1. The Israelites left Egypt after four hundred and thirty years. (Ex 12:40)
1. The Amarna period lasted only decades, but there seems to be other indications that the Israeli sojourn was too:
1. The Cambridge Ancient History says that the Israeli sojourn in Egypt "lasted only a few decades". (322) [I do not know what they base this on.]
2. Like some of the other ages in the story, this one might be better translated as a date instead. [See Above – 110 years] If the "base date" of Year 30 occurred on Amenhotep III’s calendar, then it could be appropriate to say that the exodus would have occurred "after 4 pharaohs/calendars in the thirtieth year". The four pharaohs would then correspond to Amenhotep III, Smenhkhare, Tutankhamen, and Aye, while the thirty years would be the period that Horemheb and Rameses I ruled. [Is there any record of ancient dates using such a methodology? Were the number of completed calendars ever made part of a date or time range?]
2. The Israelites take the bones of Joseph with them. (Ex 13:19)
1. Akhenaten’s body has never been found:
1. Aldred says that Akhenaten’s body has not been identified. (106, 109)
2. Akhenaten is believed to have been buried in Tomb 55, which was later opened, his body removed, and the tomb resealed. This is not believed to be the work of thieves because of the gold work they left behind:
1. Aldred says that Akhenaten was probably buried in Tomb 55 because his magic bricks were found there. (208)
2. Aldred says that Tomb 55 "bore all the signs of having been opened since its original sealing and its contents deliberately desecrated by removing all traces of the name and features of the owner…" He says that the tomb was then re-sealed with a new blocking. (198)
3. Aldred says of Tomb 55 that "the presumption is that Akhenaten was removed from it together with his other burial trappings." (208)
4. Aldred says of the ransacking of the tomb, "At the same time it was apparent that this selective destruction was hardly the work of thieves, who would not have left any gold work behind them nor bothered to close up the tomb with a new drystone blocking." (198)
3. The aftermath
1. The Egyptians continued to disrespect the Atenists:
1. Redford says that, starting in the nineteenth dynasty, the site of the Aten temple at Karnak was used as a dump for the next six centuries. (91)
2. Redford says that the years of the reigns of the Amarna kings were added to Horemheb’s years. (231)
2. The Atenist influence can be seen on the Israelites:
1. [See above – Freud on the Adonai/Aten connection]
2. Redford says of Akhenaten’s Hymn to the Sun, "Certain affinities have long since been pointed out between the hymn to the sun-disc and Psalm 104, and the parallels are to be taken seriously." (232-233)
3. Egyptians to this day tell of this period:
1. Redford says that the oral legends of the Egyptians tell of this period as a time when there was an attempt by "foreign rulers" to control Egypt, that the people were made to work in the quarries, and that the people had been "afflicted with plague". (231)
Summary:
I see a high degree of parallel between these two stories. This is based on a broad range of artifacts and seems to provide a seamless and fairly satisfying explanation for many of the more unusual events of this period. Equally, it seems to provide fairly convincing political background and character motivations for the Biblical story. I think that these two traditions intermingle with, and expand on each other in a way that is very interesting.
Bibliography:
Aldred, Cyril, Akhenaten, King of Egypt, Thames and Hudson, London, 1988.
Redford, Donald B., Akhenaten, The Heretic King, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1984.
Desroches-Noblecourt, Christiane, Tutankhamen, Life and Death of a Pharaoh, Penguin Books, 1963.
The Cambridge Ancient History, Third Edition, Volume II Part 2, History of the Middle East and the Aegean Region c.1380-1100 B.C., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1975.
The Pharaohs of the Sun, Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1999.
Davies, N.deG., The Rock Tombs of El Amarna, Part I. – The Tomb of Meryra, , London, 1903.
Murnane, William J., Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt, Scholars Press, Atlanta, Georgia, 1995.
Pendlebury, J.D.S., The City of Akhenaten, Part III, The Central City and the Official Quarters, Egyptian Exploration Society, London, 1951.
Tanakh, the Holy Scriptures, The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1985.
The NIV Study Bible, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, 1995.
