Were the Hyksos of Hebrew Origin?

Jacobovici's Exodus Decoded

A 2006 documentary created by Jewish Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici (and fellow producer James Cameron), which explores new evidence in favor of the account of the Book of Exodus, "Exodus Decoded" (The History Channel, aired Sunday, 20 August, 2006), investigates Egyptian records concerning the departure of the mysterious Semitic Hyksos.

Jacobovici identifies the Hyksos as the Biblical Hebrews (whom he calls "Amo Israel", meaning, "His" - ie, God's - "people Israel"). He supports this thesis with Egyptian-style signet rings uncovered in the Hyksos capital of Avaris. These signets read Yaqob, similar to Hebrew/Canaanite name of the Biblical patriarch Jacob (יעקב Ya'aqov). Also, Jacobovici suggests the name of the city itself, Avaris, may derive from the Hebrew/Canaanite word ivri (עברי), meaning "Hebrew", which is often identified with the Habiru/Apiru. Today, the ruins of the ancient city is Tell el-Yahudiyeh, which is Arabic for "city-mound of the Jews". The archaeological site is known for its distinctive black-and-white ceramic pottery.

Thus, the Biblical Pharaoh whom Moses confronts would be Pharaoh Ahmose I who expelled the Hyksos and founded the 18th Dynasty of Egypt.

Jacobovici endorses the theory that the cataclysmic eruption of the volcano at the island of Thera/Santorini, which apparently ended Minoan civilization, may also be identified with the Biblical account of the plagues against Egypt. Currently Minoan radiocarbon dating for this eruption at roughly around 1623 BC ±25 contradicts the Egyptian chronology at roughly around 1550 BC. Controversially, Jacobivici redates this eruption later to around 1500 BC, and while not impossible, it is difficult because it requires the redating of Egyptian chronology and the synchronous East Mediterranean events (which may need redating anyway because of the conflicting dates of the eruption).

Jacobovici suggests some of the Hyksos who fled Egypt (understood as "Hebrews") were Mycenaean Greeks who returned to Greece. Thus, images on certain Mycenaean tombs may depict the volcanic and seismic disasters that occurred in Egypt, including a tidal wave corresponding to Moses' "parting the Sea of Reeds". Even more daring is the claim that certain Mycenaean images in gold foil depict the Ark of the Covenant and the sacrificial altar that Israelites used in their religious ceremonies.

Earlier, Ralph Ellis, in his book Tempest & Exodus (2002) made many of these arguments linking the Biblical Exodus with Pharaoh Ahmose I and the volcanic eruption of Santorini.

The academic response to the documentary is reluctant (eg [1]), noting that while at least some of the documentary's claims are plausible, they are weakly-supported and require rigorous scholarship to deal with serious problems that the archaeological evidence poses. Redating the established Egyptian chronology is especially disruptive as it underpins the chronologies of many surrounding ancient cultures. The jewish historian Israel Finkelstein from Tel Aviv University (and former director of Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University) explains that one can appropriately speak of jewish people as a distinct population of Canaan, only from the final decades of XIIIth century ("The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts"), fact that is contradicting the biblical (and Jacobovici) chronology of the event (Exodus).

Other suggested identifications

In his controversial book Ages in Chaos that redates the end of the Hyksos' 15th Dynasty (usually around the 16th century) to drastically earlier (around the 11th century), Immanuel Velikovsky identifies the Hyksos as the Amalekites.

In his 1962 book, David J. Gibson identified the Hyksos with the Edomite empire.