Where was Mount Sinai? - 236 LexiLine Journal

DATING OF MOSES AND EXODUS - A CONFIRMATION - OF A SORT

A mainstream archaeologist - who I presume otherwise wishes to
remain anonymous - sent me the following link by private e-mail and
I am passing it on to you.

http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Anati_Mount_Sinai.htm

The short, single AND significant comment of this archaeologist to
the content of the article at the above link was as follows:

"Confirmation … of a sort:"

The archeaologist is referring to confirmation of my work showing
that mainstream chronology relating to Moses and Exodus is clearly
false - see http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi300.htm.

The link above refers to "the confirmation ... of a sort" through
the very important work of Professor Emmanuel Anati (see
http://www.harkarkom.com/Anati.phtml - this page gives his biography
in english), who writes in October 2003 that the Mount Sinai
archaeological EVIDENCE clearly invalidates the current dating of
Moses and Exodus, and that all available evidence points to a much
earlier date.

Professor Anati would even date Moses and Exodus back a full
thousand years, but I think that my chronology as posted for quite
some time now at http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi760.htm will
ultimately prevail, with the reconcilable difference in our dates
having to do with the dating of the end of the Early Bronze Age.

The accurate correction of the date of Exodus, as I have long
alleged, will ultimately put the birth of Moses ca. 1708 BC, with
all of the consequences that this has for our understanding of the
subsequent chronology of the history of human civilization, for the
history of Egypt, for the history of the Jews, and for the history
of religion generally.

DAVID ROHL - A TEST OF TIME - SYNOPSIS BY JOHN FULTON - ARTAPANUS
and JOSEPHUS

Let us go back a few steps to what I have been writing for years. To
fully understand what Artapanus and also Josephus wrote about Moses,
it is useful to read e.g.
"A New Chronology: Synopsis of David Rohl's book 'A Test of Time' ",
by John Fulton, at http://debate.org.uk/topics/history/rohl-1.htm
(please note for the text reproduced below that the Egyptologists
currently date the 13th Pharaonic dynasty to ca. 1782-1650 BC -
according to Peter A. Clayton, Chronicle of the Pharaohs).

Here is what Fulton writes:

[start of quote]
"The early Christian historian Eusebius in his work Evangelicae
Preparationis' quotes from a book Peri Ioudaion' (Concerning the
Jews) by the Jewish historian Artapanus. This work of Artapanus has
not survived down to the present but is also quoted in Clement's
Stromata'. Artapanus, writing in the 3rd century BC, had access to
ancient records in Egyptian temples and perhaps even the famous
Alexandrian library of Ptolemy I.

Artapanus writes that a pharaoh named Palmanothes was persecuting
the Israelites. His daughter Merris adopted a Hebrew child who grew
up to be called prince Mousos. Merris married a pharaoh Khenephres.
Prince Mousos grew up to administer the land on behalf of this
pharaoh. He led a military campaign against the Ethiopians who were
invading Egypt; however, upon his return, Khenephres grew jealous of
his popularity. Mousos then fled to Arabia to return when Khenephres
died and lead the Israelites to freedom. It may be only a Mosaic
story with similarities to the biblical account, yet the only
pharaoh with the name Khenephres was Sobekhotep IV, who took the
name Khaneferre at his coronation. He reigned soon after Neferhotep
I of the 13th Dynasty, as mentioned above, the pharaoh in power at
Moses' birth!

Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews', with access to very old
manuscripts and writing in AD 93, also mentioned Moses' Ethiopian or
Kushite war. Here, Moses led an Egyptian army down the Nile valley,
past the Third Cataract, deep into Kush (modern Ethiopia). In the
British Museum is a stela (page 261, fig. 289) which tells of a 13th
Dynasty pharaoh undertaking a campaign south into the region of
Kush. That pharaoh is none other than Khaneferre, the step-father of
Moses according to Artapanus. He is the only 13th Dynasty pharaoh
who is recorded as having campaigned into Upper Nubia or Ethiopia.
At Kerma on the Nile an official Egyptian building was found,
outside of which was discovered a statue of Khaneferre, so dating
this building to the 13th Dynasty. This is many hundreds of
kilometres south of the known boundaries of 13th Dynasty Egypt and
may have been a governor's residence'. It would have been built to
secure Egyptian interests in the area after the military victory of
the Egyptians led by Moses, as this was the only Kushite war at that
time with Egypt. As Moses was a prince of Egypt and was 40 years old
according to the Bible when he fled to Arabia, he could certainly
have led this military operation - an Israelite leading an Egyptian
army to war! If this part of Josephus' account is true then it adds
weight to the rest of his account of the life of Moses and also
gives us some firmer evidence of the existence of this charismatic
leader!"
[end of quote]

WHERE WAS the MOUNT SINAI of MOSES? - PROFESSOR EMMANUEL ANATI

Professor Emmanuel Anati has written a book, just recently
published, entitled, The Riddle of Mount Sinai, which can be ordered
at http://www.harkarkom.com/Order.phtml, where Anati writes that
Har Karkom was the "Mount Sinai" of Moses (see
http://www.harkarkom.com).

As Anati writes - as found at:
http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Anati_Mount_Sinai.htm:

[start of quote]
"Considering these various factors together, it seems that the
biblical narratives reflect what archaeological research has
discovered at Har Karkom, Beer Karkom and Kadesh-Barnea, as well as
at Jericho, Ai, Arad, Edom and Moab, and elsewhere. If the epic
described in the books of Exodus and Numbers relies on even a
minimal historical matrix, and if indeed there was an Exodus with
stops at the foot of Mount Sinai and at Kadesh-Barnea, then its
chronological context can only refer to the BAC period during which
Har Karkom was a holy mountain of exceptional importance. The
documentation gathered through archaeological research at Jericho
and Ai, the comparisons with Egyptian literature, and the actual
finds at Har Karkom, all seem to imply that the biblical narratives
have some historical background referring to the era of Exodus. Thus
the age of Joshua beginning at Gilgal, marked the twilight of the
Early Bronze Age. This is when the epoch of Moses ends, an epoch
which both culturally and historically belongs to the Early Bronze
Age, about one millennium before the dates given to such episodes by
what had been so far the conventional chronology."
[end of quote]

Professor Anati's new book, again, is The Riddle of Mount Sinai,
which can be ordered at http://www.harkarkom.com/Order.phtml.

Are we correcting ancient history at LexiLine? We are.