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preserved in Egypt. Everyage indeed witnessed fresh corruptions, until at last that of
Egypt became the most abjectsuperstition. But the earliest Egyptian religious records,
as preserved in that remarkable work, TheRitual for the Dead, disclose a different state
of things. There can be no doubt that, divested of alllater glosses, they embodied
belief in "the unity, eternity, and self-existence of the unknown Deity," inthe
immortality of the soul, and in future rewards and punishments, and that they
inculcated thehighest duties of morality. The more closely we study these ancient
records of Egypt, the moredeeply are we impressed with the high and pure character
of its primeval religion and legislation. Andwhen the children of Israel went into the
wilderness, they took, in this respect also, with them fromEgypt many lessons which
had not to be learned anew, though this one grand fundamental truth hadto be
acquired, that the Deity unknown to the Egyptians was, Jehovah, the living and the
true God.We can therefore understand how such close connection between Joseph and
the Egyptianpriesthood was both possible and likely.
But this is not all. Only under a powerful native ruler could the redivision of the land
and therearrangement of taxation, which Joseph proposed, have taken place.
Moreover, we know thatunder the rule of the last great king of this native dynasty (the
13th) a completely new system ofNile-irrigation was introduced, such as we may well
believe would have been devised to avoidanother period of famine, and, strangest of
all, a place by the artificial lake made at that time bearsthe name Pi-aneh, "the house
of life," which is singularly like that given by Pharaoh to Joseph. If wenow pass over
the brief 14th dynasty and the Hyksos period, when we may readily believe
Israelremained undisturbed in Goshen, we come to the restoration of a new native
dynasty (the so-called18th). After the "Shepherds" (Exodus 1:9, 10) had been
expelled, the Israelitish population,remaining behind in the borderland of Goshen,
would naturally seem dangerously large to the "newking," the more so as the Israelites
were kindred in descent and occupation to the "Shepherds," andhad been befriended
by them. Under these circumstances a wise monarch might seek to weakensuch a
population by forced labor. For this purpose he employed them in building fortress-
cities,such as Pithom and Raamses, (Exodus 1:11) Raamses bears the name of the
district in which it issituated, but Pithom means "the fortress of foreigners," thus
indicating its origin. Moreover, we learnfrom the monuments that this "new king"
(Aahmes I.) employed in building his fortresses what arecalled the Fenchu - a word
meaning "bearers of the shepherd's staff," and which therefore wouldexactly describe
the Israelites.
The period between the "new king" of the Bible (Aahmes I.) and Thothmes II. (the
second insuccession to him), when we suppose the Exodus to have taken place, quite
agrees with thereckoning of Scripture. Now this Thothmes II. began his reign very
brilliantly. But after a while thereis a perfect blank in the monumental records about
him. But we read of a general revolt after hisdeath among the nations whom his father
(^)