A close look at the Egypt that serves as the setting for the Book of Exodus. Egypt averages only 0. - 0. Inches of rainfall each year, making it one of the driest climates on earth. The Nile River is the very life blood of Egypt.
A close look at the Egypt that serves as the setting for the Book of Exodus. Egypt averages only 0. - 0. Inches of rainfall each year, making it one of the driest climates on earth. The Nile River is the very life blood of Egypt.
A close look at the Egypt that serves as the setting for the Book of Exodus. Egypt averages only 0. - 0. Inches of rainfall each year, making it one of the driest climates on earth. The Nile River is the very life blood of Egypt.
At the end of Genesis Jacob and his family moved to Egypt to be with Joseph, who had become Prime Minister of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. The family settled in the land of Goshen, the most fertile area of the northeastern Nile delta, and there they flourished. When we turn the page from Genesis to Exodus, 400 years flash by and Jacobs family of 70 has become a people of nearly 2 million. As security threats to Egypt, the Israelites have become oppressed and enslaved.
In Lesson #1 we examine how all of this came to pass, and we take a close look at the Egypt Moses knew, the Egypt that serves as the setting for the Book of Exodus.
Sahara Desert Sinai Peninsula Nile River Red Sea Mediterranean Sea Midian In the 5 th century B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the gift of the Nile.
Egypt consists of 390,000 sq. mi., only 15,000 of which are arable land, that area along the banks of the Nile River and the fertile Nile delta in the north. Large regions of the Sahara Desert constitute the rest of Egypts land area. Egypt averages only 0.1 - 0.6 inches of rainfall each year, making it one of the driest climates on earth. Thus, the Nile River is the very life blood of Egypt. Originating in the high mountains of Kenya, the Nile River flows north over 4,000 miles, emptying into the Mediterranean Sea. Annual inundation of the Nile brought high-nutrient silt, making the banks of the Nileup to 6 miles on either sideextremely fertile.
Nile River flows north Sahara Desert Green = fertile, arable land (only 3.8% of total land area)
Photography by Ana Maria Vargas What Moses called that vast and fearful wilderness (Deuteronomy 1: 19). (96.2% of Egypts land area)
Photography by Ana Maria Vargas Harvesting the fertile fields of Faiyum, Egypt (3.8% of Egypts land area)
Photography by Ana Maria Vargas In this harsh and seemingly hostile land, Egypt prospered as one of the greatest of ancient civilizations, thriving for 2,500 years, 3000 B.C. through 500 B.C.
Egypt did not depend upon rainfall for its survival. Instead, the Nile River provided lean aquatic protein (fish) and the annual inundation of the Nile assured abundant crops. Rarely did Egypt experience drought or famine. Recall the Israelites in Numbers 11: 5 We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic . . . now we are famished. Bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north and vast stretches of desert to the west, east and south, Egypt rarely feared invasion by foreign peoples. For much of its history Egypt enjoyed peace and prosperity. The rhythm of the river divided the year into two parts: the growing season, when people worked the land, and the waiting season when the Nile inundated, making the land fertile once again, a time when people had leisure to enjoy life and to express their creativity in art, architecture and learning.
Because the Nile River flows from South to North, Egyptians thought in terms of south/north; upper/lower, rather than west/east. Around 3000 B.C. Pharaoh Menes unified Upper Egypt (in the south) and Lower Egypt (in the north), establishing trade with Asia Minor, exporting minerals, ivory, paper and finished chariots, while importing wood, dyed wool, fashionable clothing and other luxury items. Ancient Egypt was truly dazzling, one of the most advanced, and prosperous civilizations on the planet. An ancient Egyptian may well have misquoted Gus Portokalos in My Big, Fat Greek Wedding (2002): There are only two kinds of people in the world: Egyptians and those who want to be Egyptians.
Egyptian History in Brief Egyptian history is traditionally divided into three major periods (with intermediate periods in between) and since the 3 rd century B.C., thirty dynasties. The dates are approximate.
Neolithic Period (5 th - 4 th millennia B.C.) Pre-dynastic Religion focuses on local gods in plant and animal form, along with various types of totemism (the worship of sacred objects).
Archaic Period (3100-2686 B.C.) 1 st and 2 nd Dynasties The forces of nature become personified; local deities become anthropomorphized; Pharaoh becomes the incarnation of the god Horus, giving legitimacy and absolute authority to Pharaohs rule.
Egyptian History in Brief, cont.
Old Kingdom (2686-2181 B.C.) 3 rd through 6 th Dynasties Theological system of heliopolis (sun worship) develops, as does the worship of the sun god, Ra. Pharaoh evolves into the son of Ra. Construction of the great pyramids begins: the Step Pyramid of Zoser, the Great Pyramid of Khufu and the Sphinx. Technology is highly developed: the Great Pyramid towers 481 feet; it contains over two million blocks of stone, many weighing over fifty tons; and its volume can contain the cathedrals of Florence, Milan, St. Peters in Rome, and St. Pauls and Westminster Abbey in Londonall at the same time. Yet, the joins between its blocks are nearly invisible, true to 1/50 th of an inch, and the four corners of the structure are so perfectly aligned North, East, South and West, that errors on modern compasses can be corrected against them, even today.
Egyptian History in Brief, cont.
1 st Intermediate Period (2181-2133 B.C.) 7 th through 10 th Dynasties Concept of the ba (soul or psyche) develops, and along with it judgment after death. The worship of Osiris as god of the underworld emerges.
Middle Kingdom (2133-1786 B.C.) 11 th through 12 th Dynasties The sun god, Ra, merges with a minor Theban god, Amun. The cult of Amun-ra develops.
Egyptian History in Brief, cont.
2 nd Intermediate Period (1786-1567) 13 th through 17 th Dynasties The 13 th through 17 th Dynasties saw over seventy kings in rapid succession, with an accompanying bloated bureaucracy. The weakening of a strong central government allows a group of Asiatic people called the Hyksos (foreign chiefs) to invade Egypt and control it for nearly 100 years. The Hyksos introduced bronze-working, horse and chariot, and advanced weapons of war. Joseph comes to power as Prime Minister during the Hyksos period, explaining in part why a young Hebrew would move easily within the upper echelons of Egyptian power, which was controlled by foreigners from the north.
Egyptian History in Brief, cont.
New Kingdom (1567-1085 B.C.) 18 th through 20 th Dynasties Amonhotep I drives out the Hyksos c. 1530 B.C., unifies the state and vastly improves the economy.
Tutmose I (1526-1508) embarks on a strong expansionist strategy, reaching the 3 rd cataract in the south and the Euphrates River in the north. Following our biblical dating system, it would be Tutmose I, a native Egyptian, who orders the drowning of the Hebrew babies.
Queen Hatshepsut (1504-1482), following the brief reign of Tutmose II (1508-1504), becomes co-regent with Tutmose III, who is still a child. She reverses the expansionist policy. In our dating, Hatshepsut would be the princess who fishes Moses out of the Nile.
Egyptian History in Brief, cont. New Kingdom (1567-1085 B.C.), cont. 18 th through 20 th Dynasties When Tutmose III (1482-1450) comes of age, he becomes very aggressive, expanding Egyptian territory to the 4 th cataract. He also embarks on an aggressive building plan, erecting many impressive buildings, including Karnak Temple, as part of his imperialistic policy. In our dating, Tutmose III would be the Pharaoh of the oppression. Amunhotep II (1450-1425) continues his fathers policies. In our biblical dating, Amunhotep II would be the target of the ten plagues. He is not killed at the Red Sea: Exodus 14: 28 says that The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsementhe entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Interestingly, Amunhotep IIs mummy was discovered in 1898 in the Valley of the Kings. His son, Thutmose IV (1425-1412), is referred to in A Divine Oracle through a Dream, his first-born son who dies prematurely at 13 years of age.
Egyptian History in Brief, cont.
Late Period (1085-332 B.C.) 21 st through 30 th Dynasties Animals, once regarded as emblems or symbols of the gods, become objects of venerationespecially the crocodile and the cat. (Perhaps this explains why the only mention of cats in the Bible is in Baruch 6: 21, and it is negative.) Hellenistic Period (332-20 B.C.) The cult of Isis spreads outside of Egypt. Cleopatra commits suicide. Egypt becomes part of the Roman Empire under Caesar Augustus, as we approach New Testament times.
Egyptian Religion
Religion played a major role in ancient Egypt throughout its history. At the time of Moses, Egypt had a fully developed, polytheistic religious system that included a pantheon of over eighty gods. Although difficult to generalize, the primary gods were related something like this:
Egyptian Religion Ra (sun god)
Shu Tefnut (god of air) (goddess of mist)
Geb Nut (god of earth) (goddess of sky)
Osiris Isis Seth Nephthys (god of the dead) (wife of Osiris) (enemy of Osiris) (wife of Seth)
Horus (son of Osiris/Isis)
Egyptian Religion
As we shall see, Ra, Shu, Geb, Osiris, Isis and Horusthe left side of the family treeplay an important role in the Exodus story. At the time of Moses, this Egyptian pantheon of gods had a history and theology as fully developed in its day as Christianity is today.
Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt. St. Peters, Vatican City, Italy.
That God created us and loves us is not an historical claim; it is a statement of faith.
That 603,550 Hebrew men (plus women and children) left Egypt at a particular time in history and spent an entire generation in the Negev wilderness, then attacked and conquered the land of Canaan is an historical claim.
As Rabbi David Wolpe, named in 2012 the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek Magazine, wrote in 2001:
A tradition cannot make an historical claim and then refuse to have it evaluated by history.
1. There is no historical or archaeological evidence to suggest that the Israelites lived in Egypt in large numbers between 2,000 1,400 B.C., the period of the Patriarchs through the Exodus, certainly nothing approaching the epic story reported in Scripture. 2. There is no historical or archaeological evidence whatsoever to suggest that two million people left Egypt and wandered through the Sinai wilderness for forty years. Indeed, if two million people left Egypt and headed toward the land of Canaan walking ten abreast, they would form a line stretching 150 miles! 3. Although archaeologists have found ample evidence of other people living in the Sinai who predated the Israelites, it is highly improbable that nearly two million people could dwell in the Sinai for an entire generation without leaving a single pottery shard, Hebrew carving or trash heap.
4. Doubts about the Exodus are not based primarily on the lack of historical or archaeological evidence in Egypt or in the Sinai, however; rather, they are based upon the study of settlement patterns in Israel itself, a field that has been probed much more deeply than the Exodus. 5. Extensive surveys of ancient settlements in Israel make it clear that no great influx of people occurred between 1,500-1,000 B.C. It is not the lack of evidence for the Exodus, but the arrival in the land of Canaan that suggests that the Exodus was not a literal historical event, at least not on the scale of the biblical story. 6. If two million people who lived in Egypt for 400 years suddenly flooded into Canaan, one would expect to find massive evidence to support the event (their dishes, pottery and tools, for example, would look very different from similar Canaanite items, as would their art work, architecture and building methods). In fact, there is not a shred of evidence to suggest a sudden population increase in Israel during this period.
Given the nature of Jewish oral tradition, it seems probable that there were some enslaved Israelites in Egypt who escaped and made their way into the land of Canaan, planting the seed of a growing tradition which developed over time as the Jewish people shaped their own national identity and story. Indeed, the Pentateuch (Genesis through Revelation) did not reach its final form until post-exilic times (after the Babylonian captivity, 586-539 B.C.), 1,000 years after the Exodus story.
Questioning the historicity of the Exodus in no way undermines Scripture or diminishes its message; rather, such questioning highlights the literary nature of the text, viewing the Exodus as a story of redemption, writ on a grand scale.
Scripture encompasses a variety of literary genres: it is not simply an historical account, although historical events may rest at its foundation.
Scripture is the story of Gods interaction with humanity as viewed through the lens of a living faith tradition.
An enormous amount has been written on the date of the Exodus, but most scholars sit in one of two camps: 1446 B.C. or c. 1290 B.C. The argument for 1446 B.C. rests primarily on the text of 1 Kings 6: 1, which says:
In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites went forth from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomons reign over Israel in the month of Ziv (the second month), he began to build the house of the Lord.
Solomons reign began at the death of his father, David, in 970 B.C.; the fourth year of Solomons reign, then, was 966 B.C. Both of these dates are firmly fixed by internal dating in 1 & 2 Kings and by Assyrian chronological records independent of the Bible. If Solomon began building the temple in the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites went forth from the land of Egypt, the Exodus took place in 1446 B.C.
The c. 1290 B.C. alternative rests on Exodus 1: 11, which says:
Accordingly, they set supervisors over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. Thus they had to build for Pharaoh the garrison cities of Pithom and Rameses.
Rameses was rebuilt over the ancient city of Zoan-Tanis under the Pharaoh Rameses II, who reigned from c. 1290 to 1224 B.C. In addition, there is much archaeological evidence for the destruction of numerous Canaanite cities in the thirteenth century, evidence that many scholars suggest reflects Joshuas campaigns.
For our purposes we shall adopt the 1446 B.C. date for our study of Scripture, although much modern scholarship supports the 1290 B.C. date, including the work of William F. Albright, perhaps the greatest biblical archaeologist of the twentieth century.
From a literary perspective, however, 1446 B.C. is internally consistent with our narrative, so we shall use it as we study Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth and 1 & 2 Samuel. Once we hit 1 Kings, the disagreements vanish, for all the dates fall into line.
If we hold to 1446 B.C. as the date of the Exodus, then our story takes place during Egypts 18 th Dynasty:
Moses must have been born 1526 B.C., eighty years before the Exodus (see Exodus 7: 7), making Thutmose I (1526-1508) the Pharaoh who ordered the drowning of the Hebrew babies. The princess who fished Moses out of the Nile (Exodus 2: 5-10) then would have been Princess Hatshepsut, who later became Queen Hatshepsut (1504-1482 B.C.). Thus, the Pharaoh of the persecution was Thutmose III (1482-1450 B.C.), and his son Amunhotep II (1450-1425 B.C.) was the Pharaoh of the Exodus.
Thutmose I, Pharaoh who ordered the drowning of the Hebrew babies. This sandstone head was originally from the Temple of Amun-Ra at Luxor, Egypt. It is currently in British Museum, London.
Hatshepsut, Princess who fished Moses out of the Nile River, Moses adoptive mother, and later Queen Hatshepsut. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Thutmose III, Pharaoh of the persecution, a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph (Exodus 1: 8). Luxor Museum, Luxor, Egypt.
Amunhotep II, Pharaoh of the Exodus. Amunhotep IIs mummy was discovered by Victor Loret in 1898 in tomb 35 in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. It is currently in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
1. What accounts for the prominent position of Egypt in the ancient world? 2. Why did the Hebrews descend from a favored position in the land of Goshen to become slaves to the Egyptians? 3. Why did the Hebrews not assimilate into the dominant Egyptian culture? 4. Did the Hebrews lose their knowledge of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob while in Egypt? If so, why? If not, why not? 5. What is the difference between historicity and truth?
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