W Solebie.docx

W Solebie (Egipt) odnaleziono dwie tablice z inskrypcjami, zawierające Imię Boże, w formie egipskiej - YEHUA. Znajdują się one w świątyni Amenophis III i datuje się je na rok 1391-1353 p.n.e W tym opracowaniu znajdują się trzy wypowiedzi naukowców opisujące to odkrycie. Na stronie Uniwersytetu Chicago BEES_SOLEB.html  można znaleźć obszerniejsze informacje o tym miejscu i znalezisku, wraz bogatą dokumentacją fotograficzną.

1. Gérard Gertoux (Professor of National Education in France, President of the Association Biblique de Recherche d'Anciens Manuscrits, Hebrew scholar, specialist of the Tetragram)

Two schields were found at Soleb (J. Leclant - Les fouilles de Soleb in: Annuaire du Collčge de France 1980-1981 pp. 474-475) with a short inscription dated about the time of Amenophis III (-1391 -1353). Additionally this short inscription is engraved in a shield used for subjugated peoples, according to the Egyptian way of describing.

This inscription is easy to decipher (J. Leclant* - Le "Tétragramme" ŕ l'époque d'Aménophis III in: Near Eastern Studies. Wiesbaden 1991 Ed. Otto Harrassowitz pp. 215-219). It can be transcribed:

·         t3 ˇ3-sw-w y-h-w3-w     (Shneider's transcription)

·         ta sha-su-w y-eh-ua-w   (conventional vocalization)

·         'Land of the Bedouins those of Yehua'   (literal translation)

·         Ziemie Szasu - tych od Yehua     (tak mniej wiecej wyglądałoby polskie tłumaczenie)

If a recording in an Egyptian temple had mentioned the name Yehoua, after the departure of the Hebrews, it would inevitably have been chiseled out to remove it. However, a good specimen was found at Soleb , a short inscription dated about the time of Amenophis III (-1391 -1353).

It is interesting to note that the Shasus (Bedouins) would have meant to the Egyptians specific Bedouins staying with their bundles, in the region North of the Sinai. From the fifteenth to twelfth century BCE, the Hebrew settlers conquering Palestine were pejoratively called the Hapirus by the Egyptians (The word ‘Apiru/ Ôabiru means ‘wanderings’ in Semitic languages .) These hieroglyphic shields were short enough to escape possible erasure. Some specialists prefer to identify Yehua with an unknown toponym but it is unlikely. Additionally, there is a very good agreement with the conventional vocalization and all the Semitic names (see the work of J. Simons - Handbook for the study of Egyptian topographical lists relating to western Asia E.J. Brill 1937 et l'ouvrage de S. Ahituv - Canaanite toponyms in ancient Egyptian documents E.J. Brill 1984). In any case, this distinction is impossible to prove, as in the cases of biblical toponyms like: ‘land of Judah’ (Dt 34:2); ‘land of Rameses’ (Gn 47:11); or with the Asiatic toponyms of this period (15th century BCE) found in several Egyptian lists as ‘[land of] Jacob-El’; ‘[land of] Josep-El’, ‘[land of] Lewi-El’, etc., which obviously are also personal names. This document is interesting because of its antiquity and also because of its vocalization.

However, one notices a certain resistance to the vocalization of this name Yhw3, because the totality of dictionaries indicate either yhw’, which is unreadable, or Yahweh which is not in agreement with the conventional vocalization, but never Yehua’. Some specialists quite correctly object that the vowels of Egyptian words are not well known . However, for foreign words, which is the case here, Egyptian used a sort of standard alphabet with matres lectionis, that is of semi-consonants which served as vowels. In this system one finds the equivalences: 3 = a, w = u, ÿ = i, and that is exactly why reading by the conventional system gives acceptable results. For example in Merneptah's stele dated the thirteenth century BCE, the name Israel is transcribed in hieroglyphs Yÿsri3l and can be read Yisrial (conventional system), which is tolerable. However, some specialists who refuse the classic system, read this name Yasarial because of its antiquity. Nevertheless, almost a millennium before, at Ebla, one read this name I¡rail, contradicting the reading Yasarial. So, in the current state of our knowledge, the conventional system of reading of hieroglyphs is the best alternative, and in this system the name (or toponym) Yhw3 is read ‘technically’ Yehua.

·         J. Leclant - Les fouilles de Soleb in: Annuaire du Collège de France 1980-1981 pp. 474-475

·         J. Leclant - Les fouilles de Soleb in: Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenscaften in Göttingen I 1965 pp. 205-216

·         W.L.Moran - Les lettres d'El Amarna in: LIPO n°13 Paris 1987 Éd. Cerf pp. 604,605

·         V.Nikiprowetzky - Dictionnaire de l'Égypte ancienne In: Encyclopædia Universalis Paris 1998 Éd. Albin Michel pp. 169,170

·         J.M.Durand - Documents épistolaires du palais de Mari in: LIPO n°18 Paris 2000 Éd. Cerf p. 205

·         R. de Vaux - Histoire ancienne d'Israel Paris 1986 Éd. Gabalda pp. 106-112,202-208

·         J.B.Pritchard - Ancient Near Eastern Texts Princeton 1969 Ed. Princeton University Press p. 242

·         W.A.Ward - A New Look at Semitic Personal Names and Loanwords in Egyptian in: Chronique d'Égypte LXXI(1996) N°141

·         Ed. Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth Bruxelles pp. 17-47

2. Institute for Biblical & Scientific Studies (Dr. Arlton C. Murray, Dr. Stephen C. Meyers):

Amenhotep III

In the temple of Amon in Soleb (Nubia) there is a topographical list from the time of Amenhotep III (1408-1372 B.C.). In column IV.A2 is written t3 ssw yhw3 (…) In the ancient Near East a divine name was also was given to a geographical place where the god was worshipped (Axelsson 1987, 60). Axelsson concludes, "Thus it is conceivable that the full name of the area in question was Yhw's land, Yhw's city, Yhw's mountain, or the like" (Axelsson 1987, 60). The land of the Shasu may be the same area as the Midianites in the Bible where Moses stayed for 40 years (Axelsson 1987, 61; Giveon 1964a, 415-16). De Vaux says, "Geographers place Midian in Arabia, to the south-east of the Gulf of 'Aqabah" (1978, 332). This also is where Mount Sinai may be located. Astour locates the land in Lebanon (1979, 17). The Shasu were Bedouins who led a nomadic existence. "Shasu" was a general term the Egyptians used to describe any Bedouins East of the Delta. The Egyptians would define certain Shasu according to their location. For example there are the Shasu of Edom (ANET 1969, 259). The word "Shasu" became in Coptic shos meaning "shepherd" (ANET 1969, 259 note 2). It may be that the Israelites when they were wandering in the desert were probably grouped with the Shasu by the Egyptians. Giveon points out marked similarities between the Shasu and the Hebrews (1967, 193-196; Bietak 1987, 169). When they came out of the desert and into the hill country of Palestine, they were probably called Hapiru as in the El Amarna letters instead of Shasu.There is another very interesting name in the temple of Amon in Soleb on Column XA.2 it says, iswr or "Asher" (Giveon 1964, 250). From the position of iswr which is right after qrqms (Carchemish) in the list and before ipttn (column XA4) which may refer to Abez of Issachar (Joshua 19:20), the location of this place would be in northern Palestine. Giveon prefers the translation of "Asher" which may refer to the tribe of Israel. Giveon says, "Les autres toponymes de cette colonne indiquent une region a l'Ouest d'Assur, il est donc preferable d'opter pour Asher" (Translation: The other names in this column indicate a region to the West of Assur, it is therefore perferable to opt for Asher. 1964, 251).

On a statue-base of Amenhotep III at Kom el Hetan which is the funerary temple of Amenhotep III there is a topographical list with the place-name Yspir (Series a:1; Kitchen 1965, 2). This is the same name translated "Joseph-El" in Thutmose III's Topographical list (ANET 1969, 242). After Yspir in both lists the place-name Rkd appears (Series a:2 in Amenhotep III's list, and #79 in Thutmose III's list; Simons 1937, 112). Rkd is the same place-name as Ruhizzi in the El Amarna letters (EA 53:36, 56; EA 5426; EA 56:26; EA 191:2; Rainey 1982, 354). The ruler of Ruhizzi is Arsawuya who seems to be located in northern Palestine or southern Syria (EA 53:36, 56; Moran, 125).

3. Professor Richley H. Crapo (PhD) - An Anthropologist Looks at the Judeo-Christian Scripture, Hebrew Origins and the Culture of the Patriarchs, Copyright © 2001:

«Who were the people of Shasu? The name itself is from a Semitic root that means "to travel by foot", identifying the Shasu people as pastoral nomads who migrated with the seasons from one pasturage to another in the western parts of the Near East. Like the Hebrews, the Shasu were cattle-herders who wandered on foot in yearly cycles in search for forage between their home-base lands east of the Arabah and areas as distant as northern Syria and Egypt. Donald Redford (1992, Pp. 257-280) points out that the name is found in Egyptian sources as early as the Eighteenth Dynasty down through the Third Intermediate Period and refers to the nomadic peoples east of Egypt who occupied the southern Transjordan in the plains of Moab and northern Edom and the wastelands around Midian. According to Redford, Egyptian texts identify six locations within "the land of the Shasu". Five of these can be identified as Se'ir (Edom and northern Midian), Laban (which Redford suggests is probably Libona, south of Amman), Sam'ath (possibly the Shim'ethites, a subdivision of the Kenites spoken of in 1 Chron. 2:55), and Wrbr (which Redford suggests is likely the Wady Hasa). Redford also notes that in the 19th and 20th Dynasties, the Shasu are placed consistently in Edom and the Arabah (...