Computing the date of the arrival of the Philistines 1174 BCE at war with Egypt

 

by koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil, ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

Conjoint lecturer Avondale College

Australia

19 April 2009

 

If one follows in the tracks of W. F. Albright, in his description of the modus operandi for the computation of the date of the Philistines, as outlined in W. F. Albright, The excavations of Tell Beit Mirsim I (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1932), pp. 56-58, the following will be the result:

 

1. The Philistines arrived in Egypt in the 8th year of Ramesses III, the Pharaoh at the head of the 20th dynasty.

 

2. The 20th dynasty is said to have lasted for 102 years according to the evidence given by Peet (JEA [1928]:52).

 

3. In order to compute the date of the reign of Ramesses III it is necessary to establish the date for the beginning of the 22nd dynasty, and calculate from there backwards through the 21st dynasty until one arrives at the beginning of the 20th dynasty.

 

4. Since Shishak, the Pharaoh of the 22nd dynasty was in contact with Rehoboam, it is possible to calculate the approximate start of his reign, and as such also the approximate start of the 22nd dynasty, and finally the end of the 21st dynasty.

 

5. Rehoboam is said by Begrich to have started his reign in 926 BCE (favored also by Albright, see Ibid. page 57; 930 BCE by Mowinckel).

This is Rehoboam's accession year.

 

6. It is said according to the Biblical sources that Shishak came against Jerusalem in the 5th year of Rehoboam (925 [Mowinckel]; 921 [Begrich]; 922 [Albright]).

 

7. Albright assumed, like all other scholars did, that the numeral "20 blank blank" on the incription of the Karnak temple referred to "20 [years]" and thus gave Shishak a length in reign of approximately 21 years. The present standing of the situation is that we are not certain for sure how long the reign of Shishak was. Albright and others then arrived at 940-930 BCE as the date of the accession of Shishak.

 

8. The accession of Shishak can also be calculated from another angle, if we assume that Shishak burnt Gezer and gave it to Solomon as a wedding gift due to Solomon's marriage with his daughter. The wedding took place near the end of the 20th year sole reign of Solomon (because it is said that he built the house of the Lord first [13 years] + his own house [7 years] and only then the problem arrived that his Egyptian wife had to stay in his house until he finished her house at Millo. Her house took approximately 3 years to complete. If Solomon became the co-ruler with his father in 974 BCE according to current stance in computations on David and Solomon, it would mean that the first year of his sole rule was in the year 970 BCE and that it was this fourth year in which he started the building of the temple. The wedding with the Pharaoh of Egypt's daughter would then have taken place ca. 951-950 BCE.

The burning of Gezer was also around the same time. (The dating for the event by William Dever and other scholars’ before and after him for the burning of Gezer in the post 930 BCE period, cannot be accepted as correct, since it conflicts with the biblical data). The current view of the allocation of the Shishak inscription on Karnak to the event of the fifth year of Rehoboam is not accepted since the records of the MT and the Karnak inscription seems to refer to completely two different events. In the MT the king of Egypt only came against Jerusalem, but on the inscription of Karnak, Shishak came against nearly all the cities of Palestine. This could very well be the end of the 21st dynasty and the beginning of the 22nd dynasty.

 

9. The 21st dynasty lasted about 130 years according to the calculations of Church-fathers Africanus and Eusebius. If 950 BCE is the starting point it would mean that 1080 BCE is the beginning of the 21st dynasty. Albright favored the year 1070 BCE because he calculated the beginning of the 21/20th year period of Shishak in the year 940 BCE and thus adding 130, he arrived at his date 1070 BCE. We emphasize that the length of the reign of Shishak is not absolutely certain.

 

10. Since the 20th dynasty lasted 102 years as was mentioned earlier, it is now possible to add 102 years to 1080  (mine) = 1182 BCE as the beginning of the 20th dynasty and the beginning of the reign of Ramesses III. Albright arrived at 102 + 1070 = 1172 BCE. but in his description he left open the possibility that it can be dated between 1180-1070 BCE.

It could be that he added the 8 years (because it is mentioned that the Philistines arrived in the eighth year of Ramesses III) to the 1172 and thus computed to a date 1180 BCE.

 

11. The computation of the full reign of Ramesses III is then 1182-31 (whole reign period) = 1151 BCE. Albright arrived at a date very similar to this one, namely between 1180-1150 BCE (The reading in Tell Bet-Mirsim, page 57 is just a typographical error and should be corrected: 1080-1050 to 1180-1150 BCE).

 

12. The arrival of the Philistines in the 8th year of Ramesses III according to the annals on the temple walls of Medinet Habu, would mean that the Philistines arrived 1182-8 = 1174 BCE (van wyk’s calculation).

 

13. Archaeology indicates that the Indo-European migrations occurred the same time when the Philistines moved southwards. The Muskhi is seen as "separate groups of Indo-European people coming from the north in the middle of the twelfth century B.C." (Veli Sevin, Anatolian Studies 41 (1991): 87-97, especially p. 97. The ware is characterized as "carinated jars and bowls decorated with horizontal grooves extending from the rim down to the neck or shoulder" (p. 87).

 

14. Taking into account the previous studies on the Philistines by Israeli scholars (Trudy Dothan et al), we have to assume that Philistine militancy and Philistine settlement patterns will not be chronologically the same. Settlement patterns may be even earlier but conflict was only in 1174 BCE or vice versa. Settlement patterns may have a range of dates but the conflict described in Egyptian sources will be 1174 BCE.

 

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