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430 years in Mizra´im| God said to Jacob in Canaan: |
| "fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will THERE make of you a great nation." |
Later in Canaan, when offering the firstfruits to God, every Israelite was to say: |
few in number, and THERE he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous."
Bible, the term for Egypt is Mizraim (descended of Ham son of Noah). The name is plural and literally means the 'two territories'. This dual-territory idea (of its valley and delta) has been a dominant feature of Egypt's life from its earliest times.
Understanding this ancient nation's influence during
Israel's formative period is very significant to a fuller understanding
of Israel's beginnings and the foundations of her national Covenant with
God. Egypt was in effect the 'womb' from which Israel was born in the Exodus event.
extend the metaphor, Israel's spiritual identity
was conceived in the faith of the three Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Israel)
and then, after the Exodus, clothed with national covenant at Sinai. This
430-year period in Egypt is Israel's gestation period (Ex.12:40-41; Gal.3:17).
It is presumptuous, as is often presumed, to think
that this period was nothing more than a waiting time, a passive period
that ended with the agony of an Egyptian servitude.
It is also illogical indeed to assume that this God-given
background to Israel's forming from a family to a nation had not imparted
some lasting influence on that young nation's early development.
origin of the Hebrew language itself, which Abraham and his family derived from the Canaanite, is shown in the Sinaitic inscriptions (with an alphabet of thirty signs) by Semitic nomads working Egyptian controlled copper mines during the first half of the second millennium BC/BCE to bear a close resemblance to certain characters of the "Hebrew" alphabet as well as various forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs (Chomsky 1957:63).
understand this Egyptian factor in early Israel's experience, three things need to be born in mind:
| 1. | God speaks inerrantly but always within the conceptual framework of His audience – for He speaks to be understood; |
| 2. | A culture (Israel, for instance) will always tend to absorb from its environment (such as Egypt) into its own conceptual framework; |
| 3. | Common elements between cultures may indicate a common source as much as they may indicate borrowing, unless evidence indicates otherwise. |
Remember then that
 |
was the dominant regional power during the nomadic life of Israel's three greatest Patriarchs; |
|
was the refuge for the family of Jacob in the seven years of famine; |
|
was the home of Israel for more than three hundred years before they became oppressed and eventually liberated in the Exodus (Ex.12:41). |
evidence of this influence is found in ancient Israel's
Language and Terms
of this Ancient Egyptian influence in the textual fabric of the Bible is found in the very first chapter of Exodus.
Hebrew word used for 'birthstool' (האבנים/haobhnayim) literally means 'the two stone tablets' (Ex.1:16). These stone birth-blocks were an ancient Egyptian custom for use by a woman in labour. They were supports against which the woman pressed her feet, or crouched against, during the birth of her baby.
dominant culture commonly influences the terminology
of a subordinate group, which Israel certainly was during its four centuries
in Egypt. Egyptian influence, particularly of New Kingdom Egypt,
can be found in the shared terms which are common to the Hebrew of the
Bible and the language of these ancient Egyptians.
| Ancient Egyptian |
Biblical Hebrew |
||||
| 1 | I |
ánuk | ánuk | אנכי | |
| 2 |
ark |
tebah |
tebah |
תּבה | |
| 3 | *sea |
ym |
ym |
ים | |
| 4 | river |
ye'or |
ye'or |
יאר | |
| 5 | to die |
mwt |
mwt |
מוּת | |
| 6 | fine linen | shêsh | shêsh | שׁשׁ | |
| 7 |
bulrushes |
gm' |
gm' |
גּמא | |
| 8 | magicians |
hrtmm |
hrtmm |
חרטם | |
| 9 |
river reeds |
ahu |
ahu |
אחוּ | |
| 10 | trained person |
hnkh |
hnkh |
חניך | |
significant exception here
is the word for sea (yam), used in the New Kingdom (Moses) era of Egypt.
In the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script, the term 'ym'
(sea), unlike most Egyptian words, is shown in syllabic orthography; that
is, it is not an Egyptian word, it is a loan-word; it was imported.
The word 'ym' is Semitic! It was almost certainly borrowed from the
renowned Semitic sailors of the ancient world, the Phoenicians.
This foreign source of Egypt's
use of this word 'ym' should therefore condition
our understanding. This is also the 'ym' through which Moses led
Israel in their Exodus from Egypt. (But it has patently not conditioned
understanding in the TEV or Good News Bible, some other translations,
and the minds of many academics).
Instead, because the associated
Hebrew word 'suph' may be translated as reeds, many scholars have
jumped to the conclusion that it therefore means a fresh water lake or
swamp. Unfortunately, this unscientific approach ignores its association
with New Kingdom Egypt's use of 'ym' or 'yam'. (Professional
Phoenician mariners sailing in a muddy reed-filled fresh water swamp is really most
unlikely! As are Pharaoh's elite charioteers drowning in a muddy creek).
the Bible account, this
same term, 'yam suph', is also used for the Gulf of Aqaba (an arm
of the Red Sea). Scholars have generally avoided finding reasons for this
by treating it as a derived term from this fresh-water lake myth of their Exodus theory.
However, the term 'sûph' (סוּף) is adequately explained by the Red Sea's ample seaweed that fed large herds of dugong* (sea cows) for centuries (Dugong still survive there today, though in greatly reduced numbers). It is far more likely that this grazing distinctive gave its name to the Red Sea. (Some scholars, ignoring the Egyptian use of 'yam', regard 'suph' as derived from the Hebrew 'sôph', meaning 'end', and so a sea at the 'end' or southern extremity of Palestine – a different method leading to a similar identification).
*Exodus 25:5 – 'תּחשׁ'/tachash, is sometimes translated as 'dolphin' or 'seal', but both the Literal Translation and Modern King James versions favour 'dugong'. |
Bible further confirms a Red Sea identification (including its gulfs of Suez and Aqaba), by describing the dumping of the great locust plague from the whole of Egypt into 'yam suph' by a strong westerly wind, that is, into a sea to the east of the Nile valley (Ex.10:13-19).
This incident also makes an eastern Delta identification of 'yam suph' an impossibility. (If we attach any credence to the Bible, and if not why bother). Israel in Goshen was the only area free from the locusts and so excluded from the description of an eastward dumping of locusts into 'yam suph'. So the postulated east delta lake was anything but 'yam suph'!
use of this same word in the book of Jonah should be the final clincher on the issue. Jonah the runaway prophet, between being thrown into the Mediterranean off his ship to Tarshish, and being swallowed by the God-prepared 'great fish', he describes his near fatal experience as –
| "The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep (tehôm) surrounded me; [sea] weeds (sûph) were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains." |
both linguistic and contextual
evidences point to nothing less than an identification of 'yam suph' with the Red Sea and its gulfs.
It really seems ridiculous
that serious scholars could ever have thought that 'yam suph' referred
to the muddy fresh water of an inland lake when the founding religious
documents of a people who lived in that vicinity specify
the supernatural crossing of this obstacle as the ultimate
miracle which drowned the elite chariot corps of Egypt (super power of
the day) and initiated Israel's nationhood.
And so Moses exulted –
"The best of Pharaoh's
officers are drowned in the Yam Suph."
really much more believable
that the prejudice of an anti-supernaturalist bias lies hidden behind
a pretence at reasoned academic thought.
example of this dynamic influence on language when cultures meet is found in Genesis 41:40 in the words of Pharaoh. As recorded by Moses, Egypt's Pharaoh said to Joseph –
| ועל פיך ישׁק כל עמי |
Or 'we-al pikha yishshak kol ami', in which the word 'yishshak' is from the Hebrew word 'nâshaq' (to kiss).
| Traditional mistranslation in Genesis 41:40. |
So the Jewish Septuagint translators, in the time of Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy, translated the Hebrew word נשׁק (nâshaq) as 'mouth' for that word in the Hebrew had come to mean 'kiss' in their own time.
most translations ever since then have given it an idiomatic meaning as "all my people shall be obedient to thy word" (to kiss in submission), except the Modern King James Version which gives it the more literal meaning as 'all my people shall kiss (the hand) at your word'. Yet this literal Hebrew meaning, in the words of Prof. William Chomsky, "makes no sense whatsoever" (1957:38).
the ancient Egyptian language however, this same word meant 'to eat', and in terms of the early relationship between the two languages, particularly in the time of Moses, this would mean in the words of Pharaoh to Joseph –
"...according to your word all my people shall eat" |
which makes much more sense in its own Biblical context.
Moses
than any
other individual, Moses illustrates the relevance to us today of understanding
Israel's Egyptian background. Moses, the founder of Israel's nationhood,
is described in the New Testament as being learned in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians at age 40 and powerful in speech and action
(Acts 7:22). Within this context then we must understand his first direct
encounter with God as an 80-year-old stutterer before a burning thorn
bush in a desert that he had known for 40 years (Exodus 3:2-5).
Much time has
been wasted trying to find explanations of how the bush could naturally
catch fire or appear to burn, and almost none upon Moses' own perceptual
framework of this event. His 40 years experience in New Kingdom Egyptian
culture, and 40 years experience in desert phenomena with Jethro of Midian,
must both be taken into account in understanding his experience of this burning bush call.
It
is not coincidence that the early traditions of ancient Egypt (the great
super-power of that day) describe their supreme god Ra or Re
as first speaking to humanity from out of a fire burning in a tree (usually
described as an Ished or Persea tree). Thus, it is within the context of Moses'
own Egyptian background that the God of the Hebrew Patriarchs first presents
Himself to this uniquely situated man. By so doing, God shows Himself
to Moses, not merely as the Hebrew tribal god, but as the one Supreme
God! The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the one and only Supreme God!
Remember: not without significance our Bible gives detail of the high priest of Ra in On, father-in-law to the great Joseph (Gen.41:45). In Egyptian tradition a large Persea tree stood before the sacred pool of its temple to commemorate this first word. |
Note, that in
the earliest traditions of On, the city of Ra, the disk
of the sun itself was not worshipped. (Worship of the
sun was the heretical Atenism of Pharaoh Ikhnaton). The sun was seen as
representing the Most High, the Source of all life, hence
the pyramid form expressed His life-giving radiating rays; such as in Malachi (4:2) –
"for you who revere My name,
the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings [literally – extensions/flaps, hence radiance]."
the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings [literally – extensions/flaps, hence radiance]."
A Single Creator
In contrast to other Near Eastern cultures, the ancient
Egyptians, in spite of regional differences in names, believed in a single
Creator and source of divine power.
The Method of Creation
Again, in contrast, ancient Egyptians believed the act of creation was not a result of contest between gods, but in their Memphite theology it was believed that the Creator spoke creation into existence out of nothing.
 |
Ripple-flaked flint knife from about 3300 to 3200 BC with ivory handle of a hippopotamus canine tooth. Click for closeup of both sides of handle. (Musée du Louvre, Accession number E 11517) |
Circumcision was invented by Neolithic
(New Stone Age) Egyptians as the male-initiation to marriageable age.
Probably with respect this early origin therefore, the ancient Egyptians
always circumcised with a flint knife. In other words,
it was an old practice before Abraham was born.
Circumcision was completely unknown in Abraham's
cultural background. God took an existing Egyptian custom and honoured
it as the sign of His Abrahamic covenant with Israel (Gen. 17:10-14).
This Egyptian background is why Moses' son is reluctantly circumcised
(with a flint) by his angry Midianite wife (Ex.4:24-26).
For this reason also, God, in a bronze age setting,
in limestone Palestine, specifically commands Joshua to make flint
knives (a neolithic tool in a bronze age setting) to circumcise all the
men of Israel born in the desert migration (Joshua 5:2-3).
This is a unique event in all Israel's history. Never
before or after would the situation exist in which the whole nation would
be circumcised together. Therefore this unusual command to make flint
knives is specially significant. The finding of flint, followed by the
skilled task of ripple-flaking to make sufficient knives, laid a special
and apparently unnecessary difficulty on Israel when they had no lack
of metal knives. Thus, in specifically commanding the use of flint, God
honoured the neolithic origin of this rite in Egypt's beginnings.
It is interesting to note that, of the record which
says Joshua was buried 'in Timnath-Serah which
is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash'
(Joshua 24:30), in the Jewish Septuagint version of this text it gives
a significant remark, which was omitted from the much later Jewish Massoretic
text on which our modern translations are based:
'There they put with him into the tomb in which they buried him,
the knives of stone [flint] with which he circumcised the Children of Israel in Gilgal.'
the knives of stone [flint] with which he circumcised the Children of Israel in Gilgal.'
Lancelot Brenton's English Septuagint (1851) of Joshua 24:30 reads thus –
| "And they buried him by the borders of his inheritance in Thamnasarach [Timnath-serah] in the mount of Ephraim, northward of the mount of Galaad [Gaash]: there they put with him into the tomb in which they buried him, the knives of stone with which he circumcised the children of Israel in Galgala [Gilgal], when he brought them out of Egypt, as the Lord appointed them; and there they are to this day." |
Ten miles north-west of Bethel lies Kef'r Ishu'a,
the 'Village of Joshua'. Professor Werner Keller in 'The Bible As History'
on page 163 reports that the neighbouring hillside does indeed contain
some rock tombs. In 1870, in one of the sepulchers on the north side of
the hill, a large number of flint knives were found...
A Portable Religious Shrine
Winged supernatural beings protectively flanking
portable shrines of the deity are not unusual in ancient Egyptian religious
illustrations, centuries before Moses' experience at Sinai. The remarkable
similarity to the concept expressed in Israel's ark of the covenant is
most unlikely to be coincidental.
The 24 Rulers of Day and Night
To Ancient Egypt, the day and the night were each
divided into 12 hours, of varying length according to the season, each
ruled by its spirit lord accountable to the Most High. Thus, the vision
of the Most High flanked on each side by 12 godly Assessors would not
have been open to the speculative thought which Christian history has
laid on it. Heaven's court in the book of Revelation, or the heavenly
thrones set up, before the Most High is seated (in Daniel 7), would have
been understood in the ancient world in this light – God's jurisdiction
over every hour of day and night.
Unfortunately, to exegetes who lack appreciation
for the sovereignty of God in human history, the 24 Elders/Seniors of
the book of Revelation have usually meant Israel's 12 Patriarchs and Christ's
12 Apostles, or somehow representatively the Old Testament and New Testament
witness, or simply just the People of God in general (as our hymns sometimes
celebrate). But, to an ancient view it would simply reinforce understanding
that angelic thrones extend the rule of the Most High over every
hour of the day and night.
Egypt's Skilled Craftsmanship
The skills of Israel's Bezaleel and Oholiab were
specially enhanced by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, but they are described
before this anointing as skilled craftsmen (Ex.31:4-5).
Egypt is the place where these men learned their trade.
In addition, all the materials for the construction
of every piece of the holy tabernacle of God, its equipment, and even
uniforms of the priesthood, came from Egypt. It's quality bore the mark
of the culture of that time. All our reading of the detail of this marvelous
inspired construction should bear in mind its Egyptian cultural and technical background.
Its is for this reason that the Bible gives us no
explanation of the origin of the two sacred stones kept in a pouch within
the linen breast-piece of Israel's High Priest, the Urim and Thummim (Ex.28:30; Neh.7:65),
through which God gave specific guidance to the people. Today we must
be content with educated guesswork on their appearance.
