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Saturday, October 26, 2024

Israeli archaeologists can never destroy the wise King Solomon

by Damien F. Mackey “Now Solomon. I think I destroyed Solomon, so to speak. Sorry for that!” Israel Finkelstein Reference is made in El Amarna [EA] letters 74 and 290 to a place-name that professor Julius Lewy read as Bet Shulmanu - House (or Sanctuary) of Shulman (“The Sulman Temple in Jerusalem”, Journal of Biblical Literature LIX (1940), pp. 519 ff.). EA 290 was written by the King of Urusalim, Abdi-Hiba, who had to be, according to the conventional chronology, a C14th BC pagan ruler of what we know as Jerusalem. This view of Abdi-Hiba is summed up in the Wikipedia article, “Abdi-Heba”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdi-Heba Abdi-Heba (Abdi-Kheba, Abdi-Hepat, or Abdi-Hebat) was a local chieftain of Jerusalem during the Amarna period (mid-1330s BC). Abdi-Heba's name can be translated as "servant of Hebat", a Hurrian goddess. Whether Abdi-Heba was himself of Hurrian descent is unknown, as is the relationship between the general populace of pre-Israelite Jerusalem (called, several centuries later, Jebusites in the Bible) and the Hurrians. Egyptian documents have him deny he was a ḫazānu and assert he is a soldier (we'w), the implication being he was the son of a local chief sent to Egypt to receive military training there.[1] Also unknown is whether he was part of a dynasty that governed Jerusalem or whether he was put on the throne by the Egyptians. Abdi-Heba himself notes that he holds his position not through his parental lineage but by the grace of Pharaoh, but this might be flattery rather than an accurate representation of the situation. …. [End of quote] From a revisionist perspective, this is all quite incorrect. Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky had argued most compellingly in his Ages in Chaos, I (1952) and Oedipus and Ikhnaton (1960), that the EA era actually belonged to, not the C14th BC, but the C9th BC era of Israel’s Divided Kingdom. And it is from such a revised perspective that Dr. Velikovsky was able to make this thrilling comment about professor Lewy’s reading: [http://www.varchive.org/ce/sultemp.htm] The Šulmán Temple in Jerusalem …. From a certain passage in letter No. 290, written by the king of Jerusalem to the Pharaoh, Lewy concluded that this city was known at that time also by the name “Temple of Šulmán.” Actually, Lewy read the ideogram that had much puzzled the researchers before him. …. After complaining that the land was falling to the invading bands (habiru), the king of Jerusalem wrote: “. . . and now, in addition, the capital of the country of Jerusalem — its name is Bit Šulmáni —, the king’s city, has broken away . . .”…. Beth Šulmán in Hebrew, as Professor Lewy correctly translated, is Temple of Šulmán. But, of course, writing in 1940, Lewy could not surmise that the edifice was the Temple of Solomon and therefore made the supposition that it was a place of worship (in Canaanite times) of a god found in Akkadian sources as Shelmi, Shulmanu, or Salamu. The correction of the reading of Knudtzon (who was uncertain of his reading) fits well with the chronological reconstruction of the period. In Ages in Chaos (chapters vi-viii) I deal with the el-Amarna letters; there it is shown that the king of Jerusalem whose name is variously read Ebed-Tov, Abdi-Hiba, etc. was King Jehoshaphat (ninth century). It was only to be expected that there would be in some of his letters a reference to the Temple of Solomon. Also, in el-Amarna letter No. 74, the king of Damascus, inciting his subordinate sheiks to attack the king of Jerusalem, commanded them to “assemble in the Temple of Šulmán.” [End of quote] Dr. Velikovsky’s identification of the idolatrous Abdi-Hiba of Urusalim with the extremely pious King Jehoshaphat of Judah needed the slight modification, as provided by Peter James, that Abdi-Hiba was actually King Jehoshaphat’s evil son, Jehoram - a modification that I fully supported in my article: King Abdi-Hiba of Jerusalem Locked in as a ‘Pillar’ of Revised History (3) King Abdi-Hiba of Jerusalem Locked in as a ‘Pillar’ of Revised History | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Apart from that, though, the EA evidence completely favoured Velikovsky’s revision, as he himself hastened to point out (op. cit., ibid.): It was surprising to find in the el-Amarna letters written in the fourteenth century that the capital of the land was already known then as Jerusalem (Urusalim) and not, as the Bible claimed for the pre-Conquest period, Jebus or Salem. …. Now, in addition, it was found that the city had a temple of Šulmán in it and that the structure was of such importance that its name had been used occasionally for denoting the city itself. (Considering the eminence of the edifice, “the house which king Solomon built for the Lord” …. this was only natural.) Yet after the conquest by the Israelites under Joshua ben-Nun, the Temple of Šulmán was not heard of. Lewy wrote: “Aside from proving the existence of a Šulmán temple in Jerusalem in the first part of the 14th century B.C., this statement of the ruler of the region leaves no doubt that the city was then known not only as Jerusalem, but also as Bet Šulmán.”—“It is significant that it is only this name [Jerusalem] that reappears after the end of the occupation of the city by the Jebusites, which the Šulmán temple, in all probability, did not survive.” [End of quote] The conventional system has the habit of throwing up such “surprising” historical anomalies! Dr. Velikovsky continues here: The late Professor W. F. Albright advised me that Lewy’s interpretation cannot be accepted because Šulmán has no sign of divinity accompanying it, as would be proper if it were the name of a god. But this only strengthens my interpretation that the temple of Šulmán means Temple of Solomon. In the Hebrew Bible the king’s name has no terminal “n”. But in the Septuagint — the oldest translation of the Old Testament — the king’s name is written with a terminal “n”; the Septuagint dates from the third century before the present era. Thus it antedates the extant texts of the Old Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls not excluded. Solomon built his Temple in the tenth century. In a letter written from Jerusalem in the next (ninth) century, Solomon’s Temple stood a good chance of being mentioned; and so it was. [End of quote] P. Friedman, writing for a British revisionist journal, would later insist upon another necessary modification of the Velikovskian thesis. The description, “Temple of Solomon”, he explained (in “The Temple in Jerusalem?” SIS Review III:1 (Summer 1978), pp.7-8), is in fact a modern English rendition which is never actually found in the Hebrew as used in the Old Testament. There, King Solomon’s Temple is constantly referred to as the “House of Yahweh” or, simply, the “House of the Lord”. Friedman also drew attention to the fact that, in Assyrian records, the Kingdom of Israel is called the “House of Omri” in deference to Omri’s dynasty. He therefore suggested that Bet Shulman should, in like manner, be understood to refer to the Kingdom of Judah in deference to King Solomon’s dynasty (p. 8): “‘House of Solomon’ meant not merely the capital [i.e., Jerusalem], but the whole kingdom of Judah, approaching even more closely the use of ‘House of Omri’ for the kingdom of Israel”. Another possible interpretation of the phrase Bet Shulman is, as S. Dyen would later argue, that it should be understood literally as “the House”, that is the Palace, of King Solomon (“The House of Solomon”, KRONOS VIII:2 (Winter 1983), p. 88). The apparent reference back in time to his great (x 3) grandfather, King Solomon, by Abdi-hiba/Jehoram of Urusalim/Jerusalem – [e.g., Matthew 1:7-8: Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram …], serves to vindicate the Old Testament against the reckless biblical minimizing of the likes of Israeli archaeologist, Israel Finkelstein. He, as I have previously noted: …. is quoted as saying in … a … National Geographic article, “Kings of Controversy” by Robert Draper (David and Solomon, December 2010, p. 85): “Now Solomon. I think I destroyed Solomon, so to speak. Sorry for that!” What Finkelstein ought to be “sorry” for, however, is not the wise King Solomon – who continues to exist as a real historical and archaeological entity, despite the confused utterances of the current crop of Israeli archaeologists – but for Finkelstein’s own folly in clinging to a hopelessly out-dated and bankrupt archaeological system that has caused him to point every time to the wrong stratigraphical level for Israel’s Old Testament history (e.g. Exodus/Conquest; David and Solomon; Queen of Sheba). …. The effects of this biblical minimalising have been so complete that an Egyptian writer, Doaa El Shereef, can now write an extensive article based upon Israeli mass archaeological error: Israeli Archaeologists Admit that: There is No Temple of Solomon (3) Israeli Archaeologists Admit that: There is No Temple of Solomon | Doaa El Shereef - Academia.edu in which she effectively erases each and every major phase of Old Testament history.

Wall of King Uzziah may have been found

“For years, experts believed that Hezekiah erected the walls after witnessing his neighbours, the Kingdom of Israel, get destroyed by the Assyrian Empire. But now a decade-long study has found that it was actually his great-grandfather, King Uzziah, who built the walls after a huge earthquake”. Michael Havis Experts say ancient ruin is proof bible story is real A breakthrough archeological discovery in ancient Jerusalem is proof that a bible story is real, according to experts. Michael Havis - The Sun …. May 6, 2024 - 2:19PM A breakthrough archeological discovery in ancient Jerusalem is proof that a bible story is real, according to experts. A stretch of wall in the original heart of the city was revealed to had been built by King Uzziah, as hinted at in the Bible, The Sun reports. Contrary to popular belief, Hezekiah, who ruled Judah during the 7th and 8th century BC, did not fortify the city to protect it against the invaders. For years, experts believed that Hezekiah erected the walls after witnessing his neighbours, the Kingdom of Israel, get destroyed by the Assyrian Empire. But now a decade-long study has found that it was actually his great-grandfather, King Uzziah, who built the walls after a huge earthquake. Joe Uziel of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said: “For decades, it was assumed that this wall was built by Hezekiah, King of Judah. “But it is now becoming clear that it dates back to the days of King Uzziah, as hinted at in the Bible. “Until now, many researchers assumed that the wall was built by Hezekiah during his rebellion against Sennacherib, King of Assyria, in order to defend Jerusalem during the Assyrian siege. “It is now apparent that the wall in its eastern part, in the area of the City of David, was built earlier, shortly after the great earthquake of Jerusalem, and as part of the construction of the city.” The findings echo the tails from the Old Testament which hinted that Uzziah constructed the wall. In the second Book of Chronicles, a passage described the event: “Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the angle of the wall, and he fortified them.” The religious scripture also detailed the earthquake that rocked the capital 2,800 years ago - which was proven to be a true event after archaeologists unearthed “a layer of destruction” in 2021. The book of Amos reads: “And the Valley in the Hills shall be stopped up, for the Valley of the Hills shall reach only to Azal; it shall be stopped up as it was stopped up as a result of the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah.” The study, a joint project between the IAA, Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, used carbon-14 dating to determine the origin of the ancient wall. According to the IAA, this period in history was previously considered a “black hole” due to fluctuating levels of the isotope in the atmosphere at the time. However, scientists were able to trace these fluctuations year by year using ancient tree rings from Europe. …. The results have also debunked common beliefs that the city expanded westward during the reign of King Hezekiah - just over 2,700 years ago. …. Yuval Gadot of Tel Avid University said: “The conventional assumption to date has been that the city expanded due to the arrival of refugees from the Kingdom of Israel in the north, following the Assyrian exile. “However, the new findings strengthen the view that Jerusalem grew in size and spread towards Mount Zion already in the ninth century BC. “This was during the reign of King Jehoash – a hundred years before the Assyrian exile. Damien Mackey’s comment: According to my revised history of the Kings of Judah, this “King Jehoash” (Joash) was the same person as King Uzziah, thereby accounting for why Joash himself does not figure in Matthew 1’s Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah: Early prophet Zechariah may forge a link with Joash, Uzziah of Judah https://www.academia.edu/69527823/Early_prophet_Zechariah_may_forge_a_link_with_Joash_Uzziah_of_Judah?uc-sb-sw=11301668 Michael Havis concludes: “In light of this, the new research teaches that the expansion of Jerusalem is a result of internal-Judean demographic growth and the establishment of political and economic systems.” In addition, the city might have been much bigger than experts formerly estimated. ….

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Luciferic fall of Ninurta-nadin-shumi King of Babylon

by Damien F. Mackey Isaiah 14:12-27 How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High’. But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: ‘Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?’ All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled underfoot, you will not join them in burial, for you have destroyed your land and killed your people. Let the offspring of the wicked never be mentioned again. Prepare a place to slaughter his children for the sins of their ancestors; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities. ‘I will rise up against them’, declares the Lord Almighty. ‘I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors, her offspring and descendants’, declares the Lord. ‘I will turn her into a place for owls and into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of destruction’, declares the Lord Almighty. The Lord Almighty has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen. I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders’. This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? If, as I have proposed in my article: The 1100 BC Nebuchednezzar (2) (DOC) The 1100 BC Nebuchednezzar | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu he, supposedly ‘the most potent monarch of the (so-called) second Isin dynasty’, was none other than Nebuchednezzar ‘the Great’ himself (conventionally known as II), then it would follow that Ninurta-nadin-shumi was not the father of Nebuchednezzar, as is generally thought, but was Ashur-nadin-shumi, Nebuchednezzar’s predecessor on the throne of Babylon. According to Marc Van de Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC, Blackwell, 2004, p. 166): “… the second Isin dynasty. Its most forceful and famous ruler was Nebuchadnezzar I (ruled 1125-04) …”. These dates will now need to be lowered on the timescale by about half a millennium. On p. 292, Van de Mieroop will give this sequence of rulers of Babylon: Tiglath-pileser III … Sennacherib … Assur-nadin-shumi … Esarhaddon … Assurbanipal. But, with Nebuchednezzar (now I-II) also re-set as a ruler of Assyro-Babylonia, as Esarhaddon: Esarhaddon a tolerable fit for King Nebuchednezzar (4) Esarhaddon a tolerable fit for King Nebuchednezzar | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu then Van de Mieroop’s conventional scenario will need to be re-shaped like this: Tiglath-pileser III [= I] … Sennacherib [= Nabopolassar] … Assur-nadin-shumi [= Ninurta-nadin-shumi] … Esarhaddon … Assurbanipal [= Nebuchednezzar I and II]. Ashur-nadin-shumi (= Ninurta-nadin-shumi), now to be regarded as the oldest brother of Esarhaddon (= Nebuchednezzar I-II), will play a massive, though ill-fated, rôle in ancient biblico-history: “Nadin” (Nadab) of Tobit is the “Holofernes” of Judith (2) (DOC) "Nadin" (Nadab) of Tobit is the "Holofernes" of Judith | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Apart from Ninurta-nadin-shumi, the other character connected with Nebuchednezzar supposedly of Isin, and who may have seemed right out of place in my revised chronology, is the Assyrian who fought against him, Ashur-resha-ishi. I explained about him in “The 1100 BC Nebuchednezzar” article: As to Ashur-resha-ishi, he seems to create something of a problem as an Assyrian fighting against Nebuchednezzar, when the latter I have also identified as a ruler of Assyria, as Esarhaddon/Assurbanipal. I would suggest that this Ashur-resha-ishi was the Sharezer (shureshi) who was one of the two sons who murdered their father, Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:37): “One day when [Sennacherib] was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him”. Nebuchednezzar (as Esarhaddon) was thus fighting, against one of Sennacherib’s remaining sons, in a life or death civil war for the control of Assyria. These names, at least, are common to the supposedly two eras: Tiglath-pileser; Merodach-baladan; (three Elamites); Ninurta-nadin-shumi/Ashur-nadin-shumi; NEBUCHEDNEZZAR; Ashur-resha-ishi/Sharezer

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Hezekiah withstands Assyria - Lumma withstands Umma

by Damien F. Mackey Introductory Having Lagash-Eshnunna (var. Ashnunna) re-identified now - so that instead of being places in Mesopotamia, as is generally believed, they (now it) belong(s) to Judea, as, Lachish-Ashdod (var. Ashduddu) - has necessitated that the Sumerian history that has been written around the location has since needed to be re-written, as Judean history. And I have already made a positive start on this. See e.g. my article: Called Sumerian History, but isn’t (3) Called Sumerian History, but isn’t. | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu From this research it has been learned that certain places thought to have been situated in Sumer, such as Lagash, Girsu, Puzrish-Dagān, and Umma, eventually fall off the political map. I attributed this to the fact that they (or some of them, at least) never actually belonged on the political map of Sumer, that Lagash (or Lakish) and Girsu, for instance, were, respectively, Lachish and Jerusalem, in Judea. The obscure Umma will become a focal point in this article. The Judean history that was being re-written in relation to Lagash and Girsu (supposedly in Sumer) and Eshnunna (supposedly in central Mesopotamia) seemed to revolve entirely around kings David and Solomon and the later Hezekiah of Judah. See, for example, my articles: Prince of Lagash (8) Prince of Lagash | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Sumerian History in Chaos: Urukagina, first reformer, or C8th BC ruler of Jerusalem? (8) Sumerian History in Chaos: Urukagina, first reformer, or C8th BC ruler of Jerusalem? | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Thus David and Solomon were, respectively, Dadusha (Naram-Sîn) and Ibāl pî-el of Eshnunna; Solomon was also Gudea of Lagash; and Hezekiah was Urukagina of Lagash and Girsu: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urukagina “Uru-ka-gina, Uru-inim-gina, or Iri-ka-gina was King of the city-states of Lagash and Girsu in Mesopotamia [sic]”. While Girsu (my Jerusalem) is considered to have been the actual capital of Lagash, the region is generally designated by the name of Lagash, rather than of Girsu. According to the Wikipedia explanation, article “E-ninnu”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-ninnu “Girsu was the religious centre of a state that was named Lagash after its most populous city…”. In the biblical narrative, however, it is Jerusalem that always takes centre stage. With nearly all of the main players (Dadusha/Naram-Sîn, Ibāl pî-el, Gudea and Urukagina) now having been dealt with, the only one left to be considered, I think, would be Eannatum (var. Eanatum) of Lagash. Odds are, I thought, that Eannatum would be either David or Solomon, or Hezekiah. I quickly ruled out King Solomon, considering that Eannatum was no Gudea (Solomon) type, but was a ruler whose land, Lagash, was under severe invasive threat. Nor did that particular scenario appear to fit King David’s era either, despite the fact that David was a warrior who fought many battles. No, this war was on a far more vast scale, reaching even as far, supposedly, as Mesopotamia and Elam. The era of King Hezekiah of Judah came closer to it, and I had already identified the reforming king Hezekiah with the reforming king Urukagina of Lagash and Girsu, whose land of Lagash (Lachish) had been invaded and overcome by one Lugalzagesi of Umma. In this context - a reforming king of the Lachish region (Judea), overcome by an invader - it became fairly apparent who Lugalzagesi must have been, though Umma itself continued to remain obscure, or imprecise. Lugalzagesi must be Sargon II/Sennacherib of Assyria. Here is some of what I wrote on the matter in the Urukagina article: Mackey’s further comment: Having said that about Lugal, “King”, it is most interesting to learn that: https://www.joshobrouwers.com/articles/evolution-sumerian-kingship/ “Lugal-Zagesi is said to have had no less than fifty LUGALs beneath him”. Cf. Isaiah 10:8: “Assyria [Sargon II] says, ‘Aren’t my commanders all kings? Can’t they do whatever they like?’” There has been some speculation on whether or not Urukagina enacted his reforms into law or if he was just paying lip service to social reform as a way to increase his popularity with his subjects (many kings announce high-minded reforms at the beginning of their reigns, only to proceed with “business as usual”). With Urukagina there can be little doubt as to his intentions. He repeated his reforms on other foundation cones. The reforms were the central event of his reign, and they would end up costing him dearly, as will later be shown. As for whether or not he enacted the reforms into law: Urukagina was the king, his word was law. This alone was enough to guarantee that the reforms were enacted. …. These social reforms weren't his only concern. He ruled during a period of political instability and civil war between the Sumerian city-states [sic]. His main antagonist was Lugalzagesi, the king of Umma who was making a bid to conquer all of Sumer and Akkad (and beyond). Mackey’s comment: The name Lugalzagesi (with various alternative spellings, such as Lugalzaggessi and Lugalzagissi), just like the name Sargon, which means “True King”, shares at least the King element. Umma is problematical. It is yet another of those supposedly Sumerian places that drops off the political map …. Umma may either be a well-known place … under a different name (below), or it may be the name for a place not in Sumer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umma Umma (Sumerian: 𒄑𒆵𒆠 ummaKI;[1] in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, formerly also called Gishban) was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site.[2] Lugalzagesi made several attacks on the kingdom of Lagash. One administrative tablet from this period is dated “the month that the man of Uruk came a third time.” It seems like Lagash was under repeated attacks from two different cities, Umma and Uruk, but in this case they are essentially the same. Mackey’s comment: “… came a third time”. Sargon II had sent his Turtan against Lachish/Ashdod (Isaiah 20:1), then the Assyrian army came again, after Iatna-Iamani had revolted. Then, as Sennacherib, Sargon II famously laid siege to the mighty fort-city, Lachish. And, as we read above, “Uruk and Umma … [may] essentially [be] the same”. Though, as we read on, the two names will now be distinguished. Although Lugalzagesi was originally the king of Umma, he had recently moved his capital to Uruk, so “the man of Umma,” as he’s called on another tablet, and “the man of Uruk,” both refer to Lugalzagesi. Umma and Uruk would be allies in the war against Urukagina, since both cities were ruled by Lugalzagesi. Three (or more) attacks on Urukagina within the span of seven years is a bit much, even by the Sumerian standards of internecine warfare. The reason for this was the long standing animosity between Umma and Lagash. They were at war for more than a century, battling for control of the Guedena, the fertile land between the two cities. Mackey’s comment: Guedena, Gu-Edin, I have identified, basically, as the ancient Eden, which became Jerusalem. Although Lugalzagesi was currently 'the Man of Uruk', he was born and raised as a royal prince of Umma. As such, he would have grown up hating Lagash and dreaming of the day when he could defeat it. The Sumerian Hundred Years War was about to culminate into its final battle. Urukagina was focused on his social reformations. He wasn't interested in foreign wars abroad or Sumerian civil wars at home. Nonetheless, although social reforms were Urukagina's primary concern, he spent most of his time defending his kingdom. Mackey’s comment: This description fits very well with phases during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah. …. The gloominess of Urukagina’s situation can be sensed in a fragment from a heavily damaged foundation cone (CDLI P222617): n lines missing “For my part, what did I have of it?” I said to him: “I did not do any violent act, but the dogs {the enemy} today are ... my city(?)” n lines missing Girsu was surrounded by it {the enemy army}, and Urukagina exchanged blows with it with weapons. A wall of it he {Lugalzagesi} made grow there, and dogs he made live there. He went away to his city, but a second time he came ... rest of column missing The “wall” is probably the enemy army surrounding the city, or it may be a siege wall constructed by the invaders to trap the civilians and defenders inside the city, cut off from outside food supplies, in order to starve them into submission. The prolonged siege of the city caused the enemy “dogs” (soldiers) to live there for a while. Mackey’s comment: This would be the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. 2 Kings 18:13-17: In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: ‘I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me’. The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the Temple of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace. At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the Temple of the LORD, and gave it to the king of Assyria. Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field. Urukagina – Hezekiah during siege of Jerusalem Eannatum – Hezekiah victorious over Assyria This is how I am beginning to see it. Urukagina of Lagash and Girsu belongs to the successful invasion of Sennacherib during the latter’s Third Campaign, when everything went right for the Assyrians. Lachish (Lagash/Lakish) was taken and the capital city of Jerusalem (Girsu) was successfully besieged: Girsu was surrounded by it {the enemy army}, and Urukagina exchanged blows with it with weapons. A wall of it he {Lugalzagesi} made grow there, and dogs he made live there. Eannatum of Lagash was, on the other hand, the victorious King Hezekiah. His other name, Lumma, may clinch it. For I have identified King Hezekiah as the Lemuel (Lumma-el?) of Proverbs 31: 1, 4: “Lemuel” of Proverbs could be Hezekiah rather than Solomon (11) "Lemuel" of Proverbs could be Hezekiah rather than Solomon by | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu https://dbpedia.org/page/Eannatum “One inscription found on a boulder states that Eannatum was his Sumerian name, while his “Tidnu” (Amorite) name was Lumma”. So we have, rhymingly, Lumma opposed to Umma. The conventional history, which had wildly assigned Urukagina to the c. C24th BC, instead of to the c. C8th BC where he truly belongs (my view), and had made of him the world’s first reformer, goes similarly beserk with who I believe to be his alter ego, Eannatum: https://dbpedia.org/page/Eannatum “Eannatum (Sumerian: … É.AN.NA-tum2) was a Sumerian Ensi (ruler or king) of Lagash circa 2500–2400 BCE. He established one of the first verifiable empires in history: he subdued Elam and destroyed the city of Susa as well as several other Iranian cities, and extended his domain to Sumer and Akkad”. Did King Hezekiah do any of this? While I am not quite sure how some of this Sumerian-ised Judean history came about – maybe by the later Ptolemies and Seleucids, who glamourised early history and individuals - the whole thing has been grossly mis-dated by modern historians and archaeologists. Let us reconsider some of this, following the Sumerian Shakespeare, writing on whom he calls, “Eannatum, the King of Kish”: https://sumerianshakespeare.com/37601.html Eanatum … the most militarily successful ruler of the first dynasty of Lagash. He conducted many campaigns abroad, including ones against the southern cities of Ur, Uruk, and Kiutu, as well as states further afield such as Kish, Mari, Akshak, and Susa. He even reached northeastern Subartu and the eastern regions of Elam, destroying a city called Mishime. His military campaigns were so widespread that he was able to claim the title "King of Kish," a title associated with if not always actually indicating, the unity of the Mesopotamian city-states and their submission to a single ruler. Mackey’s comment: Obviously no king of Judah ever achieved such far distant conquests as these. It is probably a garbled history that drags in some of the far-reaching conquests of the neo-Assyrian kings. However, the 185,000-strong Assyrian army of Sennacherib that Israel conquered at this time, thanks to the heroic intervention of Judith, consisted of soldiery from many of these named parts. Achior, the nephew of Tobit, for instance, had commanded the Elamite (not Ammonite as in the Book of Judith) contingent. Like other Lagash rulers, Eanatum had to deal with Umma and the unsettled struggle over the Guedena. From the Enmetena cone we know he was in a strong position to dictate terms of an agreement. He divided the land with his rival Enakale and established a no-man's land along the agreed border, marking it with his own boundary stele and restoring the previously ruined stele of Mesalim, in addition to building shrines to Enlil, Ningirsu, and Ninhursag near the division. He also imposed a tax on Umma for the use of its share of the Guedena, which grew to huge proportions and in the time of his descendants resulted in another invasion by Umma into Lagash's side. To enforce the agreement he made the ruler of Umma swear an oath to the gods not to violate the borders. Mackey’s comment: Guedena is another of those geographical names that, I think, belongs to Judah, rather than to Sumer. The site of Jerusalem was originally the Garden of Eden (Guedena? Land of Eden). Though polytheistic elements (not suitable to the rule of King Hezekiah) seem to enter in here, the god Ningirsu, for instance, was simply (so I think) another name for Yahweh – Ningirsu, “Lord of Girsu” (that is, Jerusalem). King Hezekiah, after the victory that must have shaken the entire ancient world, may have been in a position to impose certain terms upon the Assyrians. Much information about Eanatum's deeds comes from the famous Stele of the Vultures, a fragmentary inscription that depicts in both verbally and graphically powerful ways the military exploits of the king of Lagash. One fragment shows the god Ningirsu holding a mace in his right hand while his left holds a net that has bagged a number of helpless enemy soldiers. Another section shows Eanatum leading a heavily armed phalanx of soldiers trampling slain enemy underneath. Yet another shows men piling up corpses into a giant heap, an image which is reflected in the text. The stele also gives testament to developments in the ideology of kingship which are promoted by later Lagash rulers. Eanatum is the first Lagash king to explicitly claim divine birth by a god, in this case Ningirsu. Inheritors of the throne would go on to do likewise, as when Eanatum's son Enanatum I [sic]¬¬¬ named the god Lugal-URU11 his father, and when Enmetena names Gatumdug his divine mother (Bauer pg. 462). Along with the divine progenitor comes a divine wet-nurse, that is, a female goddess who suckles the king to make him strong. For Eanatum this figure is the ancient goddess Ninhursag (Ean 01, IV). Other kings, down to the Neo-Assyrian period, would also make use of this motif. The stele also describes how Ningirsu visited Eanatum in a dream where he instructed him to make war on Umma. This motif surfaces again in the cylinder inscriptions of the later king Gudea, where he narrates how Ningirsu explained the plan for the (re)building of his E-ninnu temple. Mackey’s comment: The first paragraph here could well be describing the victorious Judean king, Hezekiah (Eannatum), led by Yahweh (Ningirsu), joining the rout against the Assyrian foe as begun in the north (around Shechem). Judith 15:5-7: When the Israelites heard it, with one accord they fell upon the enemy and cut them down as far as Choba. Those in Jerusalem and all the hill country also came, for they were told what had happened in the camp of the enemy. The men in Gilead and in Galilee outflanked them with great slaughter, even beyond Damascus and its borders. The rest of the people of Bethulia [Shechem] fell upon the Assyrian camp and plundered it, acquiring great riches. And the Israelites, when they returned from the slaughter, took possession of what remained. Even the villages and towns in the hill country and in the plain got a great amount of plunder, since there was a vast quantity of it. This celebrated incident is what I believe that the Stele of the Vultures may be depicting, whether the stele had been created closely contemporaneously to the event itself, or, more likely, at some later stage (and perhaps far away from Judah) given the polytheistic elements to be found in it. As for the second paragraph, the Davidide kings did regard themselves as sons of God. The “wet nurse” theme for great men is a constant throughout biblical history (Moses) and pagan legend, e.g., Hathor suckling Hatshepsut; Cyrus the Great suckled by a female dog; Romulus and Remus suckled by a she-wolf, etc. Gudea, as King Solomon, certainly did receive a dream from Ningirsu, Yahweh, regarding the building of the temple (Temple). King Hezekiah’s oracles on behalf of Yahweh were Isaiah and, as King Josiah, Huldah, who is Judith. The conflict between Eannatum (Lumma) and Umma over water is probably a vague recollection of the fact that King Hezekiah famously secured the water of Jerusalem, so that the looming Assyrians would not benefit from it. 2 Chronicles 32:1-4: After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself. When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. They gathered a large group of people who blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. ‘Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?’ they said. Compare this with the following: https://classicalwisdom.com/politics/wars/a-war-for-water-the-tale-of-two-city-states/ Eannatum was the King of Lagash, a fertile town nestled between the Tigris and the Euphrates [sic]. While his domain was prosperous, Eannatum wanted more. This ambitious king, upon receiving his power, understood that Lagash’s security relied on its water supply from the Shatt al-Gharraf [sic]. Unfortunately his neighbor, the city-state of Umma, also bordered this very important channel on the western bank [sic]. The chief cause of hostility between these important cities is unknown according to some historians, and while we can never be certain, it seems obvious to us that the conflict was over water. …. Umma held this one strategic advantage over Lagash. Cutting the water supply to the city would hinder its domestic produce and trade via waterway, effectively crippling commerce in Lagash and sending prices upward on all commodities. …. Good try!

Friday, October 4, 2024

Has Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty succession, Thutmose to Amenhotep, been duplicated?

by Damien F. Mackey What makes me wonder even more in the case of Eighteenth Dynasty repetitions is that Thutmose III and IV, as well as bearing the same nomen (Thutmose, “Born of the god Thoth”), also had the same praenomen, Menkheperre (“Lasting are the Manifestations of Re”). As well as that ‘they’ shared the Horus name, Kanakht. THUTMOSE III, IV Having a double set of the pharaonic combination: Thutmose – Amenhotep, in the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt: TUTHMOSIS III AMENHOTEP II TUTHMOSIS IV AMENHOTEP III inevitably makes me wonder if, as in the case of Egypt’s Old-Middle Kingdoms, some duplications may have occurred, thereby unwarrantedly extending the already lengthy dynastic history of ancient Egypt. I have greatly streamlined those Old-Middle Kingdom dynasties in earlier articles, wherein there occur such repetitive combinations as: Pepi – Merenre (so-called Sixth Dynasty) and Amenemhet – Sesostris (so-called Twelfth Dynasty). What makes me wonder even more in the case of the above Eighteenth Dynasty repetitions is that Thutmose III and IV, as well as bearing the same nomen (Thutmose, “Born of the god Thoth”), also had the same praenomen, Menkheperre (“Lasting are the Manifestations of Re”). As well as that ‘they’ shared the Horus name, Kanakht. Thutmose III had Syrian wives, Menhet, Menwi and Merti. Thutmose IV had, amongst several, Merytra (Merti?). The plot thickens. Thutmose IV was also married to a (Syro-) Mitannian woman, Mutemwiya, a name of which I would suggest that the above, Menwi (M-ut-emwi-ya), was a hypocoristicon: https://sites.google.com/site/historyofancientegypt/queens-of-egypt/mutemwia-wife-of-tuthmosis-iv Queen Mutemwia is of unknown parentage. One theory identifies her with a daughter of King Artatama of Mitanni who is known to have married Pharaoh Tuthmosis IV. …. There is however no evidence for this theory. Others have suggested that she may have been related to Yuya, the father of Queen Tiye. This theory seems to date back to C. Aldred. He suggested that Mutemwia was a daughter of the Master of the Horse named Yey. This scenario would have Mutemwia as a secondary royal wife, who gives birth to a son and heir. During the early reign of her son Amenhotep III, she and her brother Yuya marry Amenhotep to his niece Tiye. This is a nice theory, but again, no firm evidence exists to validate any of these ideas. Queen Mutemwia was likely a minor wife of Tuthmosis IV. During the reign of Tuthmosis IV we first see him accompanied by a Queen Nefertari and later by Queen Iaret. Mutemwia must have given birth to Prince Amenhotep fairly early in the reign, and it seems that Prince Amenhotep was recognized by the king and may have even been designated crown prince. Mutemwia becomes more important during the reign of her son Amenhotep III. Amenhotep came to the throne at a fairly young age (some suggest ca 8-10 years old). Mutemwia never takes on the official role of regent for her son, but she is depicted on several of his monuments. [End of quote] The ‘Syrian’ element will become most significant as I continue to trace the origins and identification of Thutmose III and his son, Amenhotep. Obviously the reign lengths, as conventionally assigned, differ greatly, with Thutmose III reigning for 54 years and Thutmose IV for only about a decade or less. However, one finds some entirely new possible perspectives arising when one reads articles such as Betsy Bryan’s “The Reign of Thutmose IV” (1991): https://www.academia.edu/37751598/The_Reign_of_Thutmose_IV telling of historians Wente and Van Siclen even allowing for the possibility of “a figure quadrupling the reign” of Thutmose IV. CHRONOLOGY For those most interested in interpretive history, the problem of chronology often delays discussion. For those, however, who recognize the pitfalls and rewards of examining chronological evidence, this introductory chapter will be expected and, I hope, appreciated--if not completely agreed to. How long did Thutmose IV reign? The traditional answer to this question has been about eight years, a figure corresponding both to the attested year dates and the Manethonian king lists. Recently, however, the chronology for the New Kingdom proposed by Wente and Van Siclen used a figure quadrupling the reign. …. Such a dramatic extension of Thutmose's years as ruler warrants full discussion before it is embraced or rejected. The discussion below, therefore, before passing on to the events, characters, and monuments of the period, will examine the evidence for Thutmose IV's length of rule and weigh the arguments bearing on his reign contained in the new chronology. …. Added to this, Brian Alm has noted that reliefs of Thutmose IV actually refer to his Heb Sed festival (“Thutmose IV: Placeholder or Pivot?”). This usually indicated that the King of Egypt had attained to three decades of reign: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Heb-Sed “Heb-Sed, also called Sed Festival, one of the oldest feasts of ancient Egypt, celebrated by the king after 30 years of rule and repeated every 3 years thereafter. The festival was in the nature of a jubilee, and it is believed that the ceremonies represented a ritual reenactment of the unification of Egypt, traditionally accomplished by Menes”. Brian Alm writes, imagining that this must have been “fake news” on the part of the Pharaoh: https://www.academia.edu/37751598/The_Reign_of_Thutmose_IV [Thutmose IV] had reliefs put up at Amada, in Nubia, referring to his heb-sed Jubilee — even though he ruled only eight or ten years and had no sed observance, which technically was to commemorate a king’s 30th year of rule — “Jubilee by proxy,” Reeves calls it …. Yes, it’s true that kings did jump the gun and held the heb-sed early, while they were still fresh and able to assert their right to rule with youthful vigor, but it was still a bit too early for a king who had ruled at most ten years and was dead by the age of 25. It is also possible that the heb-sed was being expressed not as an event but as a wish for longevity. Nevertheless, real or imagined, the rite had been recorded and recognized, so it was “fact.” Today it might be called fake news, but it was an Egyptian convention to create truth by writing it, stamped with the magical di ankh, “given life,” to make it so. …. If, however, Thutmose IV is to be merged with III, then “fake news” was not involved. For Thutmose III certainly did celebrate a Heb Sed festival: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festival_Hall_of_Thutmose_III “The Festival Hall of Thutmose III is situated at the end of the Middle Kingdom court, with its axis at right-angles to the main east–west axis of the temple. It was originally built to celebrate the jubilee (Heb-Sed) of the 18th dynasty Pharaoh, Thutmose III, and later became used as part of the annual Opet Festival.” For a pharaoh who is thought to have reigned for approximately only 8 years, Thutmose IV was an incredibly prolific builder. Though, as is thought: “Most of his work was adding to the temples of his father and grandfather …”: https://www.crystalinks.com/Thutmose_IV.html “Like most of the Thutmoside kings, he built on a grand scale. Thutmose IV completed the eastern obelisk first started by Thutmose III, which, at 32 m (105 ft), was the tallest obelisk ever erected in Egypt, at the Temple of Karnak. Thutmose IV called it the tekhen waty or 'unique obelisk.' It was transported to the grounds of the Circus Maximus in Rome by Emperor Constantius II in 357 AD and, later, "re-erected by Pope Sixtus V in 1588 at the Piazza San Giovanni" in the Vatican where it is today known as the 'Lateran Obelisk." …. Thutmose IV also built a unique chapel and peristyle hall against the back or eastern walls of the main Karnak temple building. The chapel was intended "for people "who had no right of access to the main Karnak temple. It was a 'place of the ear' for the god Amun where the god could hear the prayers of the townspeople." This small alabaster chapel of Thutmose IV has today been carefully restored by French scholars from the Centre Franco-Egyptien D'Etude des Temple de Karnak (CFEETK) mission in Karnak. He also began work at most of Egypt's major temple sites and four sites in Nubia, but almost all of this was simply adding to existing monuments. Most of his work was adding to the temples of his father and grandfather, and perhaps suggesting new sites and monuments to his son. Minor building projects: • The Delta at Alexandria • Seriakus • Heliopolis • Giza • Abusir • Saqqara • Memphis • Crocodilopos in the Fayoum • Hermopolis • Amarna • Abydos (a chapel) • Dendera • Medamu • Karna • Luxor • The West Bank at Luxor (his tomb and mortuary temple) • Armant • Edfu • Elephantine • Konosso Thutmose IV is like a microcosm of the great Thutmose III. Suspiciously, “little is known” about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_IV “Little is known about his brief ten-year rule. He suppressed a minor uprising in Nubia in his 8th year (attested in his Konosso stela) around 1393 BC [sic] and was referred to in a stela as the Conqueror of Syria,[3] but little else has been pieced together about his military exploits. Betsy Bryan, who penned a biography of Thutmose IV, says that Thutmose IV's Konosso stela appears to refer to a minor desert patrol action on the part of the king's forces to protect certain gold-mine routes in Egypt's Eastern Desert from occasional attacks by the Nubians.[4] Thutmose IV's rule is significant because he established peaceful relations with Mitanni and married a Mitannian princess to seal this new alliance”. Numerous instances of Syro-Mitannian campaigning and booty collecting can be gleaned from a reading of Betsy Bryan’s article, “The Reign of Thutmose IV”, although the tendency again is, as with Brian Alm’s article, to understate the likelihood of its being hard reality. Thutmose III was indeed a Conqueror of Syria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_III#Conquest_of_Syria “The fifth, sixth and seventh campaigns of Thutmose III were directed against the Phoenician cities in Syria and against Kadesh on the Orontes. In Thutmose's 29th year, he began his fifth campaign, where he first took an unknown city (the name falls in a lacuna) which had been garrisoned by Tunip.[36] He then moved inland and took the city and territory around Ardata;[37] the town was pillaged and the wheatfields burned. Unlike previous plundering raids, Thutmose III garrisoned the area known as Djahy, which is probably a reference to southern Syria.[29] This permitted him to ship supplies and troops between Syria and Egypt. Although there is no direct evidence for it, it is for this reason that some have supposed that Thutmose's sixth campaign, in his thirtieth year, commenced with a naval transportation of troops directly to Byblos, bypassing Canaan entirely.[37] After the troops arrived in Syria by whatever means, they proceeded into the Jordan River valley and moved north, pillaging Kadesh's lands.[38] Turning west again, Thutmose took Simyra and quelled a rebellion in Ardata, which apparently had rebelled again.[39] To stop such rebellions, Thutmose began taking hostages from the cities in Syria. The cities in Syria were not guided by the popular sentiment of the people so much as they were by the small number of nobles who were aligned to Mitanni: a king and a small number of foreign Maryannu. Thutmose III found that by taking family members of these key people to Egypt as hostages, he could drastically increase their loyalty to him.[38] Syria rebelled again in Thutmose's 31st year and he returned to Syria for his seventh campaign, took the port city of Ullaza[38] and the smaller Phoenician ports[39] and took more measures to prevent further rebellions.[38] All the excess grain which was produced in Syria was stored in the harbors he had recently conquered and was used for the support of the military and civilian Egyptian presence ruling Syria.[38] This left the cities in Syria desperately impoverished. With their economies in ruins, they had no means of funding a rebellion.[40]” AMENHOTEP II, III As well as Thutmose III and IV needing to be merged into just the one pharaoh, as I have done, so also, do I think, the same may apply to Amenhotep II and III. The first (II) is rightly considered to have been the son of Thutmose III, whilst the second (III) is thought to have been the son of Thutmose IV. Here, though, I shall be proposing that Amenhotep II = III was the son of my revised Thutmose III = IV. STRONG, A SPORTSMAN, HUNTER Some patterns of similarity emerge also with Amenhotep II and III. For example: Being fathered by a predecessor “Thutmose”. And sharing the name Aakhepeh[-erure]. Having as wife: [Amenhotep II] “Tiaa (Tiya) "Great Royal Wife" Daughter of Yuya and Thuya”. http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/pharaoh/dynasties/dyn18/07amenhotep2.html [Amenhotep III] Having a Great Royal Wife, “Tiy, daughter of Yuya and Tuya”. http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/pharaoh/dynasties/dyn18/09amenhotep3.html Having as son-successors a Thutmose, and then an Amenhotep: [Amenhotep II] “Children Thutmose IV, Amenhotep …”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenhotep_II [Amenhotep III (and Tiy)] “Their eldest son, Thutmosis … died as a child. This left the kingdom to their second son, Amenhotep … who changed his name and is better known as Akhenaten”. [Mackey: Though I don’t think that Akhenaten was his son]. https://study.com/academy/lesson/amenhotep-iii-biography-family-death.html Well known about Amenhotep II is that he was a very physically strong sportsmen and hunter. But so, too, was Amenhotep III: https://681308714824908458.weebly.com/hunter.html …. Amenhotep III's reign encompassed peace and because of this there was no real need to have a 'warrior' pharaoh to protect Egypt, so instead the role of 'Hunter' became more prominent. Amenhotep still needed to seem strong and powerful. Skills taught to pharaohs previously to fulfil the role of being a warrior were transferrable to the role of being a hunter. Hunting was an important role as the representation of a hunter was Ma'at. Inscriptions praised the pharaoh for his physical power as a sportsman giving emphasis on his strength, endurance, skill and also his courage. Two scarabs were also issued promoting his success as a hunter. One scarab is pictured on this page from 1380BC [sic] in the 18th Dynasty. To the Right is the bottom of the scarab presenting the hieroglyphics and below is the picture of the detailed top of the artefact with markings indicating the head, wings and scorching on its legs imitating its feathering. This scarab records that the king killed 102 lions within his first ten years of his reign. He stated that he did this with only a bow and arrow. This presents his strength and power without having to win thousands of wars. Historian A. Gardiner wrote in 1972 a quote the relates strongly to the topic of a hunter 'with the accession of Amenhotep III, Dynasty 18 attained the zenith of its magnificence, though the celebrity of this king is not founded upon any military achievement. Indeed, It is doubtful whether he himself ever took part in a warlike campaign'.' This quote is explaining further how Amenhotep III was more involved with a warrior role than a military role. He may [have] not had war but he managed to keep his magnificence through hunting as the skills were transferrable. Hunting was an important role in the 18th dynasty and specifically during Amenhotep's reign as it was up to him to withhold the concept of ma'at. It was significant as the role of being a warrior was not necessarily needed throughout his reign, so the role of a hunter arose to ensure that the pharaoh was presented as strong. Amenhotep contributed to this role by creating the commemorative scarabs and recording any hunting successes. This provided the people with reassurance that their pharaoh could protect them and also it is significant because it provides historians and archeologists with evidence about the pharaoh and hunting. Sometimes the strength and sporting prowess of Amenhotep II are presented as if being his main claim to fame. The following piece exemplifies the pharaoh’s outstanding sporting skills: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/amenhotep2.htm Notably, Amenhotep II was well known for his athletic abilities as a young man. A number of representations of him depict his participation in successful sporting pursuits. He lived in the Memphite region where he trained horses in his father's stables, and one of his greatest athletic achievements was accomplished when he shot arrows through a copper plate while driving a chariot with the reins tied about his waist. This deed was recorded in numerous inscriptions, including a stele at Giza and depictions at Thebes. So famous was the act that it was also miniaturized on scarabs that have been found in the Levant. Sara Morris, a classical art historian, has even suggested that his target shooting success formed the basis hundreds of years later for the episode in the Iliad when Achilles is said to have shot arrows through a series of targets set up in a trench. He was also recorded as having wielded an oar of some 30 ft in length, rowing six times as fast as other crew members, though this may certainly be an exaggeration. …. The Odyssey, which (like The Iliad, “Achilles” above) has borrowed many of its images from the Bible, no doubt picked up this one of Amenhotep II also and transferred it to its hero, Odysseus (Latin variant: Ulysses). (Book 21): Penelope now appears before the suitors in her glittering veil. In her hand is a stout bow left behind by Odysseus when he sailed for Troy. ‘Whoever strings this bow’, she says, ‘and sends an arrow straight through the sockets of twelve ax heads lined in a row -- that man will I marry’. The suitors take turns trying to bend the bow to string it, but all of them lack the strength. Odysseus asks if he might try. The suitors refuse, fearing that they'll be shamed if the beggar succeeds. But Telemachus insists and his anger distracts them into laughter. As easily as a bard fitting a new string to his lyre, Odysseus strings the bow and sends an arrow through the ax heads. …. Similar patterns emerge, again, with the course of the reign of Amenhotep II, III - some early military activity followed by years of peace and prosperity, allowing for major building projects. Amenhotep II: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/amenhotep2.htm Some references refer to his first expedition taking place as early as his 2nd year of rule, though others provide that it was during his 7th. Still other references indicate that he made both of these campaigns. Regardless, he fought his was across the Orontes river and claims to have subdued all before him. One city, Niy, apparently had learnt their lesson under his father, and welcomed Amenhotep II. But at Tikhsi (Takhsy, as mentioned in the Theban tomb of Amenemheb - TT85), he captured seven prices, returning with them in the autumn. They were hung face down on the prow of his ship on the return journey, and six of them were subsequently hung on the enclosure wall of the Theban temple. The other was taken south into Nubia where his was likewise hung on the walls of Napata, "in order to cause to be seen the victorious might of His Majesty for ever and ever". According to the Stele recording these events, this first campaign netted booty consisting of 6,800 deben of gold and 500,000 deben of copper (about 1,643 and 120,833 pounds respectively), as well as 550 mariannu captives, 210 horses and 300 chariots. All sources agree that he once again campaigned in Syria during his ninth year of rule, but only in Palestine as for as the Sea of Galilee. Yet these stele, erected after year nine of Amenhotep II's rule, that provide us with this information do not bear hostile references to either Mitanni or Nahrin, the general regions of the campaigns. This is probably intentional, because apparently the king had finally made peace with these former foes. In fact, an addition at the end of the Memphis stele records that the chiefs of Nahrin, Hatti and Sangar (Babylon) arrived before the king bearing gifts and requesting offering gifts (hetepu) in exchange, as well as asking for the breath of life. Though good relations with Babylon existed during the reign of Tuthmosis III, this was the first mention of a Mitanni peace, and it is very possible that a treaty existed allowing Egypt to keep Palestine and part of the Mediterranean coast in exchange for Mitannian control of northern Syria. Underscoring this new alliance, with Nahrin, Amenhotep II had inscribed on a column between the fourth and fifth pylons at Karnak, "The chiefs (weru) of Mitanni (My-tn) come to him, their deliveries upon their backs, to request offering gifts from his majesty in quest of the breath of life". The location for this column in the Tuthmosid wadjyt, or columned hall, was significant, because the hall was venerated as the place where his father received a divine oracle proclaiming his future kingship. It is also associated with the Tuthmosid line going back to Tuthmosis I, who was the first king to campaign in Syria. Furthermore, we also learn that Amenhotep II at least asked for the hand of the Mitannian king, Artatama I, in marriage. By the end of Amenhotep II's reign, the Mitanni who had been so recently a vile enemy of Egypt, were being portrayed as a close friend. After these initial campaigns, the remainder of Amenhotep II's long reign was characterized by peace in the Two Lands, including Nubia where his father settled matters during his reign. This allowed him to somewhat aggressively pursue a building program that left his mark at nearly all the major sites where his father had worked. Some of these projects may have even been initiated during his co-regency with his father, for at Amada in Lower Nubia dedicated to Amun and Ra-Horakhty celebrated both equally, and at Karnak, he participated in his father's elimination of any vestiges of his hated stepmother, Hatshepsut. There was also a bark chapel built celebrating his co-regency at Tod. …. Amenhotep III: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/amenhotep3.htm While as usual, an expedition into Nubia in year five of his reign was given grandiose attention on some reliefs, it probably amounted to nothing more than a low key police action. However, it may have pushed as for as south of the fifth cataract. It was recorded on inscriptions near Aswan and at Konosso in Nubia. There is also a stele in the British Museum recording a Nubian campaign, but it is unclear whether it references this first action, or one later in his reign. There was also a Nubian rebellion reported at Ibhet, crushed by his son. While Amenhotep III was almost certainly not directly involved in this conflict, he records having slaughtered many within the space of a single hour. We learn from inscriptions that this campaign resulted in the capture of 150 Nubian men, 250 women, 175 children, 110 archers and 55 servants, added to the 312 right hands of the slain. Perhaps to underscore the Kushite subjection to Egypt, he had built at Soleb, almost directly across the Nile from the Nubian capital at Kerma, a fortress known as Khaemmaat, along with a temple. The Prosperity and International Relationships However, by year 25 of Amenhotep III's reign, military problems seem to have been settled, and we find a long period of great building works and high art. It was also a period of lavish luxury at the royal court. The wealth needed to accomplish all of this did not come from conquests, but rather from foreign trade and an abundant supply of gold, mostly from the mines in the Wadi Hammamat and further south in Nubia. Amenhotep III was unquestionably involved with international diplomatic efforts, which led to increased foreign trade. During his reign, we find a marked increase in Egyptian materials found on the Greek mainland. We also find many Egyptian place names, including Mycenae, Phaistos and Knossos first appearing in Egyptian inscriptions. We also find letters written between Amenhotep III and his peers in Babylon, Mitanni and Arzawa preserved in cuneiform writing on clay tablets.From a stele in his mortuary temple, we further learn that he sent at least one expedition to punt. It is rather clear that the nobility prospered during the reign of Amenhotep III. However, the plight of common Egyptians is less sure, and we have little evidence to suggest that they shared in Egypt's prosperity. Yet, Amenhotep III and his granary official Khaemhet boasted of the great crops of grain harvested in the kings 30th (jubilee) year. And while such evidence is hardly unbiased, the king was remembered even 1,000 years later as a fertility god, associated with agricultural success. …. Estimated reign lengths vary somewhat, with 38 years commonly attributed to Amenhotep III, whilst figures for Amenhotep II can range from, say, 26-35 years: https://www.crystalinks.com/Amenhotep_II.html “The length of [Amenhotep II’s] reign is indicated by a wine jar inscribed with the king's prenomen found in Amenhotep II's funerary temple at Thebes; it is dated to this king's highest known date - his Year 26 - and lists the name of the pharaoh's vintner, Panehsy. Mortuary temples were generally not stocked until the king died or was near death; therefore, Amenhotep could not have lived much later beyond his 26th year. There are alternate theories which attempt to assign him a reign of up to 35 years, which is the absolute maximum length he could have reigned. …”. Complicating somewhat the matter of reign length is the possibility of co-regencies - even perhaps quite lengthy ones: (a) between Amenhotep II and his father, Thutmose III, and (b) between Amenhotep III and Akhnaton. The most extreme estimate for (a) is “twenty-five years or more” (Donald B. Redford): https://www.jstor.org/stable/3855623?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents whilst for (b): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenhotep_III#Proposed_co-regency_by_Akhenaten “In February 2014, the Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities announced what it called "definitive evidence" that Akhenaten shared power with his father for at least 8 years …”. Apart from Asa’s (as Abijah’s) significant war with Jeroboam I, the King of Judah would also have to deal with a massive invasion from the direction of Egypt/Ethiopia: Zerah’s invasion. Dr. I. Velikovsky had aligned this biblical incident with the era of Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh, Amenhotep II, son of Thutmose III. This is very close to what I think must be the right biblico-historical synchronisation. According to my own estimate, with the Shishak campaign (in King Rehoboam’s Year 5) approximating to Thutmose III’s Year 25, then the 54-year reign of Thutmose III would have extended beyond Rehoboam’s reign, his Year 17 (I Kings 14:21), and would have penetrated as far as Asa’s (identified as Abijah) (54-25-12 =) Year 17. That Year 17 occurred probably a little after Zerah’s invasion, which Raymond B. Dillard estimates to have taken place in Asa’s Year 14 (2 Chronicles, Volume 15). Peter James and Peter Van der Veen (below) - who will include in their calculation the 3 years attributed to King Abijah (who is my Asa) - will situate “the Zerah episode in a fairly narrow window, between the years 11 and 14 of Asa”. Now, with the distinct likelihood that Amenhotep II shared a substantial co-regency with his long-reigning father, even as much as “twenty-five years or more”, as we read above, then Dr. Velikovsky may be entirely correct in his synchronising of the Zerah invasion with the reign of Amenhotep II. Once again Velikovsky had – as with his identifications of the Queen of Sheba and Shishak – the (approximately) right chronology. But once again he would put it together wrongly. In this particular case, Zerah, Dr. Velikovsky would actually identify the wrong (as I see it) candidate: Viceroy Usersatet my favoured choice for Zerah the Ethiopian (6) Viceroy Usersatet my favoured choice for Zerah the Ethiopian | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu In this article I have enlarged pharaoh Amenhotep II to embrace also the one known as Amenhotep III ‘the Magnificent’. {I have also enlarged Asa to embrace his supposed father, Abijah (Abijam)}. And I have enlarged Thutmose III, the father of my expanded Amenhotep, to embrace Thutmose IV.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Viceroy Usersatet my favoured choice for Zerah the Ethiopian

by Damien F. Mackey In his Ages in Chaos, I (Chapter 5: “Ras Shamra”), Dr. I. Velikovsky elaborated upon his choice of the physically strong pharaoh, Amenhotep II, for the biblical “Zerah the Ethiopian”. VELIKOVSKY’S “ZERAH” Dr. Velikovsky’s 1945 “Theses” Here Dr. Velikovsky outlined, in point fashion, what he would elaborate upon later, in his series Ages in Chaos (http://www.varchive.org/ce/theses.htm): THESES FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF ANCIENT HISTORY FROM THE END OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM IN EGYPT TO THE ADVENT OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT BY IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY …. 81. Amenhotep II lived not in the fifteenth but in the ninth century, and was the scriptural Zerah. 82. The theory that the Ethiopian Zerah came from Arabia is wrong; equally wrong is the theory that he is a mythological figure. 83. The battle of Ain-Reshet, referred to by Amenhotep II, is the battle of Mareshet-Gath, which was lost by Amenhotep II and won by Asa. 84. This intrusion of Amenhotep II-Zerah is also narrated in the poem of Keret found in Ras Shamra. 85. The theory that Terah of the Poem, who invaded the south of Palestine with millions of soldiers, is the father of Abraham, is wrong. 86. The Shemesh-Edom of the war-annals of Amenhotep II is the Edomite city of Shapesh (Shemesh) referred to in the Poem of Keret. …. 89. The texts found in Ras Shamra are not of the fifteenth, but of the ninth century. 90. The close resemblance of the texts of Ras Shamra with diverse books of the Scriptures repudiates most of the assertions of the Bible criticism (late origin of the texts), as well as the modern theory about the Canaanite heritage in the Scriptures (early origin of the texts). 91. The theory that alphabetic writing was perfected in the sixteenth century cannot be supported by the Ras Shamra texts of the ninth century. 92. As the alphabetic writing of Hebrew in cuneiform of Ras Shamra is contemporaneous with the stela of Mesha written in Hebrew alphabetic characters, the alphabet most probably did not originate in Phoenicia but in Palestine”. …. [End of quote] In his Ages in Chaos, I (Chapter 5: “Ras Shamra”), Dr. I. Velikovsky elaborated upon his choice of the physically strong pharaoh, Amenhotep II, for the biblical “Zerah the Ethiopian”: Amenhotep II Syria-Palestine of the period we are discussing was a region coveted by the pharaohs and striving for independence. When the long and successful reign of Thutmose III came to its end, Amenhotep II (his royal name is usually read Okheperure) took the scepter. To the Asiatic provinces the death of Thutmose III was a signal for insurrection and the casting off of the Egyptian yoke. Amenhotep II marched at the head of a vast army of chariots, horsemen, and foot warriors to suppress the rebellion in Syria and Palestine. His Majesty “went against Retenu (Palestine) in his first victorious campaign, in order to extend his frontier. ... His Majesty came to Shamash-Edom and devastated it. ... His Majesty came to Ugarit and subdued all his adversaries. . . .” …. On the way to Syria Amenhotep II displayed his ability to use the bow in a demonstration before the local princes in order to impress and intimidate them. He returned to Memphis with a few hundred nobles as war prisoners and a booty of some hundred horses and chariots or war carriages. On his return to Egypt he hanged some of the prisoners to the mast of his ship on the Nile with their heads down. In his ninth year he repeated his expedition to Palestine, his goal being Aphek in lower Galilee. He plundered two villages “west of Socoh,” and after pillaging other unimportant localities, he returned to Memphis with more prisoners. His harassing visits made him a common enemy of the kingdoms of Palestine and Syria. When he came again to Palestine, the main, and seemingly the only, battle was fought at a place called “y-r’-s-t”. Various solutions have been proposed for the identification of this locality. …. However, it is an important fact that according to Amenhotep’s annals he reached the place one day after his army left the Egyptian border. …. Thus the place of the battle could have been only in southern Palestine. Amenhotep called himself victorious, and it is accepted that this campaign was a victorious one. But was it really? What was the booty in the battle of y-r’-s-t? List of that which his majesty captured on this day: his horses 2, chariots 1, a coat of mail, 2 bows, a quiver full of arrows, a corselet and –100 some object the reading of which is no longer possible. But whatever may have been that last object, the complete spoils were pitiful indeed if all the king of Egypt could count after his victorious battle were one chariot, two horses, two bows, and one quiver “full of arrows.” It was a defeat. …. After a victory an army usually marches deeper into the enemy’s territory. But the lines directly following the enumeration of the spoils say that, “passing southward toward Egypt, his majesty proceeded by horse.” …. Immediately after the battle, the king turned toward Egypt. When a king returns from a successful campaign of restoring order in the provinces, the cities located on his triumphal route home do not choose that moment for revolt. Vassal cities rebel on seeing their oppressor in flight, and this is just what happened, for the war annals relate that Asiatics of a city on the way to Egypt “plotted to make a plan for casting out the infantry of his majesty.” …. During the remainder of his reign, for some decades, Amenhotep II did not return to Palestine, and there is no mention of any yearly tribute from there. …. To ascertain whether his expedition was a defeat, his subjective evaluation of the campaign must be compared with the scriptural record. The son of Rehoboam, Abijah, king of Judah, succeeded in winning a decisive battle against Jeroboam, king of Israel (II Chronicles 13). This must mean that Egyptian domination was already declining. After the short reign of Abijah, Asa, his son, followed him. “In his days the land was quiet ten years.” He built fortified cities in Judah, constructed walls and towers, gates and bars. He said to Judah: “We have sought the Lord our God, and he hath given us rest on every side” (II Chronicles 14:7). So they built and prospered. The destruction of the images of the pagan gods was in itself a rebellion (II Chronicles 14:5), for among them the first place surely belonged to the Egyptian gods, as the land since Shishak (Thutmose III) had been subject to the Egyptian crown. By fortifying the cities of Judah and recruiting his warriors, Asa clearly rejected Egyptian rule. II CHRONICLES 14:8 And Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these were mighty men of valor. The cities were fortified, the army stood ready. II CHRONICLES 14:9-10 And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with a host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto Mareshah. Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. Asa prayed to God for help. II CHRONICLES 14:12-13 So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar; and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before the Lord, and before his host; and they carried away very much spoil. Zerah the Ethiopian, who led an army of Ethiopians and Libyans (II Chronicles 16:8) from the southern and western borders of Egypt (like the army of the pharaoh Shishak), could be none other than a pharaoh. The way from Ethiopia to Palestine is along the valley of the Nile, and an Ethiopian army, in order to reach Palestine, would have had to conquer Egypt first. Moreover, the presence of Libyan soldiers in the army leaves little doubt that the king was the pharaoh of Egypt. In the opinion of the exegetes (Graf, Erbt) the story of the Chronicles must have a historical basis in an Egyptian or an Arabian invasion. The description of the battle of Mareshah or Moresheth … reveals why the pharaoh turned his back speedily on Palestine and his face toward Egypt, why from the field of this battle his army carried away “one bow and two horses,” and why the population of the cities, presumably in Edomite southern Palestine, plotted against his garrisons. It is a token of defeat when an Egyptian king recounts his own personal valor and fierceness on the battlefield, fighting himself against the soldiers of the enemy. It means that, when everyone had fled, His Majesty fought alone. In bombastic phrases, which do not refer to any special encounter, the inscription glorifies the ruler who battled alone: “Behold, he was like a fierce-eyed lion.” He was pursued only to Gerar. So he still had the satisfaction of taking with him on his return to Egypt a few chiefs of some villages, whom he burned alive in Egypt: his Memphis stele records this holocaust. Amenhotep II was not a great man, but he was a large one. He was proud of his physical strength and boasted that no one could draw his bow. A large bow inscribed with his name was found a few decades ago in his sepulcher. “There is not one who can draw his bow among his army, among the hill-country sheiks [or] among the princes of Retenu [Palestine] because his strength is so much greater than [that of] any king who has ever existed,” says the Elephantine stele. …. “It is his story which furnished Herodotus with the legend that Cambyses was unable to draw the bow of the king of Ethiopia.” …. A modern scholar saw a common origin in this story, which survived in legendary form in Herodotus (Book III, 21ff), and in the historical boast written on the stele of Elephantine by Amenhotep II, who lived many centuries earlier. The story of Herodotus has an Ethiopian king as the bragging bender of the bow of Amenhotep II. Was Amenhotep II an Ethiopian on the Egyptian throne? In the veins of the Theban Dynasty there was Ethiopian blood. …. Was the royal wife of Thutmose III a full-blooded Ethiopian and did she bear him a dark-skinned son? Or was Amenhotep II not the son of Thutmose III at all? He called himself son of Thutmose, but this claim need not have been literally true. He called his mother Hatshepsut. …. Is it possible that before ascending the throne of Egypt he was a viceroy in Ethiopia? …. Conventional chronology identifying Zerah with Osorkon of the Libyan Dynasty encounters difficulty in the biblical reference to Zerah as an Ethiopian. It was a glorious accomplishment to carry away so decisive a victory from the battlefield, when the foe was not a petty Arabian prince – as some exegetes have thought … or a pharaoh of the ignominious Twenty-second Dynasty – as other exegetes have assumed – but Amenhotep II, the great pharaoh, the successor to Thutmose III, the greatest of all the pharaohs. It was a victory as sweeping as the defeat of the Hyksos-Amalekites by Saul, but, as we shall see, its effect on the subsequent period was not of equal importance. Politically, the victory was not sufficiently exploited, but this fact does not detract from its military value. Egypt, at the very zenith of its imperial might, was beaten by Asa, king of Judah, and this was not a victory over an Egyptian garrison or a detachment dispatched to collect tribute, but over the multitude of the Egyptian-Ethiopian and Libyan hosts, at the head of whom stood the emperor-pharaoh himself. With the rout of the Egyptian army in the south of Palestine, all of Syria-Palestine naturally was freed of the Egyptian yoke. The pharaoh had previously laid Ugarit waste and threatened all the kingdoms in this area; it is conceivable that the king of Judah had some help from the north, and the sympathy of the Syrian maritime peoples must certainly have been with Asa. The inscriptions of Amenhotep II reveal his ambition to dominate, in addition to the land of the Nile, the lands of the Jordan, Orontes, and Euphrates, which had rebelled after the death of Thutmose III. The great victory at Mareshah carried a message of freedom to all these peoples; the repercussions of the battle should have been heard in many countries and for many generations. But only once again does the Book of Chronicles pay tribute to this victory, and this in the words of the seer Hanani: “Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim (Libyans) a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen?” (II Chronicles 16:8.) It is also said that the population of the northern tribes went over to Judah because of the high esteem this country enjoyed after it had successfully repelled the pharaoh and his army (II Chronicles 15:9). Is no more material concerning the victory of Asa over Amenhotep II preserved? Such a great triumph should have had a greater echo. …”. [End of quotes] CONVENTIONAL ESTIMATE OF “ZERAH” “Zerah” as a king Osorkon C. M. Cobern explains the standard estimation of “Zerah the Ethiopian” (in ISBE) as follows: http://biblehub.com/topical/z/zerah_the_ethiopian.htm ZERAH (THE ETHIOPIAN) (zerach ha-kushi (2 Chronicles 14:9); Zare): A generation ago the entire story of Zerah's conquest of Asa, coming as it did from a late source (2 Chronicles 14:9-15), was regarded as "apocryphal": "If the incredibilities are deducted nothing at all is left" (Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Israel, 207, 208); but most modern scholars, while accepting certain textual mistakes and making allowance for customary oriental hyperbole in description; accept this as an honest historical narrative, "nothing" in the Egyptian inscriptions being "inconsistent" with it (Nicol in BD; and compare Sayce, HCM, 362-64). The name "Zerah" is a "very likely corruption" of "Usarkon" (U-Serak-on), which it closely resembles (see Petrie, Egypt and Israel, 74), and most writers now identify Zerah with Usarkon II, though the Egyptian records of this particular era are deficient and some competent scholars still hold to Usarkon I (Wiedemann, Petrie, McCurdy, etc.). The publication by Naville (1891) of an inscription in which Usarkon II claims to have invaded "Lower and Upper Palestine" seemed to favor this Pharaoh as the victor over Asa; but the chronological question is difficult (Eighth Memoir of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, 51). The title "the Cushite" (Hebrew) is hard to understand. There are several explanations possible. (1) Wiedemann holds that this may refer to a real Ethiopian prince, who, though unrecorded in the monuments, may have been reigning at the Asa era. There is so little known from this era "that it is not beyond the bounds of probability for an Ethiopian invader to have made himself master of the Nile Valley for a time" (Geschichte von Alt-Aegypten, 155). (2) Recently it has been the fashion to refer this term "Cushite" to some unknown ruler in South or North Arabia (Winckler, Cheyne, etc.). The term "Cushite" permits this, for although it ordinarily corresponds to ETHIOPIA … yet sometimes it designates the tract of Arabia which must be passed over in order to reach Ethiopia (Jeremias, The Old Testament in the Light of Ancient East, I, 280) or perhaps a much larger district (see BD; EB; Hommel, Ancient Hebrew Tradition; Winckler, KAT, etc.). This view, however, is forced to explain the geographical and racial terms in the narrative differently from the ordinary Biblical usage (see Cheyne, EB). Dr. W. M. Flinders Petrie points out that, according to the natural sense of the narrative, this army must have been Egyptian for (a) after the defeat it fled toward Egypt, not eastward toward Arabia; (b) the cities around Gerar (probably Egyptian towns on the frontier of Palestine), toward which they naturally fled when defeated, were plundered; (c) the invaders were Cushim and Lubim (Libyans), and this could only be the case in an Egyptian army; (d) Mareshah is a well-known town close to the Egyptian frontier (History of Egypt, III, 242-43; compare Konig, Funf neue arab. Landschaftsnamen im Altes Testament, 53-57). (3) One of the Usarkons [Osorkons] might be called a "Cushite" in an anticipatory sense, since in the next dynasty (XXIII) Egypt was ruled by Ethiopian kings. …. OTHER REVISIONISTS AND “ZERAH” Critical assessment so far Chronologically, Dr. Velikovsky’s placement of the biblical “Zerah the Ethiopian” during Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty must inevitably (according to my revision) be far closer to reality than the conventional version, somewhere during the Twenty-Second Dynasty. Biblically calculated, we must still be in the reign of pharaoh Thutmose III. For, a comparison of Philip Mauro’s spacings (The Wonders of Bible Chronology) with the estimate for Zerah’s invasion by Peter James and Peter Van der Veen, would yield approximately 25-30 years after the Shishak incident. James and Van der Veen have written (“Zerah the Kushite: A New Proposal Regarding His Identity”): https://www.academia.edu/13445553/Zerah_the_Kushite_A_New_Proposal_Reg “… Shishak invasion in Year 5 of Rehoboam … when would the Zerah episode have occurred in Egyptian terms? Chronicles records that there was peace in the land for the first ten years of Asa’s reign; also that some of the livestock captured after the defeat of Zerah were sacrificed in the year 15 (2 Chron. 14:1; 15:11). This places the Zerah episode in a fairly narrow window, between the years 11 and 14 of Asa. With 12 years for the remainder of Rehoboam’s reign and 3 for Abijah, the invasion of Zerah would thus have fallen 26 to 29 years after that of Shishak”. Halfway versions of “Zerah” We might expect that the likes of Dr. David Rohl and Peter James, having abandoned Velikovsky’s Eighteenth Dynasty revision for more of a middle course - or version situated ‘halfway’ between Velikovsky and convention - would find their “Zerah the Ethiopian” somewhere between the era of Velikovsky’s pharaoh Amenhotep II (late C15th BC, conventional dating) and convention’s Osorkon I (c. 900 BC, conventional dating) or II (c. 850 BC, conventional dating). And that is just what we do find. David Rohl has located Zerah to the time of his “Shishak”, pharaoh Ramses II (c. 1300 BC, conventional dating); whilst Peter James has, in league with Peter Van der Veen, located Zerah to “the final years” of pharaoh Ramses IV (c. 1150 BC, conventional dating). On a positive note, neither of these moderate versions has considered to identify “Zerah the Ethiopian” as a pharaoh, but, instead, as an officer of a current pharaoh, be he Ramses II or Ramses IV. On a negative note, both choices suffer for their failure to accept the Thutmose III = “Shishak” Velikovskian equation - according to my previous arguments, such as: The Shishak Redemption (9) The Shishak Redemption | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Commenting on the biblical pharaoh, a blogger has written (“Who was Shishak?”): http://kabane52.tumblr.com/post/133301488410/who-was-shishak “Any revised chronology must identify a plausible candidate for the “Shishak king of Egypt” who plunders the Temple in the fifth year of King Rehoboam. Conventionally, Shishak is identified with Shoshenq, founded of the 22nd Dynasty. The names are a good match and Shoshenq did campaign in Palestine, but otherwise the match is implausible. The stela recording his campaign does not mention Jerusalem, thought to be the center of his attack. David Rohl proposes Rameses II under his nickname “Sheshi” as the Shishak who sacked the Temple. Still, the larger chronological framework proposed by Rohl is not workable: within a few decades, Asa decisively defeats “Zerah the Ethiopian.” On Rohl’s chronology, Ethiopia is not under Egyptian jurisdiction at this point in time: Asa would be fortifying Judah right under the watchful eye of the powerful 19th Dynasty of Egypt, and Zerah would have to move through Egypt to battle Asa. Peter James has proposed Rameses III [or IV] (again, under the nickname “Sheshi”) as the Shishak who sacked Jerusalem. Yet again, however, the chronological framework does not work. David would be establishing the kingdom of David right under the nose of the powerful Rameses II. The only way James can work this is by denying the figure of 80 years for the reign of David and Solomon and reducing it to 40 years. This is the theory driving the facts”. “Zerah” for David Rohl Dr. John Osgood would, in his review of Rohl’s A Test of Time (Vol. I), both praise Rohl for having at last located King Solomon to a plausible archaeological setting, but criticise him for not having followed up his Ramses II as “Shishak” with a candidate for “Zerah the Ethiopian”: https://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j11_1/j11_1_33-35.pdf “In chapter 8 Rohl then attempts to date the Solomonic period presently assigned to Iron Age IIA, and rightly concludes, as he must, that 'the cultural wealth of the era of Solomon . . . is not reflected in the archaeology of Iron Age Palestine . . .'. (page 175) He puts forward the Late Bronze Age as the era of Solomon — the only period consistent with the Solomonic milieu. At last a member of the archaeological discipline begins to make archaeological sense of the Palestine archaeological strata! In choosing Rameses II as Shishak, Rohl has failed however to follow up and identify a candidate for 'Zerah the Ethiopian' (II Chronicles 14:9) who followed soon after Shishak, nor an explanation for the Queen of Sheba”. Eric J. Aitchison would comment similarly (now including Peter James as well) in his book, Revisiting Velikovsky: An Audit of an Innovative Revisionist Attempt: SO; WHO WAS ZERAH? …. “It is of some moment that I draw to your attention that neither in “A Test of Time”, (David Rohl), nor in “Centuries of Darkness” (Peter James) is any attempt made to identify this historical character; this is subsequently rectified in Academia posts …. The word, “Zerah” is not in either book’s index. Each author identifies who might be Shishak and thus a relationship with Rehoboam, but neither goes on to identify whom [sic] Zerah might be in relation to an activity that occurs those twenty-eight years later …. In his later book, “The Lost Testament” David Rohl … offers the suggestion that Zerah was a general under Ramesses II. Thus Velikovsky was the braver scholar over his identification of Zerah as Amenhotep II. Murphie … in his work on “A Test of Time”, draws to our attention that under Rohl’s scheme Zerah must be active under Ramesses II, and then points out to us the resultant incongruities that flow there from”. Whilst I must reject David Rohl’s proposed era for the biblical Zerah as too late, I think that his later suggestion that Zerah the Ethiopian was a “general” is preferable to Velikovsky’s view that he was a pharaoh. “Zerah” for James and Van der Veen Era-wise for Zerah, James and Van der Veen are even further away from the mark than is David Rohl. What can be gleaned from their choice for the biblical Zerah, though, is that they have, like Rohl finally did, accepted that Zerah was an official rather than a pharaoh. In “Zerah the Kushite: A New Proposal Regarding His Identity”: https://www.academia.edu/13445553/Zerah_the_Kushite_A_New_Proposal_Reg James and Van der Veen have chosen for Zerah an official of pharaoh Ramses IV, Userḫau. Whilst this choice suffers further from the fact that there appears to be nothing to suggest that Userḫau was an “Ethiopian”, it does have in its favour that the name Userḫau is compatible with Zeraḥ. “The resemblance of his name to that of Zeraḥ prompts further investigation”. Biblically whenever a Pharaoh is involved - from the time of Joseph of Egypt all the way down to Necho during the late C7th BC (conventional dating) - the Bible specifies either “Pharaoh” or “King [so-and-so] of Egypt”. We also have (Isaiah 37:9): “… Tirhakah king of Ethiopia …”. Thus, whilst I would flatly reject convention’s era, designation and (perhaps) ethnicity for “Zerah”, I would also have to - whilst accepting Dr. Velikovky’s approximate era - reject his designation for “Zerah” as a pharaoh. If he had been a pharaoh, biblical consistency would demand that he be designated either as “King Zerah of Egypt” or as “Zerah king of Ethiopia”. Zerah is neither. Zerah the Ethiopian may be Usersatet, a Viceroy of Kush There is no strong evidence at all to indicate that Amenhotep II was an Ethiopian. There is no biblical evidence at all that Zerah was a pharaoh of Egypt. The names are quite un-alike (though that also applied with Thutmose III as “Shishak”). ONE MILLION MEN? Common sense ought to tell us that this is a ridiculous figure for that most ancient (and virtually any) time, and that the text, in order to make sense, must stand in need of a more reasonable translation. The great neo-Assyrian king, Shalmaneser (so-called III), probably boasted the largest army of history to date - which was well after Zerah - consisting of 120,000 men at the Battle of Qarqar. “Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men from Judah, equipped with large shields and with spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin, armed with small shields and with bows. All these were brave fighting men. Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and came as far as Mareshah”. 2 Chronicles 14:8-9 I have previously suggested that the size of the armies of Abijah-Asa and opponent, Jeroboam I, have been wildly inflated owing to a poorly selected translation. The writer of the following blog is therefore entirely correct in mounting this direct challenge, though wrong in attributing it to a fault of the Bible, “the bible is false, it is all false”: https://thechurchoftruth.org/the-bible-is-wrong-about-1000000-ethiopians-being-murdered/ The Bible is Wrong About 1,000,000 Ethiopians Being Murdered …. I am using the murder [sic] of one million Ethiopians to represent all of God’s murders in the Old Testament. Steve Wells documents the 158 separate instances where God either commands, condones or participates in the murder of approximately 25 million people in his book, Drunk With Blood. He also provides a complete listing and description of each of the 158 murderous events …. I will leave it to his website to describe each event; I will just look at the one with the highest toll. I will show beyond a doubt that it never happened. That is, I will provide yet another biblical story that is falsified. One can conclude that if any story of the bible is false, it is all false. POPULATION OF ETHIOPIA The story of killing 1,000,000 Ethiopians is an example of the ridiculous nature of all of the old testament. In order to mount an army of one million, the population would have to be at least 4 million. There were nowhere near four million Ethiopians alive at that time.Only Egypt came close to those numbers in those days. According to Colin McEvedy in his reference book “Atlas of World Population History”, Ethiopia had a population of 200,000 in 1000 BC. McEvedy makes the case that the entire continent of Africa had a population of only 6.5 million in 1000 BC with 3 million of those living in Egypt. There was no Ethiopian dynasty of over 4 million back in the times of King David. WHAT ABOUT EGYPT? To get to the land of the children of Israel, the [Ethiopians] would have had to march through Egypt. Just how would this have been accomplished? How were 1 million soldiers supplied? Where did the water come from? In addition, do you suppose that Egypt would have stood still while one million Ethiopians marched through their land. Or, did the Lord change the hearts of the Egyptians, his hated people. Remember, he was going to show them (the Egyptians) who was Lord with his plagues. He failed to do so. They still worshiped many gods, Ra chief among them. So, the Ethiopians would not even have been able to get to the Children’s promised land. NO OTHER ACCOUNTING OF THIS EVENT The real proof is in the total lack of any corroborating stories about the murder of 1 million Ethiopians. If their culture was advanced enough to support 4+ million people, they would be capable of recording their history. It is not there. …. [End of quote] We actually have here the same problem as with the numbers involved in the Exodus event, which have, owing to unreasonable translation of the texts, been inflated to millions. The above questions: “How were 1 million soldiers supplied? Where did the water come from?”, are similarly applicable to the Exodus event. They are entirely relevant questions. Once again it is our old friend the Hebrew word elef (eleph) that has been over used. On this, see e.g. my article: Abandonment of common sense is not a necessary prerequisite for biblical interpretation (9) Abandonment of common sense is not a necessary prerequisite for biblical interpretation | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu The solution to the numbers of Zerah the Ethiopian’s army and of the inflated Exodus numbers - and even of King Asa of Judah’s massive army of upwards of half a million, which would have made him potentially a world conqueror - is in the proper interpretation of the key Hebrew word, eleph (אֶלֶף), common to all three situations (Exodus; Asa; and Zerah). Dr. Bryant Wood (a conventional archaeologist) explains the situation in his answer below, in “The Number of Israelites in the Exodus”: “At the heart of the issue is the meaning of the Hebrew word eleph …”: http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2009/04/16/The-Number-of-Israelites-in-the-Exodus.aspx “In several places, the Bible seems to suggest that the Israelites involved in the Exodus and Conquest numbered more than two million people (e.g., Ex. 12:37; Num. 1: 46; Num. 26: 51). This figure seems extraordinarily large and skeptics often cite it as proof of the biblical account's inaccuracy. I know that various solutions have been offered, by James Hoffmeier amongst others, but there appears to be insurmountable difficulties with taking the texts at anything other than face value. Is there archaeological evidence that the Promised Land received such a large influx of people during the period under discussion? I would appreciate any perspective you might give me on this problem”. Thank you for the question: “Is there archaeological evidence that the Promised Land received such a large influx of people during the period under discussion?” The number of Israelites who left Egypt at the time of the Exodus is a vexed problem. It is possible, however, to make a rough estimate. Following the Conquest, 1406–1400 B.C., in the subsequent Late Bronze II period [sic] (14th and 13th centuries), the urban population in the highlands where the Israelites settled remained approximately the same as it was prior to the Conquest (Gonen 1984: Table 4). Based on highland burials, however, which includes both urbanites and non-urbanites, the population seems to have increased from the pre-Conquest period to the post-Conquest period (Gonen 1992: Table 5). The overall population is difficult to access. We do not have estimates for the Late Bronze I and II periods, but an estimate of the highland population for the previous Middle Bronze II period is ca. 65,000 (Broshi and Gophna 1986: Tables 1, 2, 6, 7,10, 11). Another possible way to estimate the number of Israelites who left Egypt is by means of the number of captives the Egyptians acquired in Canaan four years after the Exodus, which amounted to ca. 100,000 (Wood 2008:105–106). At the heart of the issue is the meaning of the Hebrew word eleph. It is usually translated “thousand,” but has a complex semantic history. The word is etymologically connected with “head of cattle,” like the letter aleph, implying that the term was originally applied to the village or population unit in a pastoral-agricultural society. From that it came to mean the quota supplied by one village or “clan” (Hebrew Mišpāḥā) for the military muster (Malamat 1967: 135). Originally the contingent was quite small, five to fourteen men in the quota lists of Numbers 1 and 26, as shown by Mendenhall (1958). Finally the word became a technical term for a military unit of considerable size, which together with the use of the same word for the number 1,000 has tended to obscure its broader semantic range. See also Humphreys 1998 and 2000, and Hoffmeier 2005: 153–59. …. [End of quotes] Obviously, to reduce the “thousand” to, for instance, Bryant’s “five to fourteen men” would make a considerable difference to the overall sum of fighting men involved. Translations whose outcome is to defy common sense make the Bible very easy pickings for hostile critics. Here is another such example, “God killed 27,000 Syrians with a falling wall”: http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/gods-83rd-killing-god-killed-27000.html “In his last killing, God killed the 100,000 Syrians for calling him a hill god. But some of the name-calling Syrians escaped. God took care of them by having a wall fall on them, killing 27,000. But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and there a wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left. 1 Kings 20.30a It was a really big wall”. Once again, though, we encounter that Hebrew word, elef: וַתִּפֹּל הַחוֹמָה, עַל-עֶשְׂרִים וְשִׁבְעָה אֶלֶף אִישׁ הַנּוֹתָרִים Falling walls, especially those relatively small ancient ones, do not tend to kill 27,000 men. Common sense ought to tell us that straight off. But a falling wall might flatten, say, 27 “chiefs” – a possible translation of elef. Era of Zerah Our first critic above is right to argue for a lesser population estimate at the approximate era of Zerah the Ethiopian (give or take the conventional 500 years of error): “There were nowhere near four million Ethiopians alive at that time. Only Egypt came close to those numbers in those days. According to Colin McEvedy in his reference book “Atlas of World Population History”, Ethiopia had a population of 200,000 in 1000 BC”. I have firmly fixed Zerah the Ethiopian’s invasion, during the early reign of King Asa of Judah (c. 900 BC, conventional dating), to Asa’s 11th-14th year “window” (following James and Van der Veen). And I have estimated that this must have occurred whilst pharaoh Thutmose III (whose Year 23 may have corresponded with Rehoboam’s Year 5) was still ruling Egypt, to very late in his 54-year reign. At this stage, Thutmose is considered to have adopted his son, Amenhotep II, as co-regent. Hence, chronologically, Amenhotep II was a co-ruler of Egypt at the time of Zerah’s invasion. Despite this nice coincidence, I am not inclined to accept Dr. Velikovsky’s identification of Amenhotep II as “Zerah the Ethiopian”. There is no strong evidence at all to indicate that Amenhotep II was an Ethiopian. There is no biblical evidence at all that Zerah was a pharaoh of Egypt. The names are quite un-alike (though that also applied with Thutmose III as “Shishak”). As David Rohl has correctly discerned, this was the Late Bronze Era. Dr. Bryant Wood is quite wrong in his locating of the Conquest era (Joshua) to this approximate archaeological phase: “Following the Conquest, 1406–1400 B.C., in the subsequent Late Bronze II period (14th and 13th centuries) …”. Dr. John Bimson had, in his fundamentally important article, “Can There be a Revised Chronology Without a Revised Stratigraphy?” (SIS Review, VI, 1-3), pin-pointed the archaeological phase for Thutmose III (which must also be the age of “Zerah the Ethiopian”). As we move away, to Babylon for instance, we must at this time encounter the Hammurabic dynasty – given that we have revised King Hammurabi of Babylon as a close contemporary of King Solomon. For almost four decades after Hammurabi’s death, we are told, his son Samsuiluna ruled Babylon (c. 1750-1712 BC, conventional dating). I, however, have suggested that Samsuiluna may actually have been Hammurabi. Samsuiluna’s reign may have overlapped in part with that of the long-reigning Thutmose III. This necessitates that Samsuiluna must now be shifted downwards by some eight centuries. He must be now dragged out of the Middle Bronze Age II 1750 BCE – 1650 BCE and be re-located closer to Late Bronze II. No longer a contemporary of Egypt’s Thirteenth Dynasty, Samsuiluna now becomes - as he was - a contemporary of Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty, the New Kingdom era. What was going on at this time in the rest of the ancient world? According to the conventional view: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsu-iluna “In the 9th year of Samsu-iluna's reign a man calling himself Rim-sin (known in the literature as Rim-sin II, and thought to perhaps be a nephew of the Rim-sin who opposed Hammurabi)[3]:48–49 raised a rebellion against Babylonian authority in Larsa which spread to include some 26 cities, among them Uruk, Ur, Isin and Kisurra in the south, and Eshnunna.[2]:243[3]:48–49[4]:115 in the north. Samsu-iluna seems to have had the upper-hand militarily. Within a year he dealt the coalition a shattering blow which took the northern cities out of the fight.[Note 1] In the aftermath the king of Eshnunna, Iluni, was dragged to Babylon and executed by strangulation.[2]:243 Over the course of the next 4 years, Samsu-iluna's armies tangled with Rim-sin's forces up and down the borderlands between Babylon, Sumer and Elam. Eventually Samsu-iluna attacked Ur, pulled down its walls and put the city to the sack, he then did the same to Uruk, and Isin as well.[3]:48–49[Note 2] Finally Larsa itself was defeated and Rim-sin II was killed, thus ending the struggle.[2]:243 Unfortunately the floodgates had opened. A few years later, a pretender calling himself Ilum-ma-ili, and claiming descent from the last king of Isin, raised another pan-Sumerian revolt. Samsu-iluna marched an army to Sumer, and the two met in a battle which proved indecisive; a second battle sometime later went Ilum-ma-ili's way, and in its aftermath, he founded the First Dynasty of Sea-Land,[2]:243[Note 3], which would remain in control of Sumer for the next 300 years. Samsu-iluna seems to have taken a defensive approach after this; in the 18th year of his reign, he saw to the rebuilding of 6 fortresses in the vicinity of Nippur[5]:380–382, which might have been intended to keep that city under Babylonian control. Ultimately, this proved fruitless; by the time of Samsu-iluna's death, Nippur recognized Ilum-ma-ili as king.[3]:48–49 Apparently, Eshnunna had not reconciled itself to Babylonian control either, because in Samsu-iluna's 20th year they rebelled again.[3]:48–49 Samsu-iluna marched his army through the region and, presumably after some bloodshed, constructed the fortress of Dur-samsuiluna to keep them in line. This seems to have done the trick, as later documents see Samsu-iluna take a more conciliatory stance repairing infrastructure and restoring waterways.[3]:48–49 As if this weren't enough, both Assyria and Elam used the general chaos to re-assert their independence. Kuturnahunte I of Elam, seizing the opportunity left by Samsu-iluna's attack on Uruk, marched into the (now wall-less) city and plundered it, among the items looted was a statue of Inanna which wouldn't be returned until the reign of Ashurbanipal 11 centuries [sic] later.[2]:243 In Assyria, a native vice regent named Puzur-Sin ejected Asinum who had been a vassal king of his fellow Amorite Hammurabi. A native king Ashur-dugul seized the throne, and a period of civil war in Assyria ensued. Samsu-Iluna seems to have been powerless to intervene, and finally a king named Adasi, restored a stable native dynasty in Assyria, removing any vestages [sic] of Amorite-Babylonian influence[6]:section 576 apud[2]:243 In the end, Samsu-iluna was left with a kingdom that was only fractionally larger than the one his father had started out with 50 years prior (but which did leave him mastery of the Euphrates up to and including the ruins of Mari and its dependencies).[4]:115[Note 4] The status of Eshnunna is difficult to determine with any accuracy, and while it may have remained in Babylonian hands the city was exhausted and its political influence at an end”. [End of quote] But see for example, with regard to all of this (notably Elam), the geographical revolution as proposed by Royce (Richard) Erickson): More geographical ‘tsunamis’: lands of Elam and Chaldea (2) More geographical ‘tsunamis’: lands of Elam and Chaldea | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu as well as my: Called Sumerian History, but isn’t (3) Called Sumerian History, but isn’t. | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu and: King David set pattern for Hammurabi and Rim-Sin as desirable shepherd kings (5) King David set pattern for Hammurabi and Rim-Sin as desirable shepherd kings | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Pharaoh Amenhotep II himself appears to have continued a peaceful relationship with Babylon and Mitanni in his time: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/amenhotep2.htm “Yet these stele, erected after year nine of Amenhotep II's rule, that provide us with this information do not bear hostile references to either Mitanni or Nahrin, the general regions of the campaigns. This is probably intentional, because apparently the king had finally made peace with these former foes. In fact, an addition at the end of the Memphis stele records that the chiefs of Nahrin, Hatti and Sangar (Babylon) arrived before the king bearing gifts and requesting offering gifts (hetepu) in exchange, as well as asking for the breath of life. Though good relations with Babylon existed during the reign of Tuthmosis III, this was the first mention of a Mitanni peace, and it is very possible that a treaty existed allowing Egypt to keep Palestine and part of the Mediterranean coast in exchange for Mitannian control of northern Syria. Underscoring this new alliance, with Nahrin, Amenhotep II had inscribed on a column between the fourth and fifth pylons at Karnak, "The chiefs (weru) of Mitanni (My-tn) come to him, their deliveries upon their backs, to request offering gifts from his majesty in quest of the breath of life".” ZERAH ETHNICALLY ETHIOPIAN? Whilst I had written previously, regarding the proposed identification of Zerah as the official, Userḫau, according to Peter James and Peter Van der Veen, that “… this choice suffers further from the fact that there appears to be nothing to suggest that Userḫau was an “Ethiopian” …”, it has since occurred to me that biblical practice may use such a term geographically, rather than ethnically. For instance, we have considered that Ruth was only a “Moabite” (Ruth 1:22) in terms of where she lived. For Ruth was, by race, an Israelite. On this, see my article: Bible critics can overstate idea of ‘enlightened pagan’ (3) Bible critics can overstate idea of 'enlightened pagan' | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu So it may also be that “Zerah the Ethiopian” was simply dwelling in Ethiopia and may not necessarily have been an Ethiopian by race – may not necessarily have been black. The largest armies of this particular time probably comprised closer to 10,000 men (not Zerah’s one million), the number some historians have estimated for the size of the army employed by Thutmose III in his First Campaign. Tightening the historical context Thutmose III would apparently, in his Year 50, complete his final campaign. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Thutmose_III#Nubian_Campaign “Thutmose took one last campaign in his 50th regnal year, very late in his life. He attacked Nubia, but only went as far as the fourth cataract of the Nile. Although no king of Egypt had ever penetrated as far as he did with an army, previous kings' campaigns had spread Egyptian culture that far already, and the earliest Egyptian document found at Gebel Barkal in fact comes from three years before Thutmose's campaign. …”. Year 50 of pharaoh Thutmose III would approximate to, based on my earlier calculations, about Year 13 of Asa. It (i) falls within that “fairly narrow window” of possible years for Zerah’s campaign; it (ii) concludes Thutmose III’s military activity; and it (iii) involves a conquest of Nubia (Ethiopia) which provided soldiers, “Cushites”, for the large army of Zerah. 2 Chronicles 16:8: ‘Were not the Cushites [Ethiopians] and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? When you depended on Yahweh, He handed them over to you’. The military campaigns of Amenhotep II’s 7th Year and 9th Year - the ones favoured for Zerah’s invasion, including by Dr. Velikovsky - would be well outside the range of possible dates for Zerah. With Thutmose III having just ‘faded out’, and with Amenhotep yet to emerge, still very young: “Amenhotep III (who is my II) was only a child of about five years of age upon his succession” (Charles Pope), then the suggestion by some revisionists that Zerah the Ethiopian was an official rather than a pharaoh (supported by the scriptural description of him) becomes an attractive one. Peter James and Peter Van der Veen had, as we read, favoured the official, Userḫau, whose name is compatible with that of Zerah. But I believe that Userḫau is far too late in history for Zerah. However, we may be able to identify an important official who has the same name element User (“Powerful”), but who belongs to the approximate time range that we have established above for Zerah. He is: Usersatet Viceroy of Kush. Hence he also has the advantage over Userḫau of having ruled Kush, or Ethiopia, from whence Zerah the Ethiopian and his army will emerge. http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Usersatet “Usersatet was an Ancient Egyptian official with the titles king's son of Kush (Viceroy of Kush) and overseer of the southern countries. He was in office under king Amenhotep II and perhaps in the early years of the reign [sic] of Thutmosis IV. As king's son of Kush he was the main official in charge of the Nubian provinces. Usersatet was perhaps born in Elephantine or at least the region around this island. The name Usersatet means Satet is strong; Satet being the main deity of Elephantine. Usersatet's father was Siamun, and his mother was Nenwenhermenetes, king's ornament, both of which [sic] not much is known. …. It seems that Usersatet grew up in the royal palace and followed the king on his military campaign to Syria. He cleared 5 canals in the region of Aswan. The canals were already more than 700 years old and most likely had been filled with sand earlier in the 18th Dynasty. …. Usersatet is known from a high number of monuments, especially in Lower Nubia. Near Qasr Ibrim, he erected a chapel in honour of king Amenhotep II. A stela found at Semna bears a copy of a king's letter to Usersatet. However, no biography of this official survived. Therefore there is not much known about his life and career. His name had been removed from many monuments, therefore it seems that he fell into dishonour at some point in his career. His tomb has not yet been identified. …”. It is highly unlikely that Zerah’s embarrassing defeat at the hands of Asa king of Judah would have been recorded in any of the Egyptian records, and it could be expected that he, too, like Usersatet (perhaps), “fell into dishonour”.