Thursday, May 21, 2015

Menhet, Menwi and Merti were possibly Davidic Princesses

That's my wild guess, it could be wrong, but consistent with the Chronology I support.

Menhet Menwi and Merti.  In case you don't know, were three foreign wives married to Tuthmosis III.  They are the subject of much speculation.

They definitively came from the Levant (modern Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan).  Some speculate them to have been related, maybe Sisters, maybe Cousins.  But others think they look quite distinct.

You might be thinking an Israelite princess marrying a Gentile who doesn't worship Yahweh would be a sin?  The passages on spiritual intermarriage being bad are mostly all about Israelite men marrying Heathen women rather then the other way.  Deuteronomy 7, I think is the only one that defined it as going both ways.

Esther marrying Ahasuerus worked out quite well.  I don't know why the two scenarios would be considered different, maybe the assumption is a wife is considered more likely to spiritually influence her husband then other way around.

In terms of Deuteronomy 7 political marriages to foreign leaders may have been considered a necessary exception.  This isn't the part that has commands specific for the King.  And at any-rate there is often no choice when you've been conquered.

These three becoming his wives is considered most likely to be the result of them being tribute from his early Syrian campaigns.  Because we know Tuthmosis III was Shishak and the chief of his campaigns was against Rehoboam, and he was allied with Jeroboam, that becomes quite interesting from a Biblical perspective.

Rehoboam we are told had 18 wives and 60 concubines by whom he had 28 sons and 60 daughters.  Rehoboam was 41 when Solomon died, four or five years before Shishak attacked.  Some of those kids, maybe even most, I think he could have had already at the start of his reign.  Maybe a good number had already reached marriageable age.

Could these three wives be daughters of Rehoboam?  I think it's plausible.

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