Nadene Goldfoot
Early civilizations recognized the importance of the sun. The chief deity in many ancient cultures was a sun god or goddess. Ancient Egyptians worshipped Ra, a falcon-headed god who carried the sun disk on his headdress. Every day, Ra would cross the sky in "solar boats." Pharaoh Akhen
Between 1446 BCE and 1290 BCE, Solomon's Temple was built. 1st Kings (6:1) states that the exodus happened 480 years before Solomon's 4th year which would have been 966 BCE. Solomon ruled from 961 to 920 BCE.
Judges (11-13) The king of the children of Amnon said to Jephthah's emissaries, 'because Israel took away my land when it ascended from Egypt, from Amnon to the Jabbok to the Jordan! So now return them in peace."
Another clue to the date was that in Judges (11:26), Jephthah (c. 1100 BCE says that Israel had been in Canaan for 300 years. Adding 40 years for the wilderness journey, this places the exodus around 1440 BCE. (While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its suburbs, in Aroer and its suburbs, and in all the cities that are near Arnon (or 300 years)--why did you not recover them during that time? ) Heshbon (modern Hesbdn) is located in Transjordan, about 20 miles east of the
The Hapiru mentioned in references were thought to be Semitic, called the Habiru or Hapiru (Egyptian ʿApiru). (The term Habiru, meaning “Outsiders,” was applied to nomads, fugitives, bandits, and workers of inferior status; the word is etymologically related to “Hebrew,” and the relationship of the Habiru [and aforementioned Hyksos] to the Hebrews has long been debated.) This was in the Middle Bronze Age.
Modern knowledge of Canaan’s history and culture is derived from both archeological excavations and from literary sources. Excavations, mainly in the 20th century, have unearthed the remains of many important Canaanite cities, including Bet Sheʾan, Gezer, Hazor, Jericho, Jerusalem, Lachish, Megiddo, and Shechem. The most important literary sources for the region’s history are the Old Testament; the Ras Shamra texts discovered at the site of ancient Ugarit, on the north coast of Syria; and the Amarna Letters, a set of dispatches sent in the 14th century BCE by governors of Palestinian cities and Syrian cities to their Egyptian overlords.
The Amarna Letters/Tablets (c 1400 BCE) are correspondence written between Egyptian officials and representatives in Canaan. These letters speak of a period of chaos in Canaan, which could be Joshua's conquest 40 years after the exodus. The letters also make mention of a group referred to in Akkadian as the hapiru---social outcasts, nomads/slaves, or migrant workers---possibly the Israelites at that time.
They are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru, or neighboring kingdom leaders, during the New Kingdom, spanning a period of no more than thirty years between c. 1360–1332 BCE. The letters were found in Upper Egypt at el-Amarna, the modern name for the ancient Egyptian capital of Akhetaten, founded by pharaoh Akhenaten (1350s–1330s BC) during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The Amarna letters are unusual in Egyptological research, because they are written not in the language of ancient Egypt, but in cuneiform, the writing system of ancient Mesopotamia. Most are in a variety of Akkadian sometimes characterised as a mixed language, Canaanite-Akkadian; one especially long letter—abbreviated EA 24—was written in a late dialect of Hurrian, and is the longest contiguous text known to survive in that language.
They also contain the first mention of a Near Eastern group known as the Habiru, whose possible connection with the Hebrews—due to the similarity of the words and their geographic location—remains debated. Other rulers involved in the letters include Tushratta of Mitanni, Lib'ayu of Shechem, Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem, and the quarrelsome king, Rib-Hadda, of Byblos, who, in over 58 letters, continuously pleads for Egyptian military help. Specifically, the letters include requests for military help in the north against Hittite invaders, and in the south to fight against the Habiru. They also contain the first mention of a Near Eastern group known as the Habiru, whose possible connection with the Hebrews—due to the similarity of the words and their geographic location—remains debated. Other rulers involved in the letters include Tushratta of Mitanni, Lib'ayu of Shechem, Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem, and the quarrelsome king, Rib-Hadda, of Byblos, who, in over 58 letters, continuously pleads for Egyptian military help.
Specifically, the letters include requests for military help in the north against Hittite invaders, and in the south to fight against the Habiru.
]The known tablets total 382, of which 358 have been published by the Norwegian Assyriologist Jørgen Alexander Knudtzon in his work, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln, which came out in two volumes (1907 and 1915) and remains the standard edition to this day. The texts of the remaining 24 complete or fragmentary tablets excavated since Knudtzon have also been made available.
The Amarna letters are of great significance for biblical studies as well as Semitic linguistics because they shed light on the culture and language of the Canaanite peoples in this time period. Though most are written in Akkadian, the Akkadian of the letters is heavily colored by the mother tongue of their writers, who probably spoke an early form of Proto-Canaanite, the language(s) which would later evolve into the daughter languages of Hebrew and Phoenician. These "Canaanisms" provide valuable insights into the proto-stage of those languages several centuries prior to their first actual manifestation.
Syria: The
Unique among the Ugarit texts are the earliest known abecedaries, lists of letters in alphabetic cuneiform, where not only the canonical order of Hebrew-Phoenician script is evidenced, but also the traditional names for letters of the alphabet.
The Merneptah Stele, also known as the Israel Stele or the Victory Stele of Merneptah, is an inscription by Merneptah, a pharaoh in ancient Egypt who reigned from 1213 to 1203 BCE. Discovered by Flinders Petrie at Thebes in 1896, it is now housed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
It is conventionally dated at 1213 to 1203 BCE but with a Revised Egyptian Chronology (REC) date of sometime between 940 and 890 BCE. Many archaeologists consider this the only mention of Israel in Egyptian texts, but a much more recent find has called that into question. The pertinent part of the stele, which deals with Israel/Canaan, states, “Canaan is captive with all woe. Ashkelon is conquered, Gezer seized, Yanoam [likely the area of Bashan in present day Syria and the Golan Heights area of northern Israel] made nonexistent; Israel is laid waste, bare of seed.” The inscribed name of Israel (Figure 2 below) is usually transliterated as “Ysyriar” or “Isrir.”
Merneptah or Merenptah was the fourth pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. He ruled Egypt for almost ten years, from late July or early August 1213 BCE until his death on May 2, 1203 BCE, according to contemporary historical records.
Now it couldn't have said "Palestine" as that was the word the Romans used after the Israelite General Bar Kokhba took back Jerusalem from 132-135 CE and died in battle. It's the translators who use English words. (maybe was Eretz Yisrael) (Canaan
In the movie, The Exodus- gods and kings,(a 2014 American biblical epic film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Adam Cooper, etc. The film stars many including Sigourney Weaver, and Ben Kingsley.
It is inspired by the biblical episode of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt led by Moses and related in the Book of Exodus. Development on the film was first announced by Scott in June 2012. In 1300 BC, Moses, a general and accepted member of the Egyptian royal family, prepares to attack an encamped Hittite army with Prince Ramesses at Kadesh. A High Priestess divines a prophecy from animal intestines, which she relates to Ramesses's father, Seti I. She tells the two men of the prophecy, in which "a leader" (either Moses or Ramesses) will be "saved" and the savior "will someday lead." During the battle, Moses saves Ramesses' life, leaving both men troubled. Later, Moses volunteers to go to the city of Pithom in place of his cousin to meet with the Viceroy Hegep, who oversees the Hebrew slaves. Upon his arrival, he encounters the slave Joshua being lashed and questions the vicious lashing. Moses is appalled by the horrific conditions the slaves must toil in. Moses meets with the slave elders to see if the slaves are planning on sedition as claimed by the Viceroy. After said meetings, Moses receives a message via Joshua that Nun is looking for him. Moses finds Nun in the prayer house where Nun informs him of his true lineage; he is the child of Hebrew parents who was sent by his sister Miriam to be raised by Pharaoh's daughter (he was born during the extermination of the Jewish heirs). Moses is stunned at the revelation and leaves angrily; during which he is attacked by two guards whom he quickly kills. However, two Hebrew spies overhear Nun's story and report their discovery to the Viceroy.
There's more than meets the eye. Our history is used to teach us morality. If for no other reason than the fact that the Exodus directly or indirectly generated many of the important events cited by other groups, this is the event of human history.
That it was a Jewish event is an eloquent tribute to the extraordinary role the Jewish people — so minute a fragment of the human race — have played in human history.
READ: Exodus: History or Mythic Tale? The scholarly non-Jewish consensus is that the Exodus, as described in the Torah, is not historical, even though there may be a historical core behind the Biblical narrative. As Jews, we believe it is our history. Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, as individual thinkers, we all realize the importance of our history such as this.
Three interpretations have been proposed for Manetho's story of Osarseph and the lepers: the first, as a memory of the Amarna period; the second, as a memory of the Hyksos; and the third, as an anti-Jewish propaganda.
Each explanation has evidence to support it: the name of the pharaoh, Amenophis (another name for Amenhotep III), and the religious character of the conflict fit the Amarna reform of Egyptian religion; the name of the city, Avaris in Goshen, and possibly the name Osarseph fit the Hyksos period; and the overall plot is an apparent inversion of the Jewish story of the Exodus casting the Jews in a bad light. No one theory, however, can explain all the elements.
The Exodus transformed the Jewish people and their ethic. The Ten Commandments open with the words, “I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Having no other God means giving no absolute status to other forms of divinity or to any human value that demands absolute commitment. Neither money nor power, neither economic nor political system has the right to demand absolute loyalty. All human claims are relative in the presence of God. This is the key to democracy. Exodus morality meant giving justice to the weak and the poor. Honest weights and measures, interest-free loans to the poor, leaving part of the crops in the field for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, treating the alien stranger as a native citizen — these are all applications of the Exodus principle to living in this world.
Thus, the Exodus, as articulated at Sinai, transformed the Jewish people and their religious ethical system. Inasmuch as Christianity and Islam adopted the Exodus at their core, almost half the world is profoundly shaped by the aftereffects of the Exodus event.
Video : Sifting the Evidence: The world of the Bible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsQeZssBN Parts 1 & 2, Dr.Chris Sinkerson
Resource:
Update on reading numerals: https://faculty.georgetown.edu/rtk8/The%20Position%20of%20Numerals%20in%20Middle%20Egyptian%20revised.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarna_letters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah
https://www.britannica.com/place/Canaan-historical-region-Middle-East#ref151406
Troy Lacey response: https://answersingenesis.org/archaeology/merneptah-stele/
https://bibleatlas.org/arnon.htm
https://www.andrews.edu/library/car/cardigital/Periodicals/AUSS/1968-2/1968-2-04.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek#:~:text=Sobek%20(also%20called%20Sebek%20or,human%20with%20a%20crocodile%20head.
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