Creation History

Category: Chronology

Posted by: Kenneth

Dr. Douglas Petrovich recently published a paper on a Paleo-Hebrew inscription found on an ostracon (piece of a broken clay jar) found at Tel Lachish, arguing that this is evidence of Joshua's conquest in the Late Bronze I period. Our review suggests that it dates instead to the time of Asa's defeat of Zerah the Ethiopian.

The city of Lachish was on Judah's southwestern border with the Philistines.  When excavating the remains of this city, Tel Lachish, the archaeologists found a burned layer in the Late Bronze I period, that also included a broken milk bowl with some Hebrew writing on it.  Since there are very few examples of Hebrew script older than the Iron Age, this piece, called the Lachish Milk Bowl Ostracon is quite important evidence that the Israelites were writing Hebrew language and script in the land of Canaan. The question is when?  The primary thrust of Petrovich's paper is to identify this inscription as an early example of the Paleo-Hebrew script immediately after Joshua's conquest of Canaan, which he dates to 1406 BC. 

What Does it Say?

Petrovich translates the inscription on the bowl as follows:

The resultant reading is that the ostracon’s titleholder is the servant over the keeping of honey, thus the “servant in charge of honey.”

When Was It Written?

Elsewhere in his corpus of work, Petrovich identifies Amenhotep II as the Pharaoh of the Exodus.  Amenhotep II was the last or second to last king of the Late Bronze Age I.  Amehotep III and his son Akhenaten are classified as Late Bronze Age IIA.  Therefore, using the chronology of Petrovich, a Hebrew inscription at the end of the Late Bronze Age I would have to be very shortly after the Exodus, and thus evidence of Joshua's conquest.  This is indeed what he argues in the paper.

The CFAH position is that the Exodus occurred around the end of the 6th and 12th Dynasties.  Dynasty 6 ruled locally in Memphis, while Dynasty 12 ruled over the entire territory from Lish't, and Dynasty 13 was based in Thebes, for at least part of the same time period. 

We identify Joshua's Conquest as occurring at the transition of the Late Bronze Age III to the Middle Bronze Age I, at which time nearly all of the cities in Canaan were destroyed. The First and Second Intermediate Periods in Egypt were the one and same intermediate period, during which time the Amalekite-Hyksos ruled Egypt and oppressed Israel under the Judges.

Supporting this view, there are troves of tablets excavated from the region of Northern Canaan from the Middle Bronze Age (which covered about four centuries just before the Late Bronze Age) during which time a Hebraic language classified as "Canaanite" was written on clay tablets using cuneiform script. These tablets were used to classify the Canaanites language as Northwest-Semitic, a language so closely related to Hebrew, as to be nearly indistinguishable.

Our Chronological Framework of Ancient History places Joshua's Conquest at the end of the Early Bronze Age III.  Therefore, the Middle Bronze Age "Canaanite" texts are not Canaanite at all, but Israelite under the Judges and United Kingdom of Israel. When placed in the proper timeframe, the cuneiform texts show that the Israelite tribes after Joshua used cuneiform to write administrative and diplomatic texts, and probably used Paleo-Hebrew script for religious texts written on more perishable materials such as vellum or papyrus that have not survived.

Immediately following the Middle Bronze Age, the Late Bronze I broadly covers the period from Ahmose I to Amenhotep II of Egypt, while the Amarna Era of Amenhotep III and IV is classified as Late Bronze IIA. In our view, this ostracon dates to between Thutmose III and Amenhotep III, which we place in the 10th century before Christ, as per the Ussher-Jones Chronology.

According to the Bible, Lachish was captured by Joshua's conquest. Later, after Solomon's death, it appears to have been taken by the Egyptians when they defeated Solomon's son, Rehoboam.  We identify this retaking of Lachish as one of the actions of Thutmose III when he dismantled the Kingdom of Israel and made both Rehoboam and Jeroboam his vassals.  Whether he burned it or not, we do not know.

Three generations after Solomon, Asa's battle against General Zarah the Ethiopian took place at the Valley of Zephathah, about five miles North of Lachish.  As the account does not say that Lachish was captured from Asa, this suggests that the Egyptians still held Lachish from the earlier conquest of Thutmose III.  After Asa defeated Zerah, the Judahites looted the Egyptian-held cities all the way to Gerar which was about 50 miles south of Lachish.  Zerah is identifiable as the Egyptian Viceroy of Cush under King Amenhotep II, who co-reigned with Thutmose III, and then reigned 20 more years on his own. This battle took place in his 9th year, which was also the 15th year of King Asa of Judah, in 940/939 BC.

The Lachish Milk Bowl Ostracon was found in a burned layer classified as Late Bronze Age I, showing the city was destroyed.  As we've just shown, Lachish was captured and burned once or twice between the reigns of Solomon and Asa.

King Asa met Zerah's forces at the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah, which is just north of Lachish.  After defeating Zerah's forces, the jubilant Israelites rushed southward, plundering all the Egyptian held cities all the way to Geshur.   (2 Chronicles 14)  It seems quite likely that the burning of Lachish in which the Lachish Milk Bowl Ostracon was found, probably dates to this event.  Alternatively, it could have been burned by Thutmose III about 20 years earlier.

The Lachish Milk Bowl Ostracon definitely supports an early Exodus, but much earlier than Dr. Petrovich would allow. Osgood, Hurn, Courville, Down and others placed the Exodus at the end of Early Bronze III, and Joshua's conquest at the EBIV/MBI transition, as do we. Our is a minority view; but so is the idea that the Bible is true and accurate.