Woman in Sacred History: A Series of Sketches Drawn from Scriptural, Historical, and Legendary Sources — John Shaqi
Woman in Sacred History: A Series of Sketches Drawn from Scriptural, Historical, and Legendary SourcesStowe, Harriet Beecher
Religion
Woman in Sacred History: A Series of Sketches Drawn from Scriptural, Historical, and Legendary Sources
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Bible -- Biography; Women in the Bible -- Biography
In Smith's Dictionary of the Bible there is a brief _résumé_ of what
is said by ancient authors of this period of his life. According
to Strabo, he was educated at Heliopolis, and grew up there as a
priest, under his Egyptian name of Osariph. According to Philo,
he was taught the whole range of Greek, Chaldee, and Assyrian
literature. From the Egyptians, especially, he learned mathematics,
to train his mind for the unprejudiced reception of truth. He
invented boats, engines for building, instruments of war and of
hydraulics, and also understood hieroglyphics and mensuration of
land. He taught Orpheus, and is thence called by the Greeks Musæus,
and by the Egyptians Hermes. According to Josephus, he was sent as
general of the Egyptian army on an expedition against Ethiopia.
He got rid of the serpents, in the countries through which he was
to march, by turning basketfuls of ibises upon them. Tharbis,
the daughter of the King of Ethiopia, fell in love with him, and
induced her father to surrender to him; and he returned in triumph
with her to Egypt as his wife, and founded the city of Hermopolis
to celebrate his victory. We see here, that if Moses remained true
to the teachings of his mother and sister, and the simple faith
of Israel, it was not for want of the broadest culture the world
afforded. Egypt was the cradle of arts and letters, and the learned
men of Greece traveled there to study the mysteries which were
concealed under her hieroglyphics. Moses was a priest of Egypt in
virtue of being a prince of a royal house. According to the Egyptian
tradition, although a priest of Heliopolis, he always performed his
devotions outside the walls of the city, in the open air, turned
towards the sunrising. According to the language of St. Paul, "he
endured as seeing Him that is invisible."
In Wilkinson's "Egypt," we have some interesting suggestions as
to the life and training of the Egyptian priest, which go far to
show what manner of education must have been given to Moses. The
utmost purity of person was enjoined. Daily and nightly bathing
of the whole person, a dress of pure linen, great exactness as to
food, with strict dietetic regulations, were also a part of the
training. The Egyptians were the fountains of physiological and
medical knowledge to the nations of antiquity, and undoubtedly
these studies were a part of the "wisdom" of the priests. Moses
must also have passed through the lesser and the greater initiation
into the mysteries of Egypt; in which were taught the unity of God,
the immortality of the soul, and the retributions of a future life.
Thus he had an opportunity of comparing that portion of the Divine
teaching and traditions which had descended through Egypt, with the
pure stream which had flowed down through the patriarchal families.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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