From The Alpha and the Omega - Chapter Four
by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © 1995, all rights reserved
"Abram’s transformation to Abraham -
continued as the Dating of the Patriarchal Age"
Return to Abram's transformation to Abraham.
Dating the Patriarchal Age
- Early Bronze Age (3100-2100) a period of Abram and his mystery genealogy.
- Middle Bronze Age I (2100-1900 B.C.) would represent the coming of Abraham to Palestine and the Amorites from Syria.
- Middle Bronze Age II (1900-1550/1480 B.C.) the descendants of the Amorites, the Hyskos dominated. Isaac-Amram.
- Late Bronze Age (1500-1230 B.C.) the Egyptians broke the Hyskos power between 1400 to 1230 B.C. which included the coming of Moses, etc..
- Iron Age Periods were I (1230-925 B.C.), II (925-586 B.C.) and III (538-333 B.C.).
The Discoveries at Nuzu, which were excavated between 1925 and 1941, as this ancient site southeast of Nineveh and not far from modern Kirkuk has yielded several thousand documents of first rate importance to the student of the OT. The tablets provide numerous illustrations of the customs which figure in the patriarchal narratives. The Middle Bronze Age (2000-1500 B.C.) is in agreement with the semi-nomadic life of the patriarchs as pictured in the Genesis narratives.
In "Patriarchal Age: Myth or History" BAR, March/April 1995 by Kenneth Kitchen cited as factors to conclude that the patriarchs can be dated to the first half of the second millennium B.C., or the Middle Bronze Age. These factors are:
- (1) The price of slaves. This argument was about the price of a slave in Genesis 37:28 (specifically Joseph age 17 of 20 shekels of silver as to 1900-1800 B.C.) compared to the 30 shekels in Exodus 21:32 -- 1400-1300 B.C., and 50 shekels of King Menahem 800 B.C. for the Assyrian king Pul (2 Kings 15:20). This is not a good judge since slave prices can vary depending on age and sex of the slave.
- (2) Treaties and covenants. Kitchen considered the three patriarchal covenants: Abraham’s covenant with King Abimelech of Gerar (Gen 21:22-32); Isaac’s covenant with the same (Gen 26:26-31); and after the teraphim that Rachel stole from Laban in (Gen. 31:19, 30-35) led to Jacob’s covenant with Laban (Gen 31:43-54) in that their form and structure matches those of the other Near Eastern treaties of the early second millennium B.C. Of the first two, Abraham’s is from the E source, whereas Isaac’s is from the J source, and lack various agreements. Jacob’s and Laban have all the elements. These are still to fragmentary and partial to determine the argument.
- (3) Geo-political conditions. For Kitchen only the Middle Bronze Age fits Genesis 14, where Abram defeats a coalition of four kings and armies of Elam, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the leader King Chedorlaomer of Elam. Although "No king of Elam" named Kutir/Kudur-Lagamar [the Elamite form of Chedorlaomer] is attested, nor is there the slightest evidence of Elamite political or military engagement in Palestine at any time in history. A slim argument for this occurring before 12th century B.C. In the ninth century B.C., at Qarqar in Syria, an alliance of "twelve kings of the West and the seashore" (Damascus, Hamath, Israel, some Phoenician cities, Arab tribes, and from Egypt) attempted to defeat the mighty Assyrian army of Shalmaneser III (858-824 B.C.). The so-called "Chedorlaomer texts" Babylonian texts probably composed in the seventh and sixth century B.C., tells of four kings (The first Elamite king Kudur-Nahhunte, and the third Tudhula) who attacked and flooded Babylon. Several scholars have tried to see connection between the Chedorlaomer texts and Genesis 14, though such attempts remain speculative.
- (4) References to Egypt. Since the Egyptian royal residences was in the eastern Nile delta for most of the period between 2000 and 200 B.C. such that Abram and Sarai in Genesis 12:10-20 and Joseph in Genesis 47 visited the residences.
[Emphasis mine: subject a caravan of nomads entering Egypt ca. 1900 B.C. - Trade between Mesopotamia and surrounding countries and the land of the Nile flourished from early times as the patriarchal narratives indicate (Gen. 27:25).
Asiatics arriving in Egypt, as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob may have done. From the tomb painting at Beni Hassan (ca. 2000-1900 B.C.). ]
- (5) Patriarchal names. A speculative argument.
- (6) The social world of the patriarchs. Dealing with the laws of inheritance as to the first born.
[Emphasis mine: subject Adoption: Abram with no prospect for children legally adopted his trusted slave, Eliezer as his heir in accordance with prevailing custom, and calls him "son of my house," that is, his heir presumptive (Gen. 15:2). One adoption tablet from ancient Nuzu (ca. 1500-1400 B.C.) also shows the customs of those days.].
Merrill F. Unger in his book "Archaeology and the Old Testament"
under Chapter Nine entitled Abram-Abraham and His Age states the following:
Page 105-118 "In the NT the name Abraham stands for the representative man of faith (cf. Rom. 4:1-25)." Has the Bible left the date of Abram and or Abraham’s life completely uncertain? On his page 105-107 regarding Abraham in the frame of contemporary history.
"Despite the discovery of numerous bodies of inscriptional material which illuminate the patriarchal age, there has, as yet, turned up no decisive evidence to establish a precise link in the lives of the patriarchs with extra-Biblical history.
Most believe that Abraham’s migration occurred from 1900 to 1750 B.C., and the patriarchal period between 1750 and 1500 B.C. The Biblical chronology has not been found correct or incorrect."
Genesis and Exodus shows Abram left Mesopotamia (Haran) on his way to Palestine an assumed 645 years before the Israelites left Egypt.
If the actual patriarchal period consists of 215 years, which is based on Genesis 12:4 Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran; and Abraham in Genesis 21:5 "one hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him." Since Isaac was "sixty years old" when Jacob was born (Gen. 25:26) and Jacob was "a hundred and thirty years" old when he stood before the Pharaoh of Egypt (Gen. 47:9), the total is computed by adding 25 years for Abram, to 60 and 130, thus equaling 215 years assumed.
- Plus according to Exodus 12:40, 41 the entire Egyptian sojourn lasted 430 years.
- The Septuagint reading of Exodus 12:40 "Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt and in the land of Canaan was 430 years," allows only 215 years for the Egyptian sojourn.
- The Masoretic Text is emphatic in Exodus 12:41 and the round number (or actual period when oppression first began) of 400 years given in Genesis 15:13 and Acts 7:6.
- Did the patriarchs spend 215 years in Canaan?
- Did the Israelites spend 430 years in Egypt?
- Did Abraham enter Canaan 645 years before the Exodus?
- In 1 Kings 6:1 it places the Exodus 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon’s reign (c. 961 B.C.) the date of the Exodus is 1441 B.C. Adding 645 to 1441, the date 2086 B.C. marks Abraham’s entrance into Canaan, and 2161 B.C. the assumed date of his birth as Abram.
- If this is true then the patriarchal period is 2086 B.C. to 1871 B.C.
- And the Egyptian sojourn from 1871 to 1441 B.C.
- This places Abraham in the Sumero-Akkadian empire of Ur-Nammu the founder of the famous third dynasty of Ur (c. 2135-2025 B.C.), who took the new title "King of Sumer and Akkad," and erected the great ziggurat at Ur.
- In Palestine numerous smaller states of Elamite princes at Isin and Larsa, and Amorite states at Eshnunna, who between 2100 and 1800 B.C. took over the heritage of the Third Dynasty of Ur after its collapse, and destruction.
- In Egypt the Middle Kingdom under the twelfth dynasty (2000-1780 B.C.), where Joseph became prime minister, and Jacob stood before a pharaoh (Amenemes I-IV or Senwosret I-III).
- Israel was in Egypt during the Hyksos period of foreign domination (1780-1546 B.C.) and was oppressed by Thutmose III (1482-1450 B.C.) of the New Kingdom (eighteenth dynasty) and left under Amenhotep II (1450-1425 B.C.).
More from Merrill F. Unger in his book "Archaeology and the Old Testament"
under Chapter Ten entitled The Historicity of the Patriarchs.
On his page 125-126 "An interesting appearance of a Biblical name in the Mari letters occurs in the Banu-Yamina, Benjaminites, "Sons of the Right, " that is, "Sons of the South." These were the fierce tribe of nomads who roved the fringes of the desert south of the Euphrates, but had also pushed northward. It is unlikely that scholars can connect these Bedouins with the Biblical Benjaminites, yet chronologically it is possible. The name Benjamin, "Son of the South, " was a common name in Mari where the corresponding term "Sons of the Left," that is, "Sons of the North," is found. Benjamin is said to have been born in Palestine, after Jacob’s return from Laban, and never to have been in Mesopotamia at all. The characterization of Benjamin as "a marauding wolf" (Gen. 49:27) fits the description of the tribe at Mari.
From the account of the Benjaminites in the Mari letters is the etymology of the name of David, famous in later Israel. The word translated "chieftain" in the references to the plundering Benjaminites is dawidum ("leader"), which seems to be the original form of the name of Israel’s most famous king.
Other terms such as "killing an ass" sheds light on customs which prevailed in patriarchal times and later. The idiom "to kill an ass," khayaram qatalum, is not Akkadian at all, but both words occur in Hebrew and indicated the sacrifice which accompanied the oath of alliance. The connection between sacrificing as ass and concluding a covenant seems to have been preserved by the Shechemites, with whom Jacob and his sons had such unpleasant dealings (Gen. 33:19; 34:1-31). Called the Bene Hamor, "sons of the ass" (Josh. 24:32), their tribal deity was Baal-Berith, "Lord of the covenant" (Judg. 9:4). Later, at the time of Conquest the Bene Hamor of Shechem were, it seems, like the four towns of the Gibeonite confederacy (Josh 9:1ff.), added to Israel by treaty, to judge from various early references to them and their god Baal-Berith."
Then Unger on page 127-128 regarding Abraham and other archeological finds states, "The so-called "Execration Texts" attest to the background of the patriarchs, in that these curious documents are statuettes and vases inscribed in Egyptian hieratic script with the names of potential enemies of the Pharaoh, which, if threatened he would break the fragile objects in a magical ceremony to send grief to those whose names were on them. The group of vases from Berlin, published by Kurt Sethe (1926), probably date from the end of the 20th century B.C. , and one from Brussels, published by G. Posener (1940), date from the late 19th century."
The name Abraham, moreover, has been found in Mesopotamia in the second millennium B.C. under the forms A-ba-am-ra-ma, A-ba-ra-ma, and A-ba-am-ra-am. This shows that it was actually a name in use at an early date.
The name Jacob, which stands for Ya’qub-‘el, "May El Protect," occurs not only as a place name in Palestine in the 15th century B.C. (Thutmose III’s list), but also as Ya-ah-qu-ub-il in the tablets of the 18th century B.C. from Chogar Bazar in northern Mesopotamia.
Both Isaac and Jacob are abbreviated theophorous names whose full form would be Yitshaq-‘el and Ya’qub-‘el, and belong to the types known from which the Hebrews came.
Attempts to find patriarchal names in the important texts discovered at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in north Syria (1929-1937) have proved unsuccessful. The claim that the Hebrew God Yahweh figures in these texts and that Terah, the father of Abram, appears there as a moon god is totally unsupported by facts. Neither does a proto-Israelite tribe of Zebulon nor Asher appear in these religious poems from the 14th century B.C.
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