The early history of the HebrewsSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
History
The early history of the Hebrews
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Bible. Old Testament -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Jews -- History -- To 953 B.C.
In this legend truth and fiction have been mingled together. The
foreigner, and more especially the Asiatic foreigner, was stigmatised as
‘impure’ by the Egyptians, and in the leprous people who were confined
in the quarries of the eastern desert we must, therefore, see simply a
stranger race. Osarsiph derives his name from Joseph, the latter name
being regarded (as in Psalm lxxxi. 6) as a compound of Yo or Yahveh,
which is identified with the Egyptian Osiris. Amenôphis,[174] the son of
Paapis, is Amenôphis (or rather, Amenôthes), the son of Hapi who erected
the colossal statues of ‘Memnon’ and its companion at Thebes during the
reign of Amenôphis III., and the Pharaoh Amenôphis, the son of Ramesses,
and father of Sethos, is Meneptah, the son of Ramses II., and father of
Seti II.
The return of Amenôphis from Ethiopia was derived from a sort of
Messianic prophecy found already in a papyrus of the age of Thothmes
III. Here we read that ‘a king will come from the South, Ameni the
truth-declaring by name. He will be the son of a woman of Nubia, and
will be born in.... He will assume the crown of Upper Egypt, and will
lift up the red crown of Lower Egypt. He will unite the double crown....
The people of the age of the son of man will rejoice and establish his
name for all eternity. They will be far from evil, and the wicked will
humble their mouths for fear of him. The Asiatics will fall before his
blows, and the Libyans before his flame. The wicked will wait on his
judgments, the rebels on his power. The royal serpent on his brow will
pacify the revolted. A wall shall be built, even that of the prince, so
that the Asiatics may no more enter into Egypt.’[175]
With this prince of ancient prophecy who should save Egypt from its
Asiatic and Libyan foes, it was easy for popular tradition to identify
the Meneptah who had annihilated both Libyans and Asiatics, and to
combine his name with that of Ameni into the compound Amenôphis. At any
rate, the Egyptian legend bears witness to the fact that Meneptah was
the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and that the flight of the Israelites was
connected with the Libyan invasion of the valley of the Nile.[176]
The Israelites themselves connected the flight with the institution of
the feast of the Passover. But the feast of the Passover seems to have
been a combination of two older festivals. One of these was commemorated
by eating for seven days unleavened bread; the other by the sacrifice of
a lamb, the blood of which was smeared on the doorposts and lintel of
the house, the lamb itself being roasted and eaten at midnight with
bitter herbs. The feast of unleavened bread followed immediately upon
the feast of the Passover, which lasted from the tenth to the fourteenth
day of the first month of the Hebrew sacred year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account