Prof. Yigal Levin wrote: “After more careful reading of the texts, it
seems that "Apiru" is not an ethnic term but a social one. Apiru are not
"tribes" and not "nomads" and not "Bedouin" but rather "outlaws", who work as
mercenaries and as bandits, very much like Jephtah, David and Robin Hood. So
while some Ibrim might be Apiru, the terms are not interchangeable.”
The Amarna Letters frequently reference tent-dwellers living in Canaan, a
phenomenon that obviously applies to the Patriarchal narratives as well. But
if we want to ask if there is pinpoint accuracy of the Biblical text
vis-à-vis the Amarna Letters, we first need to ask what the exact dating is of
the
Amarna Letters. Though scholarly opinion is divided, a good argument can
be made that a majority of the Amarna Letters date to Years 12-14. [Letters
from those three years would have come to Amarna originally, and would not
likely have been later removed by Tut when many of the later letters were
taken to Thebes. By contrast, earlier letters may not have been sent
originally to Amarna, especially on the minority view (taken here) that
Akhenaten did
not become sole pharaoh until Year 12 (having previously been merely junior
co-regent), and most (though not all) later letters were removed by Tut
from the Amarna archive and taken to Thebes.] If a majority of the Amarna
Letters date to Years 12-14, especially Years 12-13, then we have exact
information from the Amarna Letters as to precisely what was going on in Canaan
in
Year 12.
On the Biblical side, chapters 12-13 of Genesis can be precisely dated to
Year 12, on the following basis. The second half of Genesis 14: 4 appears to
make a literal, explicit reference to “Year 13”. If so, then chapters
12-13 of Genesis, which relate to the preceding year, are reflecting the world
of Canaan in Year 12.
Abram’s father’s family had gone out to Ur from Canaan on a one-time basis
in a desperate attempt to buy lapis lazuli at wholesale at Ur. [There was
no other reason to go to Ur in the Late Bronze Age.] In the Amarna Age, Ur
and southern Mesopotamia were ruled by the Kassites, and Genesis 11: 28
refers to Ur of the “Kassite-country-people” [K$-D-YM/Ku$u-du-YM]. Working our
way backwards, Abram’s father’s family must have left Canaan on this long
caravan trip way out to Ur in Year 11. Though they were only gone about a
year, nevertheless when Abram returned to Canaan, so much had changed in
Canaan!
1. Shechem in Year 12. Historically, in Year 12 [while Abram’s father’s
family was on their long trip way out to Ur] the normally Hurrian city of
Shechem was seized by a Canaanite strongman whose west Semitic name references
a large mammal (Labayu). That Canaanite would soon be assassinated under
very irregular circumstances on behalf of, but without the prior approval of,
an early semi-monotheistic ruler of his people in Year 13, after the
Canaanite ruler’s son consorted with the habiru [Amarna Letter EA 254].
Genesis
12: 6 and 13: 7 refer to “the Canaanite” as the ruler of Shechem in Year 12.
In chapter 34 of Genesis the ruler of Shechem, who is a Canaanite
strongman who has a west Semitic name that references a large mammal (Hamor),
but
who is acting as if he were a Hurrian [Hivite] princeling ruler [Genesis 34:
2], is assassinated under very irregular circumstances on behalf of, but
without the prior approval of, an early semi-monotheistic ruler of his people
[Patriarch Jacob/“Israel”] in Year 13 tenfold, that is, 130 years after
Abraham’s birth, after a son of the Canaanite ruler consorted with a
habiru/Hebrew [Dinah].
2. Jerusalem in Year 12. In Year 11 or Year 12, we know from the Amarna
Letters that Akhenaten appointed IR-Heba as the new Hurrian princeling ruler
of Jerusalem. The Late Bronze Age was so terribly dry that the de-populated
hill country, which had lost 90% of its Middle Bronze Age population(!),
had only two cities left, Shechem and Jerusalem. In that historical context,
we can tell that Hurrian princeling IR-Heba of Jerusalem is being referenced
in Year 12 at Genesis 13: 7 as “the PRZ-Y”, with PRZ-Y being a colorful
Patriarchal nickname for the Hurrians. [PRZ is a Hurrian name that appears in
the Amarna Letters as the Hurrian name of a Hurrian messenger.]
For different reasons, Abram quickly and accurately ascertained that in the
brave new world of Canaan in Year 12, it was imperative for both Abram and
Lot to have nothing to do with either Labayu/the Canaanite/Hamor of Shechem
or the PRZ-Y/the Hurrian/IR-Heba of Jerusalem. The new Canaanite ruler of
Shechem was trying to entice tent-dwellers with false promises of future
landownership [as accurately referenced in chapter 34 of Genesis], in order to
get tent-dwellers to join his army in the dubious, ill-fated enterprise of
trying to create a Greater Shechem. The new Hurrian ruler of Jerusalem, by
contrast, hated tent-dwellers more than any other princeling in Canaan in the
Amarna Letters. So Abram wisely decides to avoid both Shechem and
Jerusalem, and settles the opposite of “east” of Bethel per Genesis 13: 9, 11,
which
is the eastern Ayalon Valley. In a Year 12 historical context, the Ayalon
Valley was controlled by Amorite princeling Milk-Ilu. Abram calls that
place XBR-WN [“Hebron”]. Genesis 14: 13 sets forth this princeling’s name by
the generic phrase “Mamre the Amorite”, which views this Amorite princeling,
who historically [per the Amarna Letters] often allied with habiru,
Canaanites [Eshcol] and Hurrian princelings [A-ni-ir], very positively. As the
Hebrew author’s way of honoring historical Milk-Ilu, who graciously allowed the
first Hebrews to flourish in the Ayalon Valley, Genesis 46: 17 gives us,
side by side, both the root of XBR-WN [“Hebron”, being the Patriarchal
nickname for the eastern Ayalon Valley, which in the drought-ridden Amarna Age
was
de-populated and instead of being fine farmland was reduced at that time to
being the world’s finest pastureland], namely XBR [“Heber”], and the
Hebrew version of the Amorite name Milk-Ilu: MLK-Y-)L [“Malchiel”]. [The
yod/Y
in that name is probably a name divider/dash.]
3. Egypt in Year 12. Meanwhile, the new news out of Egypt in Year 12 was
that there was a new Pharaoh, Akhenaten [generally known in the ancient
world by his name wa-n-ra], who had a major league fertility problem, not being
able to sire a son as proper heir by his statuesque, beloved main wife #1,
the Queen of Egypt in Year 12, Nefertiti. [The Biblical word in Genesis
translated as “Pharaoh” is, after dropping off the Semiticized -H ending, pA ra
[P-R(], being a Patriarchal nickname that is a variant of Akhenaten’s name
wa-n-ra, where in the Amarna Age pA and wa had approximately the same
meaning: “the one and only”.] Pharaoh Akhenaten’s fertility problem created
an
opportunity for Abram who, guided by YHWH [per Genesis 12: 1], audaciously
proceeds directly to Egypt [which had certainly not been Terah’s original
plan]. By offering a fertility prayer to Pharaoh Akhenaten [implied at Genesis
12: 7, and made explicit in similar wife-sister ruse #2 at Genesis 20: 17
regarding Abimelek, who has the same name in the Amarna Letters and the
Patriarchal narratives and is the same historical princeling recently appointed
by Akhenaten as mayor of Sur/Tyre in GRR/GLL/GLYL/Galilee, who both
Biblically and historically is so concerned about contested access to water
wells per
Amarna Letters dated to Years 12-13], with Abram having vouchsafed
Sarai/Sarah to the ruler pending Abram being able to obtain a divine sign that
the
ruler’s fertility problem had been divinely noted and that God was in the
process of working on that fertility problem [same two cites], Abram’s
divinely-guided audacity enables Abram to sell the lapis lazuli [rekush at
Genesis
12: 5] directly to Pharaoh’s buyers for a sky-high price. That is why Abram
and Lot come out of Egypt laden with gold and silver [Genesis 13: 2].
We see that the Patriarchal narratives have p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t historical
accuracy in reproducing every jot and tittle of what was going on historically
in Canaan in Year 12. It’s the same historical people, in the same
locales, in the same historical time period: Year 12.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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