From: MikeSatterlee@cs.com
Date: Sun Oct 13 2002 - 21:56:22 EDT
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your note. I have not had any time in the last few months to
participate in any on line discussions such as the ASA list. I do however
continue to read posts which interest me, such as the recent discussion of
Genesis in cuneiform tablets.
So far as the chronology of the Exodus goes, I've studied the subject matter
at length and date it to the spring of 1491 BC during the reign of Tuthmosis
III. His reign is most often dated today as having taken place between the
years 1479 and 1425 BC. However, this dating is based on the understanding
that Solomon ruled for only 40 years (Josephus says he ruled "eighty years")
and that the "Shishak" to whom Jeroboam fled (1 Kings 11:40) was the same
"Shishak" who plundered Jerusalem's Temple "in Rehoboam's fifth year." (2
Chron. 12:2) I believe Jeroboam fled to Shoshenq I and it was Shoshenq II who
later plundered Jerusalem's Temple.
The years of the reign of Soshenq I have been determined by historians
largely based on the belief that Edwin R. Thiele was correct in his dating
the division of the kingdom and the beginning of Rehoboam's reign in 931 BC,
and on the belief that it was Shoshenq I who plundered Jerusalem's Temple "in
Rehoboam's fifth year," not Shoshenq II who ruled Egypt for a single year
thirty-five years after the twenty year long reign of Shoshenq I ended.
By the way, Tuthmosis III was a Pharaoh who in his 30th year "received an
ambassador from an unidentified Asiatic land who came to pay him homage." (A
History Of Ancient Egypt by Nicholas Grimal, pg. 215) I believe this
"ambassador" was Moses who came from Midian. (Ex. 4:19-21) Egyptian history
also tells us that eighty years earlier Pharaoh Ahmose was ruling Egypt, the
Pharaoh who began a new dynasty after ridding Egypt of the Hyksos kings.
Ahmose then would be understood to be the "new king who arose over Egypt who
did not know Joseph." (Ex. 1:8) Notice the similarity between the names of
Ahmose and Moses. Could Ahmose's daughter have chosen the name she did for
her adopted son partly to honor her father?
With these things and others in mind I remain convinced that the Exodus
occurred in the spring of 1491 BC. I have recently been discussing this
matter by snail mail with Professor Kenneth Kitchen of the University of
Liverpool, one of the world's leading authorities on the history of ancient
Egypt.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike
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