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Rob Acosta:
I have decided to respond to your post on-list, because several of your
assertions bear directly on the meaning of the following key Biblical words
in the Patriarchal narratives: “Chief Baker”; XRY; )LN. In this first
post I will relate what you say to the Bible’s references to the first two
above words. Then in a second post I will show that preeminent historians do
not agree with Campbell’s unsupported claim [which you assert] that Maya
allegedly fell into disgrace prior to Year 9.
You wrote: “…a new commissioner, Maya is put in place as commissioner
with the successor Milikilu of Gezer. The point is this. According to E. F.
Campbell in his book "the Chronology of the Amarna letters"...from which
all the details are taken, ALL of Maya's letters from Gezer were written
before Year 9 of Akhenaten.”
In order for this topic to be of interest to people on the b-hebrew list,
we must first ask who Maya is Biblically. What’s comparable in the
Patriarchal narratives to Maya’s fall into disgrace, though exaggerated for
storytelling purposes, is obviously Genesis 40: 22, when the “Chief Baker” is
impaled by Pharaoh. [Historically, Maya was only figuratively “impaled” by
pharaoh Akhenaten, not actually killed. Maya later shows up as a top
official under both King Tut and Horemhab.] Who would be the “Chief Baker” in
Egypt? One of the most peculiar features of Amarna was that, uniquely in
5,000 years of human history, huge amounts of bread and other food were
routinely placed on hundreds of offering stands for Aten. The Great Aten
Temple had at least 791 offering tables!
http://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/amarna_the_place/central_city/ Why would
such vast quantities of food be
offered to a sun-god? One has to wonder if Akhenaten had had some version
of the famous dream reported in Genesis that warned of 7 consecutive years
in which the Nile River would fail to flood, and Akhenaten hoped to prevent
that from happening by propitiating his sun-god with extraordinary amounts
of food offerings, especially bread. As to how all this affects Maya, in
addition to his important military duties one of Maya’s key non-military
titles [in his tomb 14 at Amarna] is “Overseer of the House of Pacifying the
Aten”. Thus Maya could well be referenced by the Biblical title “Chief
Baker”, who was in charge of sacrificing great quantities of bread and other
food to Aten in an attempt to accomplish “Pacifying the Aten”. Note that
in Panhesy’s rock tomb at Amarna we see: “On the left Akhenaten is
followed by Nefertiti wearing a Khat headdress. Both seem to be offering
loaves”
. http://euler.slu.edu/~bart/egyptianhtml/tombs/Tombs%20at%20Amarna.htm
Outside of Amarna, the title “Chief Baker” seems virtually impossible for a
top official of a great king or pharaoh; Gesenius was so baffled by this
that he ad-libs as to this title: “a dignity that also exists amongst the
Moguls”. We see that the Biblical title “Chief Baker” fits Amarna
perfectly, while seeming to be almost impossible in any other context.
With historical Maya appearing to correspond to the Biblical “Chief Baker”
in chapter 40 of Genesis, the next question to ask is when the Chief
Baker [the historical “Overseer of the House of Pacifying the Aten”, namely
Maya] is portrayed in Genesis as being disgraced by Pharaoh. [Then in my next
post I will confirm that this is the same Year in which Maya historically
was disgraced by Akhenaten.]
To determine the timing that is portrayed Biblically, we start with
Genesis 41: 46 and work our ways backwards. Genesis 41: 46 tells us that
Joseph
is age 30 shanah when he is named chief vizier by Pharaoh. Genesis 41: 12
and 41: 1 tell us that two years earlier, Joseph was a nar/“boy”. Mark
Cohen, the leading expert in the world on cultic calendars in the ancient Near
East, says that in the Bronze Age the Israelites had an archaic
understanding of shanah, by which shanah could be viewed as being “the turn of
the
year”, which is a 6-month period. That archaic meaning of shanah is used in
setting forth people’s stated ages in the Patriarchal narratives. Joseph
had witnessed 30 “turns of the year”/shanah when he became vizier, meaning
that he was un-doubled age 15 years in 12-month years. That is nicely
confirmed by the fact that 2 Egyptian years [12-month years] earlier, Joseph
at
age 13 years [in 12-month years] was still a mere nar/“boy”. So Joseph is
age 13 years when the Chief Baker is disgraced.
That is the Hebrew author’s way of telling us that historically, the Chief
Baker [the historical “Overseer of the House of Pacifying the Aten”,
namely Maya] was disgraced by Pharaoh Akhenaten in Year 13.
Moving now to the historical side for a moment, if Maya did come under
disgrace [which per Amarna Letter EA 292 from the Ayalon Valley does seem
quite likely, as we will see in my next post], then that would have occurred
in
Year 13. The political reason why Year 13 could have engendered what
Akhenaten viewed as being “treason” was Egyptian nobles grumbling about
Akhenaten’s bizarre decision in mid-Year 12 to cut off all relations with the
XRY/Hurrian state of Midtanni/MDYN/Naharim in eastern Syria and his
father-in-law Tushratta. [Jacob likewise cuts off all relations with his
father-in-law Laban who lived in the XRY/Hurrian state of
Midtanni/MDYN/Naharim in
eastern Syria 12.7 tenfold years after Abraham’s birth, with the last straw in
both cases being certain family statues that were never turned over by the
early monotheist to his irate father-in-law.] This occurred just when
such longstanding alliance with the Hurrians/XRY was needed the most to
counter the threat of the mighty Hittites north of Syria [Genesis 14: 1 has the
authentic Hittite kingly name “Tidal”], who soon thereafter launched the
deadly Great Syrian War [which featured four attacking rulers destroying a
coalition of five rebellious princelings: the “four kings against five”
referenced at Genesis 14: 9].
The early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives knows all of these
many details that are unique to Amarna in Years 12-14. In particular, he
deftly slips the word XRY into the text regarding the Chief Baker’s dream at
Genesis 40: 16. Not knowing Amarna, XRY there has baffled translators and
Biblical analysts, who translate XRY as anything from “white” to “wicker”
to “bread” to “open-work”, etc., but n-e-v-e-r grasp its actual
historical meaning: “Hurrian” [in the phrase “Hurrian/XRY baskets”; the
Hurrians were world-famous for their fine baskets]. Presumably Akhenaten
suspected military man Maya [the “Chief Baker” Biblically] of harboring
treasonously pro-Hurrian/XRY sentiments after mid-Year 12, and that is why
Maya,
the “Overseer of the House of Pacifying the Aten”, was disgraced in Year
13, which comes out Biblically as the Chief Baker being impaled when Joseph
is un-doubled age 13 years.
On the b-hebrew list we’re trying to understand words in the Bible like
XRY and )LN and “Chief Baker”, but sometimes words like that in the
Patriarchal narratives make no sense whatsoever outside of the context of
Amarna in
Years 12-14.
In my next post I will correct the factual errors in your post, and show
that the Amarna Letters are fully consistent with Maya not being disgraced
until Year 13.
Jim StinehartEvanston, Illinois
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