Orville B. Jenkins: Hyksos and Hebrews
Orville Boyd Jenkins
In early summer 2003, a Bible class at our church began studying the book of Genesis. I became excited and thrilled as I got into this study of Genesis, and read extensive additional materials on that period and the ancient Middle East in general in 2003-4. I especially liked the culture and history, bringing the ancient events to a vivid real-life perspective.
I taught some of the lessons as a substitute for our regular teacher. One of these was the story of the Hebrews going into Egypt. This involved some good details in the Genesis text about the settlement of Jacob's (Joseph's) family in Goshen (Genesis 46:28-47:26). I thought some background to that period would bring to life the events recorded there. But no time frame is provided by which to clearly relate the stories of Genesis to political texts or archaeological testimonies of the ancient world.