Feb.4] PROCEEDINGS. [1890.see what historical factsor probabilities there are in support of
M. de Bunsen's viewswe find none,exceptthe possibilities (which
I deal with in my own suggestionspresently) thatOsarsiph and
his lepers wereMosesand his followers, andthatthe Amenophis of
that story wasAmenhotepI. M. de Bunsen, however,makes this
king to reign onlythirteenyears,in opposition to his own authorities,
the various versionsof Manetho, whichgiveeitherthisking or a
personage called Chebron thirteen yearsjointly with the Queen
AhmesNefertari,andto Amenhotep twentyto twenty-four yearsby
himselfafterwards. HowM. de Bunsen arrangesthisdifferencein
his chronology I do not know. On the question of fact we are,
moreover,entitledto ask how muchof the Hebrew accounts of the
life of Moses M. de Bunsen accepts, andhowhe fits them in with
the facts whichwe know fromthe contemporary monumentsof the
historyof the period he has selected, and why, if the Hebrews left
Egyptin the reign of Amenhotep I, neither Tahutmes III nor
RamessuII found themin Palestine? M. de Bunsen doesindeed
attemptto explain the latter difficulty,but I cannot thinkthatthe
Egyptiananniesconfinedthemselves so closely to the coast, that
they would not have come in contact with the Hebrews hadthey
beenin possession of the Promised Land.
I must nowexplainthe lines uponwhich I have workedmyself.
The general suppositionhas been thatthe Exodus was so supremely
importantan event in the history of Egypt, thatsomeaccountof it
mustbe found in its annals, and,failingany better guides, investi
gatorshavefollowedManethoandthe Shepherds into the wilderness
on the one hand, or Osarsiph andthe lepers intothe quarries on the
otherhand,andhave,as I think, losttheirway altogether. In my
opinion,however,the Exodus was to the Egyptian but one amongst
an unending seriesof struggles withthe Asiatic barbarians,and one
which,as it ended unsatisfactorily,was as well forgottenas recorded.
To the Hebrew, on the contrary, the Exodus wasthe beginning of
his national life, an event to be remembered, commemorated,and
perhapsembellished. TheHebrewaccounts are,therefore,in my
opinion,likelyto be approximately correct,and,takingthem to be
so, I have sought to find a period of Egyptian historyintowhich
theywould fit without difficulty. From Egyptian sources, indeed,
we have practicallyno evidence, for the monuments giveus no
informationon the subject, and though the poor fragmentswhichwe
possess of Manetho's history containtruth, theyare so far from
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