Kenneth Anderson Kitchen (1932 – 6 February 2025) was a British

biblical scholar Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

Ancient Near Eastern The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran (or Persia), Anatolia and the Armenian highlands, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Ne ...

historian, and Personal and Brunner

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Ancient Greek, Greek , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian History of Egypt, history, Egyptian language, language, Ancient Egypt ...

and honorary research fellow at the School of

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

, Classics and Egyptology,

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

, England. He specialised 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 Conventional Egyptian chronology reflects the broad scholarly consensus about the outline and many details of the chronology of Ancient Egypt. It places the beginning of the Old Kingdom in the 27th century BC, the beginning of the Middle Kin ...

, 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 Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

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

Background

Kitchen was born in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, Scotland in 1932. He died on 6 February 2025 as an unmarried bachelor.

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 with Amenemope and Osorkon III with Takelot III, and established that

Shebitku Shebitku or Shabataka (, , or ) also known as Shebitqo, was the second pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt who ruled from 714 BC – 705 BC, according to the most recent academic research. He was a son of Piye, the founder of this dy ...

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 pharaoh, king of the Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt, 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 Ta ...

Tanis Tanis ( ; ; ) or San al-Hagar (; ; ; or or ; ) is the Greek name for ancient Egyptian ''ḏꜥn.t'', an important archaeological site in the northeastern Nile Delta of ancient Egypt, Egypt, and the location of a city of the same name. Tanis ...

, whereas most Egyptologists today accept it was Shoshenq III. Secondly, the book presented King Shoshenq II as the High Priest of Amun Shoshenq C, 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 According to the stela of P ...

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 – 26 June 2016) was a German Egyptology, Egyptologist. He was a prolific writer who published countless articles in journals such as '':fr:Orientalia, Orientalia'', ''Göttinger Miszellen'' (GM), ''Journa ...

accept David Aston's argument that the Crown Prince Osorkon B, Takelot II's son, assumed power as Osorkon III, a king of the ' Theban Twenty-Third Dynasty' in

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

Ramesside period

Kitchen was regarded as one of the foremost scholars on the

Ramesside period The New Kingdom, also called the Egyptian Empire, refers to ancient Egypt between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC. This period of ancient Egyptian history covers the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties. Through radioc ...

(1196–1070 a.C., Dynasty XIX and XX) of the New Kingdom; he published a well-respected book on

Ramesses II Ramesses II (sometimes written Ramses or Rameses) (; , , ; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Pharaoh, Egyptian pharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth Dynasty. Along with Thutmose III of th ...

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 The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

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 deno ...

. 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 (1932-2025). The book provides the reader with "the most sweeping scholarly ...

'' documents several clear or indirect allusions to King

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

's status as the founder of

Ancient Israel The history of ancient Israel and Judah spans from the Israelite highland settlement, early appearance of the Israelites in Canaan's hill country during the late second millennium BCE, to the establishment and subsequent downfall of the two ...

, based on passages in the Tel Dan ('House of David') and

Mesha King Mesha (Moabite language, Moabite: , vocalized as: ; 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 Dhiban, Dibon, Jordan. In this inscrip ...

stelas as well as in Shoshenq I's

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (), comprises a vast mix of temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construction at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I (reigned 1971–1926 BC) in the ...

list. Kitchen strongly criticized the new chronology views of David Rohl, who posits that the Biblical

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

who invaded the

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...

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

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

in the

Serapeum A serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretism, syncretic Greeks in Egypt, Greco-Egyptian ancient Egyptian deities, deity Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis (deity), Apis in a humanized form that w ...

. 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.

Biblical scholarship

Kitchen was a biblical maximalist and published frequently defending the historicity of the

. He was an outspoken critic of the

documentary hypothesis The documentary hypothesis (DH) is one of the models used by biblical scholars to explain the origins and composition of the Torah (or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible: Book of Genesis, Genesis, Book of Exodus, Exodus, Leviticus, Bo ...

, publishing various articles and books upholding his viewpoint, arguing that the Bible is historically reliable. Kitchen 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

*2023. ''Das Alte Testament und der Vordere Orient: Zur historischen Zuverlässigkeit biblischer Geschichte''. 3rd edition. Gießen: Brunnen. German revised edition of ''

''. Grand Rapids and Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. *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

*
Professor Kenneth A. Kitchen (1932–2025) (obituary)

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 2025 deaths Academics from Aberdeen 20th-century British archaeologists 21st-century British 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