Showing posts with label amalek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amalek. Show all posts

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Did Amalek Really Exist?

The title of this post is self-explanatory. I don't think that there is any extra-Biblical evidence for Amalek. Do you know of any? (Arab traditions cite Amalek as an extremely powerful group, but I'm thinking more of archaeology than other people's mesorahs.)

Possibilities:

1. Amalek existed as described in Tanach
2. Amalek existed, but was nothing like what the Torah describes
3. Amalek never existed

Ideas:

In Ages in Chaos, Immanuel Velikovsky identified the Amalekites with the Hyksos. If this is true it royally screws with those who believe that Hyksos = Jews in Egypt.

Apologetic view: The Jews followed God's commandment, wiping out Amalek and leavinging behind no evidence that they ever existed.

If anyone here reads and understands German, I found this reference which possibly addresses this question: "Nöldeke, Ueber die Amalekiter und einige andere Nachbarvölker der Israeliten, Göttingen, 1864."

So two questions: Did Amalek actually exist? Do you have any extra-Biblical evidence to back up the contention that they did?