by
Damien F. Mackey
“What is the
main problem with Jezebel-Nefertiti? I've been meaning to test
the
chronology of that revision but haven't gotten around to it”.
This question was raised by a reader in relation to my old, and popular, theory,
now discarded, that the biblical Queen Jezebel was the famous Eighteenth
Dynasty Egyptian queen, Nefertiti. A more promising alter ego for Jezebel is, I believe, as El Amarna’s only female correspondent,
Baalat-neše:
I replied to the above
correspondent:
….
When I decided to do a new and more rigorous run
through the chronology (intending from the Beginning to Jesus), my "The
Bible Illuminates History and Philosophy" series, I thought things
went rather smoothly (that is not to say that I am necessarily right) all the
way down to "Shishak". That is already a long period of time.
But I had come to have some misgivings about my
former efforts with "Shishak" - though still accepting that he was
Thutmose III - and have subsequently written:
Thutmose III
best candidate for “Shishak”
This article,
whilst undoubtedly not being the last word on the subject, sits better
with me.
The next 'roadblock'
after that, which actually terminated my series at least for now, was
El Amarna. I would love to have kept Nefertiti as Jezebel, but my more rigorous
chronology (I don't like maths, or charts) had Jezebel somewhat earlier than
Nefertiti.
Jezebel, I now
considered, would be more closely contemporaneous with Queen Tiy (and
indeed the famous Jezebel seal has definite likenesses to some of Tiy's
iconography).
I since thought of commencing another series that
cut out the philosophical aspects and so streamlined the whole thing. That may
yet happen. I can tend to be over-ambitious at times (e.g. my second thesis
took on too much).
That can make it tough for the reader.
….
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