Archaeology Sticks It Up The Bible's Ass Again

[Minimalist]

http://www.livescience.com/23051-scarab-...jaffa.html

A rare scarab amulet newly unearthed in Tel Aviv reveals the ancient Egyptian presence in this modern Israeli city.

They have also found the scarab, which bears the cartouche of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who ruled from 1390 to 1353 B.C.

Excavations in the 1950s uncovered the Egyptian fortification, which dates back to the dynasty of Ramses II between 1279 and 1213 B.C. Mud brick architecture and household pottery also point to Egyptian influence,

Egyptian control of Jaffa from 1390 to 1213 BC and where are the bible's precious "Hebrews?" No where to be found!

[Polaris]

I thought even according to the Bible, they did not control that land until after David came to power.

According to people who know their archaeology, this predates the existence of the Israelites in Canaan.

[Minimalist]

Fundies insist that because of bible bullshit 1 kings 6

1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.

Thus "Solomon" began building the temple 480 years after the Exodus or c 1450 BCE. The problem is that Thutmoses III was pharaoh of Egypt and it was under his reign that Egypt attained its greatest territorial expansion. He was followed by Amenhotep II who ruled for the rest of the century over an enormous and peaceful empire. We have the evidence of archaeology on one hand and a pile of bible bullshit on the other.

What we now see is evidence of continuous Egyptian dominance of Southern Canaan until at least as late as the end of Ramesses II's reign to go along with solid evidence of Egyptian control of the north at Beth Shean. There is no room for bible stories.

[Polaris]

So that means that there were twelve generations between the two events. 480/40 = 12. The accepted date for the entry of the Israelites as a force (from whatever origin story) is roughly 1250-1200 BCE, which roughly coincides with the Iron Age in Canaan. There are no records whatsoever of them in Canaan before that period.

Tel Aviv is in northern Canaan, also known as Israel.

[Cyberman]

Quick question, if I may: where did the figure of forty years for a generation come from? Why not twenty-four generations of 20 years each?

[Polaris]

Quick question, if I may: where did the figure of forty years for a generation come from? Why not twenty-four generations of 20 years each?

The number 40 was a popular estimate number used in Canaanite cultures (not just limited to the Israelites). To us, it would be like a cross between the numbers 7 and 10.

Also for Westerners, a generation is seen how long it takes for one generation to beget the next. For them, it was how long the average people were on the earth...in early times in the Bible, the generations were considerably longer.

[popeyespappy]

Quick question, if I may: where did the figure of forty years for a generation come from? Why not twenty-four generations of 20 years each?

Convenience Stimbo. It makes his math work. Simple facts like the median lifespan during the time was mid 30’s or girls often started pushing out babies shortly after puberty never into the equation.

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in early times in the Bible, the generations were considerably longer.

[Minimalist]

So that means that there were twelve generations between the two events. 480/40 = 12. The accepted date for the entry of the Israelites as a force (from whatever origin story) is roughly 1250-1200 BCE, which roughly coincides with the Iron Age in Canaan. There are no records whatsoever of them in Canaan before that period.

Tel Aviv is in northern Canaan, also known as Israel.

No. Tel Aviv is about 15 miles north of Jerusalem but on the coast. The seat of Egyptian control in the north, Beth Shean, was in southern Galilee, quite a bit north of Jerusalem and near the modern Jordanian border.

The accepted date for the entry of the Israelites as a force (from whatever origin story) is roughly 1250-1200 BCE

Again, modern archaeology has dismissed the Conquest story as later fiction. Groups which later became Israelites ( and Judahites, Moabites and Edomites, for that matter) began to coalesce in the hill country of Eastern Canaan c 1200 BC. Bill Dever charitably calls them proto-Israelites although many other archaeologists will not even go that far.

[Cyberman]

The number 40 was a popular estimate number used in Canaanite cultures (not just limited to the Israelites). To us, it would be like a cross between the numbers 7 and 10.

Also for Westerners, a generation is seen how long it takes for one generation to beget the next. For them, it was how long the average people were on the earth...in early times in the Bible, the generations were considerably longer.

I realise that, I was just curious as to how you arrived at the number forty. Your calculation appeared to me to be reverse-engineered, in the sense of taking the number from the bible passage and shoe-horning the twelve generations into it to arrive at forty, but if the number was indeed a popular estimate number at the time I can accept that. However, just as with the notion that biblical generations were longer than today's, "citation needed", as a wise man once said.

I have no idea what your second sentence means.

Convenience Stimbo. It makes his math work. Simple facts like the median lifespan during the time was mid 30’s or girls often started pushing out babies shortly after puberty never into the equation.

Yes, that's what I thought. It's like the infamous calculation that starts off with six people and ends up four thousand years later with six 'billion'. Voilà - bible proved. What they don't tell you is they started off with the six 'billion', then retrofitted the other numbers in to make it fit.

[Minimalist]

40 seems to be the euphemism for "many." WTF knows where they came up with that one.