George Athas:
In response to my statement that “Perhaps the greatest Biblical mystery of all
time is to know the specific date when Abraham first settled at the Patriarchs’
Hebron”, you wrote: “No, I wouldn't have thought so.”
But do you or do you not agree that based on Hebrew grammar, the second half of
Genesis 14: 4 (i) seems to be referring to Year 13, and (ii) does not use the
phraseology that is used elsewhere in the Bible when the intended meaning is
“And in the 13th year”?
My theory of the Patriarchal narratives works well only if Abram first settles
at the Patriarchs’ Hebron in Year 12 (the year before the reference to Year 13
at Genesis 14: 4). Only in Year 12, not earlier and not later, would we expect
Lot to leave Bethel by going east (Genesis 13: 11). And only in Year 12, not
earlier and not later, would we expect Abram, proceeding in the opposite
direction, to come to a place where he allies with an Amorite princeling
(Mamre) who in addition to being attested as operating in concert with
tent-dwellers (with certain aspects of the Apiru lifestyle being similar to
that of the Patriarchs), but also is attested as operating with both Canaanite
(Eshcol) and Hurrian (Aner) allies (Genesis 14: 13).
As you probably know, we have more information about Canaan in Year 12 (if it’s
Year 12 of Akhenaten’s 17-year reign) than virtually any other year in ancient
history. We know who was ruling Shechem, Jerusalem and the Ayalon Valley, and
we know how each of those rulers operated. So we can verify or falsify each of
the many statements that are made in the Biblical text about the situation in
Canaan at the time that Abram chose to sojourn at the Patriarchs’ Hebron. We
know that central hill country had lost 90% of its population since the end of
the Middle Bronze Age. We know that the Shephelah had lost 50% of its
population since the end of the Middle Bronze Age. Especially exciting in that
connection is that we know that there was not a single village or town in the
northeast Ayalon Valley, an area that had fine land, so that the northeast
Ayalon Valley would have been a rural nirvana for the Patriarchs at that time.
We know that the northeast Ayalon Valley does not have caves, but the southeast
Ayalon Valley does, so Abraham would have had to go a short ways south to buy a
cave for Sarah’s burial, near a Hurrian-dominated city.
In a word, we can document virtually everything the Biblical text says, with
great specificity, if we could confirm the exact year in which Abram is
portrayed as settling at the Patriarchs’ Hebron. That would be Year 12, and
e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g would check out perfectly, if the second half of Genesis
14: 4 says “And Year 13 they rebelled”, while not saying how it is usually
translated: “And in the 13th year they rebelled.”
From the standpoint of Hebrew grammar, what is your analysis of the second half
of Genesis 14: 4?
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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