Feb.4] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCH.-EOLOGY. [1890.containing the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, that no
reliancecan be placed uponthem.
Andwhatis the Hebrew accountof the matter? Josephus, whose
accountis on the whole fuller thanthatof the Old Testament,says
that the Egyptians, beingenviousof the prosperity of the Hebrews,
set them to cut a great number of channels for the river, and to
build wallsfor their cities,andramparts to restrain the river, and
pyramids. If, as I believe to be the case, all the pyramids were
builtbeforethe Hyksos invasion, the last statementof Josephusis
erroneous; and as Josephus, on the other hand,doesnot say that
the Hebrews builtPithomand Rameses, I am also inclinedto regard
thatstatementas an error, which, beingin the first instanceput as
a suggestion, afterwards became incorporatedin the text of the
Pentateuch. Josephusnexttellsus that a sacred scribeprophesied
to the king that about this time a child would be born to the
Hebrews,who,if he were reared,wouldbringthe Egyptian dominion
low and would raisethe Israelites, and that thiswas the reason that
the king desiredthe slaughter of the Hebrew boys.If, as is generally
supposed,this king lived throughthe life of Moses bothin Egypt
and in Midian, we should be obliged to conclude thathe was either
Tahutmes III or Ramessu II, since no other king of that period
reignedmorethanfifty years; but there is no evidence that there were
not severalkings between the birth of Moses and the Exodus.*
Feelingthattherewas not time between Mer-en-ptahandSheshonk
for the events stated in Hebrew historyto have occurred between
the Exodus and the invasion of Judea by the latter, 1 sought for a
moresuitableperiodin Egyptian historyfor the Exodus thanthat of
Mer-en-ptah, and my attention was attractedby the remarkable
religious revolutionin the reign of Amenhotep IV,or Khuenaten,
andI now suggestthathe was the oppressor of the Hebrews ; that
he, as a religious fanatic,wasmuch more likelyto be influenced by
the prophecy mentionedby Josephus thanweresuchgallantsoldiers
as Tahutmes and Ramessu; and that he, having weakened his
kingdom by religious intolerance of the most bitterdescription,
wouldhavehad muchmore causeto fear the growing strengthof
the Hebrews thanwouldTahutmesor Ramessu, whohad raised a
- As no king of the XVIIIth or XlXthdynastyreignedmorethansixty-seven
year*,theremusteitherhavebeenmorethanone king betweenthe birth of Moses
and the Exodus, or the eighty yearsfromhis birth to the Exodus, namely,forty
in Egypt and forty in Midian, mustbe shortened.
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