by Manning, A Test of Time, 90 n. 397. 11

Manfred Bietak, “Tell el-Dab’a, Second Intermediate Period,” in K. Bard, ed., Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (Routledge, 1999), 778-782. 12

See now on Tel Kabri, “Remains of Minoan-Style Painting Discovered During Excavations of Canaanite Palace,” ScienceDaily, Nov 9, 2009, online at www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/

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Dab)a examples) themes and representation modes” developed “especially during the special period of west Asian-Egyptian fusion 14 during the SIP [Second Intermediate Period].” Bietak found the 15 Minoan style wall paintings at Avaris “a major surprise.” There is, however, a “total absence of LMIA finds in Egypt outside the Canaanite-Hyksos capital in the Delta,” i.e., “Upper Egypt th th (and the 16 and 17 Dynasties of Thebes) was in effect . . . cut 16 off from the Mediterranean world.” Of course, this was not true in the preceding period, and some Egyptian items with Aegean th th 17 iconography were found in 13 and 17 Dynasty contexts. 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

091109121119.htm . 13

See examples displayed online at http://www.auaris.at/html/ez_helmi_en.html .

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Manning, A Test of Time, 54 (n. 242),56-58 (figs. 18-20), 80-81,106-107.

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Bietak, “Tell el-Dab’a,” in Bard, ed., Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 781; see examples at http://www.wall-paintings-ted.de/ . 16

Manning, A Test of Time, 110, citing Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c. 1800-1550 B.C. (1997), and Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (Princeton Univ. Press, 1992), 112-115,118-121. 17

Manning, A Test of Time, 78-79 (Lisht dolphin vase, which is a Syro-Palestinian import, citing 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 Aegean griffin) from the Tomb of Ahhotep.

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Levant. Perhaps this was merely the result of the vengeful efforts by King Ah. mose and his successors. It is also worthy of note that the monotheism of Akhenaten at 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 19 Bible.” And there are other potential Mosaic parallels: 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 20 and sun (Amun-Re)), leading to famine (Joseph in Genesis 41), and stories of “pestilence, storms, pillar of cloud/fire and parting of the 21 sea (Exodus 8-9,13-14)” ; does Exodus 7:20-24 allude to or quote from the late Middle Egyptian "Admonitions of Ipuwer" (Papyrus Leiden 344), recto, 2:10, "Lo, the Nile is blood, As one drinks of it 22 one shrinks from people and thirsts for water"? etc. Moreover, does the Seventh Plague (Exodus 9:22-24) follow the typical Egyptian 23 disaster “topos as in the Ahmose stele” (cf. Artapanus’ account of

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Manning, A Test of Time, 62, citing Kempinski (1997), 329, and Ryholt (1997), 307.

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Manning, A Test of Time, 146 n. 711, citing Assman, Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism (Harvard Univ. Press, 1997). 20

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

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Including Hesiod’s Theogony – Manning, A Test of Time, 202, sources in n. 952 (esp. M. T. Greene, Natural Knowledge [1992], 46-63). 22

19th Dynasty copy, translated by Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, I, The Old and Middle Kingdoms (1975), 151; Loprieno, Ancient Egyptian, 123. Cf. also Ipuwer, recto, 4:3-4 on children and infant deaths. 23

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

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Moses versus the Egyptian King)? John Currid discusses other 25 such literary topoi applicable to Moses’ time. Being unaware of the presence of volcanic ash in the 26 northeastern Delta of Egypt (at Tell el-Dab’a and Tell Hebwa), Ziony Zevit has attempted to argue that Theran ash never reached Egypt and could not, therefore, be part of the series of legendary 27 plagues recounted in the book of Exodus. Moreover, Max Bichler 28 said the ash could not have been windborne, thus ignoring the possibility of tsunamis – the Thera eruption clearly resulted in 29 tsunamis at Crete at least 60 feet high as it hit the coast!! – thus ending Minoan civilization, any survivors being finished off thereafter

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Artapanus quoted in Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, 9.27.33, cited in Mannning, A Test of Time, 197 n. 934. See generally, James Hoffmeier, “Egypt, Plagues in,” in Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:374-378. 25

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

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And at Tell el-Ajjul in Palestine; D. Stanley and H. Sheng, “Volcanic Shards from Santorini (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,” Daily Breeze, April 3, 2007, A7. 27

Zevit, review of “Moses and the Exodus,” a BBC-TV documentary (Jeremy Bowen, host), in BAR, 30/5 (Sept-Oct 2004), 60-62, and Zevit’s rejoinder to J.-D. Stanley in BAR, 31/1 (Jan-Feb 2005), 63. 28

According to Manfred Bietak in BAR, 32/6 (Nov-Dec 2006), 63,65, citing the Atomic Institute of the Austrian Universities, and the special research program SCIEM2000 (Synchronisation of Civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C.) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. 29

“Sinking Atlantis,” episode of Secrets of the Dead (Quickfire Media, 2008), broadcast on PBSTV, May 14, 2008 (available on DVD at 800/336-1917), noting that Minoan use of Linear A was also snuffed out with the explosion of Thera-Santorini; Evan Hadingham, “Did a Tsunami Wipe Out a Cradle of Western Civilization?” Discover, Jan 4, 2008, online at http://discovermagazine.com/ 2008/jan/did-atsunami-wipe-out-a-cradle-of-western-civilization/article_view?b_start:int=2&-C= .

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by Myceneans. Sturt Manning’s calling the Stanley and Sheng 30 tephra into question is thus beside the point. 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 31 during the Amarna period. However, it seems far likelier that real 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 references in an early text seem to invalidate an early date of composition, it is as likely that late scribal transmission and editing 32 Of course, may account for the oddity via telescoping of sources. 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 33 For archeologist Bryant Wood the and their eventual expulsion. solution is equally simple: abandon the standard biblical dating and

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Manning, Test of Time, 11 n. 61.

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

58. 32

Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel, 7, and n. 88, re the Persian name Parnoch/ Farnaka at Numbers 34:25. 33

Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel (1992), 408-422, and Assmann, Moses the Egyptian (1997), 28-43, both cited in Manning, A Test of Time, 197 n. 939. Cf. H. Shanks, “The Exodus and the Crossing of the Red Sea According to Hans Goedicke,” BAR, 7/5 (1981), 42-50..

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push the date of the Exodus back two centuries! Apparently 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 35 Canaanites.

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 36 of scholars, . . .

Where does she get that 400+ period for the Judges? (see immediately below) She herself rejects the notion that the

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Bryant G. Wood, “The Rise and Fall of the 13th Century Exodus-Conquest Theory,” Journal of 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 (Grand Rapids: 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. 35

William Dever, “The Western Cultural Tradition Is at Risk,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 32/2 (Mar-Apr 2006), 76; cf. Dever, “Is There Any Archaeological Evidence for the Exodus?” in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 67-86. 36

Hackett in M. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World (Oxford Univ. Press, 1998), 185.

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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 37 north, then east. Thus, simple addition of each successive judge’s 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 38 Merneptah!! However, the Bible does claim a period of 300 years from Joshua to Jephthah (Judges 11:25-26), 480 years from the beginning th of the Exodus till Solomon’s 4 year (I Kings 6:1), and about 450 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 Israel in 920 B.C. (I Kings 14:25), we can work backward chronoth logically from these relatively secure dates: Solomon’s 4 year 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 39 only be approximated by this means should be abundantly clear: 966 + 480 (12 x 40) = 1446 B.C. for the Exodus (- 340 years ! 40 Jephthah in 1100 B.C.)

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Hackett in M. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World, 183-187.

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See the Merneptah Stele (“Israel Stele”) in J. Pritchard, ed., ANET, 3rd ed., 378.

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John Davis, Biblical Numerology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1968), 66 n. 55.

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966 + 553 = 1519 B.C., if we follow K. Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:702; cf. R. N. Holzapfel, D. M. Pike, and D. R. Seely, Jehovah and the World of the Old Testament (SLC: Deseret Book, 2009), 95.

10 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 th the Exodus cannot be placed as usually assumed in the mid-13 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 41 century B.C. I cover such toponyms below, even though they are 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 th th mid-20 to early 19 centuries B.C. Kitchen prefers a later date of 42 1690-1680 B.C., which is just before the entry of the Hyksos. But that is unnecessary. 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-whomade-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 41

Kenneth Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:702-703.

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Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:705.

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of Ugarit would thus date a late Asiatic usurpation to about 119543 1190 B.C., and some scholars understandably equate Irsu / Beya 44 with Moses. Again, an interesting, but unnecessary correlation. th

Another Asiatic incident is described in the 20 Dynasty 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 45 Egypt. Similarly, British Museum papyri 10053 and 10054 have 3 and 4 gold qedet bribes being paid to officials during the reign of 46 Ramesses II. On the Exodus booty and bribes being paid elsewhere in the Bible and in the Mormon Canon, see especially Exodus 3:21-22, 11:2, 12:35-36; Psalm 105:37 (booty), and Alma 47 11:22 (Zeezrom's 6-onti bribe offer). 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 43

Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, Exodus, 24-25, citing C. Maderna-Sieben, "Der historische Abschnitt des Papyrus Harris I," Göttinger Miszellen, 123 [1991], 57-90, and M. Yon, In the Crisis Years: The 12th Century B.C.E., ed. W. A. Ward, and M. Sharp Joukowsky (Dubuque, 1992), 119-120. 44

E. A. Knauf, Midian (Wiesbaden, 1988), 135ff.; J. C. de Moor, The Rise of Yahwism (Leuven, 1990), 136-151. 45

D. Bidoli, MDAIK, 28 (1972), 195-200, pl. 49; Rosemarie Drenkhahn, Die Elephantine-Stele des Sethnacht (Wiesbsden, 1980); Friedrich Junge in Elephantine 11 (1988), 55-58. 46

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B. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization (Routledge, 1992), 244.

For general Exodus parallels, see I Nephi 2 - 3, 16 - 18; Abraham Malamat, "The Exodus: 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 Book of Mormon (FARMS & Deseret, 1991), 38-51; Monford Harris, Exodus and Exile: The Structure of the Jewish Holidays (Fortress, 1992); Bruce J. Boehm, "Wanderers in the Promised Land: A Study of the Exodus Motif in the Book of Mormon and Holy Bible," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 3/1 (Spring 1994), 187-203.

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tribes of the Sinai, and including other indirect ways of establishing 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 49 subject to later editors or redactors. The later Deuteronomic materials merely reflect the earlier Late Bronze Age forms, and could not have been based on contemporary (late Iron Age) Assyrian 50 loyalty oaths. As Richard Friedman has noted, the similarity of the structure and legal terminology of biblical covenant to the earlier legal contracts and international treaties is very important as a 51 diagnostic tool in the dating of texts, although Kitchen rules out any date earlier than 1380 B.C. on the grounds that the applicable 48

Ze’ev Meshel, “Wilderness Wanderings: Ethnographic Lessons from Modern Bedouin,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 34/4 (July-Aug 2008), 32-39, citing especially B. Mazar, “The Exodus and Conquest of Israel,” Canaan and Israel (Israel Exploration Society, 1974), 100 (Hebrew). 49

G. Mendenhall and G. Herion, “Covenant,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:1183-1188, citing esp. H. Huffmon, CBQ, 27 (1965), 101-113. 50

G. Mendenhall, “Covenant Forms in Israelite Tradition,” Biblical Archeologist, 17 (1954), 5076; Mendenhall and Herion in Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:1184, re Deut 6 and 28; arguing to the contrary are 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 Near East,” Ugarit-Forschungen, 8 (1976), 392-393; discussed in W. Schniedewind, How the Bible Became a Book: The Textualization of Ancient Israel (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004), 135,230-231. In any case, P is localized to the Late Bronze Age and includes strong Hurrian influence (Pekka Pitkänen, Joshua [IVP, 2010]; Yitzhaq Feder, Blood Expiation in Hittite and Biblical Ritual: Origins, Context, and Meaning [Atlanta: SBL, 2011]). 51

R. Friedman in part one of “Kingdom of David: Saga of the Israelites,” PBS-TV Empires Series, #9 (PBS/Paramount, 2003). However, Friedman failed in the application of this tool to the case he commented on.

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covenant-format had not been invented until then! That is likely 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 whether or not such awareness indicates a kernel of historical 53 memory and hence, perhaps, a remembered event.

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

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53

Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:703.

Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel (Continuum, 2001), 687, n. 134, citing Halpern, “The Exodus and the Israelite Historians,” Eretz Israel, 24 (1993), 92-93.

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Ramesses are used as place-names in the Hebrew Bible. 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 PiRameses located in the northeast Egyptian Delta at Khatana 55 Qantir, to which West Asiatic )Apiru (Hebrews) hauled huge 56 stones for the main temple (Papyrus Leiden 348, 6:6), just as foreign slaves (Canaanite-Syrian & Nubian) are depicted on the th walls the 15 century Tomb of Rekhmire making mud bricks 57 for a storehouse of the Temple of Amun at Karnak. Egyptian texts from the Ramesside period speak both of the lack of straw essential to brick-making, as well as brick-making 58 quotas which sometimes could not be met, both of which are directly reminiscent of biblical texts in Exodus. Moreover, Manfred Bietak thinks that he can distinguish proto-Israelite th dwellings in Egypt in the late 12 century B.C. (Dyn XX): fourroom houses or huts (with typical pillar separation of the center 54

Meltzer letter in Bible Review, XVIII/6 (Dec 2002), 12.

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Labib Habachi, Tell el-Dab)a I: Tell el-Dab)a and Qantir the Site and Its Connection with Avaris and Piramesse (Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2001). 56

A. Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence (Eisenbrauns, 1997), 18; J. Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt: The Archaeological Context of the Exodus,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 35, citing his Israel in Egypt, 114, and adding that )Apiru also appear in the 19th Dynasty Tomb of Intef; see the examples and discussion by James E. Hoch, Semitic Words in the Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period (Princeton Univ. Press, 1994), 60-63. 57

58

Shown in J. Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 32.

Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 34-35 and nn. 12-15, citing especially R. A. Caminos, Late-Egyptian Miscellanies (Oxford Univ. Press, 1954), 106,188; and K. Kitchen, “From the Brickfields of Egypt,” Tyndale Bulletin, 27 (1976), 141-144.

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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 59 of Seir–perhaps early or proto-Israelites.” These are quite late, however. Merneptah = (&;51 */ (Me-Nephtoach) Joshua 15:9 (BHS n), 18:15 (Well of Merneptah), a place-name also mentioned in Papyrus 3 Anastasi III (ANET 258 “wells of Merneptah”). Merneptah, son 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 60 Thebes. 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 61 Pi-Atum,” as described in Papyrus Anastasi VI. Succoth = Sukkot ;&,2 Ex 12:37, Num 33:5 (Tell el-Maskhuta) = 3 Egyptian Tkw, Tkw, mentioned in Papyrus Anastasi V (ANET 259) and VI (see above).

59

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

60

A. Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 18-19; F. Yurco in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 27-55. 61

Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 34, citing A. Gardiner, Late-Egyptian Miscellanies (Brussells, 1937), 77; cf. Tom Wei, “Pithom,” in D. Freedman, Anchor Bible Dictionary, V:376-377.

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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 62 Ramesside Onomastica of Amenemopet. 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 enslaved 63 in Egypt, and (if the biblical account is to be taken seriously) a small number of whom presumably escaped and found refuge in the 64 Land of Midian (east of Aqaba and perhaps near 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 62

Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt,” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 40-41, citing A. Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica (1947), II:122-202; Manfred Bietak, Tell el-Dab)a (Vienna, 1975), II:136-137; and William Ward, “The Biconsonantal Root Sp and the Common Origin of Egyptian Cwf and the Hebrew Sup: 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 by Joseph A. Fitzmyer in his The Genesis Apocryphon of Qumran Cave I: A Commentary (Rome 1966 /2nd ed., 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, 77:79; 4QEnc frag 2:20; Berossus; Xenophon; cf. J. T. Milik, RB, 65 [1958], 71). 63

Malamat in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence, 18; cf. A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 237,241,355 (n. 55, “In one Egyptian document the land of Shasu is 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, "H ¯ abiru and Hebrews: The Transfer of a Social Term to the Literary Sphere," JNES, 45 (1986), 271-288. 64

Also known as Cushan (Hab 3:7); cf. Ex 2:21, Num 10:29, 12:1.

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stage. The assumption has been that this is true linguistically and 65 ethnically as well. However, it is not in fact 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 66 river.” Such broadly based continuity in ceramics masks any nonmaterial distinctions which may have been present. At the same time, Rainey rejected any linguistic or ethnic connection of the early 67 Israelites/ Hebrews with the H . abiru / )Apiru. 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

65

A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 366-367 (n. 55), 554; cf. Ann E. Killebrew, Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines and Early Israel (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005). 66

Anson Rainey letter in Biblical Archaeology Review, 33/3 (May-June 2007), 78, replying to William Dever’s remarks in the Jan-Feb 2007 BAR. Cf. Rainey. “Whence Came the Israelites and Their Language?” Israel Exploration Journal, 57 (2007), 41-64; Rainey, “Inside, Outside: Where Did the Early Israelites Come From?” BAR, 34/6 (Nov-Dec 2008), 45-50,84. 67

Anson Rainey, review in JAOS, 107 (1987), 539-541, of O. Loretz, Habiru-Hebräer: Eine 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 (NovDec 2008), 51-55; cf. Moshe Greenberg, The Hab/piru (New Haven: AOS, 1955).

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precisely in Transjordan that the Patriarch Jacob was renamed Israel 68 (Gen 32:28). This is a very strong, well-established tradition. 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 birthrate, 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 Gilead and Moab in the east," both of which were only lightly 69 populated in the L.B. 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

68

Rainey letter in BAR, 33/3 (May-June 2007), 78; cf. Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography, rev. ed., trans. A. Rainey (Phila.: Westminster, 1979), in which such geographical sequencing is systematically employed. 69

Lawrence E. Stager, "Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel," in M. D. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World (N.Y./Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998), 134-135.

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18:13-27). Was the Israelite destination indeed Midian in the 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 71 Hellenistic sources, leading Frank Moore Cross, Jr., P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., and Lawrence E. Stager to posit that the Midian 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 south72 73 central Sinai, the Arabah (camping on a kewir – mud flat), and 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

70

The concept of amphictyony has gone out of fashion, but, as A. Gunneweg has observed, 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). 71

G. E. Mendenhall in Anchor Bible Dictionary, IV:815,817, citing E. Knauf in ZDMG, 135 (1985), 16-21, and Knauf, Midian, ADPV (1988). 72

John D. Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, 136-137, citing I. Beit-Arieh, “The Route through Sinai: Why the Israelites Fleeing Egypt Went South,” BAR, 14/3 (1988), 28-37. 73

K. Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:706(4), citing Lucas, Route of the Exodus (London, 1938), 58-63,81, and Beit-Arieh (above). However, he seems unaware of the Midianite Hypothesis.

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Edom). The traditional Mount Sinai in the Sinai peninsula is just not a realistic option, as even St. Paul recognized (Galatians 4:25). M. Macdonald has said that “[f]rom the late second millennium, parts of the Hejaz and Tabuk region in the north were 75 intensively settled.” George Mendenhall has said that Midianites th were obviously present in that area from at least the 13 century 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 76 and smelting operations, . . .” Below, I discuss the very significant archeological work of Thomas Levy and Mohammad Najjar at nearby Edomite Khirbet el-Nahas, and the similar conclusions 77 which can be drawn from it. 74

F. M. Cross, interviewed by H. Shanks in Bible Review, August 1992; F. M. Cross, From Epic to Canon (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ., 1998), 63-68; L. Stager, "Forging an Identity: The Emergence 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 Archaeology of the Edom Lowlands: Recent Excavations in Southern Jordan,” delivered at Bible & Archaeology Fest X, Part 3:Beyond the Bible: Exploring Relevant Sites and Texts, available on DVD in BAS Lecture Series (BAS item 9HLX3); Joseph Blenkinsopp, “The Midianite-Kenite Hypothesis Revisited and the Origins of Judah,” JSOT, 33 (2008), 131-153; Mark S. Smith, “God in Israel’s Bible: Divinity between the World and Israel, between the Old and the New,” Aug 2011 Catholic Biblical Association Presidential Address, online at http://prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/Doc13/Ccbqsmith.doc ; Justin Kelley, “"Toward a New Synthesis of the God of Edom and Yahweh," Antiguo Oriente, 7 (2009): 255-280, online at http://www.academia.edu/211171/_Toward_a_New_Synthesis_of_the_God_of_Edom_and_Yahweh_Ant iguo_Oriente_7_2009_255-280 ; 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. 75

M. C. A. MacDonald, “Along the Red Sea,” in Jack Sasson, et al., eds., Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, 4 vols. (N.Y.: Scribner’s Sons, 1995), 2:1350. 76

Mendenhall in Anchor Bible Dictionary, IV:817, citing P. Paar, et al., Bulletin of the Institute 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). 77

Thomas E. Levy & Mohammad Najjar, “Edom & Copper: The Emergence of Ancient Israel’s Rival,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 24-35,70; cf. John N. Wilford, “In a Ruined Copper Works, Evidence That Bolsters a Doubted Biblical Tale,” New York Times, June 13, 2006, online

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The advantage of this Arabian Hijaz area is that it provides the mountain caves, food, abundant water, and advanced culture 78 lacking at the traditional Sinai desert site. Moreover, the 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 79 in Judges 5. This also ties in particularly well with the Qenite (Kenite) tendencies evident in Lehi's much later clan activities early in the Book of Mormon, with his naming his son Lemuel (localized 80 to the nearby area of Massa ), with his close kinship with Ishmael, and in his other archaizing tendencies as well. Note, for example, 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 81 earlier Exodus 20:21-24 – following the practice of the Patriarchs. at www.nytimes.com . 78

M. C. A. MacDonald, “Along the Red Sea,” in Jack Sasson, et al., eds., Civilizations of the 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.” 79

J. David Schloen, "Caravans, Kenites, and Casus Belli: Enmity and Alliance in the Song of Deborah," Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 55 (1993), 18-38, cited by Stager. 80

Lemu’el is biblical King of Massa’ (Proverbs 31:1,4; cf. 30:1-4), a city in northwest Arabia, probably near Tayma, and mentioned in eighth and seventh century Assyrian Annals. Massa’ is also the name of a son of biblical Ishma’el (Gen 25:14, I Chron 1:30). W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, 253 n. 133, maintaining an archaic Aramaic and Canaanite background for Lemu’el, Agur, and Balaam, and citing his “The Biblical Tribe of Massa’ and Some Cogeners,” in Studi orientalistici in onore di Giorgio Levi della Vida (Rome, 1957). That Lehi takes both Lemu’el and Ishma’el into the wilderness with him is remarkable only in the absence of such information.. 81

Bernard Levinson, Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation (N.Y.: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997); cf. S. Kent Brown, From Jerusalem to Zarahemla (Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1998), 1-8, and Brown in Parry, Peterson, and Welch, eds., Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon (Provo: FARMS, 2002), 63, citing Psalm 107:4-6,19-30, Job 1:5, and Lev 1 and 3 à la Jacob Milgrom, 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 Brief Survey of the Northern Province),” Atlal: The Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology, 5 (1981/1401

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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 82 in Egyptian as yhw3, to be read as ya-h-wi, or the like (cf. 83 YHWH in the Mesha Stele, line 18, in Moabite ). South Canaanite Yahwe S. eba’ot means "He creates the (divine) Hosts" (Yahwe ’lohe 84 S. eba’ot is thus secondary) ; cf. also Judges 5:20, I Sam 17:45, I 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 85 Transjordan. Moreover, a painted pottery unique to Midian is also

A.H.), 59-84. See generally H. St. John Philby, The Land of Midian (London: Ernst Benn, 1957); 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 Age Jordan and NorthWest Arabia, JSOT Supplement 24 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1983), 65-124. 82

Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, 60-75; cf. Cross, From Epic to Canon, 67 n. 51; A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 355 n. 55, on Yahu for Shasu; note that in both his Yahweh and 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 the Hebrew-Aramaic root hwy “fall; become, come into existence,” through to its late 3MS qal-causativeindicative form Yahwe (jussive Yahu), “He-(Who)-Causes-to-Come-Into-Existence; It-Is-He-WhoCreates” (Ex 3:14), which is very similar to use of the ancient Egyptian verb h.pr “become, come into existence; occur, happen, come to pass,” in its 3MS causative form sh.pr.f, which is commonly used in personal names. Both verbs also appear in the consecutive narrative use “It came to pass, it happened.” 83

G. Reynolds, Book of Abraham (1879), 47; André Lemaire, "'House of David' Restored in Moabite Inscription," BAR, 20:3 (May-June 1994), 30-37. 84

F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, 65, 69.

85

A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 359.

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found at this time “in the Jordan valley and Palestine proper.” Both!! This and other evidence certainly suggests that the Israelite settlement could have, and probably did take place as described, 87 from east to west across the Jordan River. As Aren M. Maeir observes, . . . while the internal sources of early Israel should clearly be stressed, as the authors do, one cannot deny some role, and perhaps even a substantial one, for groups who entered into Canaan at this time and most probably contributed as well to what eventually became early Israel. Even if only partially accepting the claims of studies such as by van der Steen, Rainey, Zertal, Chavalas, Bietak, and the like, there seems to be sufficient evidence of clear foreign facets in the early Israelite culture that point to nonlocal influences and, most likely, population groups that existed in Canaan at the 88 time and also contributed to the crystallization of early Israel. 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

86

Mendenhall in Anchor Bible Dictionary, IV:817, citing P. Paar, in A. Hadidi, ed., Studies in the 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 Age Jordan and North-West Arabia, JSOT Supplement 24 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1983), 65-124. 87

Anson Rainey, “Inside, Outside: Where Did the Early Israelites Come From?” BAR, 34/6 (Nov-Dec 2008), 45-50,84. 88

Maeir, RBL, June 2012, review of the now badly outdated Robert F. Coote and Keith Whitelam. The Emergence of Early Israel in Historical Perspective (1987/ reprint Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2010).

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to war, usually from the region to the south or southeast of biblical 89 Israel,” i.e., Midian. 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 90 ancient Egypt, including the actual Egyptian structure and method of 91 transport (#ag~lâ) of the Israelite tabernacle (tent) in the wilderness 92 (similar to one used at Midianite Timna), and the highly Egyptian 89

J. Hackett in M Coogan, ed., Oxford History of the Biblical World (Oxford Univ. Press, 1998), 212-215; quote from 212. 90

John A. Tvedtnes, “Egyptian Etymologies for Biblical Cultic Paraphernalia,” in S. IsraelitGroll, ed., Scripta Hierosolymitana, 28 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1982), 215-221 (Tvedtnes expanded on this in his November 1997 SBL San Francisco presentation); Shmuel Yeivin, “Canaanite Ritual Vessels in Egyptian Cultic Practice,” JEA, 62 (1976), 110-114 (with illus.); Abraham S. Yahuda, The Language of the Pentateuch (Oxford, 1933), translation of his Die Sprache des Pentateuch in ihren Beziehungen zum Aegyptischen, I (Berlin/Leipzig, 1929). 91

Kenneth A. Kitchen, “The Exodus,” in Anchor Bible Encyclopedia, II:706(5.c). Hebrew #agâlâ = Egyptian #grt “wagon, cart” (Demotic #klt = Coptic aèolte, akolte). 92

Kitchen, "The Tabernacle–A Bronze Age Artifact," Eretz-Israel, 24 (1993), 119-129; Michael 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 Plausible Account?” Bible Review, 16/6 (Dec 2000), 14-21; Peter Cooper, “Of Badger Skins and Dugong Hides: A Translator’s Guide to Tabernacle Covers,” Bible Review, 16/6 (Dec 2000), 30-31 (sidebar); Frank Moore Cross, Jr., “The Priestly Tabernacle,” Biblical Archeologist Reader, I (1961), 201-228; Cross, “The

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features of the Ark of the Covenant and the Brazen Serpent, the 94 long silver trumpets, the two-fold division of the priesthood into ordinary w#b-priests and high priests, and the more general linguistic 95 patterns taken over from Egyptian literary and poetic practice, we 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 96 covered in a variety of detailed works.

Priestly 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 Biblical Times (Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College, 1981), 169-180; Richard Elliott Friedman, “The Tabernacle in the Temple,” Biblical Archeologist, 43 (1980), 241-248; Friedman, “Tabernacle,” in D. N. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols. (Doubleday, 1992), VI:292-300. 93

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

94

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

95

P. C. Craige, “An Egyptian Expression in the Song of the Sea (Ex XV:4)," VT, XX/1 (Jan 1970), 83-86; A. S. Yahuda, The Language of the Pentateuch (1933); O. Goelet, “Moses’ Egyptian Name,” Bible Review, 19/3 (June 2003), 12-17,50-51; J. G. Griffiths, “The Egyptian Derivation of the Name Moses,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 12 (1953), 225-231. 96

Bernd Ulrich Schipper, Israel und Ägypten in der Königszeit: Die kulturellen Kontakte von 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 and Proportions of Egyptian(izing) Artefacts and Pottery in Sinai and Selected Sites in Syria-Palestine," 4 vols., doctoral dissertation (University of Toronto, 1998); Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (Princeton, 1992); Yoshiyuki Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords in North-West Semitic, SBL Dissertation Series 173 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999); O. Goldwasser, “An Egyptian Scribe from Lachish and the Hieratic Tradition of the Hebrew Kingdoms,” Tel Aviv, 18 (1991), 248-253.

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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 quarters. Following the biblical chronology, however, John Bimson th and Bryant Wood have responded by suggesting a mid-15 century 97 B.C. date for the Exodus, and by identifying “a Late Bronze I 98 destruction level at Jericho,” which Amihai Mazar off-handedly 99 regards as “naive and irrelevant.” In fact, the first excavator there, John Garstang, dated the destruction level at Jericho to ca. 1400 100 B.C. based on careful and accurate ceramic analysis. 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 101 th Archeology the 11 century B.C.,” and excavations confirm this. shows that the sophisticated city of Dan-Laish, stratum VII (with its

97

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

98

Bryant G. Wood, “Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological Evidence,” Biblical Archaeological Review, 16/2 (Mar-Apr 1990), 44-58; Wood, “The Rise and Fall of the 13th Century Exodus-Conquest Theory,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 48/3 (Sept 2005), 475-489; Michael Coogan, “Question Authority!” BAR, 32/3 (May-June 2006), 24. 99

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

553-554. 100

Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-April 2007), 78, citing his article in BAR, 16/2 (Mar-Apr 1990), 4458, and B. Halpern, “The Assassination of Eglon,” Bible Review, 4/6 (Nov-Dec 1998), 33-41,44, re Judges 3. 101

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

27 th

Mycenaean and Sidonian ceramics), was destroyed in the 12 century B.C. (Judges 18), and the population then replaced “by squatters who used collared-rim store jars, typically associated with 102 Israelite settlement, made from clay foreign to the Tel Dan area.” Wood goes on to cite his excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir (less 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 th 103 15 century B.C. that had been destroyed by fire.” Heretofore, )Ai (Joshua 7 - 8) = Hai (Gen 12:8, 13:3) has been considered a major stumbling block to any sort of verification of a biblical 104 Conquest theory – as had long been the case for Jericho. 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 105 centers into Israelite times. Lawrence Stager’s excavation found th the gate, temple, and city destruction as described for the mid-12 106 century B.C. Shechem in Judges 9. The Israelites again.

102

Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 26.

103

Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 78, citing his “The Search for Joshua’s Ai,” in R. Hess, G. Klingbeil, and P. Ray, eds., Critical Issues in the Early History of Israel (Eisenbrauns, 2008), and Joseph Callaway, “Was My Excavation of Ai Worthwhile?” BAR, 11/2 (Mar-Apr 1985), 68, and Z. Zevit, “The Problem of Ai,” BAR, 11/2 (Mar-Apr 1985), 58-69. 104

Joseph Callaway, “Ai,” in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:125-130.

105

Miller & Hayes, History of Ancient Israel and Judah, 262-263, 277-278, citing esp. I. Finkelstein & N. Na’aman, “Shechem of the Amarna Period and the Rise of the Northern Kingdom of Israel,” IEJ, 55 (2005), 172-193. 106

L. Stager, “The Shechem Temple Where Abimelech Massacred a Thousand,” BAR, 29/4 (July-Aug 2003), 26-31, 33-35, 66, 68-69, cited by B. Wood, BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 26.

28

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 107 revetment?) of the City of David, and recent excavations there by th Eilat Mazar have disclosed a huge 10 century B.C. public structure, just south of the Temple Mount / Haram el-Sharif. She interprets it th th as David’s Palace, underneath which she has found 11 & 12 th th century B.C. Canaanite pottery. She has also found 9 & 10 th century pottery in the rooms of the supposed Palace, and a late 7 century bulla of Yehucal son of Shelemiah son of Shevi (Jer 37:3, 108 38:1) from later levels. Larry Stager points to Hazael’s Stele found at Dan mentioning a Bet David “House of David.” That is indicative of something more 109 than the “dimorphic chiefdom” claimed by Israel Finkelstein. 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 th tribal confederation had become a tribal kingdom by the 10 century B.C. The Moabites and Arameans certainly viewed Israel-Judah as th a full-fledged state long before the 8 century. According to Stager,

107

A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 427; cf. 474, citing Y. Shiloh, The Proto Aeolic Capital and Israelite Ashlar Masonry, Qedem 11 (Jerusalem, 1979). 108

Eilat Mazar, “Did I Find King David’s Palace?” BAR, 32/1 (Jan-Feb 2006), 16-27,70; Etgar 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. 109

According to Stager, the evolutionary schema of clan, tribe, chiefdom, and state is too simplistic and linear. Is David a big chief, or a little king?

29

Finkelstein creates a “house of delusion” in his flawed theory of the 110 development of the Israelite State. Stager has gone on to note, moreover, that there was th 111 meaningful scribal activity at Jerusalem in the 10 century – which th can be gauged by 10 century style Egyptian hieratic numerals being th used by Jewish scribes in the 8 century – when the Egyptians no 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, 112 and vellum was always an option). 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 113 Israelite expansion under King David, not to mention Amnon Ben Tor’s conclusion that the 6-chambered gates at Gezer, Megiddo, and Hazor are clearly Solomonic (I Kings 9:15-17). Taken together with th epigraphic evidence, such as the 9 century B.C. Mesha Inscription

110

Stager made these observations during his four-hour formal debate with Israel Finkelstein at UCLA, May 30, 2003, based on my notes taken at the time. 111

Cf. R. N. Whybray, Wisdom in Proverbs (London: SCM, 1965), 71; Nili Shupak, Revue Biblique, 94 (1987), 98. 112

It is sometimes suggested that it is likely that David inherited the Jebusite/Amorite bureaucracy following his conquest of Jerusalem. These comments follow additional notes from the above Stager-Finkelstein 2003 debate at UCLA. 113

Timothy P. Harrison, Megiddo 3 (Chicago: Oriental Institute, 2004). This book was selected as the 2005 Best Scholarly Book on Archaeology by the Biblical Archaeology Society, and was declared a model for doing “biblical archaeology,” even though it was published over half-a-century late!!

30 114

from Moab, and the nearly contemporary “House of David” 115 inscription (Hazael Stele) from Tel Dan, it appears that King David 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 116 Khirbet el-Nahas “Ruins of Copper.” That is, the Edomite lowlands 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 th the gatehouse (late 11th-early 10 centuries B.C.), makes that 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 th building activity in Khirbet el-Nahas to the 8 century B.C., when 114

Andrew Dearman, ed., Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989); P. M. Michèle Daviau & Paul-Eugène Dion, “Moab Comes to Life,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 28/1 (Jan-Feb 2002), . 115

Avraham Biran & Joseph Naveh, “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan,” Israel Exploration Journal, 43 (1993), 81-98; “‘David’ Found at Dan,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 20/2 (Mar-Apr 1994); Avraham Biran and Rachel Ben-Dor, Dan II: A Chronicle of the Excavations and the Late Bronze Age “Mycenaean” Tomb (Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College, Nelson Glueck School of Biblical 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: David Inscription,” BAR, 31/5 (Sept-Oct 2005), 46,48. 116

Thomas E. Levy & Mohammad Najjar, “Edom & Copper: The Emergence of Ancient Israel’s Rival,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 24-35,70; John N. Wilford, “In a Ruined Copper Works, Evidence That Bolsters a Doubted Biblical Tale,” New York Times, June 13, 2006, online at www.nytimes.com .

31

(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 th th in the 8 century B.C., as well as lack of any 8 century B.C. 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 117 nearby Wadi Fidan. All the more reason to credit the Old Midianite Hypothesis!

117

Hershel Shanks, “Could the Edomites Have Wielded an Army to Fight David?” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 67, citing Finkelstein & Silberman, David and Solomon (2006), which was thoroughly reviewed by M. D. Coogan in BAR, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 56-60.

32 Bibliography Aharoni, Yohanan, The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography, rev. ed., trans. A. Rainey (Phila.: Westminster, 1979). Albright, William F., “The Biblical Tribe of Massa’ and Some Cogeners,” in Studi orientalistici in onore di Giorgio Levi della Vida (Rome, 1957), 1-14. Albright, William F., Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan (London/New York, 1968). Archaeology magazine editors, Secrets of the Bible, with preface by Peter A. Young (Hatherleigh, 2006). Assmann, Jan, Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism (Harvard Univ. Press, 1997). Bard, Kathryn A. (with Steven B. Shubert), ed., Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (Routledge, 1999), 778-782. Bárta, Miroslav, Sinuhe, Patriarchs and the Bible (Czech Institute of Egyptology, 2003). Bartlett, S. C., From Egypt to Palestine: Through Sinai, the Wilderness and the South Country (NY: Arno, 1977). Beit-Arieh, I., “The Route through Sinai: Why the Israelites Fleeing Egypt Went South,” BAR, 14/3 (1988), 28-37. “The Bible’s Buried Secrets,” Nova (Boston: WGBH, 2008); DVD available at 1-800-255-4424. Bietak, Manfred, Tell el-Dab)a, II (Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1975). Bietak, Manfred, “Tell el-Dab’a, Second Intermediate Period,” in K. Bard, ed., Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (Routledge, 1999), 778-782. Bietak, Manfred, “Israelites Found in Egypt,” BAR, 29/5 (Sept-Oct 2003), 40-47,49,82-83, re late 12th century B.C. (Dyn XX) four-room houses or huts (with typical pillar separation of the center room/courtyard from one side room, but here 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.” Bietak, Manfred, “The Volcano Explains Everything – Or Does It?” Biblical Archaeology Review, 32/6 (Nov-Dec 2006), 60-65. Re Thera (Santorini), and harsh review of a film, The Exodus Decoded (Simcha Jacobovici, Producer-Director). See reply of John Bimson in BAR, 33/2 (Mar-Apr 2007), 8,10, and rejoinder of Bietak, 10.

33 Bimson, John J., Redating the Exodus and Conquest (Sheffield: JSOT, 1981). Biran, Avraham, and Joseph Naveh, “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan,” Israel Exploration Journal, 43 (1993), 81-98. Biran, Avraham, and Rachel Ben-Dor, Dan II: A Chronicle of the Excavations and the Late Bronze Age “Mycenaean” Tomb (Jerusalem: Hebrew Union College, Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, 2002). Blum, Howard, 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. Brown, S. Kent, From Jerusalem to Zarahemla (Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1998). Brown, S. Kent, “New Light from Arabia on Lehi’s Trail,” in Parry, Peterson, and Welch, eds., Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon (Provo: FARMS, 2002), 55-125. Callaway, Joseph A., “Was My Excavation of Ai Worthwhile?” BAR, 11/2 (Mar-Apr 1985), 68-69. Callaway, Joseph A., “Ai,” in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, I:125-130. Caminos, Richard A., Late-Egyptian Miscellanies (Oxford Univ. Press, 1954). Coogan, Michael D., “Question Authority!” BAR, 32/3 (May-June 2006), 24. Craige, P. C., “An Egyptian Expression in the Song of the Sea (Ex XV:4)," VT, XX/1 (Jan 1970), 83-86. Cross, Frank Moore, interviewed by H. Shanks in Bible Review, August 1992. Cross, Frank Moore, From Epic to Canon (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ., 1998). Coote, Robert F., and Keith Whitelam, The Emergence of Early Israel in Historical Perspective (1987/ reprint Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2010). Aren Maeir, in his RBL, June 2012 review says that this now outdated work “argued that the main underlying mechanism that should be stressed in the explanation of the appearance of ancient Israel is continuity and internal population dynamics and processes—not the traditional stress on external groups entering Canaan (whether by conquest or by peaceful infiltration).” Currid, John D., Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997). Daviau, P. M. Michèle, and Paul-Eugène Dion, “Moab Comes to Life,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 28/1 (Jan-Feb 2002), 38-41,43,46-49,63.

34 “‘David’ Found at Dan,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 20/2 (Mar-Apr 1994), 26-31,33-36,39. Davies, G. I., The Way of the Wilderness: A Geographical Study of the Wilderness Itineraries in the Old Testament (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1979). Dearman, Andrew, ed., Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989). Dever, William G., “Is There Any Archaeological Evidence for the Exodus?” in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence (1997), 67-86. Dever, William G., “The Western Cultural Tradition Is at Risk,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 32/2 (Mar-Apr 2006), 26,76. On the “historio-graphical crisis” in both archaeology and biblical studies, in which skepticism about nearly everything has become the norm. Fantalkin, Alexander, and Israel Finkelstein, “The Sheshonq I Campaign and the 8th-century-BCE Earthquake – More on the Archaeology and History of the South in the Iron I-IIA,” Tel Aviv, 33/1 (2006), 24-26. Feder, Yitzhaq, Blood Expiation in Hittite and Biblical Ritual: Origins, Context, and Meaning (Atlanta: SBL, 2011). Finkelstein, Israel, “Shiloh Yields Some, but Not All, of Its Secrets,” BAR, 12/1 (Jan-Feb 1986), 22-41. Finkelstein, Israel, and Nadav Na’aman, “Shechem of the Amarna Period and the Rise of the Northern Kingdom of Israel,” IEJ, 55 (2005), 172-193. Finkelstein, Israel, and Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible’s Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition (N.Y.: Free Press, 2006). Reviewed by Michael D. Coogan in BAR, 32/4 (July-Aug 2006), 56-60. Finkelstein, Israel, “Khirbat en-Nahas, Edom and Biblical History,” Tel Aviv, 32/1 (2005), 119-125. Fitzmyer, Joseph A., The Genesis Apocryphon of Qumran Cave I: A Commentary (Rome 1966 /2nd ed., 1971). Freedman, David Noel, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols. (Doubleday, 1992). Frerichs, Ernest S., and Leonard H. Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence (Eisenbrauns, 1997). Gardiner, Alan H., Late-Egyptian Miscellanies (Brussels: Queen Elizabeth Egyptological Foundation, 1937). Gardiner, Alan H., Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, 2 vols. (Oxford Univ. Press, 1947).

35 Goedicke, Hans, Egypt and the Early History of Israel (Baltimore, 1981) Goldingay, John, Approaches to Old Testament Interpretation, rev. ed. (InterVarsity Press, 1990). Goldwasser, O., “An Egyptian Scribe from Lachish and the Hieratic Tradition of the Hebrew Kingdoms,” Tel Aviv, 18 (1991), 248-253. Gunneweg, Antonius H. J., Understanding the Old Testament (London: SCM/ Phila.: Westminster, 1978), trans. from Vom verstehen des Alten Testaments: e. Hermeneutik (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1977). Hadingham, Evan, “Did a Tsunami Wipe Out a Cradle of Western Civilization?” Discover, Jan 4, 2008, online at http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jan/did-a-tsunami-wipe-out-a-cradle-ofwestern-civilization/ article_view?b_start:int=2&-C= . Halpern, Baruch, “The Exodus and the Israelite Historians,” Eretz Israel, 24 (1993), 89-96. Harrison, Timothy P., Megiddo 3 (Chicago: Oriental Institute, 2004). Hoch, James E., Semitic Words in the Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period (Princeton Univ. Press, 1994). Hoffmeier, James K., “EGYPT, PLAGUES IN,” in Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, II:374-378. Hoffmeier, James K., Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (Oxford Univ. Press, 1997). Hoffmeier, James K., Israel in Egypt (Oxford Univ. Press, 1999). Hoffmeier, James K., and Alan Millard, eds., The Future of Biblical Archaeology: Reassessing Methodologies and Assumptions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004). Hoffmeier, James K., “Out of Egypt: The Archaeological Context of the Exodus,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 30-41,77. Homan, Michael M., “The Divine Warrior in His Tent: A Military Model for Yahweh’s Tabernacle,” Bible Review, 16/6 (Dec 2000), 22-33,35. Huffmon, Herbert, “The Exodus, Sinai, and the Credo,” CBQ, 27 (1965), 101-113. Ingraham, Michael L., et al., “Saudi Arabian Comprehensive Survey Program: C. Preliminary Report on a Reconnaissance Survey of the Northwestern Province (with a Note on a Brief Survey of the Northern Province),” Atlal: The Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology, 5 (1981/1401 A.H.), 5984.

36 Jacobovici, Simcha, “The Exodus Decoded” (History Channel/Discovery Channel Canada, 2005), online at http://www.hulu.com/watch/740807 , and http://www.theexodusdecoded.com . Killebrew, Ann E., Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines and Early Israel (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005). “Kingdom of David: Saga of the Israelites,” available on DVD (PBS/Paramount, 2003), which is #9 in the PBS-TV “Empires” Series. Kitchen, Kenneth A., “From the Brickfields of Egypt,” Tyndale Bulletin, 27 (1976), 141-144. Kitchen, Kenneth A., “The Desert Tabernacle: Pure Fiction or Plausible Account?” Bible Review, 16/6 (Dec 2000), 14-21. Knauf, E., “Madiama,” Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 135 (1985),16-21. Knauf, E., Midian, Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (Wiesbaden, 1988). Kratovac, Katarina (AP), “Scholars Abuzz Over Pumice in Egypt,” Daily Breeze, April 3, 2007, A7. Lefkovitz, Etgar, “Eilat Mazar: Uncovering King David’s Palace,” Moment, 31/2 (April 2006), 39-40. Levinson, Bernard, Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation (N.Y.: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997). Levy, Thomas E., and Mohammad Najjar, “Edom & Copper – The Emergence of Ancient Israel’s Rival,” BAR, 32/4 (July-Aug, 2006), 24-35,70. Levy, Thomas E., and Mohammad Najjar, “Some Thoughts on Khirbat en-Nahas, Edom, Biblical History and Anthropology -- A Response to Israel Finkelstein,” Tel Aviv, 33/1 (2006), 107-122. MacDonald, M. C. A., “Along the Red Sea,” in Jack Sasson, et al., eds., Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, 4 vols. (N.Y.: Scribner’s Sons, 1995), 2:1350. Malamat, Abraham, “The Exodus: Egyptian Analogies,” in Frerichs & Lesko, eds., Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence (Eisenbrauns, 1997), 15-26. Originally delivered at a 1992 Brown Univ. colloquy. Manning, Sturt W., A Test of Time: The Volcano of Thera and the Chronology and History of the Aegean and East Mediterranean in the Mid Second Millennium BC (Oxford: Oxbow Books/Oakville, CT: David Brown Books, 1999). Mazar, Amihai, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 10,000-586 B.C.E., Anchor Bible Reference Library (Doubleday, 1990/1992).

37 Mazar, Eilat, “Did I Find King David’s Palace?” BAR, 32/1 (Jan-Feb 2006), 16-27,70. McLaurin, E. C. B., “The Date of the Foundation of the Jewish Colony at Elephantine,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 27/2 (Apr 1968), 89-96. Meltzer, Edmund S., letter in Bible Review, XVIII/6 (Dec 2002), 12. Mendenhall, George E., and Gary A. Herion, “Covenant,” in D. N. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols. (Doubleday, 1992), I:1179-1202. Mendenhall, George E., “Midian,” in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992), IV:815-818. Merling, David, “The Relationship Between Archaeology and the Bible: Expectations and Reality,” in J. K. Hoffmeier and A. Millard, eds., The Future of Biblical Archaeology: Reassessing Methodologies and Assumptions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 29-42. Meshel, Ze’ev, “Wilderness Wanderings: Ethnographic Lessons from Modern Bedouin,” BAR, 34/4 (July-Aug 2008), 32-39. Milgrom, Jacob, Leviticus 1 - 16, Anchor Bible 3 (N.Y.: Doubleday, 1991). Milik, J. T., “Hénoch au pays des aromates (chap XXVII à XXXII): Fragments araméens de la grotte 4 de Qumrân,” Rb, 65 (1958), 70-77. Muchiki, Yoshiyuki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords in North-West Semitic, SBL Dissertation Series 173 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999). Muhly, James D., “Mycenaeans Were There Before the Israelites: Excavating the Dan Tomb,” BAR, 31/5 (Sept-Oct 2005), 44-51. Mumford, Gregory, "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 and Proportions of Egyptian(izing) Artefacts and Pottery in Sinai and Selected Sites in Syria-Palestine," 4 vols., doctoral dissertation (University of Toronto, 1998). Na'aman, Nadav, "H ¯ abiru and Hebrews: The Transfer of a Social Term to the Literary Sphere," Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 45 (1986), 271-288. Na’aman, Nadav, “Habiru-like Bands in the Assyrian Empire and Bands in Biblical Historiography,” JAOS, 120 (Oct-Dec 2000), 621-624. Nicholson, E. W., Exodus and Sinai in History and Tradition (Richmond: John Knox, 1973). Paar, Peter, et al., Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology, 8-9 (1970), 193-242.

38 Parr, Peter, "Qurayya," in D. Freedman, ed., Anchor Bible Dictionary, V:594-596. Philby, H. St. John, The Land of Midian (London: Ernst Benn, 1957). Pekka Pitkänen, Joshua (IVP, 2010). Rainey, Anson F., review in JAOS, 107 (1987), 539-541, of O. Loretz, Habiru-Hebräer: Eine soziolinguistische Studie über die Herkunft des Gentiliziums )ibrî zum Appellativum H . abiru, BZAW 160 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1984). Rainey, Anson F., letter in Biblical Archaeology Review, 33/3 (May-June 2007), 78, replying to William Dever’s remarks in the Jan-Feb 2007 BAR., and citing his own forthcoming academic journal article on the subject. Rainey, Anson F., “Whence Came the Israelites and Their Language?” Israel Exploration Journal, 57 (2007), 41-64. Rainey Anson F., “Shasu or Habiru: Who Were the Early Israelites?” BAR, 34/6 (Nov-Dec 2008), 51-55. Rainey, Anson F., “Inside, Outside: Where Did the Early Israelites Come From?” BAR, 34/6 (Nov-Dec 2008), 45-50,84. Ray, Paul J., Jr., “Another Look at the Period of the Judges,” in G. A. Carnagey, Sr., ed., Beyond the Jordan (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2005), 93-104. Redford, Donald B., Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (Princeton, 1992). Redford, Donald B., “Textual Sources for the Hyksos Period,” in E. Oren, ed., The Hyksos: New Historical and Archaeological Perspectives (Phila.: Univ. of Penn., 1997), 1-44. Rendsburg, Gary A., “The Early History of Israel,” in G. D. Young, M. W. Chavalas, and R. E. Averbeck, eds., Crossing Boundaries and Linking Horizons: Studies in Honor of Michael C. Astour on His 80th Birthday (Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 1997), 433-453, online at http://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/docman/rendsburg/94-the-early-history-of-israel/file . Reynolds, George, Book of Abraham (Deseret News Press, 1879). Rothenberg, Beno, 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. Schneider, Thomas, “The First Documented Occurence of the God Yahweh? (Book of the Dead Princeton ‘Roll 5'),” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, 7/2 (Jan 2007), 113-120.

39 Schipper, Bernd Ulrich, Israel und Ägypten in der Königszeit: Die kulturellen Kontakte von Salomo bis zum Fall Jerusalems, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 170 (Freiburg: Universitätsverlag / Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999). Schloen, J. David, "Caravans, Kenites, and Casus Belli: Enmity and Alliance in the Song of Deborah," Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 55 (1993), 18-38. Seely, David R., “Lehi’s Altar and Sacrifice in the Wilderness,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 10/1 (2001), 62-69. Shanks, Hershel, “The Exodus and the Crossing of the Red Sea, According to Hans Goedicke,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 7/5 (Sept-Oct 1981), 42-50. Goedicke mistakenly places the Thera eruption in the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (ca. 1477-1457 B.C.), according to the Speos Artemidos Inscription. Shanks, Hershel, “Did the Exodus Really Happen?” Moment, 26/5 (Oct 2001), 62-65,102. Shanks, Hershel, “For Wolpe, the Exodus is Metaphor,” Moment, 26/6 (Dec 2001), 67-69. Shanks, Hershel, “Happy Accident: David Inscription,” BAR, 31/5 (Sept-Oct 2005), 46,48. Shanks, Hershel, “Could the Edomites Have Wielded an Army to Fight David?” BAR, 33/1 (Jan-Feb 2007), 66-67. Shanks, Hershel, “When did Ancient Israel Begin?” BAR, 38/1 (Jan-Feb 2012), 59-62,67. Shiloh, Yigal, The Proto Aeolic Capital and Israelite Ashlar Masonry, Qedem 11 (Jerusalem, 1979). Shupak, Nili, “The ‘Sitz im Leben’ of the Book of Proverbs in the Light of a Comparison of Biblical and Egyptian Wisdom Literature,” Revue biblique, 94 (1987), 98-119. “Sinking Atlantis,” episode of Secrets of the Dead (Quickfire Media, 2008), broadcast on PBS-TV, May 14, 2008 (available on DVD at 800/336-1917). Smith, Mark S., The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (N.Y.: HarperSanFrancisco/HarperCollins, 1990); 2nd ed. (Eerdmans, 2002). Chapter 3, Yahweh & Astarte; chapter 4, Yahweh & the Sun; chapter 5, child sacrifice, Asherah, and necromancy. Stager, Lawrence E., "Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel," in M. D. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World (N.Y./Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998), 122-175. Stanley, J.-D., and H. Sheng, “Volcanic Shards from Santorini (Upper Minoan Ash) in the Nile Delta, Egypt,” Nature, 320/6064 (1986), 733-735.

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41 Continuum, 2001). Zevit, Ziony, review of “Moses and the Exodus,” a BBC-TV documentary (Jeremy Bowen, host), in BAR, 30/5 (Sept-Oct 2004), 60-62. Zevit, Ziony, rejoinder to J.-D. Stanley in BAR, 31/1 (Jan-Feb 2005), 63.