1. Ethnology and Language

worthy of note that the inscriptions and do not point to or hint at any Lanauage. consciousness of foreign extraction or any aboriginal immigration. The language has many characteristics of the Semitic group, mainly in its grammatical features; the vocabulary shows variations which indicate an entirely diverse origin. If it was originally Semitic the relation was collateral rather than by way of descent. The earliest connected texts now extant are the socalled "pyramid-texts" beginning in the end of the fifth dynasty (say 2650 s.c.) and strangely enough these texts are written in a more strictly phonetic form than those of later times. Herein consists the difficulty and uncertainty of their interpretation. The artistic ability also of this period and the degree of development of religious belief and practise are well worthy of remark. The classic period of the language was in the twelfth dynasty, and later periods attempted to imitate the earlier model. The Coptic was the daughter of the Egyptia,n, and continued to be spoken till the seventeenth century A.D. The original system of writing was strictly hieroglyphic, variations being due to abbreviations for the sake of speed and of adaptation to the writing material employed, papyrus. The characters used for stone sculpture, the hieroglyphic, consisted of pictures of objects in nature and domestic life executed in greater or leas detail and with a remarkable degree of accuracy; the "hieratic" was not a "priestly" script, but merely an abbreviated form, the characters being applied to the papyrus with a brush; and the "demotic" was a further and later abbreviation of the hieratic, not a "popular" chirography. The first two were used coincidentlyaud some mistakes in hieroglyphic texts can be corrected and understood only upon the assumption that the stonecutter misread a character in his hieratic copy. It is evident also in some of the recessions of the "Book of the Dead" that the scribes of the New Kingdom were unable to understand some of the characters and words found in early copies of the work in the chirography of the Middle Kingdom, and that their perplexity was as great as that of modern scholars. The characters used possess varied powers, some being purely alphabetic, others syllabic, and others ideographic or determinative.

2. Customs

a divine example supposed to have been set notably in the case of Osiris and Isis. Political alliances were cemented by intermarriage. The taking of Sarah (Gen. xii. 14, 15) for the royal harem was an example of a general custom, and the story of Potiphar's wife finds an almost exact parallel in the "'Tale of Two Brothers in the D'Orbiney papyrus now in the British Museum. The statement that the son of Hadad was brought up with the sons of Pharaoh (I Kings xi. 20) is identical with the cases of many Egyptian officials who claimed it as a mask of honor that they were educated among the children of the court. The case of Moses (Ex. ii. 10) was similar in part only. The practise of shaving the head, changing the raiment, washing the feet, bowing in obeisance (Gen. xli. 14, xliii. 24, 28) were all part of Egyptian Practise. Unfortunately little is known of the court ceremonial of Egypt, but what is known bears out the Biblical record. In the Ancient Kingdom the practise of "kissing the ground" before the king was so much the practise, that a high priest of Memphis mentions it as a mark of special favor that the king did not insist upon the performance of this act of submission, but required him to kiss his foot. But the rigor of this ceremony was relaxed in the period of the New Kingdom. Slavery was imposed upon conquered peoples in accordance with universal oriental practise. The abhorrence of the Egyptian for foreigners (Gen. xliii. 32, xlvi. 34) is to be explained upon the ground of the fundamental difference between the two, as emphasized in the Egyptian conception of their origin. The great gods had appeared in Egypt only; there the great sun-god Ra had warred and ruled, and his posterity still sat upon the throne with the title "son of the sun," ruling over those who alone were entitled to the name of men, while foreigners were never men but only negroes, Libyans, or "miserable" Aeiatics, who had once rebelled against the great god Ra, and for their insubordination had been driven north, south, and west. The special " abomination,) in which shepherds were held

88

(Gen. xlvi. 34) was not on account of the fact that the land had been conquered by "shepherd kings," though this may have made the conquest the more galling. To the Egyptian the shepherd was an unshaved, dirty, undressed pariah. His home was in the swamp, and while a necessary appendage to a large farm, he received no honor at the hands of his master. This seems the more strange, since it was with the utmost pride that the number of cattle, sheep, oxen, and goats is recounted and portrayed on the walls of the tombs.

The wagons provided by Joseph (Gen. xlv. 19) appear to have been carte adapted to the transport of household goods and of persons incapable of the prolonged standing required by the ordinary chariot. Both chariots and carts seem to have been intro-

duced along with the horse in the dark 8. 7oCaau- period assigned to the Hyksoa rule. factures- Bricks were made of Nile mud, and

were frequently stamped with the cartouche of the reigning Pharaoh. They were either baked or sun-dried. Naville reports that the bricks found at Pithom were of two sorts, mud mixed with straw and mud alone (Ex. 1. 14, v. 7, 18). Unfortunately none of the bricks from Pithom bear a royal stamp. Linen and broidered work (Ezek. xxvii. 7) are mentioned specially, and beautiful specimens of this fabric are preserved in many museums. Baskets (Gen. xl. 16) for conveying small objects are depicted in funerary scenes of all ages, particularly in carrying grain and sand, and the same practise has persisted to the present time.

The title for the king (Gen. xii. 15) which is used in the Pentateuch, gives no clue to the identity of any particular individual mentioned. "Pharaoh" is derived from the native title, which is made up of the words per-aa, signifying "great house," and is similar to the Turkish "Sublime Ports." The claim of the divine origin of the ruling class is seen in the ordinary appendage to the coronation name,

"son of Ra." Biblical references to 4. Officials. the officers of the government are few.

The position to which Joseph was named has approximate parallels. In the Ancient Kingdom there was a man who boasted the title of "overseer of the whole land," while officials having similar charge in later times recognize the geographical divisions of the land in their titles. In the New Kingdom we find a man who appears as the mouthpiece of Pharaoh, and another whose office was that of "overseer of the granaries," of whom it is said that his province included not only Egypt but also Ethiopia and all the territory to the confines of Naharina (Mesopotamia). Potiphar (Gen. xxxvii. 36, xxxix. 1) is spoken of as captain of the guard (R. V., margin, "chief of the executioners"). The latter title is explained by the supposition that extreme punishment was executed by the chief officer of the body-guard. As this officer lived probably in the time of the Hyksos, and as very little is known about this period, little light can be thrown upon the subject. Later the body-guard was formed of mercenaries, and the position of chief was one of great importance. The mention of a chief baker and a chief butler (Gen. xl.) is exactly in line with

the household service of the upper classes as well as that of the king. Each . sort of service had a special corps which was charged with it, and each corps had its overseer. Similarly in the field each gang of workmen had an overseer or "taskmaster" (Ex, i. 11, iii. 7). Among the insignia of office mentioned as having been turned over to Joseph was the signet ring (Gen. xli. 42). As all legal and commercial documents were stamped with a seal, the significance of this emblem of office is apparent.

8. Chronology: Egypt, like other Oriental countries, used no era in dating the events of its history. All that have been handed down to us are partial lists of kings such as those of Abydos, Karnak, and Sakkarah, containing selections of seventy-six, sixty-one, and forty-seven royal names respectively, and even the sequence of these is doubtful. The only known complete native list, with the years of the reign of each king, was contained in the ever to be regretted Turin papyrus which was irreparably damaged during its journey to Europe. In its present fragmentary condition it is incapable of rendering much aid in fixing of Egyptian chronology. The historical work written in Greek by the native priest Manetho about 250 B.C. has been preserved only in excerpts of somewhat doubtful accuracy given by Josephus and Julius Africanus. Mistakes occur in the figures due both to copyists' mistakes and to apologetic emendation. Manetho's division of the entire period into thirty dynasties, however, furnishes a convenient method of indicating the relative location of events. Dates approximating exactness can not be assigned back of the New Kingdom, and precise chronology begins with the accession of Psammetichus in 663 B.C. It is claimed, however, that the date of Amenhotep I. of the twelfth dynasty, has been fixed astronomically at 2000 B.C., and that the reign of Thothmes III. extended from May 3, 1501, till Mar. 7, 1447. Many a prior, theories and corresponding systems of chronology have been propounded, but the best results are only approximations so far as the earlier periods are concerned. One notable feature of recent investigation is seen in the tendency to reduce the length of the history as a whole. This is evident from the appended chronological table.

Dynasty. po: Brugec6 Petrie. Meter. Breasted. 1.-11, 5887 4400 4777 3180 3400 s.c. III. 5318 3988 4212 2980 ' IV, 5121 3733 3998 2830 2900 " V. 4873 3588 3721 27b0 " V1. 4425 3300 3b03 2530 282b " VII.-VIII. 4222 3033 3322 2475 " IX.-X. 4047 2821 2445 " XI. 3782 298b 2180 " XII. 3703 2488 2778 2130 2000 " XIIL-XVII. 3417 2233 2098 1930 1788 " XVIII. 1822 1700 1587 1b80 " XIX. 1473 1400 137b 1530 13b0 " XX. 1279 1200 1202 1200 " XX1. 1101 1100 1102 1080 1090 " XXII. 971 988 952 930 " 9,0 XXIII. 851 788 7bb 745 " XXIV. 782 733 731 718 " XXV. 718 700 721 728 712 " XXV1. 874 888 884 883 883 " Persians 524 527 525 526 52b " Greeks 331 332 " Romans 30 "

89

Rsspt

The figures of Brugach are based on the average length of a human generation; Met'er's on the minimum reign-lengths shown by the records; astronomical calculations depend on eclipses as related to the Sothic periods of 1,460 years and the variable year of 365 days. The earlier systems suffered from insufficient data for the application of the method of "dead-reckoning," which is the only system really available.

4. History: The predynastic period is little known, but excavations made mainly since the beginning of the present century have begun to throw light upon the subject. The work of De Morgan and Petrie is of initial importance. The main divisions of the history, based upon the thirty dynasties of Manetho are: (1) the Ancient King dom, dynasties I.-VI., say 3400-2475 B.C.; (2) the Middle Kingdom, dynasties XI-XII., 21601788 B.C.; (3) the New Kingdom, dynasties XVIIL-XX., 1580-1090 B.C.; (4) the period of decline and for eign intervention, dynasties XXL-XXV., 1090-&63 B.C.; (5) the period of restoration, dynasty XXVI., 663--525 B.C.; (6) the Persian and Greek domination, dynasty XXVII. onward, 525-30 B.C.; for details as to the history, reference must be

1. Con- made to the special works on that subepeotns and ject. The gaps in the above list repre-

Sonroee. tent dark periods about which little is known. Dynasties seven to ten were occupied with internal strife resulting in the removal of the seat of power from Memphis grad ually southward to Thebes. Dynasties thirteen to seventeen covered also a period of unrest and of foreign domination by the Hyksos, " Sheiks of the Bedouin," who were probably of Semito-Hittite race. --The sources of the history are numerous and consist of antiquities illustrating manners and beliefs; texts on stone, leather and papyrus, containing the facts forming the raw material of historical repre sentation; records in the cuneiform character and in Hebrew tradition as well as the accounts pre served by Greek travelers and historians. Aside from the Turin papyrus and Manetho's work, there is no evidence of the compilation of a complete list of the kings which could be called even a com prehensive outline or framework of the history. The annals of some of the kings, and the records of the separate temples constitute the historical wri tings of the Egyptians, and these extended scarcely beyond lists of names and reign-lengths. The available material is widely scattered, and while remarkably full for some periods, is for the most part meager and unsatisfactory.

It is probable that the immigration of the sons of Jacob must be assigned to the period of the Hykeos (before 15$0 B.C.). There are pictures on tomb-walls which represent the approach of shepherds of peculiarly Semitic features, and a papyrus tells of permission granting grazing privileges to others of that race. Them is also a Ptolemaic tradition of a seven-year dearth in the reign of Zoser (2890 B.C.). The journey of Abraham to Egypt and the resort thither against famine are quite in line with known fact. The theory which identifies the expulsion of the Hyksos with the Exodus of the Israelites (Josephus) is impossible

chronologically without destroying the historicity of the latter event. Thothmes III. (1501-1447 $.c.) was the embodiment of the warlike 2. Hyksoe, spirit which the Egyptians had acquired

Pharaohs from their conflict with the Hykaos. sad their He pushed his conquests through PalSneoeseors satins, leaving a record of the places to the he had conquered on the walls of the temple of Amon at Karnak. In this list were included the names of Kadesh on the Orontes, Megiddo, Damascus, Hamath, Acco, Joppa, Gazer, etc. Later glimpses of the condition of the Palestinian dependencies of Egypt are derived from the cuneiform tablets found at Tell el-Amarna. (see Amarna Tablets). These tablets were sent by the local vassals of the Pharaohs, and contain items of information, private and political, written in Babylonian, the language of the diplomacy of the period. The picture which they give is of the time just preceding the Exodus. They were composed for the information of Pharaohs who are generally supposed to have been largely under Semitic influence, one of whom nude the only attempt in Egyptian history to introduce a monotheistic form of religion and worship. The attempt came to nothing permanent, and the power of Egypt in Palestine was overthrown soon afterward. Not till the time of Rameaea II. (1292-1225 B.C.) was the reconquest attempted. He made his influence felt as far as the Lebanon, and his twenty-first year was marked by a treaty of peace with the Hittites. He is commonly regarded as the Pharaoh of the oppression, and the fact that he was the builder of Pithom confirms the Hebrew tradition. The absence of any personal designation in the title Pharaoh, precludes the possibility of absolute identification in most cases. The power of Egypt in Palestine did not long survive Rameses II., and it must have been during this period that

~ the Hebrews took possession of the land. The Exodus is usually assigned to the reign of

I Merneptah (1225-1215 B.C.) the successor of Rameses I II. The earliest extant mention of the name of Israel is in a victory-stele (discovered in 1896) which this king erected. The name is enumerated in connection with other places in

S. Exodus Palestine and Syria as scenes of the to the Pharaoh's conquests. On its face it is Aesyriaa evidence that a tribe bearing this desig-

Period. nation had been defeated in Palestine; but as it stands alone, an uncorrob orated witness to the king's expedition, its value has been seriously questioned. Nevertheless it raises interesting and important questions. An unnamed Pharaoh, who in view of the subsequent history (I Kings xi. 40) could scarcely have been Sheshonk I. (Shishak), captured the city of Gazer and gave it to his daughter, the wife of king Solo-

loon (I Kings ix. 16). This is the first intimation of Egyptian conquest in Canaan in nearly three hundred years. Sheshonk I. (945-924 B.C., called " Shishak," not " Pharaoh " in I Kings xi. 40, being the first time that the Old Testament gives a personal name to an Egyptian king) about 926 B.C.

~ celebrated an expedition in which, among other ~~ places, he pillaged the temple at Jerusalem (I Kings

90

xiv. 25-26). This expedition was not in favor of Jeroboam whom he had harbored (I Kings xi. 40) but against all Canaan. A place which he also ravaged was called "Field of Abram." Again there was a period in which the internal weakness of the government caused a cessation of campaigns in Palestine and Syria. The references of II Chron. xiv. 9-13 to "Zerah the Ethiopian," and of II Kings xvii. 4 to "So" (or Sews) find no counterparts in the Egyptian records. If the latter was an Egyptian, he must have been a petty ruler in the North at the beginning of the Ethiopian domination in the South. See Assyria, VI., § 10.

With Shabaka (712-700 B.C.) the first king of dynasty XXV began an attempt to ward off the danger from so powerful a neighbor as Assyria, and the peoples of Palestine and Syria were induced to join in an offensive alliance in spite of the realistic prophecy of Isa. xx. Sennacherib, however,