- 9 -
stock of knowledge. And here it is specially remarkable, that every fresh
historicaldiscovery tends to shed light upon, and to confirm the Biblical narratives.
Yet some of the principal arguments against the Bible were at one time derived from
the supposedhistory of Egypt! Thus while men continually raise fresh objections
against Holy Scripture, thoseformerly so confidently relied upon have been removed
by further researches, made quiteindependently of the Bible, just as an enlarged
knowledge will sweep away those urged in our days.Already the Assyrian
monuments, the stone which records the story of Moab, (2 Kings 3) thetemples, the
graves, and the ancient papyri of Egypt have been made successively to tell each
itsown tale, and each marvelously bears out the truth of the Scripture narrative. Let us
see what we canlearn from such sources of the ancient state of Egypt, so far as it may
serve to illustrate the history ofIsrael.
The connection between Israel and Egypt may be said to have begun with the visit of
Abram to thatcountry. On his arrival there he must have found the people already in a
high state of civilization. Thehistory of the patriarch gains fresh light from monuments
and old papyri. Thus a papyrus (now in theBritish Museum), known as The Two
Brothers. and which is probably the oldest work of fiction inexistence, proves that
Abram had occasion for fear on account of Sarai. It tells of a Pharaoh, whosent two
armies to take a fair woman from her husband and then to murder him. Another
papyrus (atpresent in Berlin) records how the wife and children of a foreigner were
taken from him by aPharaoh. Curiously enough, this papyrus dates from nearly the
time when the patriarch was in Egypt.From this period also we have a picture in one
of the tombs, representing the arrival of a nomadchief, like Abram, with his family
and dependents, who seek the protection of the prince. Thenewcomer is received as a
person of distinction. To make the coincidence the more striking - thoughthis chief is
not thought to have been Abram, he is evidently of Semitic descent, wears a "coat
ofmany colors," is designated Hyk, or prince, the equivalent of the modem Sheich, or
chief of a tribe,and even bears the name of, Ab-shah, "father of sand," a term
resembling that of, Ab-raham, the"father of a multitude."
Another Egyptian story - that of Sancha, "the son of the sycamore," - reminds us so far
of that ofJoseph, that its hero is a foreign nomad, who rises to the highest rank at
Pharaoh's court andbecomes his chief counselor. These are instances how Egyptian
history illustrates and confirms thatof the Bible. Of the forced employment of the
children of Israel in building and repairing certaincities, we have, as will presently be
shown, sufficient confirmation in an Egyptian inscription latelydiscovered. We have
also a pictorial representation of Semitic captives, probably Israelites, makingbricks in
the manner described in the Bible; and yet another, dating from a later reign, in
whichIsraelites - either captives of war, or, as has been recently suggested,
mercenaries who had stayedbehind after the Exodus - are employed for Pharaoh in
(^)