Editing Kenneth Kitchen

{{Short description|British Egyptologist (1932–2025)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
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| name               = Kenneth Anderson Kitchen
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| birth_date         = 1932
| birth_place        = [[Aberdeen]], Scotland
| death_date         = 6 February 2025 (aged 92)
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| occupation         = [[Bible scholar]], archaeologist and Egyptologist
| title              = Personal and [[Brunner Professorships|Brunner Professor Emeritus of Egyptology]]
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| discipline         = Egyptology<!-- Major academic discipline - e.g. Physicist, Sociologist, New Testament scholar, Ancient Near Eastern Linguist -->
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| workplaces         = [[University of Liverpool]]
| notable_works      = ''Ramesside inscriptions: Historical and biographical''; ''The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC)''; ''On the reliability of the Old Testament''
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'''Kenneth Anderson Kitchen''' (1932 – 6 February 2025<ref>[https://www.ees.ac.uk/resource/kenneth-a-kitchen-1932-2025.html Kenneth A Kitchen (1932–2025)] Egypt Exploration Society, February 6, 2025</ref>) was a British [[biblical scholar]], [[Ancient Near Eastern]] historian, and Personal and Brunner [[Professor Emeritus]] of [[Egyptology]] and honorary research fellow at the School of [[Archaeology]], Classics and Egyptology, [[University of Liverpool]], England. He specialised in the ancient Egyptian Ramesside Period (i.e., Dynasties [[Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt|19]]-[[Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt|20]]), and the [[Third Intermediate Period of Egypt]], as well as ancient [[Egyptian chronology]], having written over 250 books and journal articles on these and other subjects since the mid-1950s. He has been described by ''[[The Times]]'' as "the very architect of Egyptian chronology".<ref>''[[The Times]]'', 13 October 2002, [https://web.archive.org/web/20150529061841/http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/style/article54642.ece How myth became history]</ref>

==Background==
Kitchen was born in [[Aberdeen]], Scotland in 1932.<ref>[https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3259145.Kenneth_A_Kitchen Kenneth A. Kitchen] Profile at Goodreads.com</ref><ref>See Kenneth Kitchen's statement in KA Kitchen, 'The strengths and weaknesses of Egyptian chronology', ''Ägypten und Levante'' 16, 2006. p.299</ref> He died on 6 February 2025 as an unmarried [[bachelor]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Peter J. |title=Professor Kenneth A. Kitchen (1932–2025) |url=https://tyndalehouse.com/updates/news/kenneth-kitchen/ |publisher=[[Tyndale House (Cambridge)|Tyndale House]] |access-date=6 February 2025}}</ref>

==Third Intermediate Period==
His 1972 book is ''The [[Third Intermediate Period]] in Egypt (1100–650 BC)''. It noted a hitherto unknown period of coregency between [[Psusennes I]] with [[Pharaoh Amenemope|Amenemope]] and [[Osorkon III]] with [[Takelot III]], and established that [[Shebitku]] of the [[Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt|25th Dynasty]] was already king of Egypt by 702 BC, among other revelations.{{citation needed|date= September 2022}} It stated that [[Takelot II]] succeeded [[Osorkon II]] at [[Tanis, Egypt|Tanis]], whereas most Egyptologists today accept it was [[Shoshenq III]].<ref>(see [[Karl Jansen-Winkeln]], "Historische Probleme Der 3. Zwischenzeit", [[Journal of Egyptian Archaeology|JEA]] 81(1995) pp.129–49, Aidan Dodson in [[Göttinger Miszellen|GM]] 137(1993), p.58 and G. Broekman, 'The Reign of Takeloth II, a Controversial Matter,' GM 205(2005), pp.21–35)</ref> Secondly, the book presented King [[Shoshenq II]] as the High Priest of Amun [[Shoshenq C]], a son of [[Osorkon I]] 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<ref>in GM 137</ref> and [[Jürgen von Beckerath]]<ref>Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten (1997)</ref> accept David Aston's argument<ref>David Aston, ''[[Journal of Egyptian Archaeology|JEA]]'' 75 (1989), Takeloth II: A King of the Theban 23rd Dynasty?, pp.139–153</ref> that the Crown Prince Osorkon B, Takelot II's son, assumed power as [[Osorkon III]], a king of the '[[Twenty-third dynasty of Egypt|Theban Twenty-Third Dynasty]]' in [[Upper Egypt]].

==Ramesside period==
Kitchen was regarded as one of the foremost scholars on the [[Ramesside period]] (1196–1070 a.C., Dynasty XIX and XX) of the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]];<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilkinson |first=Toby |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P07rgiJjsk4C |title=The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing, A&C Black |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4088-1002-6 |location=London, Berlin, New York, Sydney |pages=562}}</ref> he published a well-respected book on [[Ramesses II]] in 1982 titled ''Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King of Egypt''. Kitchen was a scholar who advocated a high view of the [[Old Testament]] and its inherent [[Historicity of the Bible|historicity]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=On the Reliability of the Old Testament|last=Kitchen|first=Kenneth A.|publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|year=2003|isbn=0-8028-4960-1|location=Grand Rapids, Cambridge|pages=xiii-xv}}</ref> His 2003 book ''[[On the Reliability of the Old Testament]]'' documents several clear or indirect allusions to King [[David]]'s status as the founder of [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|Ancient Israel]], based on passages in the [[Tel Dan Stele|Tel Dan]] ('House of David') and [[Mesha stele|Mesha]] stelas as well as in Shoshenq I's [[Karnak]] list.<ref>pp. 90–94, 452, 453</ref>

Kitchen strongly criticized the [[New Chronology (Rohl)|new chronology]] views of [[David Rohl]], who posits that the Biblical [[Shishak]] who invaded the [[Kingdom of Judah]] in 925 BC was actually Ramesses II rather than [[Shoshenq I]] and argues that the [[Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt|21st]] and [[Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt|22nd Dynasties]] of Egypt were contemporary with one another due to the absence of Dynasty 21 [[Apis (Egyptian mythology)|Apis Bull]] [[stele]] in the [[Serapeum of Saqqara|Serapeum]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Symbiosis, Symbolism, and the Power of the Past|last=Kitchen|first=Kenneth A.|work=Egyptian Interventions in the Levant in Iron Age II|publisher=Eisenbrauns|year=2003|isbn=1-57506-081-7|editor-last=Dever|editor-first=William G.|location=Winona Lake, Indiana|pages=122f}}</ref>  Kitchen observed 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.<ref>Kitchen (2003), pp. 10, 32, 33</ref>

==Biblical scholarship==
Kitchen was a [[Biblical maximalism|biblical maximalist]] and published frequently defending the historicity of the [[Old Testament]].  He was an outspoken critic of the [[documentary hypothesis]], publishing various articles and books upholding his viewpoint, arguing that the Bible is historically reliable.<ref>[http://www.theologynetwork.org/the-bible/the-factual-reliability-of-the-old-testament.htm The Factual Reliability of the Old Testament], by Kenneth A. Kitchen, theologynetwork.org. 2006, accessed 1/31/15.</ref> Kitchen also published articles for the ''[[Biblical Archaeology Review]]'' including, 'Where Did Solomon's Gold Go?' (1989),<ref>Kenneth Kitchen (May/June 1989), [https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/sidebar/where-did-solomons-gold-go/#:~:text=The%20vast%20amounts%20of%20Solomon's,gods%20and%20goddesses%20of%20Egypt. "Where did Solomon's Gold Go?"]. ''Biblical Archaeology Review.''</ref> 'Shishak's Military Campaign in Israel Confirmed' (1989),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/15/3/10|title=Shishak's Military Campaign in Israel Confirmed|date=August 24, 2015|website=The BAS Library}}</ref> 'The Patriarchal Age: Myth or History?' (1995)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/21/2/3|title=The Patriarchal Age: Myth or History?|date=August 24, 2015|website=The BAS Library}}</ref> and 'How we know when Solomon ruled' (2001).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/27/5/2|title=How We Know When Solomon Ruled|date=August 24, 2015|website=The BAS Library}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
*2023. ''Das Alte Testament und der Vordere Orient: Zur historischen Zuverlässigkeit biblischer Geschichte''. 3rd edition. Gießen: Brunnen. {{ISBN|978-3-7655-9254-6}} German revised edition of ''[[On the Reliability of the Old Testament]]''. Grand Rapids and Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. {{ISBN|0-8028-4960-1}}
*2012. ''Treaty, Law and Covenant in the Ancient Near East''. 3 Volumes. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
*2009. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120729202850/http://cassian.memphis.edu/history/murnane/Kitchen.pdf 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. ''[[On the Reliability of the Old Testament]]''. Grand Rapids and Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. {{ISBN|0-8028-4960-1}}
*2002.  Kenneth A. Kitchen, [https://web.archive.org/web/20060222174955/http://www.rhodes.aegean.gr/maa_journal/docs/volume2%20No2%20Dec2002/Kitchen%20paper.pdf 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'' [http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/book_bibleinitsworld.html The Bible in its World: The Bible & Archaeology Today]. 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.<ref>{{Cite book|isbn=0856682985|title=The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt, 1100-650 B.C.|last1=Kitchen|first1=Kenneth Anderson|year=1986|publisher=Aris & Phillips }}</ref>
*1969–1990. ''Ramesside Inscriptions: Historical and Biographical''. 8 Vols. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell Ltd.
*1966. ''Ancient Orient and Old Testament'' [http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/book_ancientorient.html 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==
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==External links==
*  [https://tyndalehouse.com/updates/news/kenneth-kitchen Professor Kenneth A. Kitchen (1932–2025) (obituary)]
* [http://www.denverseminary.edu/article/the-old-testament-in-light-of-the-archaeological-evidence Review of ''On the Reliability of the Old Testament''] by the Professor of Old Testament, Denver Seminary (extensive summary)
* [http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Isbell-Kitchen_and_Minimalism.shtml Review of ''On the Reliability of the Old Testament''] by the director of Jewish studies, Louisiana State University (more critical)
* [Review of ''On the Reliability of the Old Testament''] - [https://web.archive.org/web/20111211172003/http://www.liv.ac.uk/sace/organisation/people/kitchen.htm K. A. Kitchen's home page at University of Liverpool] Some archival snapshots can be found by search engines.
* {{IMDb name|3034373}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitchen, Kenneth}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:2025 deaths]]
[[Category:Academics from Aberdeen]]
[[Category:20th-century British archaeologists]]
[[Category:21st-century British archaeologists]]
[[Category:20th-century British historians]]
[[Category:21st-century British historians]]
[[Category:20th-century Protestants]]
[[Category:21st-century Protestants]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Liverpool]]
[[Category:British biblical scholars]]
[[Category:British evangelicals]]
[[Category:Historians of antiquity]]
[[Category:Old Testament scholars]]
[[Category:Scottish Egyptologists]]