Is that your way of acknowledging that it’s not Hebrew? Strong wrongly assumed it was. We are all expert Strong’s users. It’s Egyptian for sedge. Not Gujarati.
Actually it is much later Coptic, possibly (Coptic as a living language had been dying for centuries and may have become solely a liturgical language by the 17th century CE). This was reported by an early 18th century scholar in Latin which was then translated to English ‘place where sedge grows’. The Coptic word, pi-akhirot, might be descended from an ancient Egyptian word also meaning ‘sedge’ since Coptic is descended from ancient Egyptian. What I haven’t found is anyone in the nearly 2 centuries since the Rosetta stone was deciphered checking it against ancient Egyptian. In a Coptic dictionary online, sedge is ⲁϩⲣ which seems to transliterate as ‘ahr’. If it is sedges, the name works just as well on the shores of the Red Sea as the Indus (and the Red Sea is a few thousand miles nearer to Israel/Judea).
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I admit the possibility that the (many) Strong’s versions I have accessed have been modified. But, please appreciate that being 50 years old is no guarantee of correctness. After all, my hypothesis is that the scribes got the geography wrong 2300 years ago.
I agree. So it can just as well be argued that it could mean sedges or mouths or whatever.
MORE FUNDAMENTALLY. Our interest in is whether freshwater sedges grow near the crossing point. The papers I quoted seem to agree with this. So whether Strong’s says sedges or not is not the question. Let us focus on comparison of Egypt as Mitsrayim; and Indus as Mathura or Mitsrayim.
I agree with your analysis of the Coptic antecedents. But sedge (and papyrus) is an ubiquitous feature of the Indus and a “needle in a hay sack” near the Red Sea. So, on comparative basis, Indus stands tall.
It is a certainty that the many versions you have accessed have been, let’s say, enhanced.
It is in terms of what was contained in the ORIGINAL Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon. The point I have been trying to make (it appears unsuccessfully) is you can’t quote “Strong’s” or anything that appears to be attributed to Strong as an authoritative source in this debate.
That should be Moses (who should know where Egypt was located) got the geography wrong unless you are arguing that the Pentateuch was entirely written or rewritten by scribes who had never been in Egypt.
Actually the most fundamental question, is Pi-hahiroth Egyptian, Hebrew, or possible both? The answer to that question determines if sedges would help with the location.
And as you yourself have said sedges would be found in fresh water inflows to the Red Sea in addition to any fresh water sources in the area.
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I wait for your reply to this central question regarding 5 levels of evidence.
1] Parallels in Local Names, 2] Archaeological evidence, 3] Parallels in Local Texts, 4] Living Traditions, 5] Geography. Kindly place these in sequence of priority and, if you may, kindly give reasons for your sequence.
Not at all. Not overwritten. I hold the Hebrew text to be basically correct. mis.identification of places took place perhaps after the exile.
I think we can rest on pi.hahiroth. nothing new to say. It is only the 5 levels of evidence and a comparative assessment can solve the matter.
- Archaeological evidence clothing
Can you explain how to “cut in the river and bruise” that you mentioned in your book? Indians wear a sedge dress that they “Cut in the river and bruise.” Next, they weave it into mats, which they wear as a breastplate. Did the Egyptians also wear sedge dresses and did this too? Can clothing provide evidence of archaeology?
So what are your thoughts on the origin of Passover?
They soak it in water to loosen the fibers. Then pound it to separate them. Then use it to weave as with threads. A variant is jute. Sacks of jute are made even today.
“Levels of evidence” is the wrong word; “quality of evidence” is what is wanted. Frankly nothing you’ve presented so far outweighs the evidence that the Exodus story is Levantine with knowledge of adjacent areas such as Egypt and it predates the exile.
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We have a tradition of painting holy signs for protection on the doorposts during the festival of raksha bandhan. I have not studied this. But the Passover could be a memory of this.
Also leavened bread is considered to be non vegetarian by some. My grandmother did not touch it. The staple food in my home is unleavened bread though I personally find leavened bread to be more digestive.
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So Amenhotep III lived in Mohenjo-daro?
“could” seems to be your favorite word.
Passover is a fundamental part of Judaism and is celebrated yearly to this day. Talk about Living Traditions here is one. And the ritual makes no sense if the Israelites hadn’t been enslaved and escaped from bondage.
So is this a case of Hebrew text getting it wrong?
Since I have already answered what I thought was the question once maybe you need to restate the question.
We need to take into account various evidences in assessing whether the Exodus took place from Egypt or Indus Valley. I can think of 5 types of evidences: 1] Parallels in Local Names, 2] Archaeological evidence, 3] Parallels in Local Texts, 4] Living Traditions, 5] Geography, 6] Culture.
The evidences you have presented, if I recall, fall into the categories 1] and 6]. So we need to first look at evidences from other items; then we need to decide precedence between them. Hope clear.
Please do see:
The bondage could be in Indus or Egypt. I am not denying Passover. I am showing it has cultural antecedents in the Indus Valley.
There is no Amenhotep in the Bible; nor in the Indus Valley.
Earlier you denied that the Hebrews were ever in bondage. They just worked for crappy wages.
So in your theory it isn’t “real” it is just a modified memory of something else. A modified memory that is the basis for their religion and has persisted for thousands of years.
What pharaohs are there in the Bible? Shishak (Shoshenq I) comes to mind. Minority scholarship put Amenhotep III as the pharaoh of the Exodus by Biblical chronology. The actual pharaoh of that time is of course Thutmose III. Was he in Mohenjo-daro? Scholars who for some unknown reason accept an historical core to the Exodus (why I’ve no idea) put it in the C13th-12th BCE in the reigns of Rameses II or III. Did they live in Mohenjo-daro?