Endnote 11 – The Egyptianizing of Canaan

Much of the scholarly confusion about resident governors seems to have arisen from efforts to correlate Akkadian titles with pharaonic officials. In particular, the occurrence of the Akkadian title “governor” in international correspondence like the Amarna letters has led some scholars to propose the existence of resident governors whose Egyptian title was either “overseer of northern lands” (see Hans Wolfgang Helck, Die Beziehungen Agyptens zu Vorderasien im. 3. und 2. Jahrtausend [Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1971], pp. 250–251) or “royal envoy.” See E. Edel, “Weitere Briefe aus der Heiratskorrespondenz Ramses’ II. KUB III 37 + KBo I 17 und KUB III 57, ” in Geschichte und Altes Testament, ed. G. Ebeling (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1953), p. 56. More recently, scholars have recognized that the use of Akkadian titles indicates only that the scribes were unaware of or indifferent to the officials’ Egyptian titles. (See Michel Valloggia, Recherche sur les “messagers” (wpwtyw) dans les sources Égyptienne profanes [Paris: Librairie Droz, 1976], p. 240; Donald Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992], p. 201.)