The Gezer Connection: Solomon, His Pharaoh Father-in-Law, Shishak and Hatshepsut

by Anne Habermehl

Abstract of Presentation

CRS Conference, July 29–30, 2016 at Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Michigan

This paper will show that Solomon's father-in-law was most likely Thutmose III, who captured and burned Gezer and presented it to his daughter, Solomon's bride, as a wedding present. Examination of the geography of Canaan shows that the cities that Thutmose III captured in his campaigns are located along the Mediterranean coast, but are not within the territory of Solomon's kingdom. Hatshepsut was aunt/stepmother to Thutmose III, and the end of her reign possibly overlapped with the beginning of Solomon's reign for a few years (although she was not the Queen of Sheba). Shishak was most likely Amenhotep II (son of Thutmose III), who was friendly with Jeroboam, first king of Israel in the divided kingdom. A difference of about 470 years between the biblical and secular timelines at the time of Solomon is therefore postulated. This figure is independently calculated and supported by placing the Exodus at the end of the reign of 12th-Dynasty Amenemhat IV, and revising Dynasties 13 and 14. Drastic shortening of the Egyptian timeline from the 19th Dynasty on will be required to make it correspond to the biblical timeline. Correlation of these two divergent timelines is important because unbelievers use their secular timeline to claim that the Bible is inaccurate in its historical statements.

This subject will be written as a paper for publication in the future. When it appears in print, this will be noted here.