David F.: I caught ths second half of Boston Legal and thoroughly enjoyed it.
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M*W: It's a spin-off from Kelley's The Practice. I was addicted to that show. I'm not much for TV, but he's an excellent writer and his shows (Picket Fences, Boston Public, The Practice, Ally McBeal, and Boston Legal) are all entertaining and so well-researched! He's a former Boston lawyer.
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David F.: The biblical date for the Exodus is something in the 1550BC range (which would put Moses on your scale at about Ahmosis/Amenhotep I, and the previous 80 years).
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M*W: Scientists believe that Akhenaten's physical disfigurement may have been Froelich's syndrome, an endocrinological disorder that gives men the more rounded breasts, bellies and fat pads around the genitals. Sometimes in the male, the penis is ingulfed in pubic fat and can't be seen. Some thought that this pharaoh was a woman disguised as a king.
It's been documented that Amenhotep IV ascended the throne and later changed his name to Akhenaten. He tried to reform Egypt's religious system replacing it with a sole god called 'Aten.'
Akhenaten was known to have written poetry. There is a certain resemblence to Psalm 104 of the Bible. Hey, wait a minute! I though David was supposed to have written the Psalms? There may be more of a connection to David than we yet realize.
Some scholars have said that Moses was born a royal Egyptian and the myth surrounding his humble birth was made up.
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David F.: The biblical date for Solomon is something around 1000BC (I think some put Solomon's Temple at around 950BC so David would have started around 1000BC). The key of course is the Armana letters which mention King David and the Habiru by name, (they also mention a king prior to David called Labiu, or <i>the Lion</i> which some have taken to be the biblical king Saul - Saul or Shaul means "asked for" and it is the name he would have taken when he became the Hebrew king, not his given name) and the Armana letters were written to Pharoah Akhenaten. It would be pretty hard to square the bible account with the Jebusites (in Shalem/Jerusalem) sending letters to Akenaten/Moses about King David This would make David and Moses contemporaries. I don't think this quite works.
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M*W: Interesting. There are some similarities between Moses and the religion of Akhenaten. Moses was attributed to have written "Hear, O Israel, the Lord they God is one God." When translated into Hebrew, it's supposed to read, "Hear, O Israel, our God Aten is the only God." The question remains, if were Moses were Egyptian and became the Jewish law-giver, there's got to be similarities between the two cultures-religions.
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David F.: In the biblical account, David attacked and took the city of Shalem/Jerusalem on mount tsiana/Zion from the Jebusites.
The Armana letters give an excellent non-biblical reference to a biblical event and pin it directly to Akenaten.
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M*W: It's been discovered and known for quite some time now that Moses was married to Nefertiti and they had some six daughters and possibly one son together, King Tut. He had other wives and concubines who bore him children, including his own daughter, as was the custom in those days.
The Habiru were a tribe of Egyptian nomads. Perhaps they were the ancestors of the Hebrews. Another interesting point is that during the Exodus (mind you, now, some biblical scholars believe the Exodus didn't happen), but if there was some archeological evidence of the Exodus, they haven't found any yet. However, the Egyptians did not cross the Red Sea but the Sea of Reeds. There is also some speculation that Moses didn't write the Torah. There may be some evidence that the Torah was written prior to Moses.
In those days, the lifespan was quite a bit shorter than it is today. Live fast, die young as they say. I've read where Moses was about 18 years old when the Exodus began, and about the ripe old age of 30 when he died. I cannot confirm these dates, but I'll keep looking.
So the question arises: At what point does the significant pharaoic religion and culture end and the Hebrews culture begin?