Joseph the Infiltrator, Jacob the Conqueror?: Reexamining the Hyksos–Hebrew Correlation
Abstract
The anachronisms in the story of Exodus have long complicated claims to its historicity, yet some of the “usual suspects” endure. Scholarly tradition has generally argued that the expulsion of the so-called Hyksos rulers of Egypt in the sixteenth century BCE was the foundation for the Israelite cultural memory of liberation from Egypt. With the shift in biblical scholarship toward the Persian and Hellenistic periods regarding the crystallization of the biblical texts, scholarship has moved away from extrabiblical correlations pertaining to more ancient contexts. This trend, combined with locating earliest Israel within a generic “Canaanite” milieu, has led to the devaluation of the place of Egypt in discussions of Israel’s origins. In this article, I reexamine the “Hebrew–Hyksos” correlation, with a view to defending the great antiquity of memories of interaction with Egypt that were appropriated by developing Israel.
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- Authors
- Geobey, R. A.
- Corresponding author
- Geobey, Ronald A.
- Venue
- Journal of Biblical Literature
- Publisher
- Project MUSE
- Published
- 2017
- Volume
- 136
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 23-37
- ISSN
- 0021-9231 (ISSN-L)
- 1934-3876
- OpenAlex
- W2600989611
- Semantic Scholar
- d432f6acbd68b6c3ae12ca888095921661b5e775
- Cited by
- 1
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Biblical Literature (publishedVersion)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Ancient Egypt and Archaeology
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Ancient Near East History
- Keywords
- Hyksos, Exodus, Israelite origins, anachronism, liberation from Egypt, ancient Egypt
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