TRADITION VS SCHOLARSHIP

A historian says: "If Israel had been living in Canaan since the 1400s BC, the Amarna letters of the 1300s BC should mention them, and they do not." Agree or disagree?

The answer

Agree. The Amarna letters were sent to the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten in the 1300s BC. The scholar Michael Coogan says they give a detailed view of Canaan then. They include letters from the kings of Ashkelon, Shechem, Gezer and Jerusalem, but name no person or group that could be Israel. Coogan says Israel would be expected in them if it had been there for centuries. He counts the silence as a problem for an early exodus.

Why it’s interesting

The early date comes from 1 Kings 6:1, which puts the exodus 480 years before Solomon began the temple. Coogan sees a second problem with it: Egypt ruled Canaan through the Late Bronze Age, 1550 to 1200 BC, yet the book of Judges shows no hint of Egyptians there. Most scholars, but by no means all, place the exodus in the 1200s BC instead.

Genuinely debated

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