Friday, November 15, 2024

Frustration arises for critics when a gripping biblical drama can seem to end without any hoped-for resolution

by Damien F. Mackey Andrew E. Hill had, in the course of his terrific commentary, “A Jonadab Connection in the Absalom Conspiracy?”, expressed a certain frustration due to what he called “the almost annoying paucity of material for careful analysis” regarding Jonadab. Introduction Both of the two instances of biblical stories seeming to fall short due to the apparent lack of follow-up material, to be considered here (there are plenty of others), involve TAMAR, the beautiful virginal sister of Absalom, son of David (2 Samuel 13:1-2). Just when the story surrounding Jonadab, Absalom, Amnon and Tamar (2 Samuel 13:1-39), has begun to get really fascinating, Jonadab, qua Jonadab, disappears abruptly from the scene after making some Machiavellian comments to King David (vv. 32-33, 35) - these suggesting that Jonadab was more of an insider in Absalom’s plot than first thought. And, secondly, in the same story, we take leave of Tamar in a very miserable state, shattered for having been raped by Amnon (v. 20): “And Tamar lived in her brother Absalom’s house, a desolate woman”. Of course, we would love to know more. And critics like Andrew E. Hill can express their frustration for not knowing more. His brilliant unfolding of the machinations of the shrewd Jonadab must come to an early halt due to the Bible’s failure to continue with the history of Jonadab, qua Jonadab, of whom he writes there is “the almost annoying paucity of material for careful analysis”. We can feel with Andrew Hill, after he has done so clever a job of analysing the character of this Jonadab. And female commentators in particular, full of sympathy for Tamar and her plight, would dearly love to know what became of her. Did her later life take a turn for the better? Thankfully, the Bible is more accommodating in this regard than one might have imagined. For, as we shall find, the history of Jonadab is carried through, further on in 2 Samuel, right to its bitter end. And, indeed, it is a bitter end. And we also come to learn much about the incredible life story of Tamar after her horrible years of confinement in the house of Absalom. The fact is that the drama of, now Jonadab, now Tamar, as known from 2 Samuel, is taken up and continued in the same book, or in Kings and Chronicles, in which the two protagonists are re-presented under different names. A. Jonadab (Part One) Previously I wrote on this crafty character, basing myself on Andrew E. Hill: Enter Jonadab (vv. 3-4): “Now Amnon had an adviser named Jonadab son of Shimeah, David’s brother. Jonadab was a very shrewd man. He asked Amnon, ‘Why do you, the king’s son, look so haggard morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?’ Amnon said to him, ‘I’m in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister’.” There is so much to know about this Jonadab. Some translations present him as Amnon’s “friend”, but “adviser” (as above) will turn out to be by far the more suitable rendering of the Hebrew rēa‘ (רֵעַ). For, no “friend” of Amnon’s was Jonadab! Commenting on this Hebrew word, Andrew E. Hill (assistant prof. of OT at Wheaton College, Illinois) writes (http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/30/30-4/30-4-pp387-390-JETS.pdf): “Jonadab is an acknowledged “friend” (réa’) of Amnon …. While it is possible that he was a close personal friend of Amnon since he was a cousin, it seems more likely that the word here connotes a special office or association with the royal family (especially in light of his role as a counselor in David’s cabinet; cf. 13:32-35). During Solomon’s reign, Zabud … has the title of priest and “king’s friend” (ré‘eh hammelek, 1 Kgs 4:5). It may well be that with Jonadab (and others?) this cabinet post has its rudimentary beginnings in the Davidic monarchy”. Another key Hebrew word used to describe Jonadab is ḥākām (חָכָם), variously understood as meaning “wise”, or just “crafty” or “shrewd”. Before we consider further this important word, we need to know what was the criminal advice that Jonadab had given to the king’s lovesick oldest son, Amnon. It was this (2 Samuel 13:5): “‘Go to bed and pretend to be ill’, Jonadab said. ‘When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘I would like my sister Tamar to come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I may watch her and then eat it from her hand’.’” Clear and unequivocal advice from a man described as ḥākām, but also coldly calculated advice with deep undertones and ramifications of which the manipulative Jonadab was fully aware. Andrew E. Hill, again, offers this explanation of the adjective ḥākām: “Even more significant, Jonadab is called a “wise” man (hãkãm, 2 Sam 13:3). The majority of translators take this to mean “crafty” or “shrewd” due to the criminal nature of his advice to Amnon.” Yet S. R. Driver noted that “subtil” “is scarcely a fair paraphrase: the text says that Jonadab was wise.” He concludes that had the writer intended to convey a meaning of “shrewd” or “crafty” he would have used ´ãrôm or another such word (cf. Gen 3:1)”. H. P. Smith remarked that “Jonadab [Amnon’s] cousin and intimate friend [sic] was a very wise man, though in this case his wisdom was put to base uses”. “Most recently K. P. McCarter interprets Jonadab to be “very wise,” while acknowledging that our English connotation of “wise” may be a misleading translation. …. I concur with Driver and the others cited on the understanding of Jonadab as a very wise man. In addition, I posit that the ploy suggested by Jonadab to Amnon for the seduction of Tamar was known to him by virtue of his standing in the royal court as a sage”. Hill will also cite the view of H. P. Müller, that the Hebrew word may pertain to learning: “… after the beginning of the monarchy, it is commonly understood that the root ḥkm refers above all to the academic wisdom of the court and the ideals of the class entrusted with it”. Furthermore, recent study has shown considerable Egyptian influence on a wide range of OT literary types, most notably Hebrew wisdom.’ In recognition of this fact, R. N. Whybray states that we cannot dismiss the considered opinion of S. Morenz, who claims that the presence at Solomon’s court of bilingual officials with a competent knowledge of Egyptian writing must be regarded, in view of what we now know of that court and its diplomatic relations with Egypt, as absolutely beyond question; and what is true of Solomon’s court may reasonably be supposed to be true of David’s also. …. …. Given this Egyptian influence in the Israelite united monarchy and the knowledge of and access to Egyptian literature, my contention is that Jonadab was not only skilled in the academic wisdom of the royal court but also had some familiarity with Egyptian literature”. This “Egyptian” element needed to be included here because soon the suggestion will be made that Jonadab may have had - like Tamar (as already discussed) - an Egyptian-name alter ego. The Plot Thickens Andrew E. Hill begins his discussion of adviser Jonadab, in his close association with Amnon, by referring to the puzzlement that Jonadab’s actual rôle in this has caused commentators. Hill gives these “two reasons” why he thinks that commentators may be puzzled about Jonadab: 1. because of the ill-fated advice he gave to the crown prince Amnon (2 Sam 13:3-5), and 2. on account of his uncanny foreknowledge of the events surrounding Absalom’s vengeful murder of Amnon (13:32-35). Such ‘puzzled’ commentators include Hill himself, who will lament “the almost annoying paucity of material for careful analysis [of Jonadab]”. [End of quotes] The author of the next article will also lament the sudden disappearance of Jonadab, but definitely not for the sake of whom he calls the “inscrutably wicked fellow”: https://ralspaugh.wordpress.com/2017/05/05/what-ever-happened-to-tamar/ Teaching Boys Badly What Ever Happened to Tamar? Posted on May 5, 2017 by robalspaugh I wrote this draft many months ago but wasn’t happy with how it turned out. I left it to rot in my drafts, but a funny thing then happened. When I started trashing drafts to clean up my work space, I remembered that I owed Mrs. Darwin a post on Tamar and that this draft, while imperfect, isn’t so terrible after all. Many birds, one stone: As I’ve said before, one of the strengths of the books of Samuel is the attention to character motivations and detail. The actors on the stage are far more complex and realized than in any other books of the Old Testament. There are strengths and weaknesses that go with this approach. Here’s a weakness: the narrator presents characters we can invest in, only to drop them when they no longer serve the goal of the narrative. We are left with loose ends and unanswered questions. Personally I think this gives the books an added charm or appeal. But it does also mean that we don’t get to find out what happens to, say, Jonadab. Here’s an inscrutably wicked fellow whose two appearances are almost indescribably base … and then he disappears. If anyone deserves to have something awful happen to him, it’s Jonadab. In a novel or a movie, he would need to meet the most grisly fate minds can imagine. But in II Samuel, poof. Gone, just as sadly happens in real life all too often. …. B. Tamar (Part One) Jen Wilkin will lament, from a woman’s point of view, the tragic plight of Tamar, but also the lack of discussion in church about this incident. She will, in the process, make some very pertinent observations about the men involved in the story: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2019/05/tamar-jen-wilkin-absalom-david-1-samuel/ Can We Finally Break the Silence Around Tamar? Telling the uncomfortable story of “desolate” Tamar positions us to show a kind of compassion King David didn’t. Christianity TodayJune, 2019 issue Illustration by Mallory Rentsch For the past year, I’ve been teaching the Book of Samuel to a group of women at my church. We go through it chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and I challenge them to think critically about what they are reading. The Book of Samuel is filled with stories that ask us to grapple with the sovereignty of God and the severity of sin. But perhaps none is so jarring as the story of Tamar and Amnon in 2 Samuel 13. I’m sure you know it. Amnon, one of David’s sons, violates his own sister and then casts her aside. When her brother Absalom learns what Amnon has done, he tells her, “Has Amnon your brother been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister. He is your brother; do not take this thing to heart.” Absalom’s shushing and dismissing are certainly vile, but it is David’s reaction that stuns: “When King David heard all this, he was furious” (vv. 20–21). Furious. That’s it. No public denouncement of Amnon, no vindication of Tamar. No justice, no words of comfort or kindness for his daughter, just impotent, mute anger. David is silent. He takes no action against Amnon, opening the door for Absalom to have his brother murdered in revenge. And Tamar is left desolate. Why does David’s anger translate into silence and inaction? Because David sees in his sons an amplification of his own grievous sins. David sacrificed Bathsheba to his lust and then murdered her husband to cover his tracks. Now his two sons fulfill God’s prophecy of judgment by committing heightened versions of his own sins within their own family. David’s guilt renders him silent. Tamar’s plea to Amnon as he overpowers her rings in the ears of the reader: As for me, where could I carry my shame? And David’s profound silence gives us our answer: Nowhere. David’s inaction should spur us to act. David’s speechlessness should prompt us to speak. The thing about teaching entire books of the Bible line by line is that you can’t skip over the uncomfortable parts. People notice. So we pressed through the passage, knowing it was bound to be a tender subject for women among us with similar experiences and offering help to anyone who needed it. My heart was crushed by how common Tamar’s story turned out to be. Her story is common. But telling her story is not. It occurred to me that in all my years in the church, I had never heard a sermon about Tamar. The other women on my teaching team couldn’t recall hearing it preached either. And no wonder—it is hardly “proper” subject matter for Sunday morning. Tamar makes only the rarest of appearances in sermons or teachings, and when she does, her story tends to be subsumed, muffled, or downplayed by our concerns to preserve David’s reputation as “a man after God’s own heart.” There is a line we often hear attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. That silence from our pulpits and lecterns speaks to women who share Tamar’s history: Your shame is merited. Your story is shocking and lewd. It causes us discomfort, and we wish to pass it by. By teaching faithfully, forthrightly, and compassionately about Tamar, we communicate the opposite to women: Your story deserves a hearing. Your grief is our grief. Your shame is undeserved. We will help you carry it to the cross. Tamar was defiled and cast off by the son of David, and none came to her aid. The true Son of David was defiled and cast off for us, that no daughter in the family of God should ever carry shame for abuse she has suffered. David’s inaction should spur us to act. David’s speechlessness should prompt us to speak. There should be no desolate women in the church, only daughters of God who are seen and cherished. By speaking of Tamar, we are speaking to the women in our churches whose voices have grown silent beneath their shame. We are inviting them to tell and to heal. When we tell Tamar’s story aloud, we dignify her grief. And we begin to become for our sisters the advocates Tamar should have had. A. Jonadab (Part Two) As I see it, the Jonadab who vanishes so completely (qua Jonadab) after his cunning advice had led to the rape of Tamar and the murder of Amnon, is also the wise counsellor, Achitophel. Andrew E. Hill had, in the course of his terrific commentary, “A Jonadab Connection in the Absalom Conspiracy?” (JETS 30/4, December, 1987, 387-390), expressed a certain frustration due to what he called “the almost annoying paucity of material for careful analysis” regarding Jonadab. And he simply presumed that the position at court to which Jonadab may have been aspiring, was afterwards, during the revolt of Absalom (Hill presuming that Jonadab had died in the meantime), in the hands of Achitophel. Hill had at least suspected a vocational and character likeness between Jonadab and Achitophel. Moreover, the approximate chronological link is obvious. My explanation would be that, as in the case of Abram and Pharaoh, different names would be given to a person according to different sources, or authors. For whilst, as we found, the toledôt of the Egyptian-ised Ishmael will refer to Abram’s wife-taker as “Pharaoh”, the toledôt of the Palestine-located Isaac will name him, “Abimelech”: Pharaoh of Abraham and Isaac (2) Pharaoh of Abraham and Isaac | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Similarly - and with the Books of Samuel considered to have been written by more than one author (https://www.enterthebible.org/oldtestament.aspx?rid=30): “Ancient tradition identifies Samuel as the author of the first twenty-four chapters of 1 Samuel and asserts that the rest of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel were completed by Nathan and Gad. …” - and with the account of the Rape of Tamar reading perhaps like a complete piece on its own, then it is possible that, whilst one author might have named the counsellor, “Jonadab”, another might have called him “Achitophel”. Now I think that, whilst Jonadab (יוֹנָדָב) (var. Jehonadab) appears to be clearly a Hebrew name, Achitophel (אֲחִיתֹפֶל) may be foreign - say, a Hebraïsed version of the Egyptian element, Hotep. We recall that Hill had suggested that Jonadab may have come under Egyptian “academic” influence. So, as in the case of the “very wise” Jonadab, we read also of Achitophel (2 Samuel 16:23): “Now in those days the advice Achithophel gave was like that of one who inquires of God. That was how both David and Absalom regarded all of Achithophel’s advice”. Jonadab and Achitophel are comparable, then as to general chronology; expert counsel - though with a malicious edge; counsellor to the king and his sons; but (if Andrew Hill is right about Jonadab) siding with Absalom (no doubt with the intention of becoming the power behind the throne after the passing of David); possible Egyptian influence. Furthermore, just as Jonadab’s counsel will involve the exercise of Amnon’s lust, so will Achitophel’s counsel require Absalom’s sleeping with his father’s concubines. 2 Samuel 13:3: “Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab son of Shimeah, David’s brother” might appear to pose a problem for Hill’s thesis if, as in the translation here, the Hebrew word rea (רֵעַ) is rendered as “friend”. For Jonadab was no friend of Amnon’s if he were truly conspiring against him with Absalom. But Hill had already accounted for this: Jonadab is an acknowledged “friend” (réa') of Amnon …. While it is possible that he was a close personal friend of Amnon since he was a cousin, it seems more likely that the word here connotes a special office or association with the royal family (especially in light of his role as a counselor in David’s cabinet; cf. 13:32-35). During Solomon’s reign, Zabud son of Nathan has the title of priest and “king’s friend” (ré’eh hammelek, 1 Kgs 4:5). It may well be that with Jonadab (and others?) this cabinet post has its rudimentary beginnings in the Davidic monarchy. The NIV, anyway, translates rea (perhaps more appropriately) as “adviser”, not as “friend”: “Now Amnon had an adviser named Jonadab son of Shimeah, David’s brother”. As far as my connection goes between Jonadab and Achitophel, this same verse may also pose the biological problem for me that Jonadab was a “son of Shimeah, David’s brother”, presumably making him younger than David. For Achitophel is thought to have been the grandfather of David’s wife, Bathsheba, by comparison of 2 Samuel 11:13: “And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, ‘Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam …’.”, and 23:34: “…Eliam the son of Achithophel the Gilonite …”. One might generally expect a wise counsellor to be an old, grey-bearded man of experience – though exceptional young men can be sages, Solomon, for instance. My proposed solution to this difficulty (and I may be wrong in even trying to link Jonadab with Achitophel) would appear to be, linguistically, quite an acceptable one. It utilises the very broad range of meanings attached to the Hebrew word ben – which may even refer to animals. It can mean, for instance, “a member of a guild, order, class”. http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/nas/ben.html Now, Jonadab is referred to in 2 Samuel 13:3 as ben-Shimeah (בֶּן-שִׁמְעָה), translated as the “son of Shimeah”. I would take it that my collective Jonadab-Achitophel was not strictly a “son” of Shimeah’s, but, for example, an “attendant”, an “official” of Shimeah’s. In the Septuagint version of this verse, ben is rendered by the Greek υἱὸς [Σαμαα: Shimeah], which word, too, is usually translated as “son”. But it does not need to be. R. Brown, L. Tray and A. Gray explain the relationship between Hebrew ben and Greek huios (“A Brief Analysis of Filial and Paternal Terms in the Bible”) http://www.ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/28_3_PDFs/IJFM_28_3-BrownGrayGray-BriefAnalysis.pdf “The usage of huios in Judeo-Greek often followed that in Hebrew, so we find huios where Jesus would have used the word ben, or its Aramaic coun¬terpart bar. Examples are when he mentioned “attendants of the bride¬groom” (Mark 2:19), “members of the Kingdom” (Matt. 8:12), “officials of the king” (Matt. 17:25), “people of this age” (Luke 20:34), “people who belong to the evil one” (Matt. 13:38; cf. 1 John 3:10), and “disciples of a teacher” (Matt. 12:27), all of which translate Greek huios. Adam is presented as God’s son, evidently because God created him (Luke 3:38). In the wider Greek context, writers used huios for non-bi¬ological relations as well. According to Irenaeus (180 AD), “when any person has been taught from the mouth of an¬other, he is termed the son of him who instructs him, and the latter [is called] his father.”1 In this vein Peter refers to Mark as his son (1 Pet. 5:13), and Paul refers to Timothy in similar terms (1 Cor. 4:17; 1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2; cf. 1 John 2:1; cf. 3 John 4), using teknon”. Achitophel becomes a very tragic figure, eventually, like Judas, committing suicide – a rarity in the Bible. His treason, though, may be more understandable if he really were the grandfather of Bathsheba, who was, in turn, revered by her husband, Uriah, whom David had murdered. It is terrible to think that David’s double-headed crime may have had this further tragic ramification in the case of one who may well have been, formerly, David’s close friend, http://www.rvharvey.org/d-ahithophel.htm Ahithophel is Part of the Conspiracy (II Samuel 15:10-12) I Chronicles 27:33 says that Ahithophel was the king’s counselor. He must have been a very gifted and recognized personality. David and Ahithophel not only worshipped God together; they were the best of friends who shared their hearts. Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. (Psalm 41:9) For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. (Psalm 55:12-14) Ahithophel becomes a traitor! It is apparent from the above verses that many of the people were not aware of what Absalom intended to do, but Ahithophel seems to have been part of the conspiracy. It is possible that Ahithophel even suggested such an act to Absalom. Whatever the case may have been, Ahithophel, who was offering sacrifices in Gilo, didn’t hesitate to join Absalom in his plan to violently dethrone his father (II Samuel 15:12). Pope Francis has made some surprisingly sympathetic comments about the tragedy of Judas: http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/04/11/pope_francis_warns_against_those_who_judge_with_closed_hea/1221870 “Pope Francis said: "It hurts when I read that small passage from the Gospel of Matthew, when Judas, who has repented, goes to the priests and says: ‘I have sinned' and wants to give ... and gives them the coins. ‘Who cares! - they say to him: it’s none of our business!’ They closed their hearts before this poor, repentant man, who did not know what to do. And he went and hanged himself. And what did they do when Judas hanged himself? They spoke amongst themselves and said: 'Is he a poor man? No! These coins are the price of blood, they must not enter the temple... and they referred to this rule and to that… The doctors of the letter. " The life of a person did not matter to them, the Pope observed, they did not care about Judas’ repentance. The Gospel, he continued, says that Judas came back repentant. But all that mattered to them “were the laws, so many words and things they had built”. This – he said - shows the hardness of their hearts. It’s the foolishness of their hearts that could not withstand the wisdom of Stephen’s truth so they go to look for false witnesses to judge him”. B. Tamar (Part Two) Her brilliant career afterwards, from the court of David in Jerusalem, to Sheba (Bathsheba) in the southern land of Geshur, to the throne of Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt, is far too complex to go into here. For a full account of Tamar’s spectacular life, see e.g. my article: The vicissitudinous life of Solomon’s pulchritudinous wife (4) The vicissitudinous life of Solomon's pulchritudinous wife | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu See also: Tamar’s coat may have been like the coat given to Joseph (4) Tamar’s coat may have been like the coat given to Joseph | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu ACHITOPHEL AND MACHIAVELLI W. Thomas has a keen eye to Machiavelli as he describes Dryden’s Achitophel, in The Crafting of Absalom and Achitophel: Dryden’s Pen for a Party, pp. 57-58: Certainly in tradition ever afterwards Achitophel has been the archetype of the evil counsellor. To this archetype Dryden has added the figure of Machiavelli, the courtier who, for himself and for the person he advises, gives counsel aimed, in however devious and underhanded a way, at promoting the advancement of personal political ambition. It is this double figure that Dryden first introduces. He takes the Biblical Achitophel, Of these the false Achitophel was first: A Name to all succeeding Ages Curst. fastens on his “Counsell” in the next line, but makes it “crooked” in the manner of Machiavelli and equates it with something else Machiavellian, saying that he is "For close Designs, and crooked Counsell fit”. …. But it is more from Machiavelli that Dryden draws, than from the Bible, when he elaborates further on his Achitophel (lines 173-174): In Friendship False, Implacable in Hate. Resolv’d to Ruine or to Rule the State. And it is to Machiavelli that he looks when he makes his Achitophel, in a reversal of the Biblical situation, invite his Absalom to join him in rebellion against David. Throughout, in this fictitious construct, Dryden has added, to his Biblical and traitorous Achitophel, the ambitious and scheming Machiavelli. Behind both Machiavelli and Achitophel is, of course, the earlier and larger archetype, Satan, whose name means “the adversary”. …. In Bringing the Hidden to Light: The Process of Interpretation (edited by Kathryn F. Kravitz, Diane M. Sharon), we find the requisite (if Achitophel is Machiavelli) comparison now between Absalom and the Prince, Cesare Borgia (p. 181): …. As Melamed pointed out, although Luzzatto's interpretation followed the literal the literal meaning of the text and traditional Jewish commentators such as Kimḥi and Abrabanel, nevertheless he expressed it in the spirit and vocabulary of Machiavelli and the tradition of raison d’état; in Melamed's most felicitous formulation, “the House of Borgia in the ancient ... land of Israel”, Ahitophel plays Machiavelli to Absalom – his Cesare Borgia”. …. However, it should be observed that Luzzatto was not endorsing the behaviour of Absalom but only indicating, in the context of his refutation of the allegation of Tacitus that the Jews were sexually immoral, how in the spirit of Machiavelli and raison d’état, a prince might acquire power. …. “The House of Borgia in the ancient land of Israel …”. Hmmmm.

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Tamar’s coat may have been like the coat given to Joseph

by Damien F. Mackey Tamar-Abishag the Shunammite (from Shunem), was likewise despoiled of her cloak: “The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls!” (Song of Solomon 5:7). When I listed the following parallels between Joseph and Tamar (extending her identity to absorb Abishag the Shunammite), including the loss of the cloak in both cases, I may have missed some most significant further clues regarding these cloaks. I had written: Joseph and Tamar comparisons There are striking parallels between Joseph and Tamar, when Tamar (Hebrew name) is further identified, as she must be, as Abishag (uncertain name) of Shunem - beautiful, virginal, dwelling in King David’s palace. These parallels are not accidental: Tamar, “the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David … a virgin …” (2 Samuel 13:1-2). “Now Joseph was well-built and handsome …” (Genesis 39:6). Potiphar’s wife said to Joseph, ‘Come to bed with me’ (39:7). David’s oldest son, Amnon, said to Tamar, ‘Come to bed with me, my sister’ (2 Samuel 13:11). Amnon raped the girl, then rejected her “with intense hatred” (13:14-15). Joseph, whose brothers had despoiled him of the cloak given to him by his father, Jacob, will now, in the encounter with Potiphar’s wife, end up without his Egyptian cloak (Genesis 39:12): “But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house”. Tamar-Abishag the Shunammite (from Shunem), was likewise despoiled of her cloak: “The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls!” (Song of Solomon 5:7). Joseph the Dreamer had aroused the anger of his brothers (Genesis 37:4): “When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him”. (Cf. 37:8, 19-20). Likewise, as the Shunammite will tell (Song 1:6): “My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I had to neglect”. Thanks to Amnon, the girl was no longer a virgin (“my own vineyard I had to neglect”). Joseph, as we have read, was imprisoned for two years. Tamar would live most miserably confined in a house for two years (2 Samuel 13:20): “And Tamar lived in her brother Absalom’s house, a desolate woman”. (Cf. v. 23). The plot thickens when it is shown by able commentary that Absalom, Tamar’s brother had conspired with the crafty advisor, Jonadab, to bring down Amnon, who was next in line for the throne. For them, Tamar was simply collateral damage, hence now “desolate”. On a couple of occasions when making the above comparisons, I jumped straight from the Joseph narrative into the Song of Solomon, concerning the Shunammite, whereas I could firstly have recognised further situations regarding Tamar. For instance, “Joseph the Dreamer had aroused the anger of his brothers (Genesis 37:4)”, could initially have been likened to Amnon’s hatred of Tamar, before proceeding on to: “Likewise, as the Shunammite will tell (Song 1:6): “My mother’s sons were angry with me …”.” But far more significantly, as it may turn out, was that I had neglected to refer to Tamar’s cloak, but had, again, jumped straight into the Abishag situation: “The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls! (Song of Solomon 5:7)”. More recently I, reading Adrien Bledstein’s article: Tamar and the ‘Coat of Many Colors’ (4) Tamar and the 'Coat of Many Colors" | Adrien Bledstein - Academia.edu have been reminded of the salient fact that Tamar (qua Tamar) had been wearing a special cloak. This is a terrific article by Adrien Bledstein, not absolutely all of which I would agree with. He is determined to identify the sort of cloak worn by Joseph, and by Tamar: …. The 'coat of many colors', worn by Joseph in Hebrew Scriptures, is possibly the most famous garment in the Western world. However, readers of the King James Version of the Bible may not realize that one other person in the Bible, Tamar the daughter of King David, also wore the ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים), mostly translated 'a garment of divers colors' (2 Sam. 13.18-19). You will remember that Jacob sent his favorite son on a journey to report on the well-being of his half-brothers and the herds. From a distance, his brothers recognized Joseph in the garment that announced his favored status in the family. Conspiring to kill this 'master of dreams', they instead stripped him of his 'coat of many colors', threw him in a pit, then sold him as a slave (Gen. 37.12-28). Also commissioned by her father, Princess Tamar went to the house of her half-brother Amnon, who claimed to be ill. Wearing the ketonet passim, she shaped and baked dough in his sight, poured something and brought the food to an inner chamber, to his bedside, so that he might eat. He grabbed hold of her, raped her, then threw her out (2 Sam. 13.6-18). Is it not remarkable that each person appareled in the ketonet passim was authorized by his or her father to perform a service and, during the performance, each was abused by brothers then cast out? In a tantalizing version of the Joseph episode, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan translated Joseph's garment as pargöd … from a Greek word of Semitic origin meaning 'separation', 'curtain' or 'veil'. …. In the Bible, before Joseph found his brothers, he encountered a stranger. According to this targum, the stranger said, 'I heard front behind the curtain (pargödä, that your brothers are in Dothan' (Gen. 37.17). Through the addition of 'from behind the curtain' to the biblical verse and the word choice for Joseph's garment, Jonathan linked the ‘coat of many colors’ to the heavenly curtain from behind which the divine speaks to divine messengers and humans in post-biblical Jewish midrash. This essay on Tamar's 'coat of divers colors' explores the meaning of this costume in the biblical world and surrounding cultures. …. What, then, would the meaning of the costume imply regarding each narrative, especially for Tamar? …. Joseph's (and Tamar's) 'technicolor dream coat may not be distinctive because of its coloring: the ketonet indicates a garment of some sort, but passim does not mean color. …. …. In 1964, E.A. Speiser took another tack and bluntly asserted: The traditional “coat of many colors”, and the variant “coat with sleeves” are sheer guesses from the context; nor is there anything remarkable about either colors or sleeves'? …. With all these imaginative proposals, one may safely assume that so far there is no consensus regarding the meaning of ketonet passim. What we know is that both a favorite son of a chief and a virgin daughter of a king wore the ketonet. Each of them was commissioned by his or her father: the man as a deputy to oversee his brothers and his father's possessions; the woman to attend an ailing member of the royal family. Other clues emerge as we examine biblical texts …. …. In the Bible, a ketonet is a garment which appears 29 times, of which 20 indicate a protective, sacred tunic worn by priests. The holy linen coat (Lev. 16.4) was worn by Aaron, the high priest, when he went within the holy of holies of the tabernacle to burn incense before the Ark of the Covenant. Ketonet served as an undergarment and was part Of the 'holy clothing' (Exod. 28.4) which included the breastplate, ephod, robe (mefl) and 'broidered' (AV), 'chequered' (NEB). or 'fringed' (NJPSV) tunic …. It is the garment made for Aaron and his four sons, the priests (Exod. 28.39, 40; 29.5; 39.27; 40.14). …. It is remarkable that six of the nine non-priests and two of Aaron's four sons who wore a ketonet suffered disaster. … Adam and Eve were unique in that YHWH gave them ketonet of skins to protect them outside of Eden. Tamar, Joseph, Job, the woman in the Song of Songs, Shebna and Eliakim were not so blessed. For them, the ketonet served to symbolize a high status lost. The only non-priest who wore the ketonet and remained relatively unscathed was Hushai, David's friend. From this review we see that, for the majority who wore the ketonet, there was an element of danger. Wearing a ketonet appears to indicate aristocratic but, most often, sacred status. The ketonet passim, it seems to me, was a special form of this high-status, sacred garb. Mackey’s comment: Note the juxtaposition here of “Tamar” and “the woman in the Song of Songs”. Adrien Bledstein continues, recalling the biblical description of Tamar’s garment: Another term provides information concerning the garment Tamar wore. After Amnon raped her and commanded his servant: 'Put this out from me and bolt the door after her’, we read: 'Now she had a ketonet passim on her; for with such robes (me'ilün, were the king's daughters that were virgins apparelled' (2 Sam. 13.18-19, JPSV). …. the word prompted me to inquire: who wore a me'il in the Bible? Except for Tamar, me'ilün were worn only by men, primarily priests. …. In each instance, the garment indicates sacred and/or royal attire. The use of me'il in these contexts, combined with Tamar’s performing a healing or purification ritual … leads me to surmise that we are meant to understand that Tamar's ketonet passim, identified as a me'il, served to confirm that she was a royal priestess. In support of this possibility 2 Sam. 8.18 may be read, 'and David's children were priests …' , indicating there was at the time a royal priesthood, which might have included daughters, and was separate from the male priesthood responsible for the Ark of the Covenant. If we acknowledge that Tamar could have been a royal priestess, then the insertion regarding her apparel becomes an emphatic statement rather than a parenthetic gloss: Though she had on her ketonet passim, for such priestly robes (me'ilim) will virgin daughters of the king wear, nonetheless, his servant brought her out and bolted the door after her. So Tamar put ash … on her head, tore the ketonet passim that was on her, put her hand on her head, and went her way crying aloud. …. The reader is reminded at this dramatic juncture that Tamar was commissioned by her father the king to attend to her ailing brother, the first-born son of David. The identification of ketonet passim as a strongly suggests that Tamar was a royal priestess whose duties included some sort of divine inquiry/ritual purification for ill members of the royal house. ….

Saturday, October 26, 2024

Jesus Christ most aptly described as a “Lamb”

“Paul states, “Our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus' death on the cross was a passover from death to life for himself and for all of us. By his blood we are saved from death. Jesus made it possible for us to break out of the slavery of sin and death. He gave us the hope of reaching our promised land, heaven”. Loyola Press Jesus the Lamb of God At Loyola Press we read: https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/scripture-and-tradition/jesus-and-the-new-testament/who-do-you-say-that-i-am-names-for-jesus/jesus-the-lamb-of-god/ Have you ever had a lamb cake as part of your Easter celebration? Have you seen art that shows a lamb holding a triumphant banner? The lamb as a symbol for Christ has its roots in the Old Testament. For centuries people worshipped God by sacrificing animals. They killed them and offered them to God. For the Jews a lamb was the main animal of sacrifice. In the Temple a lamb was offered every day. The sacrifice of a lamb also played an important part in the Exodus. In the biblical story of the Exodus, God led the Israelites out of Egypt, where they were slaves, and into the promised land. On the night God's people were to depart, the firstborn in all the Egyptian families died. The firstborn of the Israelites were saved because God had instructed them to kill a lamb or goat and mark their doorposts with its blood. The angel of death then knew to pass over those houses. The Israelites ate the lamb in a meal before they left. The lamb was to have no blemish, and none of its bones were to be broken. To this day the Jews remember this night with the Feast of Passover. On this day they share a special meal called a Seder meal. The shank of a lamb is one item on the Seder plate. Jesus is called the lamb of God because he is the perfect sacrifice offered to God. In 1 Peter 1:18-19 we are told, “You were ransomed . . . not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.” A prophecy about the Messiah states, “Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7). After Jesus' crucifixion, soldiers did not break his legs to kill him because he was already dead. Like the Passover lamb, his bones were unbroken. Paul states, “Our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus' death on the cross was a passover from death to life for himself and for all of us. By his blood we are saved from death. Jesus made it possible for us to break out of the slavery of sin and death. He gave us the hope of reaching our promised land, heaven. The Gospel of John clearly compares Jesus to the Passover lamb by saying that Jesus was crucified the same day that the Passover lambs were being killed in the Temple (John 19:31). In the Gospel of John it was John the Baptist who gave Jesus the title Lamb of God (John 1:29). The Book of Revelation speaks of the Lamb at least 29 times. In a vision John sees a lamb. Four living creatures and 24 elders fall before the Lamb and sing praise because he purchased all people with his blood (Revelation 5:9). † Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us! † Response to a Jewish reader who wrote: “Jesus was never a lamb”.

Israeli archaeologists can never destroy the wise King Solomon

by Damien F. Mackey “Now Solomon. I think I destroyed Solomon, so to speak. Sorry for that!” Israel Finkelstein Reference is made in El Amarna [EA] letters 74 and 290 to a place-name that professor Julius Lewy read as Bet Shulmanu - House (or Sanctuary) of Shulman (“The Sulman Temple in Jerusalem”, Journal of Biblical Literature LIX (1940), pp. 519 ff.). EA 290 was written by the King of Urusalim, Abdi-Hiba, who had to be, according to the conventional chronology, a C14th BC pagan ruler of what we know as Jerusalem. This view of Abdi-Hiba is summed up in the Wikipedia article, “Abdi-Heba”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdi-Heba Abdi-Heba (Abdi-Kheba, Abdi-Hepat, or Abdi-Hebat) was a local chieftain of Jerusalem during the Amarna period (mid-1330s BC). Abdi-Heba's name can be translated as "servant of Hebat", a Hurrian goddess. Whether Abdi-Heba was himself of Hurrian descent is unknown, as is the relationship between the general populace of pre-Israelite Jerusalem (called, several centuries later, Jebusites in the Bible) and the Hurrians. Egyptian documents have him deny he was a ḫazānu and assert he is a soldier (we'w), the implication being he was the son of a local chief sent to Egypt to receive military training there.[1] Also unknown is whether he was part of a dynasty that governed Jerusalem or whether he was put on the throne by the Egyptians. Abdi-Heba himself notes that he holds his position not through his parental lineage but by the grace of Pharaoh, but this might be flattery rather than an accurate representation of the situation. …. [End of quote] From a revisionist perspective, this is all quite incorrect. Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky had argued most compellingly in his Ages in Chaos, I (1952) and Oedipus and Ikhnaton (1960), that the EA era actually belonged to, not the C14th BC, but the C9th BC era of Israel’s Divided Kingdom. And it is from such a revised perspective that Dr. Velikovsky was able to make this thrilling comment about professor Lewy’s reading: [http://www.varchive.org/ce/sultemp.htm] The Šulmán Temple in Jerusalem …. From a certain passage in letter No. 290, written by the king of Jerusalem to the Pharaoh, Lewy concluded that this city was known at that time also by the name “Temple of Šulmán.” Actually, Lewy read the ideogram that had much puzzled the researchers before him. …. After complaining that the land was falling to the invading bands (habiru), the king of Jerusalem wrote: “. . . and now, in addition, the capital of the country of Jerusalem — its name is Bit Šulmáni —, the king’s city, has broken away . . .”…. Beth Šulmán in Hebrew, as Professor Lewy correctly translated, is Temple of Šulmán. But, of course, writing in 1940, Lewy could not surmise that the edifice was the Temple of Solomon and therefore made the supposition that it was a place of worship (in Canaanite times) of a god found in Akkadian sources as Shelmi, Shulmanu, or Salamu. The correction of the reading of Knudtzon (who was uncertain of his reading) fits well with the chronological reconstruction of the period. In Ages in Chaos (chapters vi-viii) I deal with the el-Amarna letters; there it is shown that the king of Jerusalem whose name is variously read Ebed-Tov, Abdi-Hiba, etc. was King Jehoshaphat (ninth century). It was only to be expected that there would be in some of his letters a reference to the Temple of Solomon. Also, in el-Amarna letter No. 74, the king of Damascus, inciting his subordinate sheiks to attack the king of Jerusalem, commanded them to “assemble in the Temple of Šulmán.” [End of quote] Dr. Velikovsky’s identification of the idolatrous Abdi-Hiba of Urusalim with the extremely pious King Jehoshaphat of Judah needed the slight modification, as provided by Peter James, that Abdi-Hiba was actually King Jehoshaphat’s evil son, Jehoram - a modification that I fully supported in my article: King Abdi-Hiba of Jerusalem Locked in as a ‘Pillar’ of Revised History (3) King Abdi-Hiba of Jerusalem Locked in as a ‘Pillar’ of Revised History | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Apart from that, though, the EA evidence completely favoured Velikovsky’s revision, as he himself hastened to point out (op. cit., ibid.): It was surprising to find in the el-Amarna letters written in the fourteenth century that the capital of the land was already known then as Jerusalem (Urusalim) and not, as the Bible claimed for the pre-Conquest period, Jebus or Salem. …. Now, in addition, it was found that the city had a temple of Šulmán in it and that the structure was of such importance that its name had been used occasionally for denoting the city itself. (Considering the eminence of the edifice, “the house which king Solomon built for the Lord” …. this was only natural.) Yet after the conquest by the Israelites under Joshua ben-Nun, the Temple of Šulmán was not heard of. Lewy wrote: “Aside from proving the existence of a Šulmán temple in Jerusalem in the first part of the 14th century B.C., this statement of the ruler of the region leaves no doubt that the city was then known not only as Jerusalem, but also as Bet Šulmán.”—“It is significant that it is only this name [Jerusalem] that reappears after the end of the occupation of the city by the Jebusites, which the Šulmán temple, in all probability, did not survive.” [End of quote] The conventional system has the habit of throwing up such “surprising” historical anomalies! Dr. Velikovsky continues here: The late Professor W. F. Albright advised me that Lewy’s interpretation cannot be accepted because Šulmán has no sign of divinity accompanying it, as would be proper if it were the name of a god. But this only strengthens my interpretation that the temple of Šulmán means Temple of Solomon. In the Hebrew Bible the king’s name has no terminal “n”. But in the Septuagint — the oldest translation of the Old Testament — the king’s name is written with a terminal “n”; the Septuagint dates from the third century before the present era. Thus it antedates the extant texts of the Old Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls not excluded. Solomon built his Temple in the tenth century. In a letter written from Jerusalem in the next (ninth) century, Solomon’s Temple stood a good chance of being mentioned; and so it was. [End of quote] P. Friedman, writing for a British revisionist journal, would later insist upon another necessary modification of the Velikovskian thesis. The description, “Temple of Solomon”, he explained (in “The Temple in Jerusalem?” SIS Review III:1 (Summer 1978), pp.7-8), is in fact a modern English rendition which is never actually found in the Hebrew as used in the Old Testament. There, King Solomon’s Temple is constantly referred to as the “House of Yahweh” or, simply, the “House of the Lord”. Friedman also drew attention to the fact that, in Assyrian records, the Kingdom of Israel is called the “House of Omri” in deference to Omri’s dynasty. He therefore suggested that Bet Shulman should, in like manner, be understood to refer to the Kingdom of Judah in deference to King Solomon’s dynasty (p. 8): “‘House of Solomon’ meant not merely the capital [i.e., Jerusalem], but the whole kingdom of Judah, approaching even more closely the use of ‘House of Omri’ for the kingdom of Israel”. Another possible interpretation of the phrase Bet Shulman is, as S. Dyen would later argue, that it should be understood literally as “the House”, that is the Palace, of King Solomon (“The House of Solomon”, KRONOS VIII:2 (Winter 1983), p. 88). The apparent reference back in time to his great (x 3) grandfather, King Solomon, by Abdi-hiba/Jehoram of Urusalim/Jerusalem – [e.g., Matthew 1:7-8: Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram …], serves to vindicate the Old Testament against the reckless biblical minimizing of the likes of Israeli archaeologist, Israel Finkelstein. He, as I have previously noted: …. is quoted as saying in … a … National Geographic article, “Kings of Controversy” by Robert Draper (David and Solomon, December 2010, p. 85): “Now Solomon. I think I destroyed Solomon, so to speak. Sorry for that!” What Finkelstein ought to be “sorry” for, however, is not the wise King Solomon – who continues to exist as a real historical and archaeological entity, despite the confused utterances of the current crop of Israeli archaeologists – but for Finkelstein’s own folly in clinging to a hopelessly out-dated and bankrupt archaeological system that has caused him to point every time to the wrong stratigraphical level for Israel’s Old Testament history (e.g. Exodus/Conquest; David and Solomon; Queen of Sheba). …. The effects of this biblical minimalising have been so complete that an Egyptian writer, Doaa El Shereef, can now write an extensive article based upon Israeli mass archaeological error: Israeli Archaeologists Admit that: There is No Temple of Solomon (3) Israeli Archaeologists Admit that: There is No Temple of Solomon | Doaa El Shereef - Academia.edu in which she effectively erases each and every major phase of Old Testament history.

Friday, October 25, 2024

Goodbye, not hello, to Girsu at Tello

by Damien F. Mackey “In the late 4th century BC a Greco-Babylonian high-priest exhumed the remains of the temple of Ningirsu and resurrected the cult of the statues of Gudea.” Dr. Sébastien Rey The Greco-Romans would greatly venerate and deify the ancient Egyptian sages, Imhotep and Amenhotep son of Hapu, according to what we read in the article, “Imhotep”, in the New World Enyclopedia: …. The veneration of Imhotep grew to deification in the Late Period and the Greco-Roman era when his cult reached its zenith, and a number of shrines and temples were dedicated to the deified scholar. His main areas of worship appear to have been in the area of Saqqara, on the island of Philae, and at Thebes where he was also worshiped along with the deified 18th-dynasty sage Amenophis [Amenhotep] Son of Hapu at Deir el-Bahri and in the Ptolemaic temple at Deir al-Medina. An important inscription regarding him was placed in the temple of Ptah at Karnak in the reign of Tiberius. …. Given his association with medicine and healing, it is understandable that Imhotep came to be seen as the divine patron of the physician's arts. As a result of this patronage, he came to be affiliated with the Greek God Asclepius during the Hellenistic period. For this reason Sir William Osler describes Imhotep as the real Father of Medicine, "the first figure of a physician to stand out clearly from the mists of antiquity." …. Just as in the cult of Asclepius, temples of Imhotep came to be pilgrimage sites, where the afflicted would make votive offerings in hopes of receiving a divine cure. …. The tenor of these cultic beliefs is well-represented by a surviving hymn (which can be dated to the reign of Tiberius, 14–37 C.E.): Hail to you, kind-[hearted] god, Imhotep son of Ptah! Come to your house, your temple in Thebes, May its people see you with joy! Receive what is presented there, Inhale the incense, Refresh your body with libation! ... Men applaud you, Women worship you, One and all exalt your kindness! For you heal them, You revive them, You renew your father's creation. …. [End of quotes] And I suggest that the very same sort of thing was done in the case of Gudea of Girsu and Lagash, an ancient sage resurrected by the Greco-Romans. Where were Girsu and Lagash/Lakish? The places with which the famous Gudea was associated are primarily Girsu and Lagash (or Lakish), thought to have been closely connected Sumerian sites. The trouble is, Girsu and Lagash (Lagaš) will disappear off the Sumerian map. Seth Richardson refers to them as ‘falling off the political map’. Thus I wrote on this: Amazingly - though not really surprisingly under the circumstances - Lagash and Girsu seem to ‘fall permanently off the political map’, according to Seth Richardson …. : Ningirsu returns to his plow: Lagaš and Girsu take leave of Ur (2008) (5) Ningirsu returns to his plow: Lagaš and Girsu take leave of Ur (2008) | Seth Richardson - Academia.edu The Ur III state came to its end through a series of passive defections of individual provinces over the course of about twenty years, rather than by any single catastrophic event. This pattern of defections is nowhere better reflected than in the gradual progression of provinces abandoning the use of Ibbi-Sîn’s year names over his years 2–8. Among the cities that fell away from the control of Ur in those years were Girsu and Lagaš, where Ur III year names are not attested after Ibbi-Sîn’s sixth year. …. Like Puzriš-Dagān and Umma (but unlike Larsa, Uruk, Isin, and Nippur), these cities seemingly fell permanently off the political map of lower Mesopotamia following their departure from Ur’s control, never again the seat of significant institutional life to judge by the low number of texts and inscriptions coming from the sites. At the same time, it is difficult to assert from evidence that any hardship or conflict either precipitated or resulted from Lagaš-Girsu’s decamping from Ur’s authority; no especial difficulty marks the event. …. [End of quote] The reason for why Girsu and Lagash (and other places) fall of the Mesopotamian map is because they should never have been on that particular map in the first place. Lagash (Lakish) and Eshnunna (Ashnunna) were Lachish in Judah, as I have written, in e.g.: As Ashduddu (Ashdod) is to Lachish, so, likewise, is Eshnunna to Lagash (6) As Ashduddu (Ashdod) is to Lachish, so, likewise, is Eshnunna to Lagash | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu This is a long way from the land of Sumer. Gudea, the renowned and pious temple builder of Girsu and Lagash, was none other than King Solomon himself: Yahweh, Solomon, Jerusalem - Ningirsu, Gudea and Girsu (6) Yahweh, Solomon, Jerusalem - Ningirsu, Gudea and Girsu | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Gudea (King Solomon) was also Senenmut (King Solomon in Egypt), sharing similar diorite statues: So, in the case of those who had tried to dissuade Dr. Sébastien Rey regarding his Girsu project at the site of Tello, 'Oh no you're making it up you're wasting your time you're wasting British museum UK government funding …', as quoted by Chloe Louise at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11765351/Girsu-Project-archaeologist-accused-making-finding-lost-palace.html I think that they may have had a point – though for reasons quite different from mine. Gudea and ancient Girsu do not belong at Tello. They, and the famed temple, have apparently been artificially resurrected there by later superstitious Greco-Romans of the same mentality as those who sought to deify Imhotep and Amenhotep son of Hapu. According to Dr. Sébastien Rey’s interview, “Exploring Girsu”: (6) Exploring Girsu: Discoveries at the Home of a Sumerian Hero God | Sebastien Rey - Academia.edu …. In the Old Babylonian period the temple was decommissioned (de-sanctified) and the statues were ritually buried. But something quite remarkable happened at Girsu in the Hellenistic period, about 1500 years after the ritual closure of the temple and the burial of the statues. In the late 4th century BC a Greco-Babylonian high-priest exhumed the remains of the temple of Ningirsu and resurrected the cult of the statues of Gudea. In the chaos that followed the collapse of Seleucid rule in Babylonia, the shrine was burnt to the ground and the statues gathered in the large courtyard were defaced and beheaded. The heads were collected and taken away as booty, thus breaking the link between past and present. And this is precisely the archaeological context, or setting in which the French pioneers of the late 19th century found the hoard of headless sculptures portraying a Sumerian king in a Hellenistic shrine. …. [End of quote] “… breaking the link between past and present” is precisely what, I think, has happened here, not to mention the associated geographical peculiarities. See also my related article: Called Sumerian History, but isn’t (3) Called Sumerian History, but isn’t. | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu

Monday, October 7, 2024

Location of the Temple built by King Solomon

“Can you imagine the upheaval in political and religious thinking if the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is not the site of Solomon's [Temple]? And what if the stones of the Wailing Wall are not what tradition says?” Temple: Amazing New Discoveries That Change Everything about the Location of Solomon's Temple Paperback – April 30, 2014 by Robert Cornuke Dr (Author) ________________________________________ In a book that is being heralded as "an investigative masterpiece" with "astounding archaeological and prophetic implications," TEMPLE: Amazing New Discoveries That Change Everything About the Location of Solomon's Temple, by Robert Cornuke, is sending shockwaves through the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian worlds. Can you imagine the upheaval in political and religious thinking if the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is not the site of Solomon's [Temple]? And what if the stones of the Wailing Wall are not what tradition says? In this highly-researched, exciting book, the author proposes from current archaeological excavations and Scriptural corroboration that the true temple location is not where tradition teaches. This is must reading for anyone who wants to fit together the pieces of biblical records, current geo-politics, and prophecy. Says the author, "Let the adventure begin as we now take the Bible in one hand and a shovel in the other and dig up some long-lost buried bones of biblical history. Along the way we will walk unknown passageways, known only to the prophets of old, as we search for the true location of the lost temples …. https://www.amazon.com.au/Temple-Robert-Cornuke/dp/193977909X ________________________________________

Monday, September 30, 2024

City of Jerusalem taken by “Shishak king of Egypt”

by Damien F. Mackey The high official Senenmut, often described as ‘the power behind the throne’ of the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaohs, Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, was - according to my now very strong conviction - none other than King Solomon of Israel himself, lately most heavily involved also in Egyptian affairs. Senenmut, as Solomon, as we read in my article: Solomon and Sheba (4) Solomon and Sheba | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu faded from the Egyptian scene in about Year 16 of these Egyptian co-rulers. If this was the approximate time of Senenmut’s-Solomon’s death, then the 5th year of his son, Rehoboam, the year when Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and pillaged its Temple and palace: I Kings 14:25-26: “In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the Temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made” …. must coincide very closely indeed to Thutmose III’s First Campaign in his Year 22-23, the very military campaign that Dr. I. Velikovsky had identified with the biblical one (Ages in Chaos, I, 1952). Since I have fully accepted Dr. Velikovsky’s identification of Thutmose III as the biblical “Shishak king of Egypt”, I therefore have something of a vested interest in his estimation that the pharaoh’s First Campaign was the biblical episode. Chronologically, in my revised scheme (Senenmut-Solomon factor), it fits like a glove. But what about geographically? Well, that has turned out to be a monumental challenge. We are going to be looking at four differing geographies for pharaoh Thutmose III’s First Campaign, the last three of these will be revised views. I refer to these four: • The conventional account of it; • Dr. I. Velikovsky’s account of it; • Dr. E. Danelius’s account of it; • My own view. A. The Conventional view Apart from its being dated approximately half a millennium too early on the time scale (c. 1460 BC instead of c. 920 BC), the conventional estimation of the geography of at least the early stage of the First Campaign of Thutmose III does not accord at all with the Egyptian description of it topographically speaking. All reconstructions (whether conventional or revised) are in agreement that the Egyptian army first marched to the city of Gaza. Wikipedia briefly tells of how the conventional version of the campaign runs in its article, “Thutmose III”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_III#:~:text=First%20Campaign,-Thutmose%20III%20smiting&text=Thutmose%20marched%20his%20troops%20through,battle%20of%20Thutmose's%2017%20campaigns. First Campaign When Hatshepsut died on the 10th day of the sixth month of Thutmose III's 21st year, according to information from a single stela from Armant, the king of Kadesh advanced his army to Megiddo.[23] Thutmose III mustered his own army and departed Egypt, passing through the border fortress of Tjaru (Sile) on the 25th day of the eighth month. Thutmose marched his troops through the coastal plain as far as Jamnia, then inland to Yehem, a small city near Megiddo, which he reached in the middle of the ninth month of the same year.[24] The ensuing Battle of Megiddo probably was the largest battle of Thutmose's 17 campaigns. A ridge of mountains jutting inland from Mount Carmel stood between Thutmose and Megiddo and he had three potential routes to take.[25] The northern route and the southern route, both of which went around the mountain, were judged by his council of war to be the safest, but Thutmose, in an act of great bravery (or so he boasts, but such self-praise is normal in Egyptian texts), accused the council of cowardice and took a dangerous route[26] through the Aruna mountain pass, which he alleged was only wide enough for the army to pass "horse after horse and man after man."[24] Despite the laudatory nature of Thutmose's annals, such a pass does indeed exist, although not as narrow as Thutmose indicates,[27] and taking it was a brilliant strategic move since when his army emerged from the pass they were situated on the plain of Esdraelon, directly between the rear of the Canaanite forces and Megiddo itself.[25] For some reason, the Canaanite forces did not attack him as his army emerged,[26] and his army routed them decisively.[25] The size of the two forces is difficult to determine, but if, as Redford suggests, the amount of time it took to move the army through the pass may be used to determine the size of the Egyptian force, and if the number of sheep and goats captured may be used to determine the size of the Canaanite force, then both armies were around 10,000 men.[28] Most scholars believe that the Egyptian army was more numerous.[citation needed] According to Thutmose III's Hall of Annals in the Temple of Amun at Karnak, the battle occurred on "Year 23, I Shemu [day] 21, the exact day of the feast of the new moon",[29] a lunar date. This date corresponds to 9 May 1457 BC based on Thutmose III's accession in 1479 BC. After victory in battle, his troops stopped to plunder the enemy and the enemy was able to escape into Megiddo.[30] Thutmose was forced to besiege the city, but he finally succeeded in conquering it after a siege of seven or eight months (see Battle of Megiddo (15th century BC)).[30] This campaign drastically changed the political situation in the ancient Near East. By taking Megiddo, Thutmose gained control of all of northern Canaan and the Syrian princes were obligated to send tribute and their own sons as hostages to Egypt.[31] Beyond the Euphrates, the Assyrian, Babylonian and Hittite kings all gave Thutmose gifts, which he alleged to be "tribute" when he recorded it on the walls of Karnak.[32] The only noticeable absence is Mitanni, which would bear the brunt of the following Egyptian campaigns into Western Asia. [End of quote] From Gaza [Egyptian G3-d3-tw], to Yehem [Egyptian Y-hm], via a narrow defile, Aruna [Egyptian '3-rw-n3], to Megiddo [Egyptian My-k-ty]. So it goes. Then the pharaoh will go on to invade Syria, and, ultimately, on to Syrian Kadesh [Egyptian Kd-sw]. This conventional reconstruction of the campaign, if correct, would absolutely shatter any consideration that this could have been the biblical episode involving Jerusalem and the pharaoh “Shishak”. Prior to Megiddo, the route almost entirely hugs the coast. At least it does not go anywhere near inland Jerusalem. Thankfully, the conventional effort can be shown to be hopelessly inadequate as to its reconstruction of the early part of the campaign. Dr. Eva Danelius has shattered it - and indeed a crucial part of Velikovsky’s reconstruction as well - in her brilliant article, “Did Thutmose III Despoil the Temple in Jerusalem? A Critical Commentary to Chapter IV of "Ages in Chaos" (SIS Review, v2, No.3, 1977/78). While her main achievement here is on the level of topography, her comments about some key name identifications are also most telling. Writing of the infamous Aruna road, for instance, Dr. Danelius tells how the conventional identification of the location by no means fits the actual name: Breasted identified this defile, the road called "Aruna" in Egyptian records, with the Wadi 'Ara which connects the Palestine maritime plain with the Valley of Esdraelon (4). It was this identification which aroused my curiosity, and my doubt. …. As an afterthought, [Harold] Nelson warns not to be deceived by the Arabic name (wadi) 'Ara: "Etymologically, it seems hardly possible to equate (Egyptian) 'Aruna with (Arab) 'Ar'arah." (51). But Eva Danelius had a problem far more serious with the conventional identification of the Aruna road than this one of etymology - one which really had ‘aroused her doubt’. Thus she explains: If it is true that "the geography of a country determines the course of its wars" (44), the frightful defile, and attempts at its crossing by conquering armies, should have been reported in books of Biblical and/or post-Biblical history. There is no mention of either. Nor has the Wadi 'Ara pass ever been considered to be secret, or dangerous. "From the Plain of Sharon to Jordan. This line... ascends by the broad and open valley Wâdy 'Ârah, crossing the watershed at Ain Ibrahim, which is about 1200 feet above the sea. Thence the road descends, falling some 700 feet in 3 miles to Lejjûn, where it bifurcates... This line, which appears to be ancient, is of great importance, being one of the easiest across the country, owing to the open character of Wâdy 'Ârah." This was written 100 years ago, by C. R. Conder (45), long before a modern highway was laid through. Conder's view is shared by later writers: "Most armies coming north over Sharon. .. would cut across the... hills by the easy passes which issue on Esdraelon at Megiddo and elsewhere." - thus, a famous historian and geographer (46). The last army which actually crossed by this pass on its way from the south was the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under General Allenby, in September 1918. General Wavell evaluates the difficulties of the crossing when discussing the operational plan for the final onslaught: "There was no obstacle to rapid movement along either the Plain of Sharon or Plain of Esdraelon. The crux of the ride would be the passage of the mountain belt which divides these two plains... the width of this obstacle is about seven miles. Two routes lead across it from Sharon, of which... the eastern debouches into Esdraelon at El Lejjûn or Megiddo... Neither road presents any physical difficulties for a mounted force. On the other hand, either is easy of defence and would be hard to force against opposition." On September19th, 1918, a brigade with armoured cars was sent ahead to seize the defile leading to El Lejjûn. It was undefended, and on the following night "the 4th Cavalry Division passed the Musmus Defile (Wadi 'Ara pass) during the night, after some delay due to a loss of direction by the leading brigade, and reached the plain at El Lejjûn by dawn." (47) During the same years in which Breasted wrote his reconstruction of the campaign, a German team under Schuhmacher started to excavate Tell el-Mutesellim. The excavation was carried out during the years 1903 to 1905. Unfortunately, "At the spot excavated by Schuhmacher, absolutely nothing has been found which could provide any further information" (concerning identification of the mound with that besieged, and conquered, by Thutmose III), states the report (48). Schuhmacher's excavation was much too limited to permit final judgement. Breasted, quite rightly, refused to give up so easily. He wanted scientific proof for his identification, and suggested to one of his students, Harold H. Nelson, that he dedicate his doctoral thesis to the problem. Nelson was not given freedom to look for the frightening defile among the mountains of Palestine; Breasted confined him to a specific region: "This study is confined almost entirely to an effort to interpret the Annals of Thutmose III in the light of the geography of the environs of Megiddo," explains Nelson in his preface (49). In other words, the "scientific investigation" had to verify a foregone conclusion of Breasted - it was "prove or perish" for the unhappy young man. For the sensitive reader, the resulting dissertation is a moving testimony of an intelligent and honest young student who tried desperately to harmonise the theory of his venerated teacher with the observations made on the spot, which simply did not fit. Nelson travelled through the Wadi 'Ara pass in 1909, and again in 1912. He described it in detail: '...the road enters the Wady 'Ara which is there... flat and open... All the way to a quarter of a mile above 'Ar'arah the valley is wide and level and cultivated up the slopes on either side... the ascent is so gradual as to be scarcely perceptible and it is possible to drive a carriage as far as the top of the pass." The road follows an ancient Roman road which descends along a smaller way. "This latter gradually contracts as it proceeds till about half a mile above the mouth of the valley, it reaches its narrowest point, being not more than 10 yards wide. A little further on the road... opening out rapidly to a couple of 100 yards, emerges upon the plain of Lejjûn." Nelson comes to the conclusion that: "Of course such a road could be easily defended by a comparatively small number of men, but, on the other hand, an invading army could readily keep possession of the hills on either hand which are neither steep nor high above the valley... a watcher posted on the hill above Lejjûn could descry an approaching army at least a mile above the mouth of the pass." (50) …. Neither the physical appearance of the road as described by Nelson, nor its use as an international highway justify its identification with a road described as "inaccessible", "secret" or "mysterious" in the Egyptian records. [End of quotes] This telling estimation by Dr. Danelius has stuck with me even as I have vacillated over the years from one viewpoint to another about the actual route of the First Campaign, at one stage even dropping Velikovsky’s view that it was the “Shishak” episode and so looking for a more appropriate campaign by Thutmose III. Eventually, though, I would have to find a solution that was in topographical harmony with the Egyptian account. Dr. Danelius was also critical of the conventional interpretation of the place named in the Egyptian Annals as Y-hm. Though I never considered her alternative explanation of it as Yamnia (Yavne) to be very convincing either, and wondered if a better solution for Y-hm was possible. More recently, I have come to the conclusion that Y-hm is the key to the entire situation. That Y-hm refers to Jerusalem! This is what Dr. Danelius herself had to say about this Y-hm: Let us stop here and survey the situation. To recapitulate: the one undisputed place reached by the Egyptian army was Gaza. From there on, every "identification" has been pure guesswork. This is especially true for the "identification" of Y-hm, which was supposed to have been near the entrance to Wadi 'Ara (and identified, eventually, with Jemma, a nearby Arab village). In order to reach this place, the army which had just crossed the Sinai desert would have continued marching for 10 days, covering about 90 English miles (89). So far Breasted, and his followers to this day. Experience has shown that an army which includes cavalry and chariots drawn by horses cannot progress that quickly in a country where drinking water is in short supply during the dry season, May to November. It seems that neither Breasted nor any of his followers has given any thought to this vital question, not to mention other problems of logistics. In this respect, the dispatches sent by General Allenby to the Secretary of State for War during the advance of the Forces in the Philistine Plain are a veritable eye-opener. Gaza had fallen on November 7th 1917. Two days later: "By the 9th, the problem became one of supply... the question of water and forage was a very difficult one. Even where water was found in sufficient quantities, it was usually in wells and not on the surface, and consequently... the process of watering a large quantity of animals was slow and difficult," writes Allenby (90). The very next day, November 10th: "The hot wind is an additional trial, particularly to the cavalry already suffering from water-shortage." (This was near Ashdod, in the Philistine Plain.) "Owing to the exhaustion of their horses on account of the lack of water", two mounted brigades "had to be withdrawn into reserve" on November 11th. There is no reason to suppose that nature was kinder to Thutmose's troops in May, the month with the greatest number of days with the destructive hot wind blowing from the desert. than to the Allied troops in November. Allenby's advance, too, was considerably slower than that demanded in Breasted's calendar for the advance of the Pharaoh's army: the Allied left wing covered only 40 miles in 15 days along the plain (91), while Breasted suggested 80-90 miles in 10-11 days. These observations may justify a totally different interpretation of the events during the 10 or 11 days from the day Thutmose left Gaza to the council of war at Y-hm. According to the unanimous understanding of Egyptologists, the text of the Annals leaves no doubt that the entrance into Gaza was a peaceful one. There is no hint of any resistance by the inhabitants. Gaza, in the10th century BC, was the seat of one of the five Philistine kings (92). The peaceful entry and exit of the Pharaoh and his army justifies the assumption that the Egyptians found themselves in a friendly country. War preparations by the Pharaoh, most probably, were not confined to the purely military side; they should have included political discussions with the countries bordering the Judaean Kingdom: Edom, Philistia and the newly created Kingdom of Israel. Among these, the Philistine Plain would be the ideal base for an army considering the conquest of Judah and Jerusalem. For the following, it is assumed that the Egyptians were in the position to use it as such (93). The place named immediately after Gaza is Y-hm. Petrie suggested an identification with the modern Arab village Yemma, south-west of the Carmel ridge, an identification that is "little more than guesswork" according to Nelson (94). If an eminent Egyptologist like Petrie thought an equation Y-hm = Yemma possible, it may be permitted to see in Y-hm the Egyptian equivalent of Yamnia (Yabne in Hebrew), a port about 40 km north of Gaza. Today, Yamnia/Yabne lies about 7 km inland from the Mediterranean, from which it is separated by a broad belt of sand dunes. The plain around it is strewn with the remnants of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements, among them a harbour town at the mouth of a little river which bypasses the city. Needless to say, possession of a harbour would facilitate the problem of supply and help considerably in its solution. It is suggested to see in Yamnia the location of the campaign base and council of war described in the Annals (95). [End of quotes] For conventional history, any reconstruction of pharaoh Thutmose III is going to be out by some 500 years. That, for one, negates any possibility of his being the biblical “Shishak king of Egypt”, and it also negates any of his many campaigns as being the famous biblical attack on Jerusalem. Apart from some flawed name connections, especially the hopeless equation of the Egyptian Aruna (most crucial in any reconstruction of the event) with Wadi ‘Ara (Arab) ‘Ar‘arah, the conventional site for Aruna, Wadi ‘Ara, cannot possibly be associated topographically with the notorious road as described with such dread by the Egyptian soldiery. And this, despite Wikipedia’s hopeful “… such a pass does indeed exist, although not as narrow as Thutmose indicates”. B. The Campaign as Dr. Velikovsky explained it Most ironic that Dr. Velikovsky, to whom we must be forever grateful for his having courageously revised Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt on a massive scale, would contribute nothing really worthwhile regarding the route taken by pharaoh Thutmose III, the biblical “Shishak”, in his First Campaign, the one that Velikovsky had correctly identified as the biblical episode. For once we find Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky following the conventional view for the early part of Thutmose III’s First Campaign, and thus getting things quite wrong – as according to what we learned previously of the conventional interpretation. Dr. Velikovsky had accepted professor Breasted’s view that Megiddo was the Mk-t-y of the Egyptian Annals, and that Thutmose III and his troops had followed the coastal route from Gaza to Megiddo. That immediately runs into the serious problem of topographical dissimilarity as pointed out above. When confronted with Dr. Eva Danelius’s criticism of it, Velikovsky came with this reply that I consider to be weak, no better really than Wikipedia’s: “… such a pass does indeed exist, although not as narrow as Thutmose indicates”. And so Velikovsky wrote (“A Response to Eva Danelius”, SIS Review, Vol. II No. 3 Special Issue 1977/78, p. 80): Now as to the approach to Megiddo being a narrow pass - by what it is now, it cannot be judged what it was almost three thousand years ago. There could have been artificial mound-fortifications the length of the pass. Think, for instance, of Tyre of the time of Shalmaneser III or Nebuchadnezzar (who besieged it for 13 years), or even of the days of Alexander, when it withstood a protracted siege. Today its topography is completely changed. Neither of these comments (Wikipedia, Dr. Velikovsky) does justice to the frightening description of the Aruna Road as we find in the Egyptian campaign record. Having started badly on this one, Dr. Velikovsky then became more typically interesting and controversial. Instead of the Egyptian campaign now heading into Syria, as according to professor Breasted and the conventional view, Velikovsky has it suddenly wheeling back in dramatic fashion, southwards to Kadesh - obviously not the Syrian Kadesh, but Jerusalem itself (Kadesh = the “Holy”) according to Velikovsky. The Egyptians are now supposedly in pursuit of the fleeing King of Kadesh, Rehoboam, son of Solomon, heading for sanctuary in his capital city of Jerusalem. Exciting stuff, but pure fantasy! From Megiddo, the Egyptian army was actually on its way northwards towards Syria, as Creationist Patrick Clarke has clearly demonstrated in his article: Was Jerusalem the Kadesh of Thutmose III’s 1st Asiatic campaign?—topographic and petrographic evidence (4) Was Jerusalem the Kadesh of Thutmose III’s 1st Asiatic campaign—topographic and petrographic evidence | Patrick Clarke - Academia.edu It seems that Dr. Velikovsky - a bit like with that song by The Who, “north side of my town faced east and the east was facing south” - had the Egyptian army heading north while it was still located in the south, and then lurching southwards when it was really heading for the north. Most ironic that Dr. Velikovsky, to whom we must be forever grateful for his having courageously revised Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt on a massive scale, would contribute nothing really worthwhile regarding the route taken by pharaoh Thutmose III, the biblical Shishak, in his First Campaign, the one that Velikovsky had correctly identified as the biblical episode. C. The Campaign as Dr. Danelius explained it After my initial, rather uncritical, acceptance of Dr. Velikovsky’s reconstruction in the early days, I became quite enamoured with Dr. Eva Danelius’s version (“Did Thutmose III Despoil the Temple in Jerusalem?”), which pointed out problems of which I had been blissfully unaware, and, seemingly, solved the major ones of these. Whilst I no longer accept her thesis as a whole, Dr. Danelius’s vitally important contribution in the area of topography, and her connection of Aruna with the biblical Araunah the Jebusite, hence Jerusalem, remained with me. I believe that this element is necessary for a proper resolution of the whole matter. Instead of having the Egyptian army march almost immediately from Gaza towards Megiddo, but via the broad coastal road (which cannot be correct), Dr Danelius has it marching a far shorter distance northwards to connect with the Beth-horon road that leads back into Jerusalem. This is far more promising than the previous attempts, given that Jerusalem is in sight from the start, and that the Beth-horon road was notorious for its steepness and narrowness. It is this road, Beth-horon, that Dr. Eva Danelius will identify as the unpalatable Aruna road of the Egyptian Annals. Whereas Dr. Velikovsky had tried to identify Jerusalem as Kadesh, but wrongly, now Dr. Danelius will hopefully identify Jerusalem as Mk-t-y, again wrongly. She appears to have based her interpretation of Mk-t-y here on somewhat late names for the capital city: Among the names enumerated as designating Jerusalem is Bait-al-Makdis, or in brief, Makdis, corresponding to Beithha-Miqdash in modern Hebrew pronunciation. The10th century Arab writer who mentions this name calls himself Mukadassi = the Jerusalemite (102). The name Mâkdes was still used by the Samaritans (a Jewish sect who never left the country, who trace their ancestors to three of the northern tribes of Israel) at the beginning of this century, when discussing with Rabbi Moshe Gaster their attitude towards Jerusalem (103), and a local shop outside Damascus Gate still bears the inscription: Baith el-Makdis. But Mk-t-y, in its association in the Annals with Taanach (Egyptian T3-'3-n3-k3), is clearly Megiddo, as both professor Breasted and Dr. Velikovsky had accepted. Response to Eva Danelius: “Taanach is also next to Megiddo in the Bible (I Kings 4:12). Your equation of Taanach with the Tahhunah ridge does not strengthen your thesis”. Good try, though! What we can take from the thesis of Dr. Danelius - and it is not insignificant - is that the Aruna road really was a steep and forbidding road, and that it was near to Jerusalem. But do we need to go northwards from Gaza to get on to that road, only to have to double back after that? Or is there a more simple, Occam’s Razor, procedure? D. My own account of the Campaign But it seems that there are problems with every interpretation of the pharaoh’s route. Can pharaoh Thutmose III be saved as “Shishak”? The road to salvation is narrow and difficult to find (Matthew 7:14), and so has been the road to identifying, historically, the biblical “Shishak king of Egypt” (2 Kings 14:25). Thutmose III, the mightiest Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh, had once opted for a ‘redemption’ type of road, one narrow and most difficult to negotiate. And his military scribe, Tjaneni, marked down this road using the name ‘3-rw-n3 (Aruna). This road’s true identification has been missed by historians, conventional and revisionist alike. I say this because those on both sides who have accepted the typical identification of the Aruna road as the Wãdy ‘Ârah opening out towards Taanach and Megiddo have not been able to explain at all satisfactorily why the Wãdy ‘Ârah’s topography is nothing like that as described in pharaoh Thutmose III’s campaign Annals. Sir Henry Breasted’s prize doctoral student, Harold H. Nelson, had demonstrated beyond all doubt in his thesis, The Battle of Megiddo (1913), that the relatively gentle topography in that northern region did not accord at all with the terrifyingly narrow and steep road described by the Egyptians, that ‘enters into narrowness’ and where ‘horse will have to go after horse’. (References to Harold H. Nelson have been taken from Dr. Eva Danelius’s “Did Thutmose III Despoil the Temple in Jerusalem?”, SIS Review, Vol. 2 No. 3, 1977/78). Nor did the name ‘Ârah accord well linguistically with Aruna, as Nelson had rightly observed: “Etymologically, it seems hardly possible to equate (Egyptian) ‘Aruna with (Arab) ‘Ar‘arah”. And, while the young man succeeded in passing his doctorate to the professor’s satisfaction, Nelson later dissociated himself completely from its conclusions. One ought to read Dr. Danelius’s poignant account in her article of Harold H. Nelson and the fate of his doctoral thesis. Dr. Eva Danelius herself was the researcher to have come closest to identifying the Aruna road. According to her, it must have been the narrow Beth-horon pass leading up to the site of Araunah (hence Aruna) the Jebusite, which became the City of David (Zion), Jerusalem. Against the conventional view that Thutmose III’s Mk-t-y was Megiddo, Dr. Danelius would argue, instead, that Mk-t-y was a name for Jerusalem, (Bait-al-) Makdis. and she believed that the Kd-šw of the Egyptian Annals was, not Kadesh in Syria, but the land of “Har Kodsho”, “The Holy Mount”. But it seems that there are problems with every interpretation of the pharaoh’s route. The road chosen by Danelius, for instance, does not go anywhere near Taanach and Megiddo, whose coupling in the Egyptian Annals (with Taanach perfectly transliterated in the Egyptian, T3-‘3-n3-k3) leaves it beyond question that the pharaonic army was bound for the strong fort of Megiddo. Dr. Velikovsky had fully accepted the conventional interpretation here, that pharaoh Thutmose III’s Mk-t-y was Megiddo - but with a twist. Pharaoh, after conquering Megiddo, Velikovsky wrote (Ages in Chaos, I, 1952), had headed southwards in pursuit of Rehoboam, “King of Kd-šw” (Kadesh = ‘the Holy’), that is, Jerusalem. To explain the conventional estimation of the rugged Aruna road to Megiddo, against Dr. Danelius’s very strong topographical argument, Dr. Velikovsky would suggest in his response to her that topography can change markedly over time: “Now as to the approach to Megiddo being a narrow pass – by what it is now, it cannot be judged what it was almost three thousand years ago. There could have been artificial mound-fortifications the length of the pass” (“A Response to Eva Danelius by Immanuel Velikovsky”, SIS Review, Vol. 2 No. 3, 1977/78). That, I find, to be no more compelling a view than was Dr. Danelius’s effort to account for the Egyptian T3-‘3-n3-k3 somewhere in the region of Jerusalem. Velikovsky again (loc. cit.): “Your equation of Taanach with the Tahhunah ridge does not strengthen your thesis”. The conventional view is that the pharaoh, having arrived at Gaza (G3-d3-tw), continued on by a coastal route, ultimately via the Wãdy ‘Ârah, to Megiddo. After that he moved on further northwards, to conquer the troublesome city of Kadesh on the Orontes in Syria. The progression from Megiddo to a northern Kadesh does appear to accord properly with the geography of the Egyptian campaign. On this, see Patrick J. Clarke’s account in his article, “Was Jerusalem the Kadesh of Thutmose III’s 1st Asiatic campaign? – topographic and petrographic evidence” (Journal of Creation, Vol. 23, Issue 3, December 2011, pp. 48-55). The standard identifications of Gaza, Taanach and Megiddo, and Kadesh on the Orontes, seem to me now to be quite secure. Aruna as the Wãdy ‘Ârah, however, does not! And there is in the Egyptian account another little considered location, a town, or city, Yehem (Egyptian Y-hm), whose identification by convention I find to be not the least bit convincing. “Thutmose marched his troops through the coastal pain as far as Jamnia, then inland to Yehem, a small city near Megiddo …”. The typical view expressed here is just a guess. Where, if anywhere, is Jerusalem in all of this? As the disciples on another road, to Emmaus, had lamented: ‘We were hoping …’ (Luke 24:21). And, indeed, those inspired by Dr. Velikovsky’s Ages in Chaos reconstructions have been hopeful that he had been able to pinpoint, in Thutmose III’s First Campaign, his Year 22-23, his immediate march on the glorious City of Jerusalem. Would it not make perfect sense that the mighty pharaoh would firstly head straight for Jerusalem once he had begun his military campaigns into Syro-Palestine? But now we have the Kd-šw (Kadesh) necessarily cancelled out as a candidate for Jerusalem, it surely being Kadesh on the Orontes. As well as this, Mk-t-y is clearly Megiddo, and not Jerusalem. So what is there left to us? As it now seems to me, Dr. Danelius’s Araunah for the Aruna road can be salvaged – though not as to its precise geography. And also her view regarding the road’s most difficult topography can be maintained, but, once again, with geographical modifications. Let us briefly reconstruct anew this part of Thutmose III’s campaign. From Gaza, the pharaoh will do exactly what pharaoh Shoshenq I (conventionally, but wrongly, identified as the biblical “Shishak”) will do in a later period, swing across towards Jerusalem. In the case of Shoshenq I, though, he did not actually go to Jerusalem, but to Gibeon (modern al-Jīb), about six miles NW of Jerusalem. (For a handy map of Shoshenq I’s campaign, see p. 41 of SIS Review, Vol. VIII, 1986). Pharaoh Thutmose III will make as his first place of call after Gaza a town not given great consideration by historians, and hopelessly identified by them: namely, Y-hm. This Y-hm was, as I now believe it must be, a shortened version of Jerusalem (Y-erusa-hm), keeping in mind ancient Egyptian’s reluctant use of ‘l’ (actually missing in their alphabet). Y-hm, or as the Annals put it, “Yehem near Aruna”, was obviously an important halting place, where the Egyptian army dallied, organised supplies, and held a conference about how further to proceed. We read an account of it, for instance, as “Yaham”, in The Battle of Megiddo by Jimmy Dunn (aka Troy Fox: www.touregypt.net): [From Gaza the Egyptian army] reached Yaham eleven days later in mid May. Perhaps this [now slower rate of march] indicates fatigue, or simply caution as they travelled through territory that could be considered potentially or actually hostile. In fact, along the way Tuthmosis III detached units commanded by general Djehuty in order to place the stronghold of Jaffa under siege so that his line of communication and possible retreat could be protected, an indication that the Canaanite alliance was significant within southern Canaan. Three possible roads from Yehem to Megiddo lay open to the Egyptians, two of which were relatively easy to negotiate (like the conventionally chosen way through the Wãdy ‘Ârah). One nearby road, however, was a most difficult one, prompting the pharaoh’s officers to question: “Will the vanguard of us be fighting while the rear is waiting here in Aruna unable to fight?” They then provided the alternative suggestions “Now, two other roads are here, one of the roads – behold it is to the east of us, so that it comes out at Taanach. The other – behold, it is to the north side of Djefti, and we will come out to the north of Megiddo”. The Aruna road, the most difficult, but most direct, was the one that the brilliant pharaoh chose, for a surprise assault upon Megiddo. Jimmy Dunn writes regarding pharaoh’s tactic (op. cit.): … the Aruna road was through a narrow and difficult pass over a ridge that was presumed (particularly for the enemy coalition) to be too difficult for any army to use. Taking that route meant that ‘horse must follow horse, and man after man’…. Also, many modern commentators, and perhaps the Canaanite coalition as well, seem to forget the major virtues of the Egyptian Chariots. They were light vehicles, and it was certainly conceivable that many could be carried through the pass, while the horses were led separately …. The pass was named from its beginning at Araunah, near king Rehoboam’s capital, Jerusalem, “Yehem near Aruna”. Dr. Danelius had got the name right, but she had the Egyptian military negotiating it the wrong way around, with Araunah as its destination point, rather than its being their starting point. This road is variously known to us today as the Way of the Patriarchs, the Hill Road, or the Ridge Route, since it included, as we read, “a narrow and difficult pass over a ridge”. It was not a proper road, even as late as the time of Jesus, not one of the international highways then to be found in Palestine. This would have been a most tricky road, indeed, to negotiate, especially for an army that greatly relied upon its chariots. From Gaza (as all agree), pharaoh marched to Jerusalem (Dr. Danelius got the sequence right, but mis-identified Jerusalem), and then by the narrow Aruna road (Dr. Danelius got the name right only, not the direction) on to Megiddo (as per the conventional view and Velikovsky), and then on to Syrian Kadesh (as per the conventional view and Patrick J. Clarke).