1851 Clyde Billington – Lachish, Shechem, and Shiloh in the Bible and in the Amarna Letters

Professor Clyde Billington

The Amarna Letters are a series of cuneiform tablets written from cities in pre-Israelite Canaan to the Egyptian pharaoh, some of the earliest writing known from the area that became Israel and Judah. Tell el-Amarna is where Pharaoh Akhenaten built a short-lived capital city in the mid-14th century BC, and where these cuneiform tablets were discovered by archaeologists over a century ago.

Scholars have varying interpretations on how they connect with the world that the Bible describes in Joshua and the Judges. Professor Clyde Billington is my co-editor of ARTIFAX, our biblical archaeology newsmagazine, and in the brand new spring issue he has an article “Lachish, Shechem and Shiloh, in the Bible and in the Amarna letters.” One of the features of many of these Amarna letters is a request by the kings of these cities for help fighting off invaders called Apiru. And one of the big debates is whether these Apiru could be connected to the Israelites, or Hebrews.

We have had scholars on the program who believe there is no connection. That is probably the conventional, mainstream viewpoint. Professor Billington says there IS a connection and we discuss his article on this week’s program.