Egypt and the Hebrew Bible - Ägypten und Altes Testament

To celebrate the first 40 years of the series “Aegypten und Altes Testament” with its 100th volume a conference on the topic of the series – Egypt and the Hebrew Bible – was hosted in December 2019 in Munich.

In this volume the papers are attributed to three major fields: language, iconography, and history.

In the first section of this volume linguistic approaches are presented. Francis Breyer presents some of the results of his research about Egyptian names and words in the Old Testament. His scientific approach is closely connected with Görg’s main interests in both fields. Pieter Gert van der Veen presents another main interest of Görg’s research. Görg was – since his dissertation – very interested in place (and tribal) names mentioned in Egyptian lists. Van der Veen’s paper is an update on some of the toponyms. Stefan Jakob Wimmer presents a new reading of several Hieratic inscribed bowls from Canaan. Evidently, a Canaanite word is used in these Egyptian texts.

The second part focuses on iconography. Stefan Münger presents a group of seals found in the southern Levant which demonstrates a strong Egyptian influence. Bernd U. Schipper publishes a funeral stela now in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. This stela is extremely interesting because of its combination of Egyptian iconography with an Aramaic inscription. The paper by Ludwig D. Morenz is wide-ranging both in geographical and chronological perspective and discusses the refusal of presenting JHWH iconographically. Two solutions, one from the Iron Age and the other one from the Byzantine period, are presented.

The third part of this volume focuses on history. Regine Schulz contributes her discussion on the reliefs of the famous battle of Qadesh between the Hittites and the Egyptians for this volume. She observes some interesting roles in the depictions and numbers of soldiers on these reliefs. Marlies Heinz presents some ideas about the well excavated site of Kamid el-Loz, an Egyptian stronghold in present-day Lebanon during the Late Bronze Age. The Exodus is most prominent in the Bible for the historical connection between (later) Israel and Egypt. Manfred Bietak presents a linguistic and archaeological update of the interpretation of the Biblical texts seen through the eyes of an Egyptologist. The next two chapters deal with two succeeding episodes of the historical connections of Egypt and Israel/Judah and combine both methodologically with a historical and an archaeological approach. Katharina Streit and Felix Höflmayer discuss the late 8th and early 7th century BCE, while Wolfgang Zwickel concentrates on the second part of the 7th and the early 6th century. The paper presented by Katja Weiß discusses the role of foreign mercenaries in Egypt during the Late Egyptian period. All together the papers presented here cover relevant topics of Egyptian-Levantine history during about 1000 years from the battle of Qadesh to the Persian-Hellenistic period.

Preface

40 Years ÄAT

List of ÄAT Volumes

Summary of the Conference

Abbreviations / Abkürzungen

Sprache / Language

Breyer: Altägyptische Namen und Wörter im Alten Testament. Überlegungen zu Forschungsperspektiven und -methoden in der altertumswissenschaftlichen Lehnwortforschung

van der Veen: Israel and the Tribes of Asher, Reuben and Issachar: An Investigation into Four Canaanite Toponyms from New Kingdom Egypt

Wimmer: “It Shall be a Token of the Covenant”: Hieratic Inscribed Brit-Bowls from Ramesside Canaan

Bildwelt / Iconography

Münger: Judäo-israelitische Knochensiegel der Eisenzeit II. Ägyptische Ikonographie und kanaanäisches Erbe

Schipper: Die Berliner Stele 7707 und die ägyptisch-aramäischen Grabstelen der Perserzeit

Morenz: Monotheistische Bildscheu versus Darstellungen von JHWH

Geschichte / History

Schulz: Ramses II. und das Trauma von Qadeš. Die Schlachtenszenen auf dem 1. Pylon des Ramesseums in Theben-West

Heinz: Kamid el-Loz und seine Nachbarn. Wirtschaftliche Aktivitäten als soziale Praxis. Ein Essay

Bietak: Ägypten und der Exodus: Ein altes Thema, ein neuer Ansatz

Streit/Höflmayer: Die assyrische Eroberung der Südlevante und Ägyptens. Ein Vergleich textlicher und archäologischer Evidenzen von Niederlage und ihrer Rezeption

Zwickel: Ägyptische Außenpolitik in den Jahren vor dem Untergang Judas und die Sicht des Jeremiabuches

Weiß: Krieg und Kulturkontakt – Fremde Söldner im spätzeitlichen Ägypten und der Apis

Wildung: Der Blick aus dem Süden: Ägypten in kuschitisch-meroitischer Sicht

List of Contributors / Verzeichnis der Autorinnen und Autoren