Hi.
I've been lurking for a couple of days, monitoring.... to introduce
myself, I have an MA in Old Testament, a BA in Classics, and another BA
in Buddhist Studies; as to languages, I can read most of those of
Western Europe maybe, Modern Greek, Hebrew, and have some passing
familiarity with Slavonic, Russian, Ugaritic, and Sanskrit. Not that I
know a lot about anything, and I would not call myself a linguist-- my
interests have centered more around the history of religions and the
philosophy of language-- but obviously, I have some interest in
linguistics as well.
Anyway, regarding the Hebrew and Arabic thread, I'm a little surprised
people are quoting
> Kamal Salibi1985 "Het ware land van Abraham" Elsevier
> Ahmed Osman ("The House of the Messiah", "Moses:Pharaoh of Egypt").
> David Rohl ("A Test of Time")
etc without at least making some side references to more standard works
like F.M. Cross, Canaanite Myth & Hebrew Epic (Harvard: 1973) (this
book, recently repub'd. in paperback, has justly obtained legendary
status in the world of Biblical Studies), and also his more recent From
Epic to Canon (Johns Hopkins, 1998) (a sort of sequel).
The first book would probably be of interest to people on this list,
esp. the article on "'El and the God of the Fathers", which discusses
certain significant relations between the Ugaritic 'El/Ba'l cycle and
the Bible-- but more to the point on the question of Israelite origins
would be some of the discussion in certain articles in the second,
including "Reuben, the Firstborn of Jacob: Sacral Traditions and Early
Israelite History", where he writes, "Sinai-Horeb must be sought in
southern Edom or northern Midian. This view, long held by German
scholars but rejected by most American and Israeli scholars, including
the writer, now appears to be sound. The archaic hymns of Israel are of
one voice....". (He also points out that "The theophanic language of
Sinai is a concretized, literalized form of the poetic language of
Canaanite storm theophany and has nothing to do with volcanoes"-- I know
this notion, which has always struck me as rather silly, has come up
over the last couple of days in some connection.) I don't think anyone
is looking for Abraham in Arabia-- and Ebla seems to offer some
suggestive support for the usual theories (too early to tell what it all
means with Ebla, though). See also "The 'Olden Gods' in Ancient Near
Eastern Creation Myths and in Israel" for some related discussion.
Osman's claims that Moses was Akhnaten, and the Israelites his Egyptian
followers; Rohl's, that the biblical pharaoh Shishak is Ramses II, etc,
would not be supported by 98% of biblical scholars. Salibi may be on to
something, but although I have not read him, I suspect he is like many
other popularizing authors, perhaps on to something but playing it up a
bit sensationally, and drawing exaggerated conclusions from modest
evidence. It's good to remain sober about these things. But I will say
again, I haven't read him.
While I'm at it, though, and just for information, I doubt that you will
find a scholar (well, an academically respectable one, anyway) who has
any idea that the idealized picture of the Exodus that you find in the
Pentateuch actually took place as the grand epic it is portrayed as
having been. There isn't much doubt that there was a band that left
Egypt-- the usual date is 1250 BC but there is also some uneasiness
about this date; that it was joined in its journeys by other groups (the
Bible refers to them as "rabble"); and that common cause was made
between these and some already existing populations of peasants in the
Northern Israelite highlands during what is called the "Conquest" (which
was, consequently, part invasion and part peasant revolt-- but rather
limited in scope). You can't altogether dismiss the Bible, as I think
some might have suggested here; even if it's a pack of lies, the lies
were written in the first millennium BC on the basis of lies told in the
second; so you'd have to pick you way v-e-r-y carefully, but they would
still be interesting lies. (Well, I don't think it's exactly that,
either-- just tendentious.)
Anyway, this is just a footnote regarding some sociological and
geographical parameters; best regards and don't let me interrupt!
John Burnett