John Gee, Four Idolatrous Gods in the Book of Abraham, 2020 wrote:Time
Based on the Book of Abraham, Abraham seems to have lived in a time when Egyptians were in the northern Levant. The only time when that appears to be the case is between the reigns of the Pharaohs Sesostris II (1871‒1864 BC) or Sesostris III (1863‒1825 BC) on one end and Amenemhet III (1843‒1798 BC) on the other end. This is a period of at most seventy years, and it coincides with the Middle Bronze II period archaeologically.
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
John,
You’ve placed the life and early ministry of Abram (who according to scripture died at age 175, Gen 25:7) squarely into the Middle Kingdom during the reigns of powerful monarchs whose influence was far reaching, far beyond the borders of Egypt itself. A brief window of opportunity (70 or so years) in which you grant for Abram’s ministry to have occurred is between 1871-1798 BC. Therefore, powerful dynastic kings who ruled previously had long come and gone. The pyramids were already of ancient date and the unification that occurred in 3000 BC was truly ancient history as far as Abram in Egypt was concerned.
And yet, how do you deal with all this when it comes to biblical chronology which Smith endorsed and verified by his own published revelations? The answer is, you can’t! When it comes to the numbers, John, you lose! Your methods are proven absolutely false. The 70-year time span or the contemporary timing of Abram in Egypt is impossible if you want to maintain Joseph Smith’s revelations of biblical chronology that is documented in the Bible as an accurate accounting of the age of man.
The Book of Abraham states that Abram departed Haran when he was 62 years old and journeyed to the land of Canaan. Due to famine at that time, Abram continued his journey southward and went down into Egypt to sojourn there. Accounts of Abram’s dealings with the Egyptian king and his court is detailed in the Bible, Book of Abraham, and the Facsimiles. You have dated this to have occurred in the Middle Kingdom. But for reasons stated earlier, that is a problem. Suppose Abram was about 75 years old when he sat upon the king’s throne reasoning with the Egyptians about astronomy. Let’s look at the numbers going backward and see how they coincide with dynastic Egypt and how it relates to Smith’s biblical chronology. Let’s look at the genealogy allotted in the Bible and plug them into your Egyptian window of opportunity in order to determine a date in which Noah’s flood coincides with Egyptian history. Bear in mind, according to the genealogy, the flood occurred just 292 years prior to the birth of Abram whereby his ministry according to you, followed after between 1871-1798 BC.
Abram about age 75 in Egypt (Gen 12:4)
Terah age 70 begat Abram (Gen 11:26)
Nahor age 29 begat Terah (Gen 11:24)
Serug age 30 begat Nahor (Gen 11:22)
Reu age 32 begat Serug (Gen 11:20)
Peleg age 30 begat Reu (Gen 11:18)
Eber age 34 begat Peleg (Gen 11:16
Salah age 30 begat Eber (Gen 11:14)
Arphaxad age 35 begat Salah (Gen 11:12)
Shem begat Arphaxad 2 years after the flood (Gen 11:10)
The Flood; Noah age 600 (Gen 7:6,11)
Therefore, adding 75 years to the 292 years between the birth of Abram and the flood gives us a total of 367 years which coincides with a time frame (window of opportunity) in which the flood occurred:
2238-2165 BC
So, how on God’s green earth do you square the dating of the flood to Egyptian chronology established by modern Egyptology with Egypt’s origin story as explained in the Book of Abraham? The answer is, you cannot! You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Your apologetics is immoral. You demonstrate a lack of integrity when you work on both sides of the fence. Your values for honesty go right out the window when you lie to everyone in defending things that are absolutely proven false. Just stop.
John, the gig is up! You lose. You have wasted your career as an Egyptologist and have sold it for a mess of apologetic pottage. What a waste! You need to give it up and move on.
Shulem
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