Benchmarks in the Hebrew chronology:

A deluge in 1647 BC and chancellor Bay’s death in 1180 BC

William Austin, Ph.D.
https://colostate.academia.edu/WilliamAustin
Feb. 26, 2016
Abstract: It is common to make one of two assumptions about the Pentateuch: it is all true, even
the incredible claims; or none of it is true, because of the incredible claims. This paper presents a
middle ground: the less than incredible claims can tell us much about ancient history. In
particular, the Hebrews kept both genealogical and chronological records from Noah through
Joseph of the Book of Genesis. These records are here shown to match known history at the
endpoints, making it highly probable that all generations in between were historical. Much of the
evidence in support of this conclusion is found in two alternate versions of the Pentateuch: the
Book of Jubilees[1], and the Venice Book of Jasher; [2] each contains a continuous chronological
calendar. Though it hadn’t previously been recognized, these calendars can be synchronized to
19th and 20th dynasty Egyptian history and then read to the year. To anchor the Book of Jasher
calendar, the Israelites arrived in Egypt when Merneptah campaigned in Canaan. To anchor the
Book of Jubilees calendar, Joseph died in year 5 of Ramesses III.

Records placing Jacob and his sons in the Iron Age

The religious nature of Hebrew written records is polarizing, with some dismissing
archaeological evidence in order to hold the Bible as inerrant, and others, unfortunately including
more objective historians, dismissing Hebrew texts as secondary and therefore worthless. My
approach is to presume that Hebrew texts began as historical records, but they have since been
edited and embellished. Though secondary, they are far from worthless. It is still possible to
tease out scraps of real history by focusing on the less incredible claims. For example, Joseph
lived in Egypt when “famine was severe in all the world” (Gen. 41:57), and he settled his father
and brothers “in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses” (Gen. 47:11). This district of
Rameses was likely the location of Egypt’s 19th dynasty capitol Pi-Ramesse (city of Ramesses),
placing Joseph and his father Jacob not earlier than the reign of Ramesses II (1279-1212).
A severe famine occurred in the Mediterranean region during the reign of Ramesses II’s son
Merneptah (1212-1200). Merneptah’s great Karnak inscription states that he shipped grain to the
Hittites. “I caused grain to be taken in ships, to keep alive that land of Kheta.”[3] Does placing
Joseph contemporary to Merneptah contradict a record in Exodus 1:11 that Israelite slaves “built
Pithom and Rameses” after Joseph and his generation had died? Not at all; in a parallel narrative
from the lesser-known Venice Book of Jasher it is clear that Israelites merely fortified the
existing cities of Pithom and Rameses. The pharaoh’s advisors were concerned that Egypt would
be invaded via these border cities. “Behold in the land are Pithom and Rameses, cities unfortified
against battle, it behooves you and us to build them, and to fortify them” (Jasher 65:8). In this
case the word translated as “build” definitely does not imply construction of a new city, thus the
record in Exodus 1:11 has been misinterpreted. Israelites labored at Rameses, at a time when
Egypt was weak and invasion from the east was feared. This was long after Ramesses II.
The Venice Book of Jasher closely parallels the Pentateuch, but is much richer in detail. The
Book of Jasher has an especially poor reputation, in large part because the Hebrew has been
judged relatively modern. Thus it is easy to assume that a medieval forger merely embellished
the Pentateuch with whimsy. However, what has been dismissed as whimsy often includes
claims that should be easy to match to external history: a child pharaoh in the days of Abraham
whose regent later became pharaoh (Jasher 14:30); another child pharaoh for whom Joseph
served as regent (Jasher 58:2); a pharaoh afflicted with leprosy who died while Moses was in
Midian (Jasher 76:25). There are few choices for these pharaohs, and the time elapsed from one
to the next is restricted by genealogy. If these pharaohs exist, the Book of Jasher should be taken

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seriously. They exist: Tutankhamun (1336-1327), Siptah (1194-1188) and Ramesses IX (1125-
1107), match the Book of Jasher’s pharaohs contemporary to Abraham, Joseph and Moses.
Could that just be coincidence? Not when the matches must be in sequence and Moses must
be six generations after Abraham (roughly two centuries). This must be explained. The modern
style of Hebrew in the Book of Jasher could be the product of an editor, rather than a forger.
Incredible claims should still be dismissed, but the less incredible should be taken seriously. As
another example of how details can be matched to history, the passage below places Jacob in the
early Iron Age. After their attack on Shechem (Gen. 34:25) escalated into a broader war, the sons
of Jacob attacked the city of Sarton, which had been fortified with iron gates.
And when they had passed the rampart they stood under the wall of the city, and they found all
the gates of the city enclosed with iron doors … and when the sons of Jacob saw that the men of
the city would not let them open the gates… Judah went up first to the east part of the city.
Book of Jasher 38:28-30
This war, completely absent from the Pentateuch, explains the ridge of land that Jacob wills
to Joseph on his deathbed, “I give the ridge of land I took from the Amorites with my sword and
my bow” (Gen.48:22). When the war ended, twenty-one kings in the highlands of Canaan offered
tribute to Jacob’s sons in exchange for peace (Jasher 40:31). In total, four references to iron are
included in the description of the war in which the highlands fell to Jacob and his sons. “Jashub
was a very valiant man, and covered with iron and brass from head to foot” (Jasher 37:28). “And
Judah hastily picked up Jashub’s spear…And Judah also took off the iron and brass that was
about Jashub” (Jasher 37:40, 44). “And Issachar and Naphtali …kindled a fire at the gates of the
city, that the iron melted and all the sons of Jacob came into the city…” (Jasher 38:33).
In separating original Hebrew history from later embellishment, the question that I ask
myself is this: would a forger, with no knowledge of archaeology, repeatedly mention iron as the
reason that Jacob’s enemy was a challenge to defeat? I find that implausible. It is far more
probable that Jacob’s generation is when iron was first encountered in Canaan. Jacob’s son Judah
made it a point to acquire Jashub’s iron. Jacob’s sons Issachar and Naphtali devised a means to
get through an iron gate. This was newsworthy. Archaeologically, the early Iron Age is also
when proto-Israelite settlements first appeared in the highlands of Canaan, in about 1200 BC.
The discovery of the remains of a dense network of highland villages – all apparently established
within the span of a few generations – indicated that a dramatic social transformation had taken
place in the central hill country of Canaan around 1200 BCE. There was no sign of violent
invasion or even the infiltration of a clearly defined ethnic group. Instead it seemed to be a
revolution in lifestyle… about two-hundred and fifty hilltop communities suddenly sprang up.
Here were the first Israelites.
Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman, The Bible Unearthed, (2001), p. 107

This emergence of hilltop settlements can be explained by Jacob’s conquest of a ridge of land
during the early Iron Age. The government had changed. The highlands had been subjugated by
Jacob and his sons, who focused on making their land productive in order to collect tribute: “And
all these kings again bowed down to the sons of Jacob, and they sent them many gifts in those
days… for there was in those days good and fat pasture” (Jasher 40:51, 41:1). Jacob and his sons
promoted agricultural development. This insured that tribute flowed to them. Jacob would in turn
forward tribute to Egypt, since the Egyptian empire included Canaan at the time. An eventual
failure to forward tribute could explain why Merneptah’s victory stele proclaimed “Israel is laid
waste” in c.1207 BC. This is not evidence that an Exodus from Egypt had occurred. Jacob was
also named Israel. Merneptah was referring to land ruled by Jacob and his sons.
Switching to another Hebrew text, the Book of Jubilees, we find a significant historical
record about the Egyptian empire’s decline, which occurred during the 12th century BC. Soon
after Joseph died, the king of Egypt went to war in Canaan and was defeated. Egypt was at least

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temporarily barred from entering Canaan. The quote below also includes calendar dates. The
Jubilees calendar is an arithmetic problem to be considered later.
And Joseph died in the forty-sixth jubilee, in the sixth week, in the second year, and they buried
him in the land of Egypt… And the king of Egypt went forth to war with the king of Canaan in
the forty-seventh jubilee, in the second week in the second year…And the king of Canaan was
victorious over the king of Egypt, and he closed the gates of Egypt.
Book of Jubilees 46:8-11
Placing Joseph contemporary to Merneptah explains Egypt’s declining power in Canaan soon
after Joseph died (early 12th century BC). Egypt’s enemies in Canaan had acquired iron, and
Egypt was now at a military disadvantage. The claim that Joseph had ruled Egypt (Gen. 41:41) is
now limited to the decades immediately after Merneptah. There is also a suggestion that Joseph
ruled when Egypt’s pharaoh was a child. “God… made me father to pharaoh, lord of his entire
household and ruler of all Egypt” (Gen. 45:8). Beginning with Merneptah’s reign and moving
forward, Joseph is best matched to the Asiatic chancellor Bay, who was likely the true ruler of
Egypt during the nominal reign of the child pharaoh Siptah (1194-1188).[4][5]
The placement of Joseph at the end of the 19th dynasty is not new to Biblical scholarship, but
it has not been well heralded. In his 1909 book The Historic Exodus, Olaf Toffeen placed Joseph
in the reign of Sety II (1200-1194), and in 1994, Earnst Knauf identified Joseph specifically with
chancellor Bay.[6] While the identification of Joseph as chancellor Bay is a significant topic in
itself, for the present chronological argument, it is merely necessary that there be a match to
Joseph soon after Merneptah’s reign. This date is based solely upon historical references that are
preserved as incidental commentary in Hebrew records. The traditional approach is to construct a
chronology from Solomon back to Joseph, by taking the Bible as literally true. That doesn’t
work. It invariably leads to contradictions, such as Moses avoiding the Philistines in Canaan
(Exod. 13:17) before there is any archaeological evidence of Philistines to avoid. References to
the Iron Age and to the declining power of Egypt are straightforward and unambiguous. Joseph
matches chancellor Bay, and since the Philistines burst into the archaeological record in year 8 of
Ramesses III (c.1178 BC),[7] Moses (decades after Joseph) really would have Philistines to avoid.
Records placing Noah’s flood in 1647 BC
Next, consider a much earlier point in Hebrew history. Noah’s flood is an obviously
embellished claim, but with a potentially historical kernel. It could not be a flood of the entire
Earth, but possibly it was a devastating Mesopotamian flood within the lifetime of the historical
Noah. The proper time frame to search for that flood is within the 18th – 15th centuries BC. This
is by counting generations and estimation. It is not meaningful to count back to Noah using the
implausible lifetimes recorded in the Bible, but one can count generations back from Solomon,
then assign upper and lower chronological bounds, as follows:
0. Solomon c. 970 BC 12. Jacob 1230 ± 10
1. David 13. Isaac 1260 ± 20
2. Jesse 14. Abraham 1290 ± 30
3. Obed 15. Terah etc.
4. Boaz 16. Nahor
5. Salmon 17. Serug
6. Nahshon 18. Reu
7. Amminadab 19. Peleg
8. Ram 20. Eber
9. Hezron 21. Shelah
10. Perez 22. Cainan
11. Judah c.1200 23. Arphaxad
24. Shem
25. Noah 1620 ± 140

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 If the biblical genealogy from Noah to Solomon is a real family lineage, Judah lived 11
generations before the accession of Solomon in c. 970 BC.[8] The 11 generations from Judah to
Solomon spanned roughly 1200 – 970 = 230 years, which is a little over 20 years per generation.
That’s a tight chronology, possible only if it’s mostly first son to first son, which it is. Thus,
based on normal human lifetimes, not tallying years as recorded in the Bible, there is no serious
problem with placing Judah in c. 1200 BC. Noah lived 14 generations earlier. Counting 14 more
generations from Judah to Noah at a broad range of 30 ± 10 years per generation, the historical
equivalent of Noah’s flood would be expected within the range 1620 BC ± 140 years. Near the
center of that range a prime candidate is found. Anatolian tree rings record a brief and
extraordinary change of the climate in the 1640’s BC – a seven-year growth surge known as the
‘ring 854 anomaly’. This anomaly is a proxy record of extremely wet weather.
In this geographical/climatic area, such an exceptional growth event must be due to unusually
high and sustained soil moisture content and a sharp reduction in midsummer evapotranspiration;
that is, for a short time there was unusually cool and wet weather.
Peter Kuniholm, et. al., “Anatolian tree rings and the absolute chronology of
the eastern Mediterranean: 2220-718 BC”, Nature, v. 381, 27 June 1996, p. 782.

In a separate paper, I have matched this weather phenomenon to a massive volcanic eruption
in southern Europe in 1647 BC.[9] Based on radiocarbon evidence, I attribute the weather
anomaly to a known 17th century BC eruption of Vesuvius, but even if the location is unknown,
Greenland ice cores record a massive eruption of some volcano in 1647 BC. I further suspect that
the Egyptian historian Manetho referred to the same eruption as ‘a blast of God’ preceding the
Hyksos invasion of Egypt.[10] In the Book of Jasher, the record of Noah’s flood also makes
reference to events that are attributed to God, but in light of modern science, match the
description of a distant, and literally earth shaking, volcanic eruption.
And on that day, the Lord caused the whole earth to shake, and the sun darkened, and the
foundations of the world raged, and the whole earth was moved violently, and the lightning
flashed, and the thunder roared, and all the fountains of the earth were broken up, such as was not
known to the inhabitants before; and God did this mighty act, in order to terrify the sons of men,
that there would be no more evil upon earth… and at the end of seven days, in the six hundredth
year of the life of Noah, the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
Book of Jasher 6:11-13

There is no mention of rain in the above account. There are earth tremors, a shock wave, the
sun is darkened; there is thunder and lightning, and then a seven-day delay before the waters of
the flood were upon the earth. Failure to mention rain in a detailed description including thunder
and lightning is remarkable, but this can be explained if the sun was darkened by clouds of
volcanic ash, not rain clouds. It seldom rains in Mesopotamia during the summer months. The
rains would have been farther to the north, beginning after clouds of ash blotted out the sun,
cooling the moist air below. The seven-day delay is then the time required for the first torrents of
rain in the mountains of Anatolia to come downstream toward the Persian Gulf.

A record of 467 years from Noah’s flood to Joseph’s death

To this point I’ve tracked down Noah and Joseph using normal human lifetimes and
historical synchronizations, not by using the exact ages and time intervals recorded in the Bible.
This is on purpose, because the numbers have not been understood.
Numerical Hebrew records are abundant, but when reading the numbers, it is essential to
recognize that prior to David and Solomon, Hebrews did not routinely live to be more than 100
years old. Priests have read the numbers from these early records wrong, then invented
supernatural explanations that are wrong, to justify their own misinterpretation. The explanation
for large numbers followed by the word ‘year’ is that the word meant ‘time-unit’, and the

4
Hebrew time unit was not always a year. Before conforming to the rest of the world, the once
isolated Hebrews had recorded time in both lunar months and seasons, depending on if they
wanted a rough number or a more precise number (e.g. 2 hrs. vs. 112 mins.). Most of these early
records number the seasons, each lasting six months (summer = 1, winter = 2, summer = 3, etc.):
Joseph died when he was 110 ÷ 2 = 55 years old (Gen 50:26). His father Jacob lived longer, 147
÷ 2 = 731/2 years (Gen. 47:28). His grandfather Isaac lived to be a very old man, 180 ÷ 2 = 90
years (Gen. 35:28). These ages are sensible. When I searched to see if this system was used
elsewhere in the ancient Near East, I found that the Sealand dynasty and Kassite dynasty king
lists are recorded in seasons on Babylonian King List A. The full explanation is in a separate
paper,[11] but this does not mean that Hebrews had only six months in their calendar. They had
twelve different months, numbered in groups of six. This unusual practice of recording time in
seasons explains who the Hebrews were. The Hebrew patriarchs were ethnic Kassites, as were
the kings of the Sealand dynasty, which was the Mesopotamian homeland of the patriarchs.
When the records on Babylonian King List A are read as seasons lasting six months, the
kings of the Sealand dynasty ruled from 1717 to 1533 BC, then the kings of the Kassite dynasty
ruled from 1533 to 1155. There is no overlap as previously thought. It can be presumed that both
dynasties were ethnic Kassites, since they both counted time in the same unusual manner. The
combined length of these two dynasties is 562 years. Since the Hebrews were Kassites, the
Hebrews were also capable of keeping accurate records during this time. However, there are
obvious errors among the ages recorded in Genesis 11, making it impossible to count from Noah
to Abraham using the Bible. In the Book of Jubilees the numbers are always sensible. For the
interval from Noah through Joseph, the total could be exact.
The Book of Jubilees was written to introduce a base-seven calendar format – and present it
as an ancient Hebrew tradition. This never caught on, but somebody apparently went through the
old Hebrew records and attempted to count very accurately the time elapsed. The conversion is
explained in cases where numbers are written in duplicate: “And all the days of the life of Sarah
were one hundred and twenty-seven years, that is, two jubilees and four weeks and one year…
(Jubilees 19:7). The word ‘jubilee’ means 49. The word ‘week’ means 7. Thus Sarah’s lifetime
in seasons was (2 x 49) + (4 x 7) + 1 = 127. Sarah died at age 127 ÷ 2 = 631/2 years.
In the Jubilees calendar system, the date of Noah’s flood is given as the 27th jubilee, 5th
week, 6th season. The flood began in the second month, which is approximately May.
And Noah made the ark… in the twenty-seventh jubilee of years, in the fifth week… And he
entered in the sixth year thereof… on the new moon of the second month… And the flood-
gates began to pour down water from the heaven forty days and forty nights, And the
fountains of the deep also sent up waters, until the whole world was full of water.
Book of Jubilees 5:22-25
The death of Joseph is reported as having occurred in the 46th jubilee, 6th week, 2nd season.
And Joseph died in the forty-sixth jubilee, in the sixth week, in the second year, and they
buried him in the land of Egypt…
Book of Jubilees 46:8
The interval between two recorded events is determined by subtraction. When borrowing is
necessary for subtraction, borrow 7, not 10. The arithmetic is as follows:
46th jubilee, 6th week, 2nd season …. death of Joseph
27th jubilee, 5th week, 6th season….. date of Noah’s flood (1647 BC)
19 jubilees + 0 weeks + 3 = difference in seasons
(19 x 49) + (0 x 7) + 3 = 934 seasons ÷ 2 = 467 years
By the Jubilees calendar Joseph died 467 years after Noah’s flood in 1647 BC. This
corresponds to the year 1647 – 467 = 1180 BC. As expected, Joseph lived in c.1200 BC. It isn’t

5
always possible to check if the dates match history, but in this case chancellor Bay (the only
sensible match to Joseph) is known to have been killed by a pharaoh in that pharaoh’s 5th
year.[12] The pharaoh in 1180 BC was Ramesses III, who reigned 31 years. This would place the
5th year of Ramesses III in 1180, and his reign would be 1184-1153 BC. Which is… correct,
according to the chronology of The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt.[13] If correct, this requires
that Bay survived Siptah and the brief reign of queen Twosret (1188-1186), who lost control of
Thebes to the first 20th dynasty pharaoh, Sethnakht (1186-1184).
Joseph then became known as Yarsu (he who made himself), a despised Syrian who
collected tribute from Egyptians before he was defeated by Sethnakht. Yarsu is mentioned in the
Great Harris Papyrus, chronicling the reign of Ramesses III. Yarsu was not known to be Bay, but
there is no gap in Egyptian history where another Syrian could have ruled. Bay must have fallen
from power when Thebes was captured by Sethnakht, but he survived unattested in the north
until he was killed in year 5 of Sethnakht’s son, Ramesses III. The Bible doesn’t say that Joseph
fell from power or was killed. It is a Hebrew record that doesn’t dwell on the negatives.
However, Joseph was 55 years old when he died. There’s no mention of illness. Therefore, it
makes sense that Joseph fell from power and was killed. In another telling clue, the oppression of
the Hebrews came next.
One can read the Book of Jubilees calendar and continue this matching game: The Tower of
Babel matches the founding of the Kassite dynasty (a great ziggurat was built at the new capitol).
Abraham’s journey matches Assyrian king Ashur-uballit’s subjugation of Kassite Babylonia
(Abraham fled). This is what has been missing from the study of early Hebrew records – a
sensible chronology, so that one knows where in history to look for the events being described.
One still must fill in the gaps, but the choices are limited. Below is my best guess of what
happened during the reign of Merneptah.
Merneptah’s Canaanite campaign and the arrival of the Israelites Egypt
The calendar of the Book of Jubilees is explained above. The calendar of the Book of Jasher
is much easier. When it says, ‘in the 210th year of the Israelites in Egypt,’ the date is 1209 –
(210 ÷ 2) = 1104 BC. More precisely, the 210th season ends in the spring of 1104 BC. The quote
below is an example: The date is 1209 – (32 ÷ 2) = 1193 BC. This is a description of Joseph
being designated regent of Egypt during the reign of a child pharaoh called Magron:
And it came to pass in the thirty-second year of the Israelites going down to Egypt... Pharaoh
commanded Joseph before his death to be a father to his son, Magron, and that Magron should be
under the care of Joseph and under his counsel. And all Egypt consented to this thing that Joseph
should be king over them...
Book of Jasher 58:1-3
Joseph is chancellor Bay; the pharaoh is Sety II; Magron is Siptah. Siptah became pharaoh in
1194 BC,[14] but in mid-October, [15] which falls in the season ending in the spring of 1193 BC.
Summer of 1209 BC is the 1st season of the Jasher calendar. I first derived that date by working
backwards. It was the season that one must count from to match the Book of Jasher’s accounts,
such as Siptah’s accession, to the Egyptian chronology. But it is also supposed to be the season
that the Israelites arrived in Egypt. How does that fit within the matching game?
Once one has the summer of 1209 BC as the probable date for the arrival of the Israelites in
Egypt, the explanation of what happened in that summer begins with an account by Pompeius
Trogus, who reported that the people of Sidon were attacked by the king of Ashkelon (in 1209
BC): “Many years after, their city being stormed by the king of the Ascalonians, sailing away to
the place where Tyre stands they built that city the year before the fall of Troy” (Phillippic
History of Pompeius Trogus, 18:3). The date of this war is dependent upon the year of the fall of
Troy, which is recorded on the chronology of the Parian Marble[16] as having occurred in the
summer of 1208 BC, though that date wasn’t certain, due to conflicting dates in other sources.

6
Now it appears certain. The connection to the Hebrew chronology is that Ashkelon is listed on
Merneptah’s victory stele as one of four enemies, including Israel, that had been defeated in
Merneptah’s Canaanite (Hurru) campaign: “Ashkelon has been overcome; Gezer has been
captured; Yanoam is made nonexistent; Israel is laid waste and his seed is not; Hurru is become
a widow because of Egypt.”[17] Thus, the storming of Sidon by the king of Ashkelon is explained
by that king’s loss of his own city to Merneptah. This was the same year that the Israelites, also
defeated by Merneptah, had arrived in Egypt.
Merneptah had defeated the sons of Jacob (the man named Israel). These are the same sons
who, in the Book of Jasher, defeated king Jashub and found a way to capture a city protected by
iron gates. In the Bible, the pharaoh welcomes the Israelites to Egypt (Gen. 47:11). This would
be in the same year that Merneptah had laid waste to Israel. Puzzling, yet this can be explained if
Merneptah chose not to kill the defeated Israelites, because he was facing the same iron-wielding
enemies. It was to his advantage to offer a choice: “Die or fight for me.” Merneptah would have
wanted Jacob’s sons fighting on his side. Joseph was already loyal to Merneptah and living in
Egypt. Thus Joseph likely negotiated a way for his defeated brothers to join him.

Conclusion:
The purpose of this paper is to write something that is short enough to be read in a few
minutes by professional historians, yet sufficient to explain the scope of what has come to light.
When the Hebrew method of numbering seasons is understood, their chronological records
become decipherable, and five hundred years of Hebrew history snap into place. An alignment of
the Book of Genesis to external history has been achieved, not by a religious scholar who places
faith above archaeology, but by a scientist who puts facts and figures first. This is such a
shattering of the old way of thinking that it has been incredibly difficult to convince anyone that
records back to Noah are chronologically accurate. In the Book of Jubilees, they are. Historians
need to read the Book of Jubilees and the Book of Jasher. This work shows how the calendars in
each can be read to the year. The Book of Jasher, especially, is an extensive account of 19th and
20th dynasty Egyptian history, as recorded by Hebrews living in Egypt. I am confident that much
more of the Hebrew narrative will be both decipherable and enlightening once capable historians
start comparing these texts with known history, aligning the chronologies year for year.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Notes/References:

[1] The c. 2nd century BC text also known as Little Genesis. Quotations here are from the
English translation of the Ethiopic text by R. H. Charles, (1917), published by MacMillan
Co. http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/jub/index.htm
[2] The Hebrew text Sefer ha Yasher, published in Venice in 1625, with a printer’s preface
claiming that the original had been discovered in a secret library in Jerusalem during the
Roman conquest of that city in 70 AD. Quotations here are from the English translation
titled The Book of Jasher, (1887), published by J. H. Parry & Co. http://www.sacred-
texts.com/chr/apo/jasher/
[3] James Henry Breasted, Ancient records of Egypt, vol. 3, (1906), §580, p. 244
[4] Aidan Dodson, Monarchs of the Nile, (2000), p. 139.
[5] Michael D. Coogan, (ed.), The Oxford History of the Biblical World, (1998), p. 75.
[6] Earnst Axel Knauf, Die Umwelt des Alten Testamentes, (1994), pp. 103-106.
[7] Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, (1992), p. 250.
[8] Solomon’s reign is given as 968-928 BC in The Oxford History of the Biblical World,
(1998), p. 449. Young and Steinmann place Solomon’s 4th year in 967 BC, Journal for the
Evangelical Study of the Old Testament, 1.2 (2012), pp. 223-48.
[9] William Austin, “Thera in 1605 BC: ice cores support radiocarbon date 1627-1600 BC”
https://www.academia.edu/19937797

7
[10] ‘a blast of God smote us’ is the translation of W. G. Waddell, Manetho: with an
English translation, (1964), Fr. 42. William Whiston’s translation is ‘God was adverse to
us,’ Against Apion 1:14 (75).
[11] William Austin, “The half-year time unit: a cultural tradition identifying the Hebrews
as Kassites”, https://www.academia.edu/19795573
[12] It has been assumed that Bay was killed by Siptah, but no pharaoh’s name appears in
the announcement (O. Ifao 1864 Recto as translated to French): An 5, troisieme moise de
chémou, le 27. Ce jour, le scribe de la Tombe Paser est venu annoncer: <<Pharaon VSF a
tué le grande ennemi Bay.>> Pierre Grandet, Le Bulletin de l’Institut fraçais
d’archchéologie orientale, (BIAFO) 100, (2000) p. 341. (In English): Year 5, III Shemu
27. On this day, the scribe of the tomb Paser came announcing: Pharaoh ‘life, prosperity
and health!’ has killed the great enemy Bay. Additionally, a scribe of the tomb named
Paser is attested from year 8 of Merneptah through year 17 of Ramesses III. Alexander J.
Peden, The Graffiti of Pharaonic Egypt, (2001), note 140, p. 158. Furthermore, Ramesses
III fought a northern war in year 5. He boasted that, “their leaders were carried off, slain,
laid prostate.” J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. 4. (1906), §44, p. 25. That
could be the death of Bay.
[13] Ian Shaw, (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, (2010), p. 485.
[14] ibid. Siptah’s reign is given as 1194-1188 BC.
[15] Erik Hornung, et. al., (eds.), Ancient Egyptian Chronology, (2006), p. 213. Sety II’s
burial is reported on III Peret 11, in year 1 (of Siptah). By tradition, Sety II would have
been buried 70 days after his death on I Peret 1 (Oct. 16).
[16] A discussion of the Parian Marble’s date for the fall of Troy, and its reliability, is
presented in Rodger C. Young and Andrew E. Steinmann, “Correlation of Select
Classical Sources Related to the Trojan War with Assyrian and Biblical Chronologies”,
Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament, 1.2, (2012), pp. 223-48.
[17] Translation of Merneptah’s victory Stele by Lawrence E. Stager in The Oxford History
of the Biblical World, (1998), p. 91.