From Claude.ai on 5/7/2026. – Summary of the article at BAS: “Judah’s African Ally: Taharqa and the Kingdom of Cush” By James K. Hoffmeier, Biblical Archaeology Review 51.2 (2025). Following the summary are two followup responses from Claude and one includes a Hyksos to Cush timeline.
The Crisis of 701 BC
King Hezekiah of Judah faced an existential threat when Sennacherib’s Assyrian army invaded. He responded by fortifying Jerusalem — building the Broad Wall and cutting the famous water tunnel — but also received unexpected help from an African ally. Both the Bible (Isaiah 37:9; 2 Kings 19:9) and Sennacherib’s own annals confirm that a Cushite force came to Judah’s aid.
Isaiah 37 (ASV) –8So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. 9And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come out to fight against thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 19 (ASV) – 8So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. 9And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee, he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying, 10Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
The Kingdom of Cush
Cush (modern northern Sudan) had a long, complex relationship with Egypt. After centuries of Egyptian domination, Cush gained independence around 1100 BC but retained deep Egyptian cultural influence — using hieroglyphs, building pyramids, and worshipping Amun-Re. Around 800 BC, the Napatan dynasty arose, and by 727 BC King Piankhy had conquered Memphis, establishing Cush’s 25th Dynasty over Egypt. This lasted until the Assyrians expelled the Cushites in 664 BC.
Who Was Taharqa?
Taharqa was a son of Piankhy and the greatest of the Napatan kings, reigning 690–664 BC. He was a prolific builder, constructing temples at Jebel Barkal, Kawa, and Karnak, and building the largest pyramid in Nubia at Nuri.
Resolving the Chronological Problem
A significant scholarly puzzle is that Taharqa wasn’t crowned king until 690 BC — over a decade after the 701 BC campaign. Hoffmeier presents four arguments that the biblical account is nonetheless accurate:
- Proleptic (not anachronistic) writing — The biblical authors wrote after Taharqa became pharaoh but were aware he wasn’t king in 701, just as one can say Queen Elizabeth was born in 1926 without implying she was queen then.
- Cushite succession customs — The Cushites practiced collateral succession, meaning Taharqa served as crown prince under his uncle Shabaka and then his brother Shebitku. He would have been approximately 20 years old in 701 BC.
- Taharqa’s own stelae at Kawa — These confirm he was summoned from Napata to Memphis by King Shebitku and led military forces northward, apparently for the 701 BC campaign against Assyria.
- Biblical title — The Bible calls Tirhaqah “king of Cush” (melek kush), not “pharaoh,” suggesting the authors understood he governed Cush as a subordinate prince under Shebitku, not as Egypt’s pharaoh.
Outcome and Significance
The battle’s outcome remains uncertain — Sennacherib claimed victory, but neither the Bible nor Cushite records describe the result. Regardless, Taharqa’s intervention almost certainly distracted the Assyrian army from besieging Jerusalem and likely played a role in Judah’s survival.
MLA Citation for the summarized article.
Hoffmeier, James K. “Judah’s African Ally: Taharqa and the Kingdom of Cush,” Biblical Archaeology Review 51.2 (2025): 42–48.
You said: How does this relate to the Jewish settlement of Elephantine on the south end of the Nile?
Claude responded: This is an interesting connection to explore!
This is an interesting connection to explore! The article itself doesn’t mention Elephantine at all, but there are some historically meaningful points of contact worth considering.
What we know about Elephantine: The Jewish military colony at Elephantine (Yeb) in Upper Egypt, near modern Aswan, is well-documented through the famous Aramaic papyri discovered there. This garrison of Jewish soldiers served successive imperial powers — likely beginning under the late Pharaonic period, continuing under Persian rule after 525 BC. They maintained their own temple to Yahweh there.
Possible connections to the article’s themes:
- The timing overlaps interestingly. The Cushite 25th Dynasty controlled Egypt precisely during the period when Jewish soldiers may have first settled at Elephantine. Some scholars have speculated that Jewish mercenaries arrived there under the Cushite pharaohs or shortly after, possibly connected to the broader geopolitical turbulence involving Assyria that the article describes.
- Elephantine sits at the traditional border between Egypt and Cush — the very frontier region the article discusses. Jewish soldiers stationed there would have been living at the edge of Cushite territory.
- The Assyrian pressure that drove Taharqa’s intervention in Judah may have contributed to a broader Jewish diaspora southward into Egypt during this period.
That said, the direct link between Taharqa’s story and Elephantine remains speculative. Do you have a particular angle of this connection in mind? I’d be happy to dig deeper into any aspect of it.
You said: The article mentions the Hyksos. How does that rule fit into the timeline above?
Claude responded: Great question!
Great question! The Hyksos appear only briefly in the article, but they’re actually quite significant for understanding the broader timeline. Here’s how they fit in:
What the Article Says
The article mentions that during the Second Intermediate Period (1700–1525 BC), when the Hyksos ruled northern Egypt, Egypt’s grip on Cush loosened — only for the 18th Dynasty pharaohs to reconquer it again in the late 16th century.
The Fuller Picture of Hyksos Rule
The Hyksos were a Semitic people from the Levant (Canaan/Syria region) who gradually infiltrated and eventually dominated northern Egypt, establishing their capital at Avaris in the Nile Delta. A rough timeline of how this fits into the article’s broader narrative:
- ~1700 BC — Hyksos establish control over Lower (northern) Egypt as the 15th Dynasty
- ~1700–1525 BC — Second Intermediate Period; Egypt divided, Hyksos in the north, native Egyptian rulers holding on in the south, and Cush effectively freed from Egyptian control
- ~1550 BC — Ahmose I founds the 18th Dynasty, expels the Hyksos, and reunifies Egypt
- ~1525 BC onward — The New Kingdom begins; Egypt immediately moves to reconquer Cush, beginning the long period of domination the article describes, lasting until about 1100 BC
- ~1100 BC — New Kingdom collapses; Cush gains independence again
- ~800 BC — The Napatan dynasty arises in Cush
- ~727 BC — Piankhy conquers Memphis, establishing the 25th Dynasty
- 701 BC — Taharqa leads forces to aid Hezekiah against Sennacherib
- 664 BC — Assyrians expel the Cushites from Egypt, ending the 25th Dynasty
Why the Hyksos Period Matters for This Story
The Hyksos interlude is significant for a few reasons in this broader context:
- It demonstrated that Egypt was not impenetrable to outside powers — a pattern repeated later when the Cushites themselves took over Egypt from the south, and again when the Assyrians eventually expelled them.
- It established a precedent for foreign dynasties ruling Egypt, which makes the Cushite 25th Dynasty less historically anomalous than it might otherwise seem.
- For biblically-minded readers, the Hyksos period is also the era most commonly associated with Joseph’s rise to power in Egypt and possibly the early sojourn of the Israelites there, meaning the geopolitical conditions the article traces have deep resonance with the entire biblical narrative arc.
The Hyksos episode is essentially one of several “interruptions” in Egyptian power that shaped the political landscape leading all the way to Taharqa’s confrontation with Assyria.
