Kenneth Anderson Kitchen (born 1932) is a British biblical scholar,

Ancient Near Eastern The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

historian, and Personal and Brunner

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious p ...

and honorary research fellow at the School of

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

, Classics and Egyptology,

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

, England. He specialises in the ancient Egyptian Ramesside Period (i.e., Dynasties 19- 20), and the

Third Intermediate Period of Egypt The Third Intermediate Period of ancient Egypt began with the death of Pharaoh Ramesses XI in 1077 BC, which ended the New Kingdom, and was eventually followed by the Late Period. Various points are offered as the beginning for the latt ...

, as well as ancient

Egyptian chronology The majority of Egyptologists agree on the outline and many details of the chronology of Ancient Egypt. This scholarly consensus is the so-called Conventional Egyptian chronology, which places the beginning of the Old Kingdom in the 27th centu ...

, having written over 250 books and journal articles on these and other subjects since the mid-1950s. He has been described by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' as "the very architect of Egyptian chronology".

Third Intermediate Period

His 1972 book is ''The

Third Intermediate Period The Third Intermediate Period of ancient Egypt began with the death of Pharaoh Ramesses XI in 1077 BC, which ended the New Kingdom, and was eventually followed by the Late Period. Various points are offered as the beginning for the latt ...

in Egypt (1100–650 BC)''. It noted a hitherto unknown period of coregency between

Psusennes I Psusennes I ( egy, pꜣ-sbꜣ-ḫꜥ-n-njwt; Greek Ψουσέννης) was the third pharaoh of the 21st Dynasty who ruled from Tanis between 1047 and 1001 BC. ''Psusennes'' is the Greek version of his original name Pasibkhanu or Pasebakhaenniu ...

with Amenemope and

Osorkon III Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon III Si-Ese was Pharaoh of Egypt in the 8th Century BC. He is the same person as the Crown Prince and High Priest of Amun Osorkon B, son of Takelot II by his Great Royal Wife Karomama II. Prince Osorkon B is best att ...

with Takelot III, and established that

Shebitku Shebitku ( egy, šꜣ-bꜣ-tꜣ-kꜣ, Neo-Assyrian: , grc, Σεθῶν ) also known as Shabataka or Shebitqo, and anglicized as Sethos, was the second pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt who ruled from 714 BC – 705 BC, according to ...

of the

25th Dynasty The Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXV, alternatively 25th Dynasty or Dynasty 25), also known as the Nubian Dynasty, the Kushite Empire, the Black Pharaohs, or the Napatans, after their capital Napata, was the last dynasty of t ...

was already king of Egypt by 702 BC, among other revelations. It stated that

Takelot II Hedjkheperre Setepenre Takelot II Si-Ese was a pharaoh of the Twenty-third Dynasty of Ancient Egypt in Middle and Upper Egypt. He has been identified as the High Priest of Amun Takelot F, son of the High Priest of Amun Nimlot C at Thebes an ...

succeeded

Osorkon II Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon II was the fifth king of the Twenty-second Dynasty of Ancient Egypt and the son of King Takelot I and Queen Kapes. He ruled Egypt from approximately 872 BC to 837 BC from Tanis, the capital of that dynasty. After ...

Tanis Tanis ( grc, Τάνις or Τανέως ) or San al-Hagar ( ar, صان الحجر, Ṣān al-Ḥaǧar; egy, ḏꜥn.t ; ; cop, ϫⲁⲛⲓ or or ) is the Greek name for ancient Egyptian ''ḏꜥn.t'', an important archaeological site in the ...

, whereas most Egyptologists today accept it was

Shoshenq III King Usermaatre Setepenre Shoshenq III of the 22nd Dynasty ruled for 39 years according to contemporary historical records. Two Apis Bulls were buried in the fourth and 28th years of his reign and he celebrated his Heb Sed Jubilee in his regnal ...

. Secondly, the book presented King

Shoshenq II Heqakheperre Shoshenq II or Shoshenq IIa was a pharaoh of the Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt. He was the only ruler of this dynasty whose tomb was not plundered by tomb robbers. His final resting place was discovered within an antechamber of Psu ...

as the High Priest of Amun

Shoshenq C Shoshenq C was the eldest son of the 22nd Dynasty pharaoh Osorkon I and queen Maatkare, and served as the High Priest of Amun at Thebes during his father's reign. Consequently, he was the most important official in Upper Egypt after the king him ...

, a son of

Osorkon I Sekhemkheperre Osorkon I was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 22nd Dynasty. Osorkon's territory included much of the Levant. The Osorkon Bust found at Byblos is one of the five Byblian royal inscriptions. Biography The son of Shoshenq I and ...

who predeceased his father. However, this interpretation is weakened by the fact that no objects from Shoshenq II's intact burial at Tanis bears Osorkon I's name. Finally, contra Kitchen, most Egyptologists today such as Rolf Krauss, Aidan Dodson and

Jürgen von Beckerath Jürgen von Beckerath (19 February 1920, Hanover – 26 June 2016, Schlehdorf) was a German Egyptologist. He was a prolific writer who published countless articles in journals such as '' Orientalia'', ''Göttinger Miszellen'' (GM), '' Journal of ...

accept David Aston's argument that the Crown Prince Osorkon B, Takelot II's son, assumed power as

, a king of the ' Theban Twenty-Third Dynasty' in

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient E ...

Ramesside Period

Kenneth Kitchen is regarded as one of the foremost scholars on the

Ramesside Period The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore togeth ...

of the New Kingdom; he published a well-respected book on

Ramesses II Ramesses II ( egy, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded as ...

in 1982 titled ''Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King of Egypt''. Kitchen is a scholar who advocates a high view of the Old Testament and its inherent

historicity Historicity is the historical actuality of persons and events, meaning the quality of being part of history instead of being a historical myth, legend, or fiction. The historicity of a claim about the past is its factual status. Historicity denot ...

. His 2003 book ''

On the Reliability of the Old Testament ''On the Reliability of the Old Testament'' (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids and Cambridge, 2003: ) is a book by British Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen (1932-). The book provides the reader with "the most sweeping scholarly cas ...

'' documents several clear or indirect allusions to King

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

's status as the founder of

Ancient Israel The history of ancient Israel and Judah begins in the Southern Levant during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. "Israel" as a people or tribal confederation (see Israelites) appears for the first time in the Merneptah Stele, an inscri ...

, based on passages in the

Tel Dan Dan ( he, דן) is an ancient city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, described as the northernmost city of the Kingdom of Israel, and belonging to the tribe of Dan. The city is identified with a tell located in Upper Galilee, northern Israel, kno ...

('House of David') and

Mesha King Mesha ( Moabite: 𐤌𐤔𐤏 *''Māšaʿ''; Hebrew: מֵישַׁע ''Mēšaʿ'') was a king of Moab in the 9th century BC, known most famously for having the Mesha Stele inscribed and erected at Dibon. In this inscription he calls himself ...

stelas as well as in Shoshenq I's

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Constr ...

list. Kitchen has strongly criticized the new chronology views of

David Rohl The New Chronology is an alternative chronology of the ancient Near East developed by English Egyptologist David Rohl and other researchers beginning with ''A Test of Time: The Bible - from Myth to History'' in 1995. It contradicts mainstream ...

, who posits that the Biblical

Shishak Shishak, Shishaq or Susac (, Tiberian: , ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, an Egyptian pharaoh who sacked Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE. He is usually identified with the pharaoh Shoshenq I.Troy Leiland Sagrillo. 2015.Shoshenq I and bib ...

who invaded the

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah ( he, , ''Yəhūdā''; akk, 𒅀𒌑𒁕𒀀𒀀 ''Ya'údâ'' 'ia-ú-da-a-a'' arc, 𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃 ''Bēyt Dāwīḏ'', " House of David") was an Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. C ...

in 925 BC was actually Ramesses II rather than Shoshenq I and argues that the 21st and 22nd Dynasties of Egypt were contemporary with one another due to the absence of Dynasty 21

Apis Bull In ancient Egyptian religion, Apis or Hapis ( egy, ḥjpw, reconstructed as Old Egyptian with unknown final vowel > Medio-Late Egyptian , cop, ϩⲁⲡⲉ ''ḥapə''), alternatively spelled Hapi-ankh, was a sacred bull worshiped in the Me ...

stele in the

Serapeum A serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretic Greco-Egyptian deity Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis in a humanized form that was accepted by the Ptolemaic Greeks of Alexandria. There were s ...

. Kitchen observes that the word Shishak is closer philologically to Shoshenq I and that this Pharaoh records in his monuments at Thebes that he campaigned actively against Ancient Israel and Judah.

Biblical scholarship

Kitchen is a biblical maximalist and has published frequently defending the historicity of the Old Testament. He is an outspoken critic of the documentary hypothesis, publishing various articles and books upholding his viewpoint, arguing that the Bible is historically reliable. Kitchen has also published articles for the ''

Biblical Archaeology Review ''Biblical Archaeology Review'' is a magazine appearing every three months and sometimes referred to as ''BAR'' that seeks to connect the academic study of archaeology to a broad general audience seeking to understand the world of the Bible, the ...

'' including, 'Where Did Solomon's Gold Go?' (1989), 'Shishak's Military Campaign in Israel Confirmed' (1989), 'The Patriarchal Age: Myth or History?' (1995) and 'How we know when Solomon ruled' (2001).

Bibliography

*2012. ''Treaty, Law and Covenant in the Ancient Near East''. 3 Volumes. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz *2009
Egyptian New Kingdom Topographical Lists
in "Causing His Name to Live: Studies in Egyptian Epigraphy and History in Memory of William J. Murnane," Brill *2003. ''

''. Grand Rapids and Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. *2002. Kenneth A. Kitchen
Ancient Egyptian Chronology for Aegeanists
MAA 2, Dec 2002 *1999. ''Poetry of Ancient Egypt''. Jonsered: P. Aströms förlag. *1994. ''Documentation for Ancient Arabia. Part 1: Chronological Framework and Historical Sources''. The World of Ancient Arabia 1. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press *1982. ''Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King of Egypt''. Monumenta Hannah Sheen Dedicata 2. Mississauga: Benben Publications. *1977. ''The Bible In Its World'

Exeter: Paternoster. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press 1978. *1972. ''The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC)''. 1972. 2nd ed. 1996. 3rd ed. Warminster: Aris & Phillips Limited, 1998. *1969–1990. ''Ramesside Inscriptions: Historical and Biographical''. 8 Vols. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell Ltd. *1966. ''Ancient Orient and Old Testament'

London: Tyndale Press. Chicago: InterVarsity Press. *1962. ''Suppiluliuma and the Amarna Pharaohs; a study in relative chronology'', Liverpool University Press

References

External links

Review of ''On the Reliability of the Old Testament''
by the Professor of Old Testament, Denver Seminary (extensive summary)
Review of ''On the Reliability of the Old Testament''
by the director of Jewish studies, Louisiana State University (more critical) * eview of ''On the Reliability of the Old Testament''
K. A. Kitchen's home page at University of Liverpool
Some archival snapshots can be found by search engines. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kitchen, Kenneth 1932 births Living people People from Aberdeen 20th-century archaeologists 21st-century archaeologists 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians 20th-century Protestants 21st-century Protestants Academics of the University of Liverpool British biblical scholars British evangelicals Historians of antiquity Old Testament scholars Scottish Egyptologists