Bonus 29 - Ipuwer Papyrus

Ipuwer Papyrus, National Archaeological Museum, Leiden, Netherlands.
Photo © Rijksmuseum van Oudheden

The Ipuwer Papyrus (P Leiden I 344 recto)1.  dating to the New Kingdom (ca. 1543–1064 BC),) contains an ancient Egyptian poem called the The Admonitions of Ipuwer 2.  or The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All. 3.  The precise date for its composition is unknown (ca. 1850-1600 BC) 4.  but this singular copy was made during the New Kingdom of Egypt (18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties, ca. 1543-1064 BC). It was purchased in 1928 by the Swedish consul to Egypt, Giovanni Anastasi, and is today housed in the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Netherlands.

The Ipuwer Papyrus is a poetic lament over the natural disasters and calamities afflicting Egypt creating a state of utter chaos and blamed on an unidentified king (perhaps Pepy II of the Sixth Dynasty [ca. 2300–2206 BC]). It describes an inverted state of affairs where the rich become poor and the poor rich, with war, death and famine afflicting the entire nation. One of the consequences of this lawlessness is the rebellion of servants against their masters. The descriptions provides remarkable parallels with the story of the Biblical Exodus that has led to much debate. The Ipuwer Papyrus securely dates to after the Exodus events happened, either from an early date or late date.

Enmarch reports that: “The broadest modern reception of Ipuwer amongst non-Egyptological readers has probably been as a result of the use of the poem as evidence supporting the Biblical account of the Exodus.”5.   He notes several striking textual parallels: “particularly the striking statement that ‘the river is blood and one drinks from it’ (Ipuwer 2.10), and the frequent references to servants abandoning their subordinate status (e.g. Ipuwer 3.14–4.1; 6.7–8; 10.2–3). On a literal reading, these are similar to aspects of the Exodus account.”6.   However, he suggests that “it is more likely that Ipuwer is not a piece of historical reportage and that historicising interpretations of it fail to account for the ahistorical, schematic literary nature of some of the poem’s laments.” 7.   Kenneth Kitchen also suggested that Ipuwer and the Exodus account were possibly referring to the same kind of natural phenomenon. 8. 

Brad C. Sparks claims that some 90 Egyptian papyri 9.   demonstrate similar parallels to the Exodus, including the Ipuwer Papyrus, Tale of Two Brothers (Tomb of Seti II, who ruled from 1200 to 1194, BC), 10.   El Arish Stele (305–31 BC), 11.  Speos Artemidos Inscription (Queen Hatshepsut and Seti I, 1490–1460 BC), 12.  Tempest Stela (ca. 1550 BC), 13.  and Demotic Chronicle (ca. 1550 BC). 14.   This implies that the event of the Exodus may still have been part of the Egyptian living memory in either the 15th or 13th cent. BC.15


Footnotes

• 1. Roland Enmarch, Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All (Oxford, U.K.: Griffith Institute, 2005), 2–3
• 2. R. B. Parkinson, The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems. (Oxford, UK: Oxford World’s Classics, 1999).
• 3. Roland Enmarch, Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All.
• 4. John Van Seters. “A date for the ‘Admonitions’ in the second intermediate Period”. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 50 (1964):13–23.
• 5. Roland Enmarch, “The Reception of a Middle Egyptian Poem: The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All in the Ramesside Period and beyond,” in Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen, ed. Mark Collier and Steven R. Snape (Bolton, U.K.: Rutherford, 2011), 106.
• 6. Enmarch, “The Reception of a Middle Egyptian Poem.” 174.
• 7. Enmarch, “The Reception of a Middle Egyptian Poem.” 174.
• 8. Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2003), 250–52.
• 9. Brad C. Sparks, “Egyptian Text Parallels to the Exodus: The Egyptology Literature,” in Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination Conference, ed. Thomas E. Levy (presented at the Qualcomm Institute, University of California, San Diego, 2013).
• 10. P. D’Orbiney, P. Brit. Mus. 10183. Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: The New Kingdom, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (Berkeley, Calf.: University of California Press, 2006), 203.
• 11. Barbara J. Sivertsen, The Parting of the Sea: How Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Plagues Shaped the Story of Exodus (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2011), 125–29.
• 12. Hans Goedicke, “Hatshepsut’s Temple Inscription at Speo Artemidos,” Biblical Archaeology Review 7, no. 5 (1981): 42; Hershel Shanks, “The Exodus and the Crossing of the Red Sea, According to Hans Goedicke,” Biblical Archaeology Review7, no. 5 (1981): 42–50; Alan H. Gardiner, “Davies’s Copy of the Great Speos Artemidos Inscription,” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 32 (1946): 43–56; Barbara J. Sivertsen, The Parting of the Sea: How Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Plagues Shaped the Story of Exodus (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2011), 8–9.
• 13. Ellen N. Davis, “A Storm in Egypt during the Reign of Ahmose,” in Thera and the Aegean World III, ed. David A. Hardy and A. C. Renfrew, vol. 3, Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece, 3–9 September 1989 (London, U.K.: The Thera Foundation, 1990), 3:232–35; Donald B. Redford, “Textual Sources for the Hyksos Period,” in The Hyksos: New Historical and Archaeological Perspectives, ed. Eliezer D. Oren (Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1997), 16; Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt, 150–51; Kenneth A. Kitchen, “Ancient Egyptian Chronology for Aegeanists,” Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 2, no. 2 (2002): 11; Nadine Moeller and Robert K. Ritner, “The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’, Thera and Comparative Chronology,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 73, no. 1 (April 1, 2014): 2.
• 14. Papyrus CPJ 520. Jan Assmann, The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003), 406. The dates of these documents would indicate an early date (1445 BC) for the Exodus, although some texts are even earlier than this.
• 15. Brad C. Sparks, “Egyptian Texts Relating to the Exodus: Discussions of Exodus Parallels in the Egyptology Literature.” In Israel’s Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective: Text, Archaeology, Culture and Geoscience, edited by Thomas Evan Levy, Thomas Schneider, and William H. C. Propp,  (Quantitative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences. New York, N.Y.: Springer, 2015), 259–84.

For further Study

• Bietak, Manfred. “On the Historicity of the Exodus: What Egyptology Today Can Contribute to Assessing the Biblical Account of the Sojourn in Egypt.” In Israel’s Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective: Text, Archaeology, Culture and Geoscience, edited by Thomas Evan Levy, Thomas Schneider, and William H. C. Propp, 17–38. Quantitative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences. New York, N.Y.: Springer, 2015. Summary of the article 
• Enmarch, Roland. Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All. Oxford, U.K.: Griffith Institute, 2005.
• Enmarch, Roland. “The Reception of a Middle Egyptian Poem: The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All in the Ramesside Period and beyond,” in Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen, ed. Mark Collier and Steven R. Snape (Bolton, U.K.: Rutherford, 2011), 173–75.
• Gardiner, A. H. The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage from a Hieratic Papyrus in Leiden. J. C. Hinrich's che Buchhandlung, 1909; reprinted by George Olms Verlag, 1969; reprinted by General Books LLC, January 12, 2010.
• Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature: The Old and Middle Kingdoms, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (Berkeley, Calf.: University of California Press, 2006).
• Parkinson, R. B. The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems. Oxford, UK: Oxford World’s Classics, 1999.
• Quirke, Stephen. Egyptian Literature 1800 BC: Questions and Readings. Revised. GHP Egyptology 2. Golden House, 2004.
• Seters. John Van.  “A date for the ‘Admonitions’ in the second intermediate Period”. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 1964; 50:13–23.
• Stiebing, William H. Out of the Desert?: Archaeology and the Exodus/Conquest Narratives (Buffalo, N.Y: Prometheus, 1989).
• Velikovsky, Immanuel. Ages in Chaos: From the Exodus to King Akhnaton (New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1952)
• Zecher, Henry. “The Papyrus Ipuwer, Egyptian Verion of the Plagues - A New Perspective.” The Velikovskian, January 1997. 

 Modified April 11, 2016. Copyright © 2016 Electronic Christian Media.

Bonus 78 - Kinneret Boat

The 'Sea of Galilee Boat' housed in the Yigal Alon Museum
in Kibbutz Ginosar, Yigal Allon Center.
Public Domain. Photo Berthold Werner

Following a drought in 1986 the level of the Sea of Galilee fell well below normal levels, Moshe and Yuval Lufan, two fishermen from Kibbutz Ginosar, uncovered the wooden frame of an ancient fishing boat. 1.  It was a unique discovery for a wooden boat to be uncovered in fresh water. It dates to the first century and has been called the “Sea of Galilee boat” or the “Jesus boat.” Although it is unlikely that Jesus used this very boat, it is almost certain that Jesus used a boat identical to this one to fish with his disciples (Matt 13:47-48).

Footnotes

• 1. Shelly Wachsmann, Kurt Raveh, and Oma Cohen, “The Kinneret Boat Project, Part I. The Excavation and Conservation of the Kinneret Boat,” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 16 (1987): 233

Jesus Boat Website

For Further Study

• Charlton, Jr.. William H. “Building a Model of the Kinneret Boat.” Institute of Nautical Archaeology Quarterly. Volume 19, No 3. (Fall 1992): 3-7.
• Cohen, Oma.  “Conservation of the Ancient Boat from the Sea of Galilee.”  ‘Atiqot 50 (2005): 219-236.
• Peachey, Claire. “Model Building in Nautical Archaeology: The Kinneret Boat: An Underwater View of the Ancient World.” The Biblical Archaeologist Vol. 53, No. 1, (Mar., 1990), pp. 46-53 .
• Raban, A. “The boat from Migdal Numia and the anchorages of the Sea of Galilee from the time of Jesus.” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 17, no. 4 (1988): 311-29.
• Steffy, J. Richard, and Shelley Wachsman, “The Migdal Boat Mosaic.” in Kinneret Boat 1990, 115-118.
• Steffy, J. Richard. “The Kinneret Boat Project, Part II. Notes on the Construction of the Kinneret Boat.” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 16 (1987): 325-29.
• Wachsman, Shelley, ed. “The Excavations of an Ancient Boat in the Sea Of Galilee (Lake Kinneret).” 'Atiqot 19. English Series. Jerusalem: Department of Antiquities and Museums, 1990.
• Wachsmann, Shelley.  The Sea of Galilee Boat: A 2000 Year Old Discovery From The Sea of Legends.  Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus, 2000.
• Wachsmann, Shelley. The Sea of Galilee Boat. New York, N.Y.: Basic Books, 2007.
• Wachsmann, Shelley. “The Galilee Boat – 2,000-Year-Old Hull Recovered Intact.” Biblical Archaeology Review 14, no. 5 (Sept/Oct 1988): 18-33.

Bonus 106 - Magdala Synagogue

Magdala is the name of ancient town located
on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Public Domain. Photo by Hanay

During the excavation (1971-1977) at Migdal or Migdol 1. (Heb. “tower,” Khirbet Medjdel, biblical Magdala; Joshua 19.3; “Tarichææ” Josephus Life 157; JW 2.21.8; 3.9.7–3.10.5; Pliny Nat. Hist. 5.15; Strabo Geogr. 16.2.45; Migdal of the Talmud i.e., Nûnnaya “Tower of Fish,” b. Pesaḥ. 46b; Seb’aiya “Tower of Dyers” y. Taʿan. 69a) 2. on the northwestern shores of the Sea of Galilee, Virgilio Corbo, of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem, uncovered the cardo maximus (main street) and a Jewish synagogue from the first century AD. 3.  This is the hometown of Mary Madalene, one of the followers of Jesus (Matt 27:56; Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2 and John 20:18) and it is believed that Jesus visited this synagogue.

Stone with Menorah that was found in the Archaeological
site inside the Synagogue area, Magdala, Galilee.
Public Domain. Photo by Hanay

Image of Magdala synagogue from the air.

Recently more work in 2007-Present (The Madala Project) 4. was carried out under the direction of Stefano de Luca (Studium Biblicum Franciscanum), on the synagogue revealing an amazingly well preserved structure, along with first century mosaics, painted plaster and some of the best preserved miqveh (ritual baths). 5.  However, it is not the first synagogue discovered where Jesus walked and taught. The synagogue in Capernaum, just to the north of Migdal is one of the first synagogue discovered, 6.  although only the foundation is from the first century. The Magdala synagogue is certainly more complete with wonderful mosaics and pulpit for the Torah with the oldest preserved Menorah on a religious structure.

There are presently four early first century synagogues in Israel, Masada, Herodium, Gamla, and now Magdala. 7.


Video News clip from 2014

Footnotes

•  1. Migdol is also mentioned in the Nazareth inscription discovered at Caesarea. Michael Avi-Yonah, “The Caesarea Inscription of the Twenty-Four Priestly Courses,” in The Teacher’s Yoke: Studies in Memory of Henry Trantham, ed. E. Jerry Vardaman, James Leo Garrett, and J. B. Adair (Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 1964), 46–57;  Jack Finegan, The Archeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church, Revised (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2014), 46, 81.
• 2. James F. Strange, “Magdala,” ed. David Noel Freedman et al., The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1996): 4.464.
• 3. Virgilio C. Corbo, “Scavi archeologici a Magdala (1971-1973)” Studii Biblici Franciscani Liber Annuas 24 (1974) 5-37; “La  mini-synagogue de Magdala,” Le Monde De La Bible 57 1989: 15; Corbo, Virgilio C. “La città romana di Magdala. Rapporto preliminare dopo la IV campagna di scavo: 1/10-8/12/1975”, Studia Hierosolymitana in onore di B. Bagatti, 1: Studi archeologici (SBF Collectio Maior 22), Jerusalem, (1976): 371.
• 4. The Magdala Project: Galilean Archaeology, June 27, 2011, 
• 5. Jürgen K. Zangeberg, “Archaeological News from the Galilee: Tiberias, Magdala and Rural Galilee,” The Magdala Project: Galilean Archaeology, June 27, 2011.
• 6. Virgilio C. Corbo , “La synagogue du centurion à Capharnaüm” in Le Monde de la Bible, 57 (1989), 16-17.
• 7.  Lee I. Levine, ed., Ancient Synagogues Revealed (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1981), 26, 30-41.

For Further Study

• Aviam, Mordechai. “Magdala.” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, edited by Eric M. Meyers, 3:399–400. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Avi-Yonah, Michael. “The Caesarea Inscription of the Twenty-Four Priestly Courses.” In The Teacher’s Yoke: Studies in Memory of Henry Trantham, edited by E. Jerry Vardaman, James Leo Garrett, and J. B. Adair, 46–57. Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 1964.
• Bonnie, Rick, and Julian Richard. “Building D1 at Magdala Revisited in the Light of Public Fountain Architecture in the Late-Hellenistic East.” Israel Exploration Journal  62 (2012): 71–88.
• Bagatti, Bellarmino. “Magdala, Patria di maria Maddalena” in Antichi Villaggi Cristiani Di Galilea. Studio Biblico Francescano. Collezione Minore 13. Jerusalem, Israel: Tipografia Dei PP. Francescani, 1971, 80-83.
• Corbo, Virgilio C. “Scavi Archeologici a Magdala (1971-1973).” Studii Biblici Franciscani Liber Annuas 24 (1974): 5–37.
• Corbo, Virgilio C. “La  mini-synagogue de Magdala,” Le Monde De La Bible 57 1989: 15.
• Corbo, Virgilio C. “La città romana di Magdala. Rapporto preliminare dopo la IV campagna di scavo: 1/10-8/12/1975”, Studia Hierosolymitana in onore di B. Bagatti, 1: Studi archeologici (SBF Collectio Maior 22), Jerusalem, (1976): 355-378.
• Corbo, Virgilio C. “Découvertes à Magdala”, La Terre Sainte, (1974) 283-287
• Finegan, Jack “Magdala” in The Archeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church, Revised (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2014), 81-83.
• Kopp, Clemens. “Christian Sites around the Sea of Galilee: IV. Magdala,” in Dominican Studies 3 (1950), 344-350.
• Reed, Jonathan L. Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus: A Re-Examination of the Evidence. New York, N.Y.: Continuum International, 2002.
• Strange, James F. “Magdala.” Edited by David Noel Freedman, Gary A. Herion, David F. Graf, and John David Pleins. Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1996. 463-464.

Chart 14

PROPOSED DATING FOR THE PATRIARCHS

 

 Footnotes

1. Adapted from J. Randall Price, The Stones Cry Out: What Archaeology Reveals About the Truth of the Bible (Eugene, Oreg.: Harvest House, 1997), 106. Also, see Chart 2 for different dates for the archaeological periods used by various scholars.
2. Freedman states, “If Abraham and Lot had anything to do with the Cities of the Plain, then that link could only have existed in the Early Bronze Age, certainly not in the Middle Bronze Age.” Freedman, “The Real Story of the Ebla Tablets,” 157; Shanks, “BAR Interviews Giovanni Pettinato,” 47; Albright, “The Jordan Valley in the Bronze Age,” 58–61. Pettinato replied to Freedman’s dating the Patriarchal Age to the third millennium as “impossible.” 
3. Willem C. van Hattem, “Once Again: Sodom and Gomorrah,” Biblical Archaeologist 44, no. 2 (Spring 1981): 90.
4. Kenyon identifies the patriarchs with a Canaanite migration and “invasion of Palestine by nomad tribes of Amorites.” Kathleen M. Kenyon, “Excavations in Jerusalem, 1965,” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 98, no. 1 (1966): 75; Amorites and Canaanites, Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1967), 76; Paul W. Lapp, The Dhahr Mirzbaneh Tombs: Three Intermediate Bronze Age Cemeteries in Jordan (Philadelphia, Pa.: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1966), 114.
5. Wood claims that the date for the destruction of Sodom is ca. 2070 BC based on a 1446 BC date for the Exodus. The date of the destruction of Bab edh-Dhra according to Rast and Schaub is 2350 BC. Bryant G. Wood, “The Discovery of the Sin Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah,” Bible and Spade 12, no. 3 (1999):  78; Bryant G. Wood, “Locating Sodom: A Critique of the Northern Proposal,” Bible and Spade 20, no. 3 (2007): 81.
6. John H. Walton, Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1994), 15; Price, The Stones Cry Out, 92.
7. Ed Hindson and Elmer L. Towns, Illustrated Bible Survey: An Introduction (Nashville, Tenn.: B&H, 2013), 36.
8. John J. Bimson, “Archaeological Data and the Dating of the Patriarchs,” in Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives, ed. Alan R. Millard and Donald J. Wiseman (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1980), 84–85.
9. Price identifies MB 1 from 2100-1900 BC and MB 2A from 1900-1700 BC. Price, The Stones Cry Out, 350.
10. Nelson Glueck, Rivers in the Desert: A History of the Negev (New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1959), 61–84; The Other Side of the Jordan, 15–16.
11. Eugene H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2008). 47–48, 83–96; Eugene H. Merrill, “Texts, Talls, and Old Testament Chronology: Tall El-Hammam as a Case Study,” Artifax 27, no. 4 (2012): 20–21.
12. Kenneth A. Kitchen and T. C. Mitchell, “Chronology of the Old Testament,” ed. I. Howard Marshall et al., New Bible Dictionary (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1996), 190; Alan R. Millard, “Methods of Studying the Patriarchal Narratives as Ancient Texts,” in Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives, ed. Donald J. Wiseman and Alan R. Millard (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1983), 43–58.
13. Albright states on the basis of the evidence at Bab edh-Dhra that “it does suggest very strongly that the date of Abraham cannot be placed earlier than the nineteenth century BC” (1900 to 1801 BC). Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine and the Bible, 10; “A Revision of Early Hebrew Chronology,” Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society 1 (1921): 68, 79; Glueck, Rivers in the Desert, 61–84; The Other Side of the Jordan, 15–16; Samuel J. Schultz and Gary V. Smith, Exploring the Old Testament (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2001), 209; Wright, Biblical Archaeology, 50; Hoffmeier, The Archaeology of the Bible: Reassessing Methodologies and Assumptions, 68. Hoffmeier narrows the date to 1800-1540 in his Israel in Egypt book.
14. Collins has a slightly narrower date of 1950–1550 in his response to Bryant Wood. Collins, “A Response to Bryant G. Wood,” 27; “Sodom: The Discovery of a Lost City,” BS 20, no. 3 (2007): 72.
15. Free and Vos, Archaeology and Bible History, 64; Hoerth and McRay, Bible Archaeology, 101.
16. Archer identifies these dates as the Middle Bronze Age. Gleason L. Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, Rev Upd (Chicago, Ill.: Moody, 1996), 184.
17. Bruce K. Waltke and Cathi J. Fredricks, Genesis: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2001), 30; Goldingay, “The Patriarchs in Scripture and History,” 11; William Sanford La Sor et al., Old Testament Survey: The Message, Form, and Background of the Old Testament, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1996), 38–43.
18. Bill T. Arnold, Encountering the Book of Genesis (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2003), 86.
19. Geisler and Holden base part of their arguments on the Excavations at Tall el-Ḥammâm. Geisler and Holden, Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible, 191.
20. Nahum M Sarna, “The Patriarchs Genesis 12-36,” in Genesis: World of Myths and Patriarchs, ed. Ada Feyerick, Cyrus Herzl Gordon, and Nahum M Sarna (New York, N.Y.: New York University Press, 1996), 118.
21. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 1:225–226; Amihai Mazar, “The Patriarchs, Exodus and Conquest Narratives in Light of Archaeology,” in The Quest for the Historical Israel, ed. Israel Finkelstein and Brian B. Schmidt, Archaeology and Biblical Studies 17 (Atlanta, Ga.: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), 59.
22. Cyrus H. Gordon, “The Patriarchal Narratives,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 13 (1954): 56–59; Introduction to Old Testament Times (Ventnor, N.J.: Ventnor, 1953), chapter 8; “Biblical Customs and the Nuzu Tablets,” 1–12; “The New Amarna Tablets,” Orientalia 16 (1947): 1–21; “Hebrew Origins in the Light of Recent Discovery,” in Biblical and Other Studies, ed. Alexander Altmann (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), 5–6.
23. Benjamin Mazar, The World History of the Jewish People: Ancient Times: Patriarchs, vol. 2 (London, U.K.: Rutger’s University Press, 1970), 169–87, 276–78; Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 133–90; Ze’ev Herzog, “Deconstructing the Walls of Jericho,” Ha’aretz Magazine, 1999, 4–5.
24. Thomas L. Thompson, The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives: The Quest for the Historical Abraham (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 2002), 89; John Van Seters, Abraham in History and Tradition (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1975); S. M. Warner, “The Patriarchs and Extra-Biblical Sources,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 2 (1977): 50–61.

Chart 11

EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY

1. Manetho, an Egyptian priest and historian, arranged Egyptian history into 30 dynasties in the 3rd century BC in his work Aegyptiaka. Manetho, History of Egypt and Other Works, trans. W. G. Waddell, Loeb Classical Library 350 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1940).
2. Kenneth A. Kitchen, “The Chronology of Ancient Egypt,” World Archaeology 23, no. 2 (October 1, 1991): 206.
3. Nicolas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 1994), 389–95.
4. David M. Rohl, A Test Of Time, 159–74; David M. Rohl, Pharaohs and Kings: A Biblical Quest (New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers, 1997); David M. Rohl, From Eden to Exile: The Five-Thousand-Year History of the People of the Bible (Lebanon, Tenn.: Greenleaf, 2009); David M. Rohl, The Lords Of Avaris: Uncovering the Legendary Origins of Western Civilisation (Hawthorn, Australia: Cornerstone Digital, 2010).

Chart 10

COMPARATIVE ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATING

1. Geisler and Holden, Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible, 191–92.
2. William G. Dever et al., “Palestine, Archaeology of,” ed. David Noel Freedman et al., Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1996), 5:99–119.
3. Collins et al., “Tall el-Hammam, Season Eight, 2013,” 12–13.
4. Price, The Stones Cry Out, 350–51.
5. “The transition between EB II and EB III is not as clearly connected to Egyptian chronology due to the cessation of trade connections between the regions from the 2nd Dynasty onwards. Thus, the traditional correlation of later EB II with the 2nd Dynasty, or even the 3rd Dynasty, is based on virtually no material evidence.” Regev et al., “Chronology of the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant: New Analysis for a High Chronology,” 526.
6. “EB III is traditionally defined as coinciding with [Egyptian] dynasties 3–6. These correlations, however, have no secure material basis. The end of the period is conventionally placed around 2300 BC, during the reign of Pharaoh Pepi I, when there is evidence of Egyptian military intervention along the southern Coastal Plain of Israel. The date of Pepi’s reign, however, is disputed and could be somewhat earlier.” Ibid., 527.
7. The end of EB III is given as 2350 BC in the Anchor Bible Dictionary (William G. Dever et al., “Palestine, Archaeology of,” ed. David Noel Freedman et al., Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1996), 5:110), 2200 BC in the New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (Edited by Ephraim Stern, Ayelet Levinson-Gilboa, and Joseph Aviram, 4 vols. (New York, N.Y.: MacMillan, 1993), 4:1529), and 2300 BC in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East (Edited by Eric M. Meyers, 5 vols. (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1997), 413).
8. According to Dever this was “Albright’s ‘Middle Bronze I,’ Kenyon’s ‘Intermediate EB–MB’” William G. Dever et al., “Palestine, Archaeology of,” ed. David Noel Freedman et al., Anchor Bible Dictionar (New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1996), 5:111.
9. 2350-2200 BC IB1, formerly EB IV. 2200-1950 IB2, formerly MB I.
10. Formerly MB IIA
11. Formerly MB II B-C

Chart 9

ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERIODS (NEW CHRONOLOGY)

For the New Chronology see: Johanna Regev et al., “Chronology of the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant: New Analysis for a High Chronology,” Radiocarbon 3–4 (2012): 525–66.