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Offline Theophilus  
#1 Posted : Monday, November 2, 2009 9:30:42 AM(UTC)
Theophilus
Joined: 7/5/2007(UTC)
Posts: 544
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Thanks: 4 times
I wasn't sure which folder to start this topic in, but since the subject is David' Rohl's New Chronology (NC) based on archeology and the Scriptures I'll try here.

I started with a book Yada refences in YY written by David Rohl called A Test of Time. That book impressed me enough that I decided to read the narritive to the NC called fom Eden to Exile. I took me much longer than I anticipated to complete but was quite impressive. The only down side was that the archeological presentation is light in this book, with the substance of archeology in other books.

What intrigued me was how well the peices fit together between Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Israelite records fit, when the conventional Egyptian chronology is challenged and reconsidered. The book does indeed go back to Eden in very close to the same location as described in YY but at an earlier time 5000 BCE as opposed to YY's 3967 BCE fall of Adam. Yada cautioned me that while Rohl's archeology and chronology appear sound Rohl's theology assumptions, - less so.

One assumption was that Moseh's father in-law Jethro revered Yahweh by oral tradition. That as a learned prince of Egypt, Moshe was familar with Mesopotamian creation, flood and Babel accounts popularized by Hammurabi.

One dating source cited was astro-archeology. Rohl cites astronomical phenomenon to date events described in ancient tablets. To me it was impressive that he used an sun set eclipse visable over the med as a once every 4,000 year event described in Akhenaten's reign occuring a little over 300 years later than is conventionally thought making him a contemporary of David, not a predecssor of Moses.

Rohl also identifies Saul s as Labiya (Great Lion of Yah) and David as Dud and El'Hanan. These names were recorded in texts dated to the correct period acting as Saul and David are in the Tanahk.

I'll write more if people are interested.

-Theophilus

Offline edStueart  
#2 Posted : Monday, November 2, 2009 12:21:37 PM(UTC)
edStueart
Joined: 10/29/2008(UTC)
Posts: 370
Location: Philadelphia

Theophilus wrote:
I wasn't sure which folder to start this topic in, but since the subject is David' Rohl's New Chronology (NC) based on archeology and the Scriptures I'll try here...
[snip]
I'll write more if people are interested.

Good stuff, Brother.
"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."
But first, it will piss you off!
Offline Theophilus  
#3 Posted : Tuesday, November 3, 2009 9:03:16 AM(UTC)
Theophilus
Joined: 7/5/2007(UTC)
Posts: 544
Man

Thanks: 4 times
Okay, then a few other interesting bits then (from memory) which we can dig into if you like:

-Rohl links a migration from the Eden area down along the Zagros mountains and eventually to Mesopotamia.

-He compares names and titles between area languages and Scripture and concludes that a number of these significant Patriarchs / ancestors were eventually regarded as local or even major Mesopotamian deities.

-He identifies Gilgamesh as a historic person notable for building a wall.

-Rohl places the great flood about two centuries earlier than YY and identifies a different climatic cause able to flood the flat plains around Eridu near the Persian Gulf.

-Rohl identifies Marduk among others as the biblical hunter Nimrod.

-That the Tower of Babel was constructed earlier than is commonly thought and not in Babylon. (I think Rohl places it at Eridu)

-That the “Confusion of Tongues” coincided with a period when the dominant Sumerian culture was contested by their neighbors who evidently spoke different languages and made unified action difficult for any faction.

-Rohl links the early Mesopotamian exploration into the Persian Gulf with the earliest Egyptian kingdoms, with these settlers portaged large sea going reed boats across the then savannah-like region between the Red Sea and the Nile river. They explored and settled much of the Nile and eventually the Delta and spread east and west into Libya and reconnecting with Mesopotamian colonies north of Canaan.

-That the first wave of explorer’s/settlers were associated with Horus and a later competing wave with Seth / Set. The Set wave was defeated by the Horus group under the Scorpion king.

-I’ll need to verify the names and associations, but recall Rohl identified another deified person by Mesopotamians and Egyptians as the flood hero Noah whose title “The Far Distant One” was associated with Horus in Egypt and someone else in Mesopotamia. I recall the figures from the Genesis table of nations figuring large and recall at least one of Noah’s son’s also being deified.

-They also conquered the indigenous people then living along the Nile and established a caste-like system seeing themselves as superior and descended from Horus / the deified Noah.

-David Rohl’s new chronology (NC) does indeed agree with Yada in YY on a 1447 BCE Exodus, but was opposed by against Pharaoh Dudimose.

-Rohl identifies the “Hyksos” takeover of Egypt as foreigners filling in the gap in the wake of the Exodus.

-These Hyksos conquerors were eventually expelled by the Egyptians but then used as a buffer in the Gaza region battling the Israelites for some time even after the Israelite conquest of Canaan.

-That a Spring 1406 BCE conquest fits with the archeological evidence of fallen walls at Jericho and burnt cities evident in the

-Rohl identifies king Solomon’s elite chariot forces as having saved the then young Ramses II at the battle of Kadesh.

-While Ramses II won tactically and propaganda-wise in that battle, yet Egypt lost strategically to the Hittites who served to splinter the Egyptian - Israelite hold on the region.

-That it was the same long lived Pharaoh Ramses II, who later turns against the Israelites, raiding Jerusalem. He is identified in Scripture with a different name (something like Shyshak) which Rohl contends is mis-identified with a much later Pharaoh who actually aided Judah.

-Rohl finds a historic basis for the Trojan War, as the Hittite empire eventually collapsed, but dates this event later than Orthodox Chronology (OC) does.

-That it was movement associated with that war and region that raided and in some cases settled the Nile delta and coastal Eastern Med and are actually the mysterious “Sea Peoples.”

Rohl has quite a lot more in his books but these are a few highlights that come to mind.
One aspect that that I found curious (that I believe Yada touched on in YY) was that the Torah used later place names for certain locations, and recall Pi-Ramses was in the time of the Exodus called Averis. I think YY uses the example of referring to Mexico City today rather than its Aztec name for the benefit of modern readers.

As Yada cautioned me there are a number of areas theologically and otherwise that Rohl differs with YY.

-Rohl places the Eden event at around 5,000 BCE, at a slightly different location and based on depictions that Eve / Chawwah was a priestess of a Mother Goddess from a neighboring tribe and married into Eden, while Adam revered Yahweh although not necessarily by that name.

-That the Cheribim were a human tribe whose position and proximity to Eden made re-entry into Eden impractical.

-Rohl associates a few other Pagan deity names with Yahweh, believing regional Pagan peoples adapted a single God into pantheons that included aspects of nature or revered ancestors. The name I recall he associated with Yahweh was Eya (Yah) or Enki, the chief god of Eridu, where Rohl placed Noah and the tower of Babel as well as El and El-Shadai.

-That Solomon in part retained a peaceful and prosperous reign due to his marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter by permitting her to establish an Egyptian style residence and temple.

The aspect I’m pondering is how knowledge of Yahweh became a minority view in region in the period between Noah and Abraham? Rohl’s theory helps in part as the Israelites had been captives in Pagan Egypt for some time and did not have the means of building their own temple or scripture tablets to compete with the archeological evidence and stone tablet records that the Pagans in that period left behind.

-Theophilus
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