Donovan Courville
Encyclopedia
Donovan Amos Courville (Ph.D., Chemistry), was a graduate of Andrews University
. He taught at Pacific Union College
from 1935 to 1949 before moving to Loma Linda University
from 1949 to 1970 where he was emeritus professor of biochemistry
at the School of Medicine. He authored numerous articles on bio-chemistry and poisonous marine animals.
As a practicing Seventh-day Adventist
, he also maintained an interest in archaeology
, Egyptology
, and biblical chronology. The fruit of his biblically related study resulted in the 1971 private publication of a two-volume, 700-page work that is his main claim to fame, The Exodus Problem and Its Ramifications.
as it related to the Bible
.
Courville noted that if the Bible is correct about the Exodus
of the Israelites from Egypt, there should be evidence of a calamitous catastrophe in Egyptian history at that point. Like Immanuel Velikovsky
, he noted the similarities between the Ipuwer Papyrus
and the Ten Plagues.
Courville lowered the era of the Hyksos
to a period after the Exodus and, like Velikovsky and David Rohl
, identified them with the biblical Amalekites. Like Velikovsky, he accepted that Shishak
of the Bible was Thutmose III
rather than the Libyan Sheshonq I. He further stated that the father-in-law of Solomon
was Thutmose I
. Courville also lowered the fall of Troy
from about 1200 BC to the 8th century BC. He also lowered the date of Hammurabi
and his dynasty to the 15th century BC. The final result of his efforts was to place the founding of Egypt (and by extension, Sumer
) to around 2300 BC, after the most literal biblical date of Noah's Deluge
according to James Ussher
and others. The bulk of The Exodus Problem dealt with demonstrating his radically shortened version of Egyptian history.
Courville used a different methodology than Velikovsky. He believed that the Sothis King List, regarded by most Egyptologists as incomplete, was designed to list only the Pharaohs who were the primary power during Egypt's history. Other Pharaohs were either coregents or members of lesser, overlapping dynasties.
Unlike Velikovsky, Courville examined the Old and Middle Kingdoms of Egypt. He suggested the Exodus occurred during the 6th Dynasty and 13th Dynasty, which he claimed ran parallel to each other.
Courville did not support Velikovsky's proposed "alter-ego" dynasties, which duplicated the 19th and 26th dynasties. He claimed that the reference to Israel on Merneptah's stele
commemorated the fall of Israel in 721 to Assyria
.
He worked for seven years with Dr Bruce Halstead researching the chemistry for the authoritative monograph, The Poisonous and Venomous Marine Animals of the World which was published by the US Government Press in 1963. The Exodus Problem was the result of similar library research and a life-long interest in archaeology.
Andrews University
Andrews University is a Seventh-day Adventist university in Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1874 as Battle Creek College in Battle Creek, Michigan, it was the first higher education facility started by Seventh-day Adventists, and is the flagship university of the Seventh-day...
. He taught at Pacific Union College
Pacific Union College
Pacific Union College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Angwin, California, United States. It is the only four-year college in Napa County, California....
from 1935 to 1949 before moving to Loma Linda University
Loma Linda University
Loma Linda University is a Seventh-day Adventist coeducational health sciences university located in Loma Linda, California, United States. The University comprises eight schools and the Faculty of Graduate Studies...
from 1949 to 1970 where he was emeritus professor of biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
at the School of Medicine. He authored numerous articles on bio-chemistry and poisonous marine animals.
As a practicing Seventh-day Adventist
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
, he also maintained an interest in archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, Egyptology
Egyptology
Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...
, and biblical chronology. The fruit of his biblically related study resulted in the 1971 private publication of a two-volume, 700-page work that is his main claim to fame, The Exodus Problem and Its Ramifications.
The Exodus Problem
The Exodus Problem and Its Ramifications: A Critical Examination of the Chronological Relationships Between Israel and the Contemporary Peoples of Antiquity, to give its full title, attempts to correlate the history and chronology of EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
as it related to the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
.
Courville noted that if the Bible is correct about the Exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
of the Israelites from Egypt, there should be evidence of a calamitous catastrophe in Egyptian history at that point. Like Immanuel Velikovsky
Immanuel Velikovsky
Immanuel Velikovsky was a Russian-born American independent scholar of Jewish origins, best known as the author of a number of controversial books reinterpreting the events of ancient history, in particular the US bestseller Worlds in Collision, published in 1950...
, he noted the similarities between the Ipuwer Papyrus
Ipuwer papyrus
The Ipuwer Papyrus is a single papyrus holding an ancient Egyptian poem, called The Admonitions of Ipuwer or The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All. Its official designation is Papyrus Leiden I 344 recto...
and the Ten Plagues.
Courville lowered the era of the Hyksos
Hyksos
The Hyksos were an Asiatic people who took over the eastern Nile Delta during the twelfth dynasty, initiating the Second Intermediate Period of ancient Egypt....
to a period after the Exodus and, like Velikovsky and David Rohl
David Rohl
New Chronology is the term used to describe 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...
, identified them with the biblical Amalekites. Like Velikovsky, he accepted that Shishak
Shishak
Shishak or Susac or Shishaq is the biblical Hebrew form of the first ancient Egyptian name of a pharaoh mentioned in the Bible.-Shishak's Reign:...
of the Bible was Thutmose III
Thutmose III
Thutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose's reign he was co-regent with his stepmother, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh...
rather than the Libyan Sheshonq I. He further stated that the father-in-law of Solomon
Solomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
was Thutmose I
Thutmose I
Thutmose I was the third Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. He was given the throne after the death of the previous king Amenhotep I. During his reign, he campaigned deep into the Levant and Nubia, pushing the borders of Egypt further than ever before...
. Courville also lowered the fall of Troy
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
from about 1200 BC to the 8th century BC. He also lowered the date of Hammurabi
Hammurabi
Hammurabi Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ʻAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer", from ʻAmmu, "paternal kinsman", and Rāpi, "healer"; (died c...
and his dynasty to the 15th century BC. The final result of his efforts was to place the founding of Egypt (and by extension, Sumer
Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
) to around 2300 BC, after the most literal biblical date of Noah's Deluge
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
according to James Ussher
James Ussher
James Ussher was Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625–56...
and others. The bulk of The Exodus Problem dealt with demonstrating his radically shortened version of Egyptian history.
Courville used a different methodology than Velikovsky. He believed that the Sothis King List, regarded by most Egyptologists as incomplete, was designed to list only the Pharaohs who were the primary power during Egypt's history. Other Pharaohs were either coregents or members of lesser, overlapping dynasties.
Unlike Velikovsky, Courville examined the Old and Middle Kingdoms of Egypt. He suggested the Exodus occurred during the 6th Dynasty and 13th Dynasty, which he claimed ran parallel to each other.
Courville did not support Velikovsky's proposed "alter-ego" dynasties, which duplicated the 19th and 26th dynasties. He claimed that the reference to Israel on Merneptah's stele
Merneptah Stele
The Merneptah Stele — also known as the Israel Stele or Victory Stele of Merneptah — is an inscription by the Ancient Egyptian king Merneptah , which appears on the reverse side of a granite stele erected by the king Amenhotep III...
commemorated the fall of Israel in 721 to Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
.
Personal life
His mother's maiden name was Kroupa, he was married to Bernice, and had three daughters, Donna (b.1923, Mrs Albert Patt), Verna (1925–1994, Mrs Turney Hitler) and Carol (Mrs Elton Morel). He trained initially for the ministry in the Seventh-day Adventist church, completing his B.Th degree in 1922, but became a chemistry teacher, gaining a doctorate in chemistry from Washington University in 1945. He taught at Pacific Union College from 1935 to 1949, then joined the Loma Linda University School of Medicine biochemistry department, where he remained until retirement in 1970.He worked for seven years with Dr Bruce Halstead researching the chemistry for the authoritative monograph, The Poisonous and Venomous Marine Animals of the World which was published by the US Government Press in 1963. The Exodus Problem was the result of similar library research and a life-long interest in archaeology.
See also
- Exodus
- Ancient EgyptAncient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
- Biblical Chronology
- Egyptian ChronologyEgyptian chronologyThe creation of a reliable chronology of Ancient Egypt is a task fraught with problems. While the overwhelming majority of Egyptologists agree on the outline and many of the details of a common chronology, disagreements either individually or in groups have resulted in a variety of dates offered...
- Immanuel VelikovskyImmanuel VelikovskyImmanuel Velikovsky was a Russian-born American independent scholar of Jewish origins, best known as the author of a number of controversial books reinterpreting the events of ancient history, in particular the US bestseller Worlds in Collision, published in 1950...