Religious Timeline Emerges From Archeology

This is particularly interesting to me, and I have touched on this in other threads.

This is a timeline ending with the birth of Monotheism.

www.haaretz.com...

Indeed, the Canaanites and ancient Egyptians exerted a mutual influence on each other, Garfinkel says. In fact, at some point the Canaanites ruled Egypt. It was only with the 18th Dynasty (about 1549 to 1292 B.C.E) which featured luminaries such as the super-famous King Tutankhamun and Nefertiti – that the ancient Nile kingdom rose to the height of its power and violently swept over what is today Israel.

Lachish had an intensely bloody history, as do so many towns in this region. Located in central Israel, not far from the present-day city of Kiryat Gat, Lachish may go back to time immemorial, but the powerful city of the Canaanites actually arose around 1800 B.C.E.

It survived for around 400 years, only to be destroyed in 1550 B.C.E. by the Egyptians under Pharaoh Thutmose III, as they rolled over the region in the 18th Dynasty’s massive expansion. The places where ancient Egyptian and Canaanite forces clashed include Megiddo, which was reportedly the first – and Lachish.

Control over modern "Holy Land".

1800 BCE - 1550 BCE - Canaanite control
1550 - 1292 - Egypt Control

It was a bloody victory.  The original Blitzkreig. Egypt took over the Land, modified the temples and subjected all the former Canaanites.

In the 14th/13th century BCE you had Egypt suffering a series of military defeats, famines, and even literal plagues (humorously speculated to be Swine Flu) that led to the retraction of their empire once expanding all the way to present day Aleppo, Syria.

By 1210 you had only trinkets of Egypt culture remaining in temples resurrected to the pantheon of old... mostly.

Only now they were Phoenicians rising from the ashes of their once great civilization.  Subjects of the Pharoh no more.

And then there were some other folk that wrote of the end of Egypt quite differently. 

And it is this that is most interesting.

Alongside Phoenician was another culture, The 12 Tribes of Isreal, which historically established first settlements about a half century after The final withdrawal of Egypt rule.

Officially dividing up their land by 1200 BCE. This followed several years of alliances and cooperation culminating in establishing genealogical provenance for the kindred groups that rejected the pantheon, and took to the other story to come from the ashes of Egypt control.

While one may see Charlton Heston demanding his people be let go I have to question it based on timelines of conquest, and evidence that establishes "The Hebrews" came into existence within 50 years of the regional shake-up. One ending in an Egyptian whimper.

It seems politics are the basis for The Torah.

Land allotment

The Land of Israel was divided into twelve sections corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. However, the tribes receiving land differed from the biblical tribes. The Tribe of Levi had no land appropriation but had six Cities of Refuge under their administration as well as the Temple in Jerusalem. There was no land allotment for the Tribe of Joseph, but Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, received their father's land portion.

And what better way to establish provenance over territory than to document familial lineages and bloodlines that make it divine right?

It is my opinion that as early as the 13th century BCE the story of Moses was being told, likely arising shortly after Epypt's reign. The most significant stories of the first books became the oratory of these pastoral clans that rejected the pantheon, eventually coming together to form a new religion.

While their actual lineage cuts them from the same rib as Canaan/Phoenicia, their monolatry turned monotheism, the genesis and exodus is the original "Manifest Destiny". Beyond stories simply trying to explain their world, it was a constitution and a land claim, and one that has stood the test of time.

This excavation of Mt Migiddo dug up some interesting finds.

www.discovermagazine.com...

There, archaeologists had dated the earliest settlements of the Hebrews — recognized by the lack of pig bones, reflecting their pork taboo — to perhaps the 13th century B.C. Had these people really been slaves in Egypt, returning as invaders as Yadin put forth? Finkelstein found otherwise. Instead of an invasion, the archaeological evidence revealed a gradual evolution from a pastoral to an agricultural society. “There was no violent event, no entry from the outside, not one suggestion of the Exodus. The Hebrews were the Canaanites, who had never left.

I am a fan of religious/cultural history and this paints a transitional portrait of the birth of Monotheism.

People left to their own devices forming clans, then alliances, and eventually coming together to form a new civilization and religion.

And may find some controversy among the literal adherents.

Gotta go to sleep now, but definitely want to look over this tomorrow. S&F for you, looks interesting.

yes, history or what we can observe is fascinating to me

cool reading...i'll go dive into Discovery mag.

a reply to: Degradation33

Here's the key right here:

For years, archaeologists investigating the time of the Bible worked with the text in one hand and a trowel in the other, hoping to confirm Scripture. “In the beginning there was the Word,” the Bible says, and archaeologists sought to prove that it was gospel.

Convinced this circular logic wasn’t providing satisfactory results, Finkelstein pioneered another way forward: using science, and science alone, to shed light on antiquity, regardless of what the Bible might say.

As far as I know there is no evidence of a kingdom of United Israel under David and Solomon. The vast scope and glory of Solomon's Empire seems the sheerest of myth. No doubt taking the actual imagery of existing empires and pretending that Solomon's was just like that.

I wonder if there ever actually were these distinct 12 tribes, or if someone fabricated those to come up with 12, because 12 is such a cool number.

As for Monotheism: Invented by Judeans in Babylonian Empire during the "Exile" and subsequent transition of Persian empire rule by priestly and royal scribes. Then Monotheism was imported into the Levant by means of Cyrus's decision to let the various Babylonian exiles rebuild their temples and restore their native gods.

In which case Monotheism isn't native to the Levant but rather imported from Babylon. Now that would be just as revolutionary as doing Archeology for reasons other than "proving the Bible as factual History".

Ancient Israelite religion was originally polytheistic;[40] the Israelites worshipped many deities,[48] including El, Baal, Asherah, and Astarte. Yahweh was originally the national god of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.[48] As time progressed, the henotheistic cult of Yahweh grew increasingly militant in its opposition to the worship of other gods.[40] Later, the reforms of King Josiah imposed a form of strict Israeli monolatrism. After the fall of Judah and the beginning of the Babylonian captivity, a small circle of priests and scribes gathered around the exiled royal court, where they first developed the concept of Yahweh as the sole God of the world.
wikipedia - Monotheism #In_Ancient_Israel

a reply to: Degradation33

This is particularly interesting to me, and I have touched on this in other threads.

This is a timeline ending with the birth of Monotheism.

www.haaretz.com...

Great OP!

S&F!

Canaanite lives matter