A LIGHT SHINING
IN THE DARKNESS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CALCULATING Balak The Son Of Zippor
PETHOR & The Fortress Of Carchemis
MIN As Chemosh
A Function Of Min
The MITANNI Empire
Min/Chemosh & Ashteroth/Qedesh
A Historical Paradox
2 MOSESES | 1 Mitanni
The HYKSOS-MITANNI Connection
CALCULATING BALAK
Calculating by Conventional Biblical Chronology (basically, from the building of King Solomon's Temple), the Balal-Peor-&-Balaam incident had to happen c. 1410 BC, after the Israelites left the Sinai wilderness. Carefully consider the passages from Numbers 22:4-5
"And Balak the son of Zippor (cp. w/first 2 syllables in Zippor-ah's name! Thus, "Balak son of the Noble House") was king of Moab at that time. And he sent messengers unto Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river, to the land of the children of his people, to call him saying ...."
PETHOR & THE
Fortress Of Chemosh
Though not specifically named on the map below (yet you may confirm it), Pethor (black star) is located at a close proximity to Haran (red star) & Carchemish (encircled. The "city/fortress of Chemosh". Remember that the Moabites worshipped Chemosh: Nu. 21:29; 1 Ki. 11:7; Jer. 48:7. But more on that later). This geographical vicinity, during this particular time, was part of the Mitanni empire. It was to the northeast of Moab, while the so-call Biblical Midian was in an almost complete opposite direction. Balak is a Mitannian, and the Moabites are worshipping one of the same gods as the Mitanni: Chemosh. The other god worshipped by the Moabites is Set (Num. 24:17). This is an accurate contemporary picture of the political situation of its day: The Hyksos worshipped Set. Certain Mitanni elements were allied with Ahmose I when he expelled the Hyksos from Egypt. Then, after the treaty, with pharaoh as their supreme overlord, the Mitanni are in turn lesser lords over the Moabites. It is also an intriguing coincident that the name of a particular Moabite ruler was Mesha, a name defined in Egypt as "army" or "troops". (Egypt's imperial hegemony can be said to anticipate the feudalistic systems that will eventually emerge in the distant future). And from whence did the Mitanni import the worship of this god Chemosh? Chemosh is a variant of Chemmis, which was the Greek name for the 2nd nome of Lower Egypt, also called Akhbit (transliterated as Ꜣḫ-bjt or Akh-bit), alluding to the 'papyrus marsh of Lower Egypt'. So who is Chemosh? None other than Khem, or Min, of course.
MIN As CHEMOSH
Proof? Your so-called Biblical-Archaeological Scholars say that Chemosh was associated with Ashtaroth. And Ashtaroth was considered another form of the goddess Qedesh, (also associated with the Biblical toponym Kadesh. Num. 13:26, 14:40-50). Observe figure 2 below (and do not fail to note how closely the goddess resembles Hathor). Now, do the math. For as I said, "I will offer you the water, but you must pour your own cup.".
A Function Of Min
Though Min is most often associated with concepts of fertility, virility, and cyclical regeneration, he also functioned as security escort for caravan transports. And as foremost of the bowman in the Sinai regions, he was also responsible (like Sopedu) for providing safe-conduct to the mining expeditions. So, naturally, there would also be secured enclosures (Kirs) in which to store valuables. These strongholds were usually constructed at strategic points along prominent trading routes. By the time of Egypt's middle kingdom, Egypt had established trading contacts as far as the upper Euphrates. (Also SEE)
The Empire Of Mitanni
Min/Chemosh
&
Ashtoreth/Qedesh
A Historical Paradox
I'm sure this appears paradoxical, for how can "certain Mitanni elements" be allied with Ahmose I before the treaty existed! The word Mitanni signifies a confederacy composed of multiple ethnicities, the majority of which were the Hurrians (Horites in the Bible). Compare this model with the United States. Even though all of its citizens are called Americans, many of them express anti-American views and would, if possible, expatriate to countries more compatible with their political ideology, or spend the majority of their time abroad. Some Hurrians from the Mitanni confederacy were collaborators with the Egyptians possibly since the Middle Kingdom.
[BACK]
TO BE CONTINUED ....
TWO Moseses, ONE Mitanni
While I'm on the subject of Midian/Mitanni, let me present another case in which my Theophoric Theory resolves a disconcerting contradiction.
In the biblical account, Moses' first encounter with the Midianites is an amiable one. No acts of aggression are displayed between them. Moses eventually marries the daughter of a priest and is taken into the fold. Then 80 years later, as a final god-inspired act of vengeance, he annihilates all the males of Midian. The Bible presents this as a holy war, and most scholars, while doubting the probability of total annihilation, do concede that such a mass slaughter was a historical reality. Yet this conflict is viewed in contrast to the earlier biblical narratives in which Moses coexisted with the Midianites on peaceful terms. However, in extra-biblical reality the drama occurs in reverse, with Moses being an adversary before becoming an allied in-law.
Thutmose I (Moses II) was the first Egyptian king of the 18th Dynasty to lead a military campaign to the shores of the Euphrates River. This region was called by the Egyptians the "land of the inverted river," for the overall flow of the Euphrates River is from north to south, in contrast to the Nile which has a south to north trajectory. As I demonstrated above, this was the area of the Mitanni Kingdom. It's not until 90 or so years after Moses II, that Moses V (Thutmose IV) enters into a peace treaty with Mitanni by marrying a daughter of its king. This Moses (V), is the one who introduces Atenism. The Moses to whom god spoke to in a dream. And the one in whose reign we get the first recorded instance of a cult and priesthood dedicated to the god Djehuty-Iah. Djehuty is the original Egyptian rendering of the Greek Thoth.
So my Theophoric Theory offers a rational explanation for the apparent bipolar behavior of the biblical Moses: He is, in these 2 particular events (the first encounter with Midian, and the marriage to the daughter of the priest/king) a fiction modeled on the conflation of (at least) the 2 historical figures above.
TO BE CONTINUED ....
THE HYKSOS-MITANNI
CONNECTION
Keep your pre-knowledge wits about you as I briefly recap the historical sequence of events.
1. The Hyksos eventually took control of Lower Egypt through superior technology (the horse-drawn chariot and the composite bow); by establishing a firm foothold in Egypt's economic base (the mines); and a virtual monopoly of the trading corridor between the Sinai Peninsula and the Levant.
2. The Mitanni, while famous for their horsemanship and spoke-wheel chariots, also achieved renown for their highly advanced skill in metallurgy (especially in working bronze and copper), along with a reputation for high-end diplomatic trade.
LOGIC: If the Mitanni were the main producers of chariots and weapons, at some point the Hyksos had to have been in contact with them --- or an intermediary.
3. When the Hyksos became the dominant force in Egypt during the S.I.P., the previous monarchs from Thebes lost complete control of the Sinai mines!
4. When AhMOSE(S) I finally expelled the Hyksos from Egypt, he pursued them to the Sharuhen fortress. After siezing the fortress, most of the remaining Hyksos scattered throughout Canaan and the Levant.
5. When ThutMOSE(S) I restarted the campaign to completely expunge the lands of the Hyksos presence, he did so until he reached, then crossed, the Euphrates River.
LOGIC: If he was pursuing the remaining Hyksos when he finally reached the Euphrates River, either (1) the remnant of the Hyksos were fleeing into the Syrian Desert, or (2) they were escaping across the same river into the heart of the growing Mitanni empire! Or, to put it another way, they were returning to where they initially came from.
6. In the Bible, Kenite was either an alternate name for, or a subdivision of the Midianites (Judges 1:16 & 4:11). According to the Bible scholars, the name likely means "smiths" or "metalworkers". Let us speculate that, during the S.I.P., there were actually smiths or metal workers encamped in the Sinai. The ancient Egyptians had a word that was similar to the Akkadian Mizraim: Ken-t (meaning "the land before" or the "foremost land". Indicating "border regions"). Thus, to a person in Mizraim orientated eastward, the area where the biblical Midian began would be Khen-t(a), "the Khen land".
LOGIC: If the Hyksos had control of the Sinai mines, there would've likely been settlements established nearby for exploiting those precious minerals. And, since this was a known forte of the Mitanni, those settlements would most likely consist of Mitanni (which name eventually evolved into the demotic metathesis of Midian).
7. Finally, because there is no evidence of the ancient Egyptians syncretizing the moon god Sin into their pantheon, it would suggest that both Sinai and the Wilderness of Sin received their names from foreign occupants. The Akkadians & Hurrians were known worshippers of Sin, and the Hurrians comprised the majority of the Mitanni. From these facts, we can infer that O.T. narratives pertaining to these names originally indicate Akkadian/Hurrian influences.