Scientific studies, archaeological findings and ancient history corroborate the Bible.
An example is the scientific finding, on Vegetation and Climate Changes During Bronze and Iron Ages (~3600 - 600 BCE) in the Southern Levant Based on Palynological Records, that the dry period in Israel, based on Dead Sea level reconstructions, had started around 1500 BC, at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age (Migowski et al., 2006; Kagan et al., 2015).
On the graph of presence of trees and olive in the Southern Levant, scientists found out the rise of the quantity of the samples (or remains of pollens taken from the sediment beneath the Sea of Galilee) until its peak in just before 1450 BCE, and then followed by a decline around 1449 BCE. This scientific finding matches very precisely the timing of Jacob's travel to Egypt because of a famine. It was in 1457 BCE when Joseph interpreted the dreams of the pharaoh. The king of Egypt that time was Thutmose III (1479-1425), who grabbed the agricultural problem in Canaan as an opportunity to easily defeat the Canaanites, Syrians, and likely Apiru (Hebrews, etc.), and with this he expanded the dominion of Egypt. Thutmose III subdued Canaan, Byblos, and as far as Adana, Cilicia. This is contrary to what Ipuwer reported in chapter 3, verses 3-5 of Admonitions of the Sage that the Egyptians could not sail to Byblos and Caphtor (and which is why Ipuwer existed not during Thutmose or Amenhotep III's time).
Joseph the Dreamer, applying the knowledge from God, calculated that there would be 7 Years of Gathering grain followed by 7 years of famine. Why the pharaoh was easily convinced by that interpretation? The most likely reason was because there were three other earlier consecutive famines with nearly identical time intervals before that famine (1450-1444 BCE), as what we can see on the scientific gathered data. And the Bible mentioned too the two other previous famines. This same chart corroborates the claim that there was a famine during the time of Abram (1738-1563 BCE), hence the Bible's report is not just historically but scientifically backed up.
Not only that, the scientific study is not just a guess work, because no less than king Senusret III in his 19th regnal year reported the abnormal low Nile levels in 1859 BCE which triggered for pharaoh to retreat when his ships were endangered (Shaw, Ian [2000]. The Oxford history of ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280458-8, p. 166).
Scientific study clearly confirmed that around 1850s BCE there was a great decrease of trees and an implication of great drought. In his 7th year, a heliacal rising was observed (July 17, 1872 BCE), which only means Senusret III had absolutely reigned between 1878 and 1839 BCE. As the pharaoh validates the scientific finding (about famine), the scientific finding and astronomical observation verify the dates of Senusret III. The name of this same Senusret is found on one of the figurines of Brussels Execration Texts (E.9076). This tightened the reality of the three consecutive famines determined by scientific investigations which are verified by the Bible about the famine during the days of Abram (1660s), Isaac (1550s), and Jacob (1449 BCE). The biblical reports precisely agreed with the scientific findings and dating. There is no way to think that these are merely coincidental. The scientific studies explicitly show that the famine was worst during the time of Senusret III that drought drastically affected Nile rivers as compared against the droughts during Abram, Joseph, and Jacob's days which brought Dead Sea into devastating effect on plants but did not much affect Nile Delta, hence triggered the Hyksos, Abram, and Jacob to go to Delta, Egypt.
It was during the Year 2 of the famine in 1449 BCE when Jacob and family went down to Egypt.
Year 1450 BCE is where scientific finding and biblical Joseph the Dreamer's timeline have a synchronous agreement.
"And Joseph said unto his brothers,...
For these
2 years
has the famine been in the land: and yet there are
5 years,
in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he has made me
a father to Pharaoh,
and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." -Genesis 45:4,6,8
The title "father of Pharaoh" is an Hebrew euphemism for the Egyptian terminology "father of god," which during the time of king Thutmose III may mean "man of confidence of the king in all foreign lands and on the islands amid the sea, he who fills the stores with lapis lazuli, silver and gold" (General Djehuty's Gold Cup, 1455 BCE Archived December 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine The Centre for Online Judaic Studies). In the case of Joseph, it means Joseph filled the stores with grains and became the overseer or lord of grain distribution in the entire land of Egypt.
That time, 1440 BCE, general Djehuty asked Egyptians that his horses be taken inside the city lest they be stolen by a passing ʿApir (Hebrew). The wife of Potiphar had also described Hebrew with bad character (Gen. 39:17).
Hebrews were known to Egyptians as thieves. But this was reversed when Joseph became good food preservation and distribution officer, until in the second year of the famine in 1449 BCE.
That same year when Joseph's father (Jacob) went to Egypt to live near Heliopolis (On) - while the relatives would live, according to Moses, in the land known "Rameses."
If Moses wrote the original source of the book of Genesis, then he locates "Goshen" in the land of Rameses, as the toponym "Rameses" was very well known during his time.
"And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old are you?
And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, ... 130 years..." -Genesis 47:8-9
Jacob was 130 years old in 1449 BCE.
When Jacob died (1432 BCE), Canaanites called the spot, where his body was lain for 7 days, as "Abel Mizraim" (Gen. 50:10-11), and king Thutmose III acknowledged this name "Abel" and even listed it as one of the main named places. This simply means that not only the scientific finding of famine in 1449 BCE can corroborate the Bible, even Thutmose III himself corroborates that the Bible is accurate about the timeline of the invention of the toponym "Abel [Mizraim]." It was during Thutmose's time when the toponym "Abel" was first mentioned in Egyptian official record, located near Assur (List 1, #15, Karnak Great Temple of Amon). Abel during Thutmose's time was newly invented toponym and it's not a city, town or station of military men. This strengthens the claim that Jacob died (1432 BCE) during the latter time of king Thutmose III's reign.
The instruction of the pharaoh in 1449 BCE to Joseph.
"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto your brothers, This do ye; lade your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan;...
And the
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL did so: ... And they
WENT UP OUT OF EGYPT,
and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father" - Genesis 45:17,20-21,25
According to 1Kings 6:1, in the 480th year after the sons of Israel went up out of Egypt, king Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem.
"And it came to pass in the 480th year after the
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WERE COME OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT,
in the 4th year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the second month, Zif, that he began to build the house of YHWH." -1 Kings 6:1
1449 BCE
- 480 years
____________
969 BCE
King Solomon started building the temple in 969 or 968 BCE.
Court record of ancient Tyre confirmed this date informing then Phoenicians that in 11th year or Year 12 of king Hirom (981-947 BCE) a temple in Jerusalem was built.
King Hiram's 12th year was between 969 and 968 BCE.
Another historical report to support Tyre's and biblical date is the timeline given in Parian Marble and by Gallo-Roman historian Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus.
Justin 18:3:5 quoted Pompeius Trogus saying that Tyre was founded one year before the fall of Troy.
Parian Chronicle, section 25, stated that Troy was taken on Thargelion 24th, 945 years before the marble was inscribed, or that is, 10 June 1208 BCE.
Hence, Troy was taken in 1209 BCE. Court records of Tyre, as likely the source of Josephus' information, may have determined that in Year 241 or in the 240th year of Tyre's founding was when king Hirom started to build the temple in Jerusalem for king Solomon (Antiquities 8.3.1; Against Apion 1:18).
1209 BCE
- 241 years
____________
968 BCE
or
1209 BCE
- 240 years
____________
969 BCE
This clearly identified 969/968 BCE as the historical date for the building of the temple in Jerusalem.
Go back in biblical history 480th year before that building of the temple, in 1449 BCE Jacob was 130 years old, hence Jacob was born in 1578 BCE when Isaac was 60 years old (Gen. 25:26).
Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born in 1637 BCE, that is, Abram was 75 years old in circa 1664 BCE when king Hammurabi gave permission to the inhabitants of Mari kingdom to leave the region before he would destroy the palace. Abram left his father, Terah (Terru), who was king Zimri-lim's vassal ruler.
Terru (Terah) was forced to leave Urkashdim (Urkesh-dim) when the Habiru (Hebrews) threatened his life after he chose Zimri-lim (1679-1665 BCE) to be his suzerain lord, saying in a letter:
"Because I have cast my lot with [you] my lord [Zimri-lim], people in my town hate me. A couple of times I have had to save myself, escaping death” -Terah (ARM 28 44bis)
It became worse every day.
“They do not speak with me,” Terru lamented to Zimri-Lim in the Mari correspondence (Archives royales de Mari or ARM). “They speak evil things.”
One of Zimri-Lim’s replies is as follows: “I did not know that the
sons of your city
hate you on my account. But you are mine, even if the city of Urkesh is not.”
Sons in that conversation is "DUMU.MESH" (44bis8), where "MESH" is a "plural marker," and "DUMU" means "son" which probably Hebrized into "-dim," Hebrizing "sons of Urkesh" as "Urkash-dim."
In the Bible it is "Urkashdim" (later translated as "Ur of Chaldees," which is erroneous for there were no Chaldees during Abraham's days, besides of the fact that the Hebrew word for "Chaldees" is not "Ur-kashdim"). The singular form of the Hebrew word "Kashdim" is "Kesed," of a patriarch who lived in Aram Naharim in Syria (Gen. 22:22). That this "Kashdim" (Chaldea) was located in Syria is suggested by prophet Isaiah when he reported that the Assyrian founded its land near Sidon, Tyre, and Assyria (Isa. 23:12-17). Later Christians understood Mesopotamia (Syria) as the region of Chaldea (Urfa/Edessa). In fact, the first Christian martyr, deacon Stephen located Chaldeans in Mesopotamia (Syria) or Aram Naharim (Acts 7:2,4) near Harran, obviously because that was the region of the Semites, the race of Abraham.
"And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was
in Mesopotamia,
before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him, Get thee out of
thy country,
and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
Then came he out of the
land of the Chaldaeans,
and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell." - Acts 7:2-4
Both Old and New Testament clearly located the origin of Abraham in Padam-Aram near Nahur and Harran (Gen. 24:2-10 & 25:20, 28:2,5). Many modern so-called biblical scholars rejected this, and based on their feelings, they locate Abraham's origin as to Southern Babylon.
"And Haran died on front of Terah his father
בְּאֶ֥רֶץ (be'eretz)
in the land
מוֹלַדְתּ֖וֹ (mōladtōh)
of his birth
בְּא֥וּר (ba-'ur)
כַּשְׂדִּֽים (Kashdim)
in Urkashdim." - Genesis 11:28
"And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot (the son of Haran) his grandson son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Urkashdim, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
And the days of Terah were 205 years: and Terah died in Haran." -Genesis 11:31-32
According to this passage, Harran is between Urkashdim and Canaan.
There was a public hatred against Terru (Terah) in Urkash-dim.
And Ariukki (Ariokh) succeeded on the throne of Urkesh when Terru left the city. Zimri-lim defeated Elamarza (Ellasar) as far as Urkesh, that's why Arriuki was his vassal. This Ariukki allied with Amarphel (Amatpiel) of Qatna during the time of Kedor-la-Omer of Eram, according to Genesis 14:9, whose leader was Amarphel as suggested in Genesis 14:1. This is high likely because according to Itur-Asdu, governor of Nahor, that Amarphel has 20 subordinate kings. Qatna was located in Shinar (Hebrized "shene nahar," country Between two Rivers). The other word for "Shinar" is "Naharim" ("Between [Two] Rivers"). King Rameses the Great in his Topographic List 25.3, published in his temple at Abydos, located "Shinar" (Sn-g-r) between Naharin (Mitanni) and Hatti (Hittite territory).
Mari records confirmed the biblical report that king Amarphel (Amatpiel) has several allied kings, giving credence to the reliability of the Bible.
Terah escaped to a more safe place, and he stopped in Harran, a neighborhood of Zimri-lim's country.
From the governor of Nahor, who reminded king Zimri-lim, we can discern that Amarphel was the leader of the ally around Syria and perhaps Galilee:
"There is no king who is strong by himself alone. Hammurapi of Babylon has 10 or 15 kings, likewise Rim-Sin of Larsa, Ibalpel of Eshnunna, Amarpel of Qatna [Shinar]; whereas Yarim-Lim of Yamhad has 20 kings." - Gov. Itur-Asdu (c.1674 BCE)
Governor Itur-Asdu is suggesting to his lord to have a league of kings besides of having vassalage kings.
Instead to take consideration, Zimri-lim became lenient, most likely after having leaning on the prophecy:
"if an eclipse occur on Shabatu 14th, ... the destruction of Babylon is near..." (EAE tablet 20)
This was misunderstood, because in reality this date with the double eclipse had occurred in 1532 BCE before the last king of Babylon, Samsuditana (1530-1499 BCE), reign.
The prophecy was given that Babylon would be fallen, but as a result king Hammurabi, who that time might have been challenging the prophecy, go to Mari to do the destruction upon its king, Zimri-lim, who had gone without trace. To emancipate Mari, in 1665 BCE Hammurabi gave permission to the people to leave the kingdom, and this was the time that Yah commanded Abram to leave his country Haran (Gen.12:1,4). According to Genesis 24:4, 10, Abram's moledet (birthplace) was Nahor. He was born in Harran or Nahor and now permitted to leave Harran. Moledet in Gen. 11:28, Num. 10:30, Ruth 2:11, Jer. 46:16, and Eze. 23:15 means "birth place."
Abram said: "...God caused me to wander from my father's house..." (Gen. 20:13).
Where did he go after this?
He went to Shamkhuna (Shekhem), and became the headache of Egyptians.
Egyptian records describe that "Shamkhuna" was surrounded by Akko (Execration Texts e49), Beth -Shemesh (e60), Hazor, Kinnereth, Pella, Sakmum (namesake Shichem), Jerusalem (e45), Lachish (e59), and Ashkelon, exactly corresponding to what God had promised to Abram to be the land of his descendants.
According to Egyptian Execration (Brussels) Texts # 55,
"Aburahan [was the] ruler of Shamkhuna [Shekhem]"
who in 1630's BCE was a contemporary of the
"Ly-Anak"
whose patriarch, according to Berlin Execration Texts, was Abi-Yamimu ('Father Emim'). The people Emim is also mentioned in the Bible (Gen. 14:1,5) who fought king Amarpel (Amatpiel) in 1664 BCE.
Ephron, the Hittite son of Zohar, of Machpela identified Abram as a
נְשִׂ֨יא (nesi)
"chief"
among the Hittites in Mambre/Hebron (Gen. 23:6, 19).
In Joshua 13:21 a "nesi" is a vassalage king (chieftain). Egyptians identified many such chieftains and cursed them. One of their cursed rulers was Aburahan (Abraham).
Brussels texts, are Execration Texts of curses written by Egyptians against their neighbor foreign major enemies between around 1800 and 1630 BCE, and today they are housed at the Royal Museum of Arts and History (RMAH) in Brussels. One of the major threats to the Egyptians of Saqqara in 1630s BCE was "Aburahan of Shamkhuna," that is, "Abraham of Shekhem."
It was not unusual for the Egyptians to spell names with last letter "-m" changed into "-n" as in Naharim into "Naharina," Shekhem into "Shamkhuna," or "abrhm" into "abrhn" (that is, "Aburaham" into "Aburahan").
As what we can hint from Execration Texts # 55, Abraham with the name "Aburahan" was likely having domestic army that could affect Saqqara, Egypt, and in the Bible this power was more obvious to Abraham during 1630 BCE. Biblical report claims that he had 318 trained men who were victorious against the alliance of king Amarphel (Amatpiel) of Shinar/Between Rivers (Qatna), Arriuki (Arioch) of Ellasar (Elmazar-Urkesh), Tigdhal of Goiim, and Kedor-la-Omer of Eram in around 1663 BCE.
There was a famine in Canaan between 1660's to around 1630's BCE and Abram went down to Egypt where he might have encountered the Hyksos' newly instituted practice (human sacrifice for a god), which was introduced by Minoans in Delta Egypt by building an altar there in around 1660 BCE. Human execration victims could be also in Avaris. This practice was abolished among Nahorite Hebrews after Abraham passed the test on Yahwehyi-reh (Mountain of Seeing).
It was also during Abraham's days when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a fire from heaven in an instant in 1638 BCE. Scientific investigation found out that the wall on which this destruction took place was in the stratum of 1650 BCE, perfectly matches the timeline of biblical Abram.
Moses, the compiler and writer of Abraham's history, first reported about the destruction of Sodom which is accurately confirmed by modern science.
"And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and
burning salt,
that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which YHWH overthrew in His anger and wrath" -Deuteronomy 29:23
Moses gives clue why Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt when she stopped running and looked back to the direction of Sodom. Burning salt was engulfing or covering the entire land. The cause of this disaster was a brimstone or fire stone that fell to the north of Dead Sea. The source of Moses' story, most likely his forefather Abraham, was an eyewitness of the event because of accurate information he gave.
"The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then YHWH rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and
fire from YHWH out of heaven;
And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a
pillar of salt.
And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before YHWH: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.
And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt." - Genesis 19:23-29
According to the witness of the event and its aftermath, fire from heaven rained upon Sodom and nearby cities early in the morning, overthrowing the cities, and that a woman turned into a pillar of salt. It took around 3660 years before scientists confirmed and corroborated these details.
Why Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt? Moses' clue: because of burning salt, and science confirmed this.
///There is an evidence at eastern Middle Ghor showing it was then covered with a
super-heated brine
of Dead Sea anhydrite salts pushed over the landscape by the event's frontal shock waves. In other words, the blast also caused a Dead Sea tsunami to cover the land. (BusinessInsider, by Peter Farquhar 30th Nov. 2018)///
Archaeologist Phillip Silvia of Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque reported on his research on the Dead Sea at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research that they found evidence that shockwaves from the explosion pushed a bubbling brine of Dead Sea salts over the once-fertile farmland.
Silvia led excavations at five large sites on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River. According to him, the 15 square-mile circular Middle Ghor was a fertile plain, populated continuously for at least 2,500 years. Some form of catastrophe
3,700 years ago
brought this to a sudden end, wiping out all of the estimated 40,000 to 65,000 people who inhabited the area at the time.
Studies of the remains of 120 small settlements in the region showed signs of extreme, collapse-inducing heat and wind. Pottery was discovered to have been exposed to heat so intense that it melted into glass. Zircon crystals in those glassy coats formed within one second at extremely high temperatures, perhaps as hot as the surface of the sun. Pottery fragments discovered at the Tall el-Hammam site contained tiny, spherical mineral grains that apparently rained down on the area.
The event was so catastrophic that the area remained unpopulated for 600 years.
This another scientific finding, that the land was barren for 600 years corroborates the biblical report that from Abraham (1638 BCE) to Moses (1309-1189 BCE) till the time of king David, Sodom and nearby areas were not good for planting and for habitation. Moses says that no grass grew in the said land (Deut. 29:23). It was during Rehoboam's days when the remnants of Sodomites are mentioned again (1Kings 14:24-25). Therefore, the report of the Bible is not just from crude memory but from actual historical record, which was kept by Moses and transfered to the next generations.
ANOTHER FAMINE
"And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar." - Genesis 26:1
Scientific studies corroborate that there was another famine (during Isaac's days) between around 1550 and 1510 BCE. And this was also the time when king Ahmose defeated the Hyksos both in Delta Egypt and in Syria-Palestine areas and might have pushed majority of them back to Crete and nearby Mediterranean islands or lands. There was a strict no-foreign policy around 1550 BCE imposed by king Ahmose in Egypt hence Isaac could not go further in Egypt (cf. Genesis 26:2). Ahmose easily defeated Avaris' Hyksos, whose Minoan back up in Jericho (stratum IVC MBAIII), Galilee (Tell Kabri) and Syria were devastated by earthquake and drought and whose strongholds in Crete and Akrotiri were destroyed by Thera eruption.
The long mysterious date of Thera eruption may be answered by the Bible and scientific studies (on pollen remains in Mediterranean), as there was Thera eruption in 1630 BCE and another eruption in around 1530 BCE, both of which caused the famines in several areas of Canaan. The Thera eruption that deserted Akrotiri was in circa 1530 BCE (as most recent pottery style, e.g. Cypriotic, found at Akrotiri was dated to ca.1500 BCE in the Late Minoan 1A), and the one that devastated Egypt was in 1530 BCE.
Although it was not a practice of pharaoh to fight agriculturists or business traders whether it be Canaanites or Hyksos (as what king Senakhtenre Ahmose could prove), Isaac was commanded by his God not to go in Egypt.
Hundred or more than one hundred Philistines had been given a land by king Abimelekh of Gerar probably through general Phicol (Gen. 21:22, 26:26). How do we know the number?
Because according to king Abimelekh, Isaac is stronger than the Philistines (Gen.26:16). Abraham had 318 trained domestic fighters, hence Philistines were fewer than this.
That number could be doubled when Isaac inherited his father's wealth.
Water supply was the major concern during the drought of 1550-1500 BCE and this might be one of the effects of Thera eruption that time. As pottery evidence is concerned, the 1500 BCE people of Akrotiri in Santorini island was wiped out by the eruption, whose ashes were buried at Avaris and whose by-effect water wave reached as distant as Waset (Thebes) Egypt, 800 km south of Mediterranean, and its devastation was witnessed by no less than king Ahmose and officially reported on the document now known Tempest Stele.
Needless to say, it was not advisable for Isaac to go in Egypt to save his cattle.
Jacob and Esau were the twin sons of Isaac. Esau was also known Edom, whereas Jacob was later known Israel.
Lot, the nephew of Abraham, begot Moab and Ben-Ammi in the year when Isaac was born (1637 BCE).
Historically speaking, Moab, Israel, and Edom were mentioned by the official documents during the time of king Rameses the Great (1279-1213) and his son Merneptah (1213-1203 BCE), around less than 400 years after the existence of the patriarchs who used those names. This in effect a part of fulfilment of the promise to Abraham (1630 BCE) that his seed would be become a nation and liberated from Egypt after 400 years.
In 1639 BCE God promised to Abram to possess Canaanite land (Shamkhuna) 430 years after the covenant (Gen. 17:7-8, Galatians 3:15-18). And this had materialized when king Merneptah officially reported the wandering Israel in 1208 BCE near Kharu (Horite state land) in the border of Egypt.
Officially mentioned in Egyptian records:
Moab (1279-1213 BCE),
Israel (1208 BCE),
Edom (1206 BCE).
It was during the time of Moses (1309-1189 BCE) when Edom had its "king" (Num. 20:14), when Moab had its "captains" or "ele" (Exo.15:15), and when "Israel" became a wandering tribe of many men and women going to the border of Egypt. That's the biblical side.
In Egyptian side, this happened during the timeline of king Rameses II and Merneptah.
King Rameses II officially reported "Moab" in his Temple of Luxor's Topographic List 22, number d-10, not as ruled by a king (but enough to be included in the list of his enemies). The pharaoh has also mentioned stretching his arms against Ti-bu-ni (Dibon), a town of Moab.
All these prove that the Bible is accurate in pin-pointing the timeline of Rameses as the timeline of Moses. To conclude, the report of Moses in Numbers 33:2-5 is accurate.
"And Moses wrote their journeys by the commandment of YHWH: and these are their journeys according to their goings out.
And they departed from
Rameses
on the 15th day of the 1st month; on the day after the passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians. For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which YHWH had smitten among them: upon their
gods
also YHWH executed judgments.
And the children of Israel removed from Rameses, and pitched in Succoth.
And they left Succoth, and camped at Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness. And they removed from Etham, and turned again unto Pihahiroth, which is before
Baalzephon:
and they encamped on front of Migdol.
And they left from front of Pihahiroth, and passed through the midst of
ha-yam
[the sea]
into the wilderness, and went 3 days' journey in the wilderness of Etham,..." -Numbers 33:2-8
Adding to the accuracy of Moses are Migdol of Seti, near Etham (fortress to the edge of wilderness of Shur), Pihahiroth, Baalzephon, and ha-yam known as "pe-yam" in 1210 BCE Egyptian document referring to the area where "Tuffy" (called by Moses as "yam suf" or reeds' sea) was located.
According to the description of scribe Inena,
"htm (Etham) Fort of
mr-n-pth (Merneptah)
htp hr m3't (Hotiphrima'at)
. . .
<m> (mi-) is in
tkw (tjeku) Succoth "
(Papyrus Anastasi 6.51-61)
Baalzephon was a place mentioned in 1225 BCE Papyrus Salier IV, 1:16, and described in Papyrus Anastasi to be located near or in the land of Rameses.
Moses' description for "Migdol" is referring to the 13th century BCE "Migdol of Seti."
Kakemwer writing during the time of king Seti I (1290-1279 BCE) said that there was a fortress (Etham) to the north of "Migdol of Seti Mer-ne-Ptah" on front of wilderness east of the palace (later renamed Pi-Rameses). To the south of Migdol was the Etham [enclosure-wall] of Succoth.
Here is what that general of the archers has written to...
"... the Bowman Chief Ani & the Bowman Chief Bakenptah, [be upon you] life, prosperity, and health! (L.p.h.)
In the favor of Amen-Ra, king of gods, and the ka (soul) of the king of Upper & Lower Egypt: Userkheperure Setepenra, l.p.h. - our good lord, l.p.h. ...
Another matter to wit: I was sent forth from the broad-hills of the palace - l.p.h.! - in the 3rd month of the 3rd season, day 9, at the time of evening,
following after these two slaves.
Now when I reached the
sg3r n tjkw [enclosure-wall of Succoth]
on the 3rd month of the 3rd season, day 10, they told me they were saying to the
rsy [south]
that they had passed by on day 10 in the 3rd month of 3rd season. Now when I reached
p3 htm [pe-Etham/the fortress]
they told me that the scout had come from the
h3st [desert]
saying that they had passed
t3 inbt [the north]
mhty [walled place]
n mktr [of the Migdol]
of Seti Mer-ne-Ptah, l.p.h.! Beloved like Seth.
When my letter reaches you, write to me about all that has transpired to them.
Who found their tracks? Which watch found their tracks? What people went after them? Write to me about all that has happened to them and how many people you sent out after them.
(May your health) be good!"
- Papyrus Anastasi 5, 19.2-20.6, PURSUIT OF RUNAWAY SLAVES
(cf. James N. Pritchard, ANET, Princeton, 1969, p. 259)
The intricate paths that Moses and Israel had trodden in that region and even the requirement of giving date of exit and number of population of escaping people are vindicated to be valid by this papyrus written around 1280's BCE. The pharaoh of 1280's died, and Moses reported the death of the king of Egypt (Exo. 2:23), after of which followed was the king of exodus.
Two pharaohs are named in the Bible by their projects:
1) the builder of Raamses city and the land named (Rameses) after him, mentioned by Moses (Num. 33:2-5, Exo. 1:11); and
2) the water supply of Well of Nephtoah (Merneptah) mentioned by Joshua 15:9 & 18:15.
These two names "Rameses" and Nephtoah (Merneptah) reinforce the historical fact that Moses and Joshua existed during the days of Rameses and Merneptah. Conclusive support to the timeline of these toponyms is the Joshua's altar in Mt. Ebal. Archaeological evidence clearly identified who were the builders of Joshua's altar. Lead tablet, owned probably by Moses (1309-1189 BCE), was found from the soil sifted from the altar, and the author wrote curses on the tablet if the adherents do not follow the God YHW (Yahweh). A clay jar made in around 1250 BCE was found beneath the altar, and scarabs released by king Rameses between 1240 and 1220 BCE were dug from the altar itself. Remains of Iron Age I (1200-1170 BCE) plaster were recovered from the altar. All these facts suggest that the people of Yahweh who built this altar around after 1200 BCE lived during the time of king Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE). Biblical Joshua died around 1138 BCE, the same time when the altar was disused and buried on the ground.
Dishonest thinkers, basing on their feelings, do not accept the Joshua's altar (in Rameses II's timeline), the Well of Nephtoah (Merneptah), and the toponym Rameses and that Moses and Joshua who wrote about them.
For honest thinkers, feelings are not a valid source of information or confirmation.
The Bible clearly identified who was the pharaoh during Moses' days. The pharaoh built the store-cities Pithom and Raamses.
"Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh store-cities, Pithom and Raamses." - Exodus 1:11
According to Britannica Encyclopedia, king Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE) was the founder of Pithom. The pharaoh himself categorically claimed that he made Pithom. Archaeological findings in Tell el-Retabeh proved that indeed Pithom was built by king Rameses the Great and in fact it was the first fortress in the area. This Pithom of king Rameses had granary, confirming Moses' report that it was a store-city (Exo.1:11) and it was built for the pharaoh by Semitic workers using bricks. This archaeological fact confirmed the report of Moses that the Hebrews, Semitic people, built city for pharaoh using bricks (Exo. 5:1-19).
Would Moses tell if the pharaoh had died during his lifetime?
Yes. Before the pharaoh of exodus, there was a pharaoh who died.
That pharaoh died during the second "gadal" of or when Moses was at his 20's.
Before the death of "the king of Egypt" in 1279 BCE, Moses was at his "gadal" (20s).
"And it came to pass in those days, when Moses
וַיִּגְדַּ֤ל
[wa-yighdal]
(was grown),
that he went out unto his brothers, ..." -Exodus 2:11
The word "yighdal" ('is grown') is used in Genesis 38:11,14 for a teenager or at 20's, and its root "gadal" ('was grown') also mean the same thing. This is consistent with the "yigdalu" ('were grown') in Ruth 1:13.
Two years or more after the visitation of Moses, the "king of Egypt died" (Exo. 2:23) in 1279 BCE.
"And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage." - Exodus 2:23
This passage is the prequel of the prologue in Exodus 1.
"Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the descendants of Israel are much and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falls out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built Pithom and Raamses, which were treasure cities for Pharaoh.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in
brick, and
in all manner of service in the field:
all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour." -Exodus 1:8-14
Did Rameses ready his military power after knowing that some of Shasu and tribes in Canaan were conspiring with his enemies? Absolutely, yes. In fact, because of the great fear, he wanted to make thousands of military armaments and paraphernalia within few weeks or months in Pi-Rameses, where he built factories to manufacture weapons, chariots, and shields, supposedly producing some 1,000 weapons in a week, about 250 chariots in two weeks, and 1,000 shields in a week and a half.
Rameses II continued the building projects of his father & renamed them after his own name. The location where the palace of king Seti I was erected was renamed "Domain of Rameses" or "Per-Ramessu. This treasure city was identified by Moses with the name "Raamses" (Exo. 1:11). Later, a region or district was called "Land of Rameses." During the time of king Merneptah (c.1210 BCE), as recorded in Papyrus Anastasi 3, the land was known "Rameses," which is clearly identified being derived from the name of king Rameses the Great. Thus, the land of Rameses was contemporary of king Merneptah and of Moses (1309-1189 BCE).
According to the estimation of deacon Stephen, at 40 Moses committed murder.
"And when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers the descendants of Israel.
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian" -Acts 7:23-24
This could be in circa 1269 BCE when the pharaoh learned what Moses had done. Moses became fugitive because of it.
He found his refuge to a Midianite priest Jethro, whose Edomite name was Reguel, who was living south of Arad in the region of the Kenites in Kushan (Midian). Moses led Jethro's flock to one of the mountains of Sinai (Makhtesh Ramon), called Horeb or Mount of God, at the backside of the desert (Exo.3:1).
According to Moses, this "Horeb" was located between Kadesh-barneah and Seir (Deut.1:2). Ancient Egyptians called the area as "Kushu" (rendered "Kushan" by prophet Habakkuk), but king Rameses the Great identified it as "Land of Yahweh," where a tribe of Shasu were temporarily inhabiting, and later king Rameses III called it "Yah" (Yiha), south of Atharim. King Rameses II has claimed of capturing the semi-nomads living in the "Land of Yahweh" and officially reported this event in his temple at Amara west (KRI, II, 217; RITA II, 75). The area as hieroglyphically described by king Amenhotep III (1380 BCE) and Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE) was not permanently inhabited by Shasu. The reason?
Because fire from underground of the mountains there were pouring around and covering the ground (cf. Judges 5:4-5, Deut. 32:22, Habakkuk 3:5-7).
This time, Moses stepped on one of its mountains.
"And the angel of YHWH appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: ...
'Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, YHWH the God of your fathers,... Abraham,... Isaac, and ... Jacob, appeared unto me, saying,...
... every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her who sojourns in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall plunder the Egyptians." -Exodus 3:2,16,22
Around 600 elef (head of thousand) with erebh rabh (mixed general or evening multitude) were ready to leave Rameses.
"And the descendants of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600 eleph on foot strong persons, beside mitaph [families].
And an erebh rabh [mixed multitude] went up also with them;..." -Exodus 12:37-38
Before that escape, king of Rameses had compromised, saying about Mose:
"The King himself gives silver & all good things of the king's house," because the king is "pleased with the speech of his mouth". To the soldiers Rameses II says: "I wish you may see and do what His Majesty loves. How good is what he has done! Great, great!".
But after the escape, the pharaoh erased the record of Mohy. Not only the record of general Mohy was deliberately erased, but also the Stele of Mose was tried to be erased. This signifies that Egyptians wanted to erase the good memory of Mose from their official documents.
Egyptian records do not give the reason, but Moses revealed the reason behind this act.
The firstborn who was sitting on the throne of the pharaoh died. This Crown Prince was acting as a pharaoh for his father (Rameses II the Great) was serious to fulfill the performance as one of the Egyptian gods. While Rameses the Great was performing as an Egyptian god, his then firstborn son, Ramesses B junior, was performing in his behalf as a pharaoh. And Moses had encountered this very pharaoh (the sitting Crown Prince).
He said unto Moses:
"... Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die.
And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more." -Exodus 10:28-29
Why Moses knew that he would not see again the face of that "pharaoh," although after the Passover he had seen again the Pharaoh?
Because the pharaoh Moses had had a conversation with was the firstborn son sitting on the throne of the Pharaoh, and the real Pharaoh was the father of that one sitting on the throne.
So, yes, Moses had not seen again the said de facto pharaoh. What he has seen was the face of the real Pharaoh.
"And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant who is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of animals." - Exodus 11:5
Why the firstborn son was sitting on the throne of his father Pharaoh?
Because according to Egyptian tradition, the crown prince could substitute or function as an acting pharaoh while his father was performing as an Egyptian god, and the pharaoh could become ritually an Egyptian god if he has reached or celebrated his heb sed (jubilee) festival on his 30th regnal year on the throne. Needless to say, the pharaoh of Rameses that time was more than 30 years on service, and it happened that his firstborn son when he reached that ritual Egyptian godship in 1250 BCE was the crown prince Ramesses B junior, his namesake anticipated successor. The eldest firstborn son died in 1254 BCE and hence Ramesses B, as the next available firstborn son, succeeded on the position "Crown Prince." Unfortunately, this firstborn son sitting on the pharaoh's throne died in 1229 BCE.
The prophecy or order given of YHWH by Moses was that the firstborn who sits upon the throne of the pharaoh should die, hence no firstborn son of king Rameses II succeeded. All his firstborn sons died before king Rameses the Great died. And because of this, he entombed them one by one in the largest tomb ever built in Egypt.
Moses clearly reported about this death and punishment to Egyptian gods, particularly to the pharaoh who was the father of the firstborn son.
"And Moses wrote their journeys by the commandment of YHWH: and these are their journeys according to their goings out.
And they departed from
Rameses
on the 15th day of the 1st month; on the day after the Passover the descendants of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians. For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which YHWH had smitten among them: upon their
gods
also YHWH executed judgments.
And the children of Israel left Rameses, and camped at Succoth.
And they departed from Succoth, and pitched in Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness.
And they left Etham, and turned again unto Pihahiroth, which is before Baalzephon: and they camped at front of Migdol. And they departed from before Pihahiroth, and passed through the midst of
the sea
into the wilderness, and went 3 days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, ... " - Numbers 33:2-8
Moses is very precise in his report: he was pertaining to a pharaoh who was one of the Egyptian gods being judged by the death of his firstborn son, who was then sitting on the throne of the pharaoh. The location of this incident?
It was in Rameses, where Pihahirot (Precinct of Avaris) and the yam suph (reeds' sea) were located, north of Succoth or west of Etham and wilderness of Shur.
The yam suph (reeds' sea) upon which ground the Israel had passed through is located in the land of Rameses west of the wilderness of Shur (Etham).
"So Moses brought Israel from the
yam suph [ Reeds' Sea],
and they went out into the
wilderness of Shur;
and they went 3 days in the wilderness, and found no water." -Exodus 15:22
NO WATER
The exodus took place when there was a drought. And yes, both on the records of king Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE), Hittites and scientific investigation, there was drought that time. That's possibly why the target of Moses was to reach the rivers or springs near and around Kadesh-barneah just bordering in Makhtesh Ramon, the marker between Edom and Kadesh.
Deacon Stephen recalled to the disciples of the synagogues of Libertines, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, Cilicians, and Asia Minor (Acts 6:9) that ...
"Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds." -Acts 7:22
Moses was a learned man and knew how to deal certain problem like the problem of drought because he studied in the school of Egypt and learned military and religious affairs of the Egyptians, but "when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter" (Heb. 11:24). His adopting mother, Bat-par'oh, had given him the name "Yar-mesu" ("Born of/Drew from the River water") as "she said, Because I drew him out of the water" (Exo. 2:10).
But he became known by his name "Mesu" ("Moseh" in Hebrew or "Moses" in Latin). King Rameses III (1186-1155 BCE) derogatorily shortened his name into "Yar-su" to imply "usurper" or to mean no Egyptian god made him but he himself. At Moses' advance age, during his eighty, king Rameses II (around 1230 BCE) rewarded him with certain amount of silver and treasure of the palace for his good speech to give favor for the pharaoh and even said that Mose (Moses) is great in his doing, and because of this Moses became famous on front of the army and servants of king Rameses II. The pharaoh depicted Moses as a senior and holding the king's rod, a symbol of authority and dominion. The pharaoh, documenting the event, erected a well-incised stele for Moses on front of king Rameses' statue in the city of Pi-Rameses (and this document now known "Stele of Mose" is held in Roemer-und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim nr374 in Germany).
Moses corroborated Rameses II's report by the following passage:
" ... let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of
silver,
and jewels of gold.
And YHWH gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people." -Exodus 11:2-3
Needless to say, king Rameses II was trying to get the full support of the army, which that time was still under the influence of Moses, senior soldier who was consulted by younger maher about discipline, according to scribe Hori (fl. 1207- c.1160 BCE). The pharaoh was asking the men to imitate Moses in talking good things for him as Moses "has done, very great."
"I wish," king Rameses said, "you may see and do what His Majesty loves."
Despite this meeting,
still around 600 elef
(or to be exact, 598 elef) left Rameses and joined with the mixed multitude in exodus or escape.
"And the descendants of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600 elef on foot-persons, besides mitaph [families]. And
ereb rabh
[Arab general/mixed multitude]
went up also with them..." -Exodus 12:37-38
Why going to Succoth?
Because Succoth from the days of Thutmose IV (1394 BCE) was a military zone and according to the Egyptian 19th Dynasty hieroglyphics, Succoth (Tjeku) was a district in Egyptian 8th nome, which earlier was inhabited by foreigners (Semitic people) - as scribes were usually writing it using Semitic borrowed words with throw-stick and foreign-land determinatives.
Inside this district was a settlement also called Tjeku, where army was installed and Egyptian scribe (in Anastasi 5) borrowed the Semitic word "s'gor" and called it "p3 sg3r n tjkw" (the ENCLOSURE of Tjeku). Needless to say, military back up would be the Semitic army in Succoth.
The pharaoh of Rameses tried to capture the fugitives by sending 600 chariots.
Moses' around 600 elef
versus
Rameses' 600 chariots.
And the pharaoh...
"took 600 chosen chariots, and whole chariots of Egypt, with captains over every one of them" (Exodus 14:7).
There was no actual battle between these 600 Egyptian chariots and 598 Hebrew elef, and no reason for the pharaoh to report or to implicate that the pharaoh lost such huge number of people with his permission.
Moses' petition was to sojourn in the wilderness 3 days distant from Rameses if run by horse, that is, in the wilderness of Sin (Makhtesh Ramon).
The travel of these men and women to the border of Egypt was officially reported by king Rameses the Great's successor in the document now known "Victory Stele," line 27 referring to 1208 BCE historical event.
The pharaoh reported not just exodus but the disturbance created by this Israel during their wandering, going to Canaan.
"(Tribe) Israel, of many wandering [rebellious] men & women, is devastated - his seeds no longer exist. Khor (Horite state in Seir) has become a widow because of Egypt. All who were restless have been subdued by... the king..." - Merneptah Stele, lines 27-29
King Merneptah locates the no-permanent residence wandering tribe Israel just near "Kharu," the Horite state in Seir. It was not a surprise thing since Moses claimed that an "ereb rabh" ("Arab general") was with the 598 elef in heeding towards Succoth. Negev, particularly near Arabah was also known as the area of the Arabs, including the Kenites of Makhtesh Ramon. Joshua reported that 10,000s kodesh of Seir were converts to YHWH's law and they considered Moses as king of Jeshurun (Asherites) in 1189 BCE.
"And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.
And he said, YHWH came from Sinai, and rose up from
Seir
unto them; He shone forth from mount Paran, and he came with 10,000s of kodesh: from His right hand went a fiery law for them.
Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together." -Deuteronomy 33:1-2,4-5
Fire from the foundation of Sinai mountain erupted, and according to the report of Ipuwer (Admonitions of the Sage, 7:1) this fire hit the Egyptian enemies (those who plundered Egypt with silver and treasure).
In 1208 BCE the troop of king Merneptah encountered the vagabond men and women of Israel, who were causing disturbances going to Canaan.
Moses (Yar-su) was popular in Seir that even king Rameses III called him a "Kharu" (Horite).
It was consistent in Egyptian records that Horites (Kharu or Seir) were enemies of the pharaoh. Merneptah claims to have killed the men of Horite state (Kharu), whereas Rameses III claims to have destroyed the tents and belongings of the Seirites, which took place after Joshua left to Shittim.
"Khor (Horite state in Seir)," according to Merneptah, "has become a widow because of Egypt."
"I destroyed Seirites, the clans of the Shasu," boasted king Rameses III. "I pillaged tents with their people, their property,..." -Papyrus Harris I, 76.9-11
On contrary, Edomites were an ally of Merneptah.
"We have allowed the Shasu tribes of Edom to pass the Pithom Merneptah of Succoth, towards the lake-like pools of Pithom of Merneptah, which are in Succoth, to refresh themselves & their cattle by the merciful soul of the Pharaoh" - Inena, Papyrus Anastasi VI, 4.56
Moses gives the reason between Seirites (Horites) and Edomites: they fought each other prior to the exodus (Deut. 2:12).
While Seirites were enemies, king Merneptah in 1206 BCE used Edomites to be messengers, expectedly as Edomites abhorred Israelites. Moses confirmed in 1189 BCE that Edomites abhorred Israel when Israel was in Kadesh next to Seir (Num. 20:14, 16, 20, 21). It was Jephthah who first cited this memory (Judg. 11:17).
This same Jephthah (1180 BCE) recalled that 300 years earlier, Israel sojourned in Arnon.
" בְּשֶׁ֣בֶת [beshebeth]
To Israel
who dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, 300 years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time?" -Judges 11:26
It was in 1480 BCE when Israel (Jacob) sojourned in Jabbok to meet his elder brother Esau (Edom). It was also in that region Jacob had received the new name "Israel" (Gen. 32:22-28). That year was very remarkable for the family of Jacob that even Jephthah has made mentioned it in 1180 BCE.
1480 BCE
After serving Laban ben Bethuel for 14 years (1498-1485 BCE) for Rachel and Leah, Jacob had served him another 6 years for the livestock.
After the 'summer' (hot days) and 'winter' (cold days) of 1481 BCE, Jacob fled away from his uncle father-in-law Laban.
In 1498 BCE Jacob became husband of Leah, who gave birth to Reuben (1497 BCE), Simeon (c.1495), Levi (c.1493), and Judah (c.1491). To Bilhah Jacob begot Dan (c. 1494), and Naphtali (c.1492), whereas to Zilpah he begot Gad (c. 1490) and Asher (c.1489). Leah gave birth again, this time to Issachar (c.1489), Zebulon (c.1487), and Dinah (c.1485).
Rachel gave birth to Joseph (1486 BCE), and she died after giving birth to Benjamin (c. 1484 BCE).
According to outdated (AD 1970) feeling-based opinion, the composition of the story could be dated between 7th and 5th century BCE, or more probably in 1611 AD after King James Version was published. But internal evidence suggests that the story of Jacob or Joseph the Dreamer could be taken from the time after Hammurabi and written during the time of Moses in the 13th or 12th century BCE. Scientific evidence prove that the drought (and in effect famine) of 1450 BCE during Joseph's days was the 3rd from Abram's time (c.1660's BCE). Writers of 7th or 5th century BCE had no means to know the exact dates of famines from Abraham, Isaac (c.1550's BCE), and Joseph's days.
The "Tale of Two Brothers" written during the reign of Seti II (1203-1197 BCE), now known Papyrus D'Orbiney, resembles that of Joseph's story about the failed attempt of a boss' wife to seduce the victim male. The feeling-based opinion that Joseph's and this story (Tale of Two Brothers) were copied or plagiarized from the 7th or 5th century BCE story or from Ptolemaic Papyrus Jumilhac is a clear super outdated thinking of mythicists. If feeling-based-opinion mythicists are correct, that the story was written in the 6th century BCE, then the slave value would be around 60 shekels of silver. Unfortunately, the slave value during the time of Jacob (1578-1432 BCE), according to Genesis 37:1,28 was 20 shekels of silver, which was the value for a slave during the days of Hammurabi (r. 1696-1654 BCE).
This same Hammurabi king of Babylon was the reason why men from Mari and under Mari's dominion (Harran, Nahor, etc.) could chose other land outside the kingdom without difficulty because Hammurabi was wanting to emancipate Mari kingdom, hence could easily defeat its king, Zimri-lim.
With this situation, Abram was asked to leave his moledet (birthplace) Harran and go to a place where his God would tell him to go.
It was during the time of Abram that the homosexual was so rampant. In fact, no less than king Hammurabi and Zimri-lim had their male lovers. These two homosexual kings had something to do with the journey of the historical Abraham.
Zimri-lim was chosen by Terru, Abram's father, to be suzerain, and because of this Habiru (Hebrews) in Urkesh were so furious against Terru (Terah). The sons of Urkesh (i.e. Urkash-dim) rejected Terru, and king Zimri-lim was proud that despite of this rejection Terru was still loyal to him. From Urkashdim Terru transferred nearer to Zimri-lim. Terah with his sons originally planned to transfer in Canaan but found his haven in Harran.
Hammurabi of Babylon and Zimri-lim were allies until one prophecy broke their good relationship.
A prophet of Zimri-lim foretold that a double eclipse if occur on Sabatu 14, the doomsday of Babylon would be drawing near (as recorded in EAE tablet 20).
Hammurabi might have challenged this by marching to Mari and warning its people to leave the city if they want to be excluded on its drawing near destruction.
The prophecy came true. The double eclipse occurred on Sabatu 14 of 1532 BCE, and more than a year after that eclipse, the last king of Babylon, Samsuditana (1530 BCE), reigned until Mursili king of Hattusa destroyed Babylon in 1499 BCE.
The Old Babylonian Kingdom is short lived.
It's founder identified himself as the son of Shem by the name "Sumu-abum" ("Whose Father is Shem"). The name "Sumu" was revived - by Assyrians more than a millennium after - as a toponym in an area in Syria near west of Mitanni. The name in 18th century BCE has significant that the founder of Babylonian Kingdom acknowledged to be a descendant of Sumu (Shem).
1) Sumuabum 1798-1785
2) Sumulael 1785-1749
3) Sabium 1749-1735
4) Apil-Sin 1735-1717
5) Sin-muballit 1716-1697
6) Hammurabi 1696-1654
7) Samsuilliuma 1654-1616
8) Abi-eshuh 1616-1588
9) Ammi-datana 1588-1551
10) Ammisaduqa 1550-1530
11) Samsuditana 1530-1499 BCE.
Babylonians traced the ancestors of king Hammurabi back to Nuabu ("Whose Father is Noah") up to Tubtiyamutu (Tudiya Adamu).
This Tudiya Adamu ("Adam, Beloved of Yah") was the first named vicar of God from whom both Hammurabi and Moses could trace their origin. Since the title "Shar" ("king") that time was used only for God, Tudiya Adamu used the title "issiak" (to mean "vicar" of God or king on earth as God is the king in heaven).
Assyrian cuneiform kinglist record identifies Tudiya Adamu as the first named ruler, but likely with two different locations. In the Bible it is indirectly explained why this was so. According to the Bible Adam was demoted from the Garden of Eden and expelled to its eastern part.
The Garden of Eden was located in western part of Assyria according to Genesis 2:14. Thus, Tudiya was the first identity who ruled in Azuhinum in Assyria, and then Adamu the other identity ruled also. In Babylonian tablet list, these two are one person, named Tubtiyamutu.
In Ebla, "adamu" means "man."
Adam was deified as evidenced by the Eblaite deity "A-dam-ma." And further, Egyptians in around 2400 BCE deified this Adamu (Amutu) with the Egyptianized name "Atum," and likely by the Assyrian word "adamu" ("to make, create"), described it to be the creator who sprang from the primordial waters and who was the creator or father of other gods. His name "Tud-i-ya" means "Beloved of Ya," where the word "Ya" is a divine suffix and in Sumerian language the word "A" may mean "Water," which is "mu" in Assyrian. Adam came from "Ya" (Water/God). Sumerians may have used the term "E.A" ("House of Water") to alter the local god "Hay(y)a" (from Semitic"hyy," "to live") and borrowed by Akkadians for the word "Ea," which later became the generic term for "god." Later priests hacked the name "Ea" and used the logogram "Enki" (Lord of Earth) for it, as evidenced by the Eblaite documents, hence the new meaning of "Ea" was "Lord of Earth," too far from its original meaning. On the other side, the word "Yah" or "Jah" was identified by Assyrians for the God of flood or inundation, as king Ashurnasirpal II (884-859 BCE) said Yah or Jahve is Inundator god that drops rain and inundate the land of the enemies, very likely derived from "Ea" the God of flood. Ea (Ya) was the God who foretold about the impending destruction of mankind by a great flood. The suffix "-ia" was likely used in Ebla and Ugarit between 1700 and 1200 BCE as an alternate for "-el" (" -il"), "god." This could be the time when the name "Ea" in the form of "-ia" became the generic term for "god." Moses used the term "Yah" as an alternate of the name "Yahweh," as the name "YHW" may mean "Ya, the Everlasting Great One." The lineage of Abraham maintained to use the original "Ya," the God that warned Noah of a flood.
Therefore, if Tudiya Adamu lived in around 2400 BCE, he could be the first recorded "vicar" of Ya in Assyria.
The Bible gives the exact location where this Adam was assigned to be the first ruler.
"And YHWH God planted a garden in east, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pishon [Pahiani]: that is it which compasses the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; Gihon [Gozan] is the second river that runs the whole land of Kush [Mitanni-Naharim].
And the name of the third river is Hiddekel [Tigris], which goes toward the
east of Assyria.
And the fourth river is Euphrates." - Genesis 2:8,10-11,13-14
Adam was put in the east, there in Karaca Dag of Assyria in the Garden (Paradise) of Eden. According to Assyrian kinglist, Adamu (Adam) lived in tent in Azuhinum, north of Assyria. In the Bible, this location Azuhinum is considered as the Assyria and east of Gobekli Tepe, that is, the writer was using a very ancient source of map or description.
The Hebrew word גן gan, "garden" in Genesis 2:8 was translated in the Septuagint as "παράδεισος" (Greek: parádeisos), same as to the Hebrew word פרדס "pardes" in Ezekiel 28:13, both referring to the "Garden" of Eden. Most likely it was governor Nehemiah who first popularized the Hebrized form "pardes" for "orchard" in translating the Song of Solomon 4:13 and Ecclesiastes 2:5. This pardes was cognate to Assyrian word "pardesu" ("domain"). Nevertheless, Genesis was written much anciently hence the author or re-publisher used the terminology "gan" instead of the yet non-existent term "pardes."
Like in the case of Sinai (Makhtesh Ramon), there was an area in Eden, particularly near Garden that was eaten by the earth, as that part of earth was a zipping portion between south of East Anatolian Fault and Arabian Plate. East of the Garden was a somewhat like makhtesh or in fact a volcanic cave because of the soil erosion during the time of Cain and Abel. Gilgamesh claimed to have passed in that cave when he from Mount Mashu (Masis), Armenia wanted to take wood in Cedar (Eren), Eden. Cedar Mountain was identified by king Naram-Sin and Gudea as Amanus, in Syria.
Moses describes how an area became a makhtesh when he reported:
"And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the
earth closed upon them:
and they perished from among the congregation.
And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the
earth swallow
us up also. And there came out a
fire
from YHWH, and consumed the 250 men that offered incense." -Numbers 16:32-35
In this area of Sinai (Makhtesh Ramon) between Kadesh-barneah and Seir (Deut. 1:2), fire from the foundations of the mountains poured out, according to Moses and Deborah (Deut. 32:22, Judg. 5:5). In the report of Ipuwer in his Admonitions of the Sage 7:1, this fire hit the Egyptian enemies (people of the desert).
A phenomenon somewhat identical to this had taken place too in the east of the Garden of Eden, and later the soil together with the trees and plants of the Garden were eaten by the earth. The land in the said makhtesh was not good for planting since then. If we will trace this by means of underground volcanic activties and movements of Earth's plates, the location was near Diyarbakir, the same region where the rivers of Euphrates, Tigris, Gozan (Gihon, now known Aslanbaba river), and Bahiani (Pihon, now known Birika creek) are located.
"And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he replied, I do not know: Am I my brother's keeper?
And He said, What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries unto me from the ground. And now are you cursed from the
earth, which has opened her mouth
to receive your brother's blood from your hand;
When you till the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto you her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shall you be in the earth." -Genesis 4:9-12
Prophet Ezekiel gives additional details what happened to the Garden of Eden and who was its ruler during his time.
"Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; ...
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the
holy mountain of God;
thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the
stones of fire.
Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a
fire from the midst
of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee." -Ezekiel 28:12-14,18
Suru was one of the reasons for the king of Beth Eden (Bit Adini) and of Babylon to revolt against king Assurnasirpal I (1060-1031 BCE). King Shalmaneser III (c.856 BCE) conquered and absorbed Bit Adini (Beth Eden) into the Assyrian Empire. From Beth Eden, Balikh, Euphrates rivers extending westwards into northern Syria was an Aramaean settlement. It was part of Lebanon. Prophet Ezekiel called the region as "Eden," which was likely derived from the ancient Sumerian word "Eren" (Cedar), the name given to the region. During the time of Ezekiel, Tyre was under the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
Eden, based on the description of prophet Isaiah before its Garden was buried under the ground, was near Assyria, Hamath, Gozan (Gihon), Tellasar (Elmazar), Haran, and Rezeph. It was connected to other cities because of business trading.
"Haran, and Canneh, and
Eden,
the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants." -Ezekiel 27:23
"Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?
Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of
Eden
which were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, ... ?" -Isaiah 37:11-13
During Moses and Isaiah's days, the Garden of Yah in Eden was still in existence. But the descendants of Eden were living in Telassar (Elmazar).
"And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before YHWH destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of YHWH, like the land of Egypt, as you come unto Zoar." -Genesis 13:10
"... He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of YHWH; ..." -Isaiah 51:3
Ezekiel prophesied that the Garden would be brought down under the ground and turn into ashes.
Volcanic or earth's activity under the ground there had eaten the plants of the garden, as described by prophet Ezekiel.
"Behold, the Assyrian was a
cedar in Lebanon
with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. The
cedars in the garden of God
could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the
garden of God
was like unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the
trees of Eden,
that were in the garden of God, envied him. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and
all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon,
all that drink water, shall be comforted in the
nether parts of the earth.
They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.
To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be
brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth:
... saith the Lord GOD." - Ezekiel 31:3,8,9,16-18
The Garden of Eden was brought down into the hell, pit or deep portion of the earth, according to Ezekiel.
Therefore, during the time of prophet Joel, the Garden was a wilderness.
"A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: ...
A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the
garden of Eden
before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them." -Joel 2:2-3
During the time of Gilgamesh, the region now known much of Syria, from Lebanon to Diyarbakir was called "EREN" ("Cedar"), and Ezekiel uses that terminology in the form of "Eden." A center of this region was known to Arameans as "Beth Eden " (Bit Adini), and east part of it towards Assyria, specifically Karaca Dag, was the Garden known to Septuagint translators "Paradise." Paradise means enclosure or fenced park.
A whirling chereb (dividing) flame guarded the way going to the Etz ha-Hayyim (Tree of [many] Life).
Genesis 3:24
"So He drove out the man; and He placed at kedem [front/east] of the garden of Eden Cherubims [Swords], and a
לַ֤הַט [lahath]
flaming
הַחֶ֙רֶב֙ [ha-chereb]
sword
that
הַמִּתְהַפֶּ֔כֶת [hamiṯhapeket]
overthrowing,
to keep the way of the Etz ha-Hayyim [tree of double-life]." -Genesis 3:24
East Anatolian Fault and Arabian Plate in Eden was welding or zipping together, and this activity may have resulted to erosion and volcanic eruptions. Scientific studies found out volcanic rocks and activities in Karaca Dag near Diyarbakir. Not only the Bible locates the Garden of Eden in this area but also German magazine Der Speigel suggests that the Garden was likely in it. Landsat imagery suggests that some lava flows, particularly those on the east flank, may perhaps be only a few thousand years old (Pearce et al., 1990. Genesis of collision volcanism in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. J. Volcanol. Geortherm. Res. 44: 184-229).
According to Genesis 3:24, the way going to the Eretz ha-Hayyim (Tree of [Double] Life) was hindered by a
הַמִּתְהַפֶּ֔כֶת [ham·miṯ·hap·pe·ḵeṯ]
whirling
הַחֶ֙רֶב֙ [ha-chereb]
sword
לַ֤הַט [lahath]
flame,
and many Cherubim or such Swords [fire Clouds] guarded that way. Today the only visible is the hole produced by this eruption in Karacadag.
Tubtiyamutu (Tudiya Adamu), the first named vicar or governor, both in Assyrian, Babylonian and Hebrew independent lineage-lists, was reported in the Bible to be the first named Ya's vicar who farmed in the Garden of Eden, described to be located in Karaca Dag west of Diyarbakir and east of Gobekli Tepe. Eden is pin pointed by the 4 rivers watering the region. The Bahiani (Pishon), Gozan (Gihon) river, Tigris river that runs going to east in Assyria, and the Euphrates river. King Zimri-lim depicted these 4 rivers from one river head as somewhat north of Mari going to an area of Assyria. This is the oldest depiction for the said rivers of Eden. For people of Mari, this was actual, and yes we can see the actual rivers of Euphrates, Tigris, Gozan (Gihon), and Pishon (Pahiani). The writer of the Flood story of the Epic of Gilgamesh says that Utnapishtim (Flood survivor) was brought to the mouth of the rivers, which the Epic of Zi-ud-sudra identified with Dilmun.
"And they took me away to a place
too distant,
and made me to dwell at the
mouth
of the rivers. " - Epic of Gilgamesh, tablet XI, line 205
And scientists can also detect the actual opening of the earth, just south between Eastern Anatolian Fault and Arabian Plate below the ground of the region where Karacadag is belonged. The exact location was near Diyarbakir, and with the references of volcanic activties (earth opening her mouth during Cain's time, and fire making ashes the garden after Ezekiel), we can precisely locate it in Karaca Dag.
Genesis 2:8 is inferring that the Garden of Eden is located on front or מִקֶּ֑דֶם "mi-kedem" (to the east) of an origin. If this Garden was in Karaca Dag, then the origin would be in Gobekli Tepe. And with the Hebrew term וַיָּ֣שֶׂם "wayasem" ("and He put"), means Adam was not originally from the land of the Garden, rather he was transfered to it when he was assigned as its cultivator or farmer.
Genesis 2:8-11,13-15
"And YHWH God planted a garden in east, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
And out of the ground made YHWH God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads: Pishon [Pahiani] river running to the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
Second river is Gihon [Gozan], which winds in the whole land of Kush.
Third is Tigris [Hiddekel] river, which goes toward the east, of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
And YHWH God took Adam, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." -Genesis 2:8-11,13-15
It was there in the Garden that the first species of domesticated Einkorn wheat grew, as if it was especially brought to life there by certain force of nature.
In a scientific study by Max Planck Institute, it's discovered that the genetic ancestor of all domesticated Einkorn wheat have originated in the mountains of Karaca, and according to Los Angeles Times all of the early agriculture crops appear to have been domesticated in this region. And Manfred Heun of the University of Norway’s department of biotechnological sciences, who led the research team, traces the origin of the DNA of domesticated wheat back to its source on Karaca Dag.
“The researchers reported that the wheat was first cultivated near the Karacadag Mountains in southeastern Turkey, where chickpeas and bitter vetch also originated. Bread wheat—the most valuable single crop in the modern world—grapes and olives were domesticated nearby, as were sheep, pigs, goats and cattle.”
(Hotz, R.L., Scientists Follow a Grain to the Origins of Agriculture, Los Angeles Times, 14 November 1997)
Eden was cultivated by many rivers and springs, and Sumerians called the Fountain of the Living Waters as
"E-A,"
literally mean "House of Water." Prophet Jeremiah learned that this Fountain of the Living Waters is no other than but Yahweh (Jer. 2:13). It was during the time of Seth, Adam's son, when men began to call on the name of Yah (Gen. 4:26). That is, formerly, the name "Ea" or "Ya" was just a name of the Water that gave them life, until later Seth or the people, when Enosh was born, learned to call upon the name Ya.
"And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of Yahweh." - Genesis 4:26
This biblical report that men learned to call on the name Ya after generations from Tudiya Adam was supported by the fact that later priests hacked the name "Ea" ("House of Water") and deliberately changed it to mean "Lord of Earth" and used sculptural image representation of Enki for Ea.
Later the word "Ea" became popular as a generic term for "god," and the divine name "A" was used in Akkadian writing as a divine suffix (as in ana, ila, and DINGIRa), to mean "an-a" ("sky-divine"), "il-a" ("god-divine"), and "DINGIR-a" ("Righteous Judge-divine"). This may mean that the first recognized God or that all terminologies for God are in fact originated or meant "A" ("Ya"), the God of Tudiya Adamu.
In the 15th century BCE Ugaritic writing system, the letter "A" plus "house" were used as the first two letters of the alphabet.
This "Ya" whose first "issiak" (vicar) was Adamu was associated with waters as obviously Eden was surrounded by many rivers, and hence in Egyptian teaching, Atum (Adum) was from water. The Sumerian "A" ('Water') is the Akkadian "mu," which is "Nun" in Egyptian (the hieroglyphic three lines of wavy waters is also rendered "m"). Adam became the father of Abel ("Air, Breath"), which in Egyptian mythologisation turned into Atum created Air (Shu) and Moisture (Tefnut), all of them were deified. Prophet Jeremiah defines Yahweh as the Fountain of the Living Waters (Jer. 17:13). Later, Euphrates was deified.
" מִקְוֵ֤ה [mi-Kwe] to Que
יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ [yishra'el] Israel
יְהוָ֔ה [YHWH] Yahweh
. . .
עָזְב֛וּ [‘azebu] they have forsaken
מְק֥וֹר [mekōhr] the Fountain
מַֽיִם־ [mayim] Waters
חַיִּ֖ים [hayyim] Living
אֶת־ [’eth] that is,
יְהוָֽה [YHWH] Yahweh
ס [s]." - Jeremiah 17:13
In this passage, Yahweh of Israel is said to be from Kwe (Cilicia), and His name is derived from the root of the word "hyym" ("living") "mayim" ("Waters"). Water is "mu" in Akkadian, a translation of Sumerian word "A."
The root of the name "Ya" was likely "hyy" ("to live") or hayyim ("living"). The Land of the Living was known to Sumerians as "Dilmun" ("Pure Queen").
Mesopotamians called a particular area of Eden as Dilmun. It was near Amurru (Lebanon).
///... the remotest parts of the mountains... They bring (?) their tribute spontaneously at Enlil's command. …… to the mountains. …… nir-igi stone, cornelian, …… stone, …… time-consuming labour. For me the black-headed [Sumerians] bring great timbers …… to the Land, while
Dilmun
bestows lavishly on me its linen, dates and date spadices. The Martu [Lebanon], who know no houses, who know no cities -- primitives who live in the hills -- bring me row upon row of woolly alum sheep. From the upland mountains, from the …… places, cedar, zabalum, cypress and boxwood were together brought to me...
- A praise poem of Išme-Dagan ///
This report of Isme-Dagan (1666-1655 BCE) about Dilmun being exporter of linen is corroborated by prophet Ezekiel in telling that Eden, along with Harran and Assur, was merchant of a variety of apparels or garments (Eze. 27:23-24).
If the sea west of Lebanon (Amurru/Martu) was the sea of Dilmun, then Dilmun sea is no other than Cypriote sea, and this could be understood that copper centers in Cyprus and Diyarbakir were considered run by the same operators.
///My lord, you have given me instructions about every matter, from the sea and the land of Dilmun, to/from the salt waters and the borders of the land of the Martu [Amurru], to/from the side/borders of Simurrum and the territory of Subir.
- Letter from Aradĝu to Šulgi about irrigation work (ETCSLtranslation)///
In this document, places in ancient Syria are identified, and one of which is Dilmun (near Diyarbakir). Simurrum is described by king Naram-Sin as near to "Arame" (Aram or Elam of Syria).
Dilmun, Magan and Meluhha were located near Amurru near Elam (Eram), as described by Gudea and Rimush. King Ashurbanipal (Rassam cylinder) describes Magan and Meluhha to be first approachable before reaching Musur or Egypt. If copper of Magan refers to the copper of Phunon or nearby copper center, then Magan might be what the Hebrews called "Negev" or Arabah valley, particularly one that was between lake and Sea of Eziongiber.
/// "I will admire its green cedars. Let the lands of Meluḫa, Magan and Dilmun look upon me, upon Enki [Ea]. Let the
Dilmun boats be loaded (?) with timber.
Let the Magan boats be loaded sky-high. Let the magilum boats of Meluḫa transport gold and silver and bring them to Nibru for Enlil, king of all the lands."
Enki and the world order (cf. ETCSLtranslation)///
Ea (Ya) admires the green cedars of Dilmun, and ships loaded the timber to bring to Nibru.
Syria, particularly from Lebanon to Diyarbakir, was known for its timber that many kings from distant countries were ordering its woods, and that even Gilgamesh called the region as EREN (Cedar), also rendered as "Eden" by the Hebrews.
Ezekiel reveals similar admiration.
"The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the
trees of Eden,
that were in the garden of God, envied him." - Ezekiel 31:8-9
Why Dilmun was sending timber or woods to king Ur-Namshe? Because the Garden had trees, the woods of which were for sale or for tribute pay.
Ea (Ya) spoke to Earth:
"For Dilmun, the land of my lady's heart, I will create long waterways, rivers and canals, whereby water will flow to quench the thirst of all beings and bring abundance to all that lives." (Enki and Ninhursag)
The long waterways that are in Eden are Euphrates and Tigris. Sumerians likely called Euphrates river with the word "*burudu" (Sumerian "urudu," "copper") because of copper being sailed on it from Dilmun (Ergani-Maden; Diyarbakir), Cyprus, and Arabah valley (Athika/Timna Valley, Edom; Feynan). The Sumerian name "Buranuna" became "Purattu" in Akkadian, which was "Puranti" in Hurrian and "ú-ip-ra-tu-iš" in Elamite, which turned into "Ufrātu" in Old Persian. The Hebrew Scriptures, particularly the source of the book of Genesis which is older than the Old Persian, has פְרָֽת (Perat), derived from Akkadian "Purattu."
There is winter in Dilmun.
///……, dates, figs, large pomegranates, ……, ĝipar fruits, plums (?), ḫalub nuts, almonds, acorns, Dilmun dates packed in baskets, dark-coloured date spadices, large pomegranates gathered from orchards, big clusters of grapes on high, …… trees in fruit, trees from orchards, …… grown in
winter,
and fruits from orchards were despatched by Enlil toward Ereš.
Enlil and Sud (ETCSLtranslation) ///
This could be near in the region where Jacob reared the flock of Laban in winter in Syria (Gen. 31:40, 20, 28:5).
Gilgamesh could reach Dilmun (Diyarbakir) by passing Mount Mashu (Masis) of Armenia. He even claimed passing through the tunnel, which is the volcanic cave in Karacadag before moving to Armenia's Mt. Mashu. Dilmun was a far away place to the west of Armenia. In the tablet 5 of the Epic of Gilgamesh, two heroes cut down the tallest of the trees of Cedar Forest and they build a raft out of the cedar and float down the Euphrates to their city, suggestive that the Forest of Cedar is in or near Syria.
"More and more animals disembarked onto the earth. Zi-ud-sura the king prostrated himself before Sky [An] and Lord-breath [Enlil]. An and Enlil treated Zi-ud-sura kindly ……, they granted him life like a god, they brought down to him ages-to-ages life. At that time, because of preserving the animals and the seed of mankind, they settled Zi-ud-sura the king in a faraway country, in the land Dilmun, where-the-sun-rises" (Epic of Zi-ud-sudra, lines 258-261, The Flood story)
From this story, the direction "east" or "Kedem" is translated as "where the sun rises," which adds confusion to those who wanted to trace the exact whereabouts of Dilmun. This could be a way of misleading, probably because some authorites wanted to monopolize the business trading with Dilmun. Dilmun (Diyarbakir) was reach in copper, either from its land itself or probably transported from Magan, which could be the Central Negev (IBA 2400-2000 BCE originated from Wadi Faynan, Jordan [Segal et al., 1999, Segal et al., 1996-1997; . Levy et al., 2002]). It was popular also for its silver, gold and malachite.
///Industries include woolen and cotton textiles and copper products. The city has long been famous for its gold and silver filigree work. . . The region is part of upper Mesopotamia, comprising a large depression crossed by the Tigris River. It is separated from eastern Anatolia by the Taurus Mountains in the north and from the Mesopotamian plain by the Mardin hills in the south; Karaca Mountain lies to the west. Agricultural products include cereals, cotton, tobacco, and fruits, notably watermelons; mineral deposits include copper and some coal and petroleum.
Encyclopedia Britannica///
Ships from Dilmun (Diyarbakir) were carried by the river Tigris and then transferred to Euphrates or Pishon or Gihon river going to Babylon, and later probably they reached Bahrain where their Amoritic descendants established their own city, calling their leader as "inzak" ("king") as Adam was "issiak" in Assyria.
Diyarbakir was known to king Ur-Nanshe (c.2450 BCE) of Lagash by the name "Dilmun" and even officially mentioned it, saying: "boats from the [distant] land of Dilmun carried the wood [for me]."
Its area called "Garden" of Eden or Dilmun's walls was so peaceful.
///The land of Dilmun is holy, the land of Dilmun is pure. In Dilmun no cry the raven utters, Nor does the bird of ill-omen foretell calamity. The lion kills not, nor does the ravening wolf Snatch away the defenseless lamb. Unknown is the wild dog who tears the kid. The dove does not conceal its head. No one here says, ''My eyes are sick,'' No one here says, ''My head is sick,'' No one here says, ''I am an old woman,'' No one here says, ''I am an old man.'' The maiden walks here in innocence. No lustrations need to be poured. The somber death priest walks not here, By Dilmun's walls he has no cause for lamentations./// (New York Times, November 18, 1984, Section 10, Page 14)
It is not a surprise thing why Ziudsudra (Noah) had ages-to-ages life when he was granted to be a "god" (that is, to be a "priest") and lived in Dilmun (Eden). Because plants there, particularly in the area of the Garden (now known Karaca Dag), were probably good for longevity and health.
Adam lived ages to ages.
In Ugarit text (KTU 1.14 III:47) it is mentioned that
" il ... 'ab.'adm "
(God...the Father of Adam)
" dbhlmy... borty "
(this has granted ...in my vision).
This is a clear evidence that as early as the time of Moses (1309-1189 BCE) ancient Syrians, particularly in Ugarit, had a teaching that God is the father of man (adam). In Ebla, a millennium prior to Ugaritic kingdom, the word for "man" was "adamu," which was also the name of the Assyrian "king" (or governor) after demoted for being Tudiya ("Beloved of Ya"), the first "king" of the Assyrian race.
The creation of mankind (adamu) in historical report is related to the existence of Ebla.
"As to the fact that from immemorial time, since the
creation of mankind,
no king among kings had plundered Armanum and
Ebla
with the axes of Nergal, he (= Dagan) opened the path of Naram-Sin the mighty and gave him Armanum and Ebla. Further, he gave to him the Amanus, the Cedar Mountain, and the Upper Sea. By means of the weapons of the god Dagan, who magnifies his kingship, Naram-Sin, the mighty, conquered Armanum and Ebla."
— Inscription of Naram-Sin. E 2.1.4.26; Old Babylonian table fragment (UET 1 275)
This is also the same teaching of apostle Paul, evangelist Luke, and so on, that man was an offspring of God.
"... Adam, who was the son of God." -Luke 3:38
"For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
Forasmuch then as
we are the offspring of God,
we ought not to think that the Godhead is ... graven by art and man's device." - Acts 17:28-29
And the reason why we are God's offsprings is because...
"... He gives to all life, and breath, and all things" - Acts 17:25
We or Adam were from the dust, clay formed into living things.
"But now, O YHWH, You are our father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and we all are the work of Your hand." -Isaiah 64:8
"Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead: I also am formed out of the clay." - Job 33:6
"Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?" - Job 10:9
As far as anointing (or being Spiritual son of God) is concerned, Adam was the first man as Jesus Christ is the second man. Jesus Christ is not the literal second man (1Corinthians 15:45-48).
Adam needed to leave his father and mother to join with his wife, Eve.
Genesis 2:21-25
"And YHWH God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
And the rib, which YHWH God had taken from
הָֽאָדָ֖ם
[ha-adam]
man,
made He a woman, and brought her unto the
man.
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Male.
Therefore shall a
man
leave his father and his mother,
and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
And they were both naked,
הָֽאָדָ֖ם [ha-adam]
the man
and his wife, and were not ashamed." - Genesis 2:21-25
Why Adam needed to leave his father and mother?
According to Jesus Christ, God ...
" ... who made them at the beginning made them
male and female,
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" -Matthew 19:4-5
Adam had left his father and mother because prior to him God made male and female. Without those male and female ancestors, no father and mother to be having been left.
Genesis 2:8 says that the Garden of Eden was in "kedem," usually translated as "east" (but in the Flood story of Zi-ud-sudra, it is likely rendered as "where the sun rises"). This directional reference suggests that the origin of the narrator's source was from the west of Eden, and the west was Gōbekli Tepe or Cilicia.
After the soil erosion (i.e. earth opened her mouth, Gen. 4:11), and Cain was ordered to leave Pane ha Adamah, Cain was afraid that man from other place would kill him if they would know his crime. It was in Nod (Trembling Land) when Cain knew or impregnated his wife.
Cain in response to the order, said:
"Look, You have driven me out this day from
פְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֲדָמָ֔ה
Pane ha Adamah
[Face of the Ground];
and from
Pānekā
[Your face]
shall I be hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that
every one
who
finds me shall slay me.
And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on
him
sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
And Cain went out from the
Lipne-YHWH
[Presence of Yahweh],
and dwelt in the earth of
Nod [Trembling],
on the east of Eden.
And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare
חֲנֽוֹךְ
Chanokh
[Dedication]:
and he built a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Hanok." - Genesis 4:14-17
It is true that the land in or near Karaca Dag in Eden was trembling because of volcanic activities. A land in the region was named "Nod" in Hebrew narrative before Cain came there.
The name "Cain" was fit for him because there was mining sites of gold and gems in Havilah in Pison (Bahiani), as his descendants became metal-smiths. The city of his son is probably what Ebla tablet cuneiform text identified "A-nu-ka-atki" ("Dedication") located in or near northeastern Syria few decades or centuries after Enoch (Hanokh).
Adam born Seth, who was the father of Enosh, who born Kenan. Mahalalel was born to Kenan.
Mahalalel born Jared. Jared was the father of Enoch.
Methuselah was born when Enoch was 65 years old.
Methuselah, the father of Lamech, who was the father of Noah.
A king of Assyria 10th after Adamu (Adam), namely Nuabu, was claiming Noah as his father or patriarch. Historically speaking this Nuabu ("Whose Father is Noah") lived around 2000 BCE and biblically speaking a chronological contemporary of Shem, the son of Noah.
With a cuneiform tablet written around 2000 BCE, a writer of the Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta could not resist to allude the flood that swept over Aratta then just recently.
"...has surrounded Aratta, on its right and left, for her like a rising flood. They are people whom she has separated from other people,... After the flood had swept over,... sprinkled the water of life upon those who had stood in the face of the flood and made the Land subject to them." - Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, lines 563-576 (ETCSL)
This allusion coincided with the biblical Ararat's flood in 2029 BCE.
THE MOUNTAINS OF ARARAT
Can we know where was this area (known as "mountains of Ararat") located?
The phrase " mountains of Ararat" is what Genesis 8:4 mentions in Hebrew as " hr 'r r t " ("hārê 'arārāt ").
" wa-tanah (And deposited/rested)
ha-tebah (the Ark) ...
'al (upon)
hare Ararat (mountains of Ararat)." - Genesis 8:4
The usage here of the term "Ararat" refers to an area and not to a kingdom, and yes during the time of Moses (1309 - 1189 BCE), there was a place called "Ararat" ("Uruartri" in Assyrian cuneiform) by king Shalmaneser I (r. 1265/1263 - 1235 BCE) and the Assyrian king understood it not as a kingdom but a region of a league of countries.
Note: Dathan and Abiram together with 250 men or princes, who rebelled against Moses in 1228 BCE alluded king Shalmaneser when they asked Moses if Moses was going to "put out the eyes of these men?" (Numbers 16:12-14, 1, 2). This means Hebrews during the time of Moses were aware about the dreadful thing that king Shalmaneser I (c.1262 BCE) had done against rebels when the Assyrian king pulled out the eyes of 14,400 prisoners (whereas Moses reported that there were 14,700 killed Hebrews because of rebellion - Num. 16:32-35, 49), and it is expected that they could know about the Assyrian king since king Rameses II captured some men of Shalmaneser.
Needless to say, Genesis has mentioned an "Ararat" that was a region or district, which was known during Moses' days as a league of countries, giving us a clear idea that the incident was originally written earlier than Moses' time and not later than 7th century BCE. In fact, the Genesis' Ararat is fit for the "Aratta" of the 21st century BCE.
The name "Ararat" is mentioned again by prophet Isaiah (680 BCE), this time as a kingdom when he said in Isaiah 37:38
"earth of Ararat,"
which corresponds to the Assyrian term
"mat Urartu" (ARAB 2:202).
Prophet Jeremiah (fl. 628 - 586 BCE) directly called it one of the "kingdoms" (Jeremiah 51:27). And since both of these prophets could give clues where was this "Ararat" located, then we can have now reference for the "mountains of Ararat."
In 594 BCE, during the reign of Rusa IV in Urartu, prophet Jeremiah wrote a message giving the precise location of the kingdom of "Ararat":
Jeremiah 51:25,27,29,41,49
"Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest
all the earth:
...
Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of
Ararat,
Minni, and Ashchenaz;... And the land shall tremble and sorrow: ... make the
land of Babylon
a desolation without an inhabitant.
How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the
whole earth
surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the
nations!
As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of
all the earth."
-Jeremiah 51:25, 27, 29, 41, 49 (KJV)
In this passage, nations of the kingdom of Ararat and neighborhood that were destroyed by Babylon were called
"all the earth,"
and all territories belonged to Shesach, Babylonia were called
"whole earth."
This "all earth" or "whole earth" did not mean "global" or entire planet, but rather "all earth" of the nations that destroyed by king Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 605 - 562 BCE).
The specific neighborhood of Ararat were the kingdoms of Minni and Aschenaz.
Minni was the Hebrew transliteration of the Assyrian term
"Mannayu,"
referring to the east part of Urartu (Ararat). This "Ararat" was historically and archaeologically located between Lake Van, Lake Urmiah, and Lake Sevan.
Minni was what historian Nicholas of Damascus mentioned "Minyas" in his report:
" There is a great mountain in
Armenia, over
Minyas,
called Baris,
upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of Deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote."
- Nicholaus Damascenus, Universal History, book 96 (preserved by Josephus' Antiquities 1.3.6)
Nicholas of Damascus was the biographer of king Herod the Great and one of the ancient men who wrote encyclopedic history.
Genesis 8:4 mentions those "hills".
" watanah (and rested/deposited)
ha-tebah (the Ark)
ba-qhodes (in the month of)
hassebi-'i (seventh)
besib-ah (on the seven)
yowm (day)
lahodes (of the month)
'al (upon)
hare (hills of)
'ararat (Ararat). " - Genesis 8:4
The "tebah" (Ark) was deposited upon the "hare ararat" ("hills/mountains of Ararat ") on day 7 of the 7th month or
25th September 2028 BCE,
when Nebepetre Mentuhotep II was a king in Egypt and Sium (r. 2030 - 2023 BCE) was the king of the Gutian dynasty of Sumer.
The Bible, whether in Old or New Testament, does not mention "GREAT flood." It describes it as a rain flood and a flood caused by fountains or springs, that is, it was smaller than a river flood and it took place upon the "mountains of Ararat" in the earth of Ararat.
Noah was given 7 days to build a 3-storey ark and go inside it before a rain flood would cover the land.
"For yet 7 days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth 40 days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
And it came to pass after 7 days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the 2nd month, the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the
fountains
of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the
rain
was upon the earth 40 days and forty nights.
In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark" -Genesis 7:4,10-13
THE WHEREABOUTS OF THE TRACE OF THE ARK
Can we find the Noah's ark?
As far as history is concerned, historians testified of the fossilized remains of the said ark, but they did not mention of the ark itself.
We can ascertain about this ark fossil by:
1) the exact location in the hills of Ararat just south of Araxes and Masis, on the boundary of Armenia near Carra, Nakhar, Naxcawan, and "fountain" of Euphrates river in Mt. Abos;
2) the dimensions of the fossil ark, as are testified in the 3rd century to be still detectable; and
3) the HARDENED (or fossilized) remains of the ark in east of Mt. Abos (in Baris).
Let us go back to ancient history.
" The Armenians, and the Persians themselves, are of opinion that there are still upon the said mountain some
remainders
of the Ark, but that time hath
so hardened
them, that they seem absolutely petrify'd." - Adam Olearius (1633)
From ancient history we can be ascertained that there is now no "the ark" itself but the
hardened or
fossilized
remains
of it.
1) Sennacherib is being reported (in Tractate Sanhedrin 96a, Babylonian Talmud) to have taken a plank of the Noah's ark around 680's BCE.
2) Berosus (c. 275 BCE) reported in Chaldean History that some part of the said ship was still there. And this fossilized ark is said "preserved" - in the terminology of Josephus, and the fossilized parts are called "relics" by Hippolytus (c. 235 AD).
" This Berosus, therefore, ... gives us a history of the deluge of waters that then happened,... and agrees with Moses' narration thereof. He also gives us an account of that ark wherein Noah, the origin of our race, was preserved, ..." -Josephus, Against Apion 1.19
3) According to Alexander Polyhistor (c. 50 BCE), paraphrasing Berosus, " a small portion of it remains in the mountains of Korduats."
4) Encyclopedist historian Nicolaus Damascenus (c.64 BCE - c.13 AD), in book 96 of his "Universal History," said that the timber remains are greatly preserved (likely, fossilized).
"And of the Ark, the
remains
are to this day to be seen ..." - Theophilus of Anthioch (c.169 - c. 182 AD), Apology to Autolycus 3.19
" But where can I not find evidence of the rite? This even to this day the
remains
of Noah's Ark are still shown in Cardyaei." -Epiphanius of Salamis, Cyprus (c.310-402 AD), Panarion 18.3.3
"Do not the mountains of Armenian testify to it, where the Ark rested? And are not the
remains
of the Ark preserved there to this day for our admonition." -John Chrysostom (c.349-407 AD)
THE REDISCOVERY IN THE MODERN TIMES
First it was rejected, as its shape seemed to be superficial only.
After the 1987-1988 investigation, geologist Salih Bayraktutan recommended that the area must be a protected archaeological site.
In 1987 Dr. Bayraktutan surveyed the site with ground penetrating radar that involved 72 separate traverses spaced 2 meters apart, & with exploration seismograph, & took meticulous 1200 magnetometer readings.
The claim of David Franklin Fasold, a marine officer who headed the 1985 team that was allowed excavation rights by the Turkish government, was that the boat-shaped mound could be a "fossil" of an ark.
Contrary to this, Ron Wyatt claimed that it is the Noah's ark.
Self-styled archaeologist R. Wyatt is wrong because biblical report says that the
"tebat ase-gopher"
(reed-made bitumized ark/vessel)
rested or was buried in the mountains of Ararat, that is, the ark would be disintegrated now and left only its shape, perpetuates by the mud flow and earth materials that invaded in and replaced its reeds, woods, and pitch. What is there is the trace of the shape of the ark, not the woody ark itself.
The first to take part of the fossil from it was king Sennacherib (Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 56a, cf. Antiquities 10.1.5), but later it was buried, until it was resurfaced during the time of Berossus (c.275 BCE) & was heavily looted, and probably renovated during the time of Hippolytus (AD 235) who called its fossil as "relics" (Refutation of All Heresies 10.26).
Natural activities on the site reburied it and it was gone for centuries until continuous rains in the 1948 brought its surface back again on May 19.
On a NATO mapping mission by an army captain, Turkish government was informed in 1959 that there is a boat-shaped structure near Mt. Ararat.
Ara Güler's photograph of the ark-shape mound shows the structure that was later distorted by a rock from below that wrecked its right side middle part.
Earthquakes jiggled it & showed it to be indeed an ark shape.
Scientific investigation done by John Larsen - after Turkish government permitted his then latest resistivity ground imaging instrument in 2014 - proved that the shape is not only superficial but reaching as deep as 35 meters. It's ark-shaped deep down and not just once thought we believed it to be a nature's accident.
After that,
"Nuabu"
("Whose Father is Noah")
became king of Assyria and the last name from whom king Hammurabi's Assyrian lineage is associated by a Babylonian tablet list.
The founder of Babylonian Kingdom identified himself by the name
"Sumu-abum"
("Whose Father is Shem")
in 1798 BCE.
During the time of "Eber," the Habiru came into existence in history.
The next patriarchs were indirectly named by some toponyms that might have derived from their names: Paliga, Reu, Sarugi, and Nakhiri, all located near Haran in Mesopotamia.
Nahor I, who flurished between 1836-1790 BCE, was the father of Terah. He could be the patriarch of the Nahorites in Nahur.
Noah: Ararat flood 2029 BCE
1) Shem fl.2127-1956 BCE
2) Arphacsad fl.2027-1933 BCE
3) Salah fl.1992-1904 BCE
4) Eber fl.1962-1865 BCE
5) Peleg fl.1928-1868 BCE
6) Reu fl.1898-1836 BCE
7) Serug fl.1866-1807 BCE
8) Nahor I fl.1836-1790 BCE
9) Terah 1807-1708 BCE
10) Abraham 1738-1563 BCE
Sarah 1728-1600 BCE
Ishmael 1653-1516 BCE
11) Isaac 1637-1459 BCE
12) Jacob 1578-1432 BCE
1449 BCE: Second year of famine
13) Joseph 1486-1376 BCE
13) Levi c.1493-1356 BCE
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