Fact-Checking the Torah -- hard evidence

There is one case of hard evidence why the conjunction that is DH collapses, and it’s an archaeological issue.

DH proposes that somebody brought E south. That had to happen before the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom, or it had to happen afterward.

The idea that it happened earlier would be supported by evidence of refugees.

In an attempt to identify such a pool of refugees, Na’aman studied a residential area of Jerusalem that appeared “overnight” right before Hezekiah thickened the walls of the city. He threw walls around the new suburb too.

Na’aman found no evidence of a difference in culture compared to the old city. The pottery was all from Lachish, just like in the old city. The only way to get refugees out of that, is to assume that all their pottery broke and they had to get all new stuff. But the old pottery had to break on the way, not after arrival, or its sherds would have gotten Na’aman’s attention. You would be amazed how small a sherd an archaeologist can draw a reliable conclusion from. (See if you can find the Time Team videos on Youtube for 12 seasons of examples.)

The lack of difference in culture is crucial. In the hilltop settlements of the 1100s BCE, there is a difference between the pottery in the northernmost settlements and that in the southernmost ones. It's not a difference of materials, it's a difference in style. The lack of a difference 500 years later, 200 years after the split in the monarchy, strengthens the impression that there were no refugees in the "new" town.

The chances that the trip happened afterward are the third important factor.

Zertal discusses evidence of the iron curtain Assyria threw around its domains. He shows that the people brought from Kutah, to resettle Samaria, brought with them distinctive pottery about 689 BCE. None of this pottery has yet been found within the southern kingdom’s confines. Not “only a little,” but none. That’s an argument from silence so it’s not reliable, but the idea that all of it stayed in the north suggests no economic exchange in a popular trade item, pottery, which broke easier than metal and had to be replaced more often. 

What’s more, Na’aman reports that not only did the iron curtain prevent the passage of humans, but Assyria also had extradition treaties with its neighbors. If one of its subjects got outside the country, that individual had to be returned.

Before the Assyrian attack, the best opportunity to bring E south was when Athaliah came south to marry the king of Judah.  But she was a complete pagan and the people in her train would be like her in that.  The conspiracy against her was led by monotheistic Judeans who put her grandson on the throne, making southern adoption of northern literature a low-probability claim. 

Even if E existed at some point, the archaeological reports and the general trends of history make the probability of E getting south small, and its combination with J equally small.  But this is nearly irrelevant after finding so many fallacies and bad facts in DH.

I'm going to stop there because so far I have no takers on dig reports that state there is evidence for DH (Still true in December 2023.) Now I'll switch to language issues.

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