BEFORE THE EXODUS HOW MATH AND SCIENCE ALIGN THE BIBLE TO HISTORY © 2016 WILLIAM AUSTIN, PH.D. Era of Hebrew and Egyptian Alliance After Joseph, Belus king cooperation ends. of Assyria died when Period of judges Abraham was in Canaan and oppression in 15 = 71/ yrs 2 Egypt begin. Merneptah Sety II 1354 Horemheb Rms I Ramesses II Amenmesse Rms III death of 1323-1295 Sety I 1279-1212 Siptah 1184-1153 Eriba Adad I Twosret year of Assyria Genesis Genesis Sethnakhte 5 1319 BC 15:18 32:28 1232 Horemheb's Jacob is 1209 BC 1180 promise named captivity Joseph Genesis Israel begins died in 50:26 1 1361-1274 175 = 87 /2 yrs Egypt = year 5 of Abraham 1311-1221 180 = 90 yrs Merneptah stele Ramesses III 1 Isaac 1281-1207 147 = 73 /2 yrs BIFAO 100 (2000), p.339. Jacob 1235 -1180 55 yrs Joseph Timeline of the pharaohs and Hebrew patriarchs during the era of alliance (chapter 26). 3 The following are available as Kindle books on Amazon. BEFORE THE EXODUS was my attempt to clearly explain everything I’d been working on for ten years – the complete Hebrew chronology from Adam to the Exodus, demonstrating that the Hebrew patriarchs are actually a Kassite royal family, beginning with Kudur-Mabuk and his sons Rim-Sin, Warad- Sin and Sin-muballit (Adam, Cain, Abel and Seth). Adam’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden was his expulsion from Hammurabi’s Babylonian Empire, leading to a protracted war between Babylonia and the rebel Sealand to the south. The Book of Jasher and Book of Jubilees record much more of this era than the Pentateuch, making it possible to trace early Hebrew (Kassite) history while Abraham’s ancestors were in Mesopotamia and Egypt (the Hyksos). BEFORE THE EXODUS is 500 pages. It’s long because I didn’t want to leave anything out. But it’s to prove a point, not for casual reading. Therefore, I wrote a deliberately condensed version, FROM NOAH TO MOSES, which is just 72 pages. That’s readable in an hour or two. It’s also completely free on Academia.edu as my paper “The Hebrew chronology from Noah to Moses.” Buying the book gives me something for my effort. But I didn’t do it for money, I did it because I wanted to understand the history behind the Bible… and I want others to understand too. Contents List of figures 8 Preface 11 PART I Linking Old Testament Stories to Known History . 13 Chapter 1 The Deluge and the Spherical Cow 14 Chapter 2 The Still-Standing Tower of Babel 26 Chapter 3 From Abraham to Joseph 36 Chapter 4 From Joseph to Moses 44 Chapter 5 Deciphering the Hebrew Calendar 62 Chapter 6 Egypt and Canaan in the Days of Moses 80 PART II Separating Truth From Propaganda . 93 Chapter 7 Conflicting Accounts of the Exodus 94 Chapter 8 The Pharaoh is Deposed 111 Chapter 9 The Riddle of the Renaissance 126 Chapter 10 Moses at War 145 Chapter 11 The Hebrews and the Ramessides 162 PART III The Historical Hebrews From Adam to Abraham . 180 Chapter 12 When Biblical History Began 181 Chapter 13 From Adam to Noah 196 Chapter 14 The Historical Flood 217 Chapter 15 Noah Becomes Ruler of Egypt 230 Chapter 16 From Noah to Eber 252 Chapter 17 From Jericho to Babel 269 Chapter 18 From Eber to Abraham 288 PART IV The Historical Hebrews From Abraham to Joseph . 300 Chapter 19 Abraham’s Journey 301 Chapter 20 Abraham and the Pharaoh 321 Chapter 21 Abraham and the Promised Land 336 Chapter 22 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 353 Chapter 23 The Nation of Israel is Born 374 Chapter 24 Jacob and Joseph 396 Chapter 25 Joseph Becomes Ruler of Egypt 415 PART V The Sojourn in Egypt and Exodus to Canaan . 437 Chapter 26 Joseph’s Reign in Egypt 438 Chapter 27 From Joseph’s Death to the Oppression 458 Chapter 28 The Historical Moses 471 Chapter 29 The Exodus and Period of Judges 483 4 PART III The Historical Hebrews From Adam to Abraham Chapter 12 When Biblical History Began 181 I Deciphering Babylonian King List A II The Hebrews of Ur and Larsa III The Historical Adam Chapter 13 From Adam to Noah 196 I When and How Enoch Ascended to Heaven II The Venus Tablet of Ammi-saduqa III Mesopotamia in the Days of Noah IV The Historical Noah Chapter 14 The Historical Flood 217 I Political Evidence of a Catastrophic Flood II The Cause of the Flood III The Date of the Hyksos Invasion IV The Cause of the Ten Plagues Chapter 15 Noah Becomes Ruler of Egypt 230 I Opportunity Knocks on Noah’s Door II Noah Conquers Egypt III The Chronology of the Hyksos Era IV The Hebrew Kings of Egypt Chapter 16 From Noah to Eber 252 I Noah Blesses Japheth II The Rise of Nimrod III The Cultural Identity of the Hebrews IV The Radiocarbon Date of the Tower of Babel Chapter 17 From Jericho to Babel 269 I The Radiocarbon Date of Jericho’s Destruction II The Historical Destruction of Jericho III Eastward to Shinar IV The Earth is Divided Chapter 18 From Eber to Abraham 288 I Canaan and the Egyptian New Kingdom II The Hebrews Return to Ur III The Ravens Descend Upon Ur 180 Before The Exodus Chapter 12 When Biblical History Began I. Deciphering Babylonian King List A If presented in strict chronological order, this chapter should be placed at the beginning of the book, because it is the search for the Hebrew ancestors of Moses and Abraham in Mesopotamian cuneiform records. This chapter is not presented first because it is the solution to a puzzle that makes more sense after learning that Moses, Joseph and Abraham were a royal lineage, with a military under their command. The history of the Hebrews is a history of the rich and powerful, and this chapter presents the case that before Abraham arrived in Canaan, his ancestors had reigned as kings in Mesopotamia, not just as kings in general, identifiable kings: as in “this one is Adam, that’s his son Cain,” etc. That is an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence. “Exhibit A” of that evidence is the series of numbers on the tablet below. Figure 12-1: Column I of Babylonian King List A includes reigns recorded in half-years. The story begins with my search for evidence of a culture in Mesopotamia that counted time in half-years, an identifying trait of the Hebrews. This search led me to a cuneiform tablet known as Babylonian King List A, now in the British Museum. The tablet contains an extensive list of Mesopotamian kings beginning in the early second millennium BC. Figure 12-1 shows the translation of the front of the tablet as published in Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (R. W. Rogers, ed., 1912, p. 201). Notice that in column II, four kings had reigns of 3 years or less, and no king reigned longer than 30 years. Kings were warriors who led troops into battle, and thus short reigns were the norm. However in column I, Iluma-ilu reigned 60, followed by Itti-ili- nibi for 55, then Damki-ilishu for 36. This appears to be a list of Hebrew kings with their reigns 1 in half-years. If so, their reigns would be more plausible: 30 years, 27 /2 years, and 18 years. 181 The third column of figure 12-1 is a drawing of the original cuneiform tablet as published by Theo. G. Pinches in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology (vol. 6, 1884, p. 193). I’ve included the drawing because it is not hard to translate the Babylonian numbers, and published sources sometimes have them wrong. Melam-kurkura reigned only 6 half-years according to the drawing of the tablet by Pinches, not 7 as published by Rogers. The difference between 6 and 7 is not critical, but an error of 60 vs. 70 would make any attempt to make sense of these reigns problematic. What I suspected is that since the Hebrews were the ruling class, or royalty, of the Ephraimites in Canaan, they were probably kings in Mesopotamia in earlier times. Therefore the kings whose reigns are seemingly recorded in half-years on Babylonian King List A are very likely the Hebrew patriarchs (Abraham’s ancestors) in the Book of Genesis. Since the names have all been changed, it is a game of numbers: any proof that these are one and the same royalty will require matching the recorded lifetimes of the patriarchs to the reigns of Iluma-ilu through Eagamil. Though they are recorded on Babylonian King List A, the dynasty of kings Iluma-ilu through Eagamil did not reign in the city of Babylon. They are generally called the Sealand Dynasty because they reigned farther to the south in the marshlands near the Persian Gulf. As explained in the quote below, the Sealand Dynasty was ultimately brought to an end by the rising power of the Kassite Dynasty in neighboring Babylon. Eagamil, the last king of the Sealand, was defeated and his kingdom claimed by Ulamburiash, a Kassite prince of Babylon. Burnaburiash was succeeded by an unnamed king, perhaps a brother, and then by his own son Kashtiliash, the third Kassite king of this name; he entrusted to his younger brother Ulamburiash the task of crushing the south. Taking advantage of the absence of Ea-gamil on a campaign in Elamite territory, Ulamburiash ‘conquered the Sealand and exercised dominion over the region’.