Re: [TIED] Hebrew and Arabic

----- Original Message -----
From: John Croft <jdcroft@...>
To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
Sent: Monday, 15 May, 2000 5:51 PM
Subject: Re: [TIED] Hebrew and Arabic


> --- In cybalist@egroups.com, "Marc Verhaegen" <marc.verhaegen@...>
> wrote:
> > Nothing of the Old Testament has to be dismissed, only
> re-interpreted. You have to read Salibi I think. Rather convincing
> IMO. --Marc
>
> There are two extremist schools on this matter
>

I tend to go with the first school, i.e. that everything prior to Omri, for
which there is no independent corroboration is largely constructed, albeit
out of (sometimes mythologised) historical events.

<snip>
>
> Certainly, there is no evidence to suggest that Hebrew was only
> merely
> a "court" language. It seems to have been a natural development out
> of the late Bronze Age Canaanite tongues (recorded at Ugarit, Byblos
> and elsewhere),

Hebrew is very largely identical with (1st millennium) Phoenician.

<snip>
>
> On this basis, the influence of Aegean Sea Peoples into early
> biblical
> tradition occurred. Thus rather than a Semitic influence into the
> Greek Corpus (as Dennis Poulter and Glen Gordon has been claiming), I
> believe rather it was an Aegean influence into the Semitic that
> Dennis
> has been documenting.
>

I like the idea of a Philistine input into the Exodus story. It explains two
rather puzzling elements :
1. the idea of the captivity in Egypt (apart from the obvious parallel of
the Babylonian captivity). There is no evidence for the vast use
of Semitic slaves in building projects, and the Israelites of the Exodus
seem to have been very wealthy for escaped slaves.
2. the "volcanic" aspects of the story. The Thera explosion had little
effect on Egypt, apart from the mention of the "voice of Set and
precipitation of Isis" and evidence of some ash falls in the Delta. The main
effects (ash falls, tsunami) seem to have gone rather to the north-east,
towards Rhodes
and the Anatolian coast. and could therefore have been witnessed by some
ancestors of the Philistines, as well as the column of fire and smoke, which
would have been visible in the Aegean but not in Egypt.

These two elements at least could have come from the Philistines.
However, I believe the Exodus story also draws on two elements of Egyptian
history :
1. the expulsion of the Hyksos, traditionally associated with the Exodus;
2. events surrounding the religious dispute between the adherents of
Aten and Amun culminating in the death or deposition (and possible exile) of
Akhenaten (the only 18th dynasty pharoah whose mummy has never been found)
and the violent death of his young son Tut-Ankh-Amun (originally named
Tut-Ankh-Aten). Could Biblical Adon be derived from Egyptian Aten?

I disagree with your conclusion concerning Aegean influence on the Levant.
The influence I have been documenting comes mainly from a period prior to
the Philistine settlements, during the Late Bronze Age (Egyptian 18th and
19th
dynasties).

Cheers
Dennis