Transition
We move slowly from the prelaw discussion.
We have a full list of Abe's immediate descendants. Isaac. God laughed. Jacob. Dirty little liar. Sneaky little thief. Depends on who translates. The call of the fallen. Renamed Israel. God contended. His twelve sons, founders of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joseph. God's increase. Jacob in particular makes a valid discussion of Fallen Flesh and we give him his own blog as soon as we conclude the quad level structure of our Flesh blog.
God set up the arrival of Israel.
Then proceeded to delay for generations.
The Hebrews fled to Egypt to avoid the famine and stayed. And stayed. And stayed.
And reproduced.
Ex 1:1 Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt; every man and his family came with Jacob.
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5 All the offspring of Jacob were seventy persons: and Joseph had come to Egypt before them.
6 Then Joseph came to his end, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
7 And the children of Israel were fertile, increasing very greatly in numbers and in power; and the land was full of them.
8 Now a new king came to power in Egypt, who had no knowledge of Joseph.
9 And he said to his people, See, the people of Israel are greater in number and in power than we are:
10 Let us take care for fear that their numbers may become even greater, and if there is a war, they may be joined with those who are against us, and make an attack on us, and go up out of the land.
11 So they put overseers of forced work over them, in order to make their strength less by the weight of their work. And they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.
12 But the more cruel they were to them, the more their number increased, till all the land was full of them. And the children of Israel were hated by the Egyptians.
13 And they gave the children of Israel even harder work to do:
14 And made their lives bitter with hard work, making building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in the fields under the hardest conditions.
15 And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew women who gave help at the time of childbirth (the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah),
16 When you are looking after the Hebrew women in childbirth, if it is a son you are to put him to death; but if it is a daughter, she may go on living.
17 But the women had the fear of God, and did not do as the king of Egypt said, but let the male children go on living.
18 And the king of Egypt sent for the women, and said to them, Why have you done this, and let the male children go on living?
19 And they said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are strong, and the birth takes place before we come to them.
20 And the blessing of God was on these women: and the people were increased in number and became very strong.
21 And because the women who took care of the Hebrew mothers had the fear of God, he gave them families.
22 And Pharaoh gave orders to all his people, saying, Every son who comes to birth is to be put into the river, but every daughter may go on living.
(BBE)
Even in captivity, God's promise that Abe's people will flourish fulfills itself. The Law has not yet been given but the association with God fostered by Joseph, the promise passed on by Abe, lingers with the people.
Notice this was a Pharaoh who didn't know Joseph. He had no gratitude for the things the great Hebrew had done. This Pharaoh saw only the multitude of aliens in his land and wanted them driven out. Failing that, he followed a pattern which has preceded the collapse of every empire known to man. He made aliens his work force. His people grew richer using the labor of a foreign work force and came to rely on them for their income. And did it while hating and fearing the work force that was enriching them. Worse, they put the work on God's people. Recall again that God promised to bless those who blessed Abraham and curse those who cursed him and his line. Joseph and the eventual kindness shown his family because of his integrity and visions given him by God got Egypt blessed. This despite their worship of multiple gods and goddesses.
Since we are discussing our Fallen flesh, we have seen the two failures that constantly lure us: the physical and the spiritual both of which turn the fallen mind away from God. The world before the flood held both those distractions and the world after held both as well. Sodom typified the physical lure and, while Egypt held the lure of security, it also held the lure of idolatry.
One myth also explains how myths are used to reduce the realty of God to fit a society. when he revealed his vision of seven years of feast and seven of famine.
http://www.egyptianmyths.net/mythfamine.htm
When we read a story of an ancient Famine, we are left to wonder of it was not a revision of that event in Joe's life or, at least, the myth was given to pave the way for Joe's vision to give it real power. More likely it was a perversion of Joe's truth since the Hebrew rebellion was purged from most of Egyptian history.
https://www.quora.com/What-archeological-evidence-exists-to-show-that-the-Hebrews-were-ever-slaves-or-even-just-lived-in-Egypt
God set up the arrival of Israel.
Then proceeded to delay for generations.
The Hebrews fled to Egypt to avoid the famine and stayed. And stayed. And stayed.
And reproduced.
Ex 1:1 Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt; every man and his family came with Jacob.
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5 All the offspring of Jacob were seventy persons: and Joseph had come to Egypt before them.
6 Then Joseph came to his end, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
7 And the children of Israel were fertile, increasing very greatly in numbers and in power; and the land was full of them.
8 Now a new king came to power in Egypt, who had no knowledge of Joseph.
9 And he said to his people, See, the people of Israel are greater in number and in power than we are:
10 Let us take care for fear that their numbers may become even greater, and if there is a war, they may be joined with those who are against us, and make an attack on us, and go up out of the land.
11 So they put overseers of forced work over them, in order to make their strength less by the weight of their work. And they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.
12 But the more cruel they were to them, the more their number increased, till all the land was full of them. And the children of Israel were hated by the Egyptians.
13 And they gave the children of Israel even harder work to do:
14 And made their lives bitter with hard work, making building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in the fields under the hardest conditions.
15 And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew women who gave help at the time of childbirth (the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah),
16 When you are looking after the Hebrew women in childbirth, if it is a son you are to put him to death; but if it is a daughter, she may go on living.
17 But the women had the fear of God, and did not do as the king of Egypt said, but let the male children go on living.
18 And the king of Egypt sent for the women, and said to them, Why have you done this, and let the male children go on living?
19 And they said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are strong, and the birth takes place before we come to them.
20 And the blessing of God was on these women: and the people were increased in number and became very strong.
21 And because the women who took care of the Hebrew mothers had the fear of God, he gave them families.
22 And Pharaoh gave orders to all his people, saying, Every son who comes to birth is to be put into the river, but every daughter may go on living.
(BBE)
Even in captivity, God's promise that Abe's people will flourish fulfills itself. The Law has not yet been given but the association with God fostered by Joseph, the promise passed on by Abe, lingers with the people.
Notice this was a Pharaoh who didn't know Joseph. He had no gratitude for the things the great Hebrew had done. This Pharaoh saw only the multitude of aliens in his land and wanted them driven out. Failing that, he followed a pattern which has preceded the collapse of every empire known to man. He made aliens his work force. His people grew richer using the labor of a foreign work force and came to rely on them for their income. And did it while hating and fearing the work force that was enriching them. Worse, they put the work on God's people. Recall again that God promised to bless those who blessed Abraham and curse those who cursed him and his line. Joseph and the eventual kindness shown his family because of his integrity and visions given him by God got Egypt blessed. This despite their worship of multiple gods and goddesses.
Since we are discussing our Fallen flesh, we have seen the two failures that constantly lure us: the physical and the spiritual both of which turn the fallen mind away from God. The world before the flood held both those distractions and the world after held both as well. Sodom typified the physical lure and, while Egypt held the lure of security, it also held the lure of idolatry.
One myth also explains how myths are used to reduce the realty of God to fit a society. when he revealed his vision of seven years of feast and seven of famine.
http://www.egyptianmyths.net/mythfamine.htm
The Seven Years' Famine
The Preface
This narrative is from the famous inscription which was discovered on the rock pictured at left on the Island of Sahal in 1890 by Charles Wilbour.
In the eighteenth year of the king Tcheser (the third king of the third dynasty), the whole region of the South, the Island of Elephantine, and the district of Nubia were ruled by the high official Mater. The king sent a dispatch to Mater informing him that he was in great grief by reason of the reports which were brought to him into the palace as he sat upon his throne, and because for seven years there had been no satisfactory inundation of the Nile. As the result of this grain of every kind was very scarce, vegetables and garden produce of every kind could not be found, and in fact the people had very little food to eat, and they were in such need that men were robbing their neighbors. Men wished to walk out, but could not do so for want of strength; children were crying for food, young men collapsed through lack of food, and the spirits of the aged were crushed to the earth, and they laid themselves down on the ground to die.
In this terrible trouble king Tcheser remembered the god Imhotep, the son of Ptah of the South Wall, who, it would seem, had once delivered Egypt from a similar calamity, but as his help was no longer forthcoming Tcheser asked his governor Mater to tell him where the Nile rose, and what god or goddess was its tutelary duty.
In answer to this dispatch Mater made his way immediately to the king and gave him information on the matters about which he had asked questions. He told him that the Nile flood came forth from the Island of Elephantine whereon stood the first city that ever existed; out of it rose the Sun when he went forth to bestow life upon man, and therefore it is also called, "Doubly Sweet Life." The spot on the island out of which the river rose was the double cavern Qerti, which was likened to two breasts, from which all good things poured forth; this double cavern was, in fact, the "couch of the Nile," and from it the Nile-god watched until the season of inundation drew nigh, and then he rushed forth like a vigorous young man and filled the whole country. At Elephantine he rose to a height of twenty-eight cubits, but at Diopolis Parva in the Delta he only rose seven cubits. The guardian of this flood was Khnemu, and it was he who kept the doors that held it in, and who drew back the bolts at the proper time.
Mater next went on to describe the temple of Khnemu at Elephantine and told his royal master that the other gods in were Sopdet (Sothis), Anqet,Hapi, Shu, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Horus , Isis and Nephthys, and after this he enumerated the various products that were found in the neighborhood, and from which offerings ought to be made to Khnemu. When the king heard these words he offered up sacrifices to the god, and in due course went into his temple to make supplication before him.
"I am Khnemu, the Creator"
Finally Khnemu appeared before him, and said, "I am Khnemu the Creator. My hands rest upon thee to protect thy person, and to make sound thy body. I gave thee thine heart... I am he who created himself. I am the primeval watery abyss, and I am the Nile who riseth at his will to give health for me to those who toil. I am the guide and director of all men, the Almighty, the father of the gods, Shu, the mighty posessor of the earth."
Finally the god promised that the Nile should rise every year, as in olden time, and described the good which should come upon the land when he had made an end of the famine. When Khnemu ceased to speak king Tcheser remembered that the god had complained that no one took the trouble to repair his shrine, even though stone lay near in abundance, and he immediately issued a decree in which it was ordered that certain lands on each side of the Nile near Elephantine should be set apart for the endowment of the temple of Khnemu, and that a certain tax should be levied upon every product of the neighborhood, and devoted to the maintenance of the priesthood of the god; the original text of the decree was written upon wood, and as this was not lasting, the king ordered that a copy of it should be cut upon a stone stele which should be set in a prominent place.
The Afterward
It is not said whether Khnemu kept his promise to Tscher, but we may assume he did. The form of the narrative of the Seven Years' Famine summarized above is not older than the Ptolemaic period, but the subject matter belongs to a much older time, and very probably represents a tradition which dates from the Early Empire.
Editor's Note: this myth was taken more omr less directly from The Gods of the Egyptians by E.A. Wallis Budge
When we read a story of an ancient Famine, we are left to wonder of it was not a revision of that event in Joe's life or, at least, the myth was given to pave the way for Joe's vision to give it real power. More likely it was a perversion of Joe's truth since the Hebrew rebellion was purged from most of Egyptian history.
https://www.quora.com/What-archeological-evidence-exists-to-show-that-the-Hebrews-were-ever-slaves-or-even-just-lived-in-Egypt
Depending on what is taken as evidence, the archaeological support is quite thin:
In short, if the Biblical account is assumed to be basically true, then a smattering of archaeological evidence can help bolster our understanding or explanation of the Hebrews' enslavement and exodus. However, if you take a neutral or skeptical approach to the Bible, the external evidence is not sufficient to prove or corroborate the Biblical claims regarding Hebrew/Israelite life in Egypt.
Disclaimer: This answer is not a claim about the truth of the Hebrew Bible.
- The Hebrew Bible itself is not archaeological evidence, as usually understood. Looking at the bible as a historical document, its references to Egypt only prove that the authors had some knowledge of Egypt. It doesn't mean that any of the authors' people were there. Plus, scholars typically date the Pentateuch to centuries after the exodus.
- No Egyptian records mention slaves known as Hebrews. The first Egyptian reference to Israel (in Canaan) is the Merneptah Stela. It is very ancient, though later than would be expected for the exodus, but its brief reference does not corroborate Israelite presence in Egypt or their enslavement.
- There were some Egyptian slaves from Canaan, as noted by John Morrow. As added in comments by Brian Dunlap, see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/n
ova/anc... - The Bible mentions Pithom (Per-Atum/Tell Maskhuta) and Raamses (Pi-Raamses/Qantir), which are attested locations in Egypt. (David Lipovitch) But this only shows IMO that Exodus was written with some knowledge of Egypt.
- To be sure, archaeological records refer to various peoples (Habiru or Hyksos) who might be correlated to the Biblical account of the Hebrews. However, this correlation only works if the Bible is assumed to be true. Our data on these peoples cannot truly be said to independently corroborate the Bible, not by today's standards of evidence. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/w
iki/Shasu - In addition, there is other tantalizing evidence. For instance, the Egyptians had a period of monotheism with the god Aton.
In short, if the Biblical account is assumed to be basically true, then a smattering of archaeological evidence can help bolster our understanding or explanation of the Hebrews' enslavement and exodus. However, if you take a neutral or skeptical approach to the Bible, the external evidence is not sufficient to prove or corroborate the Biblical claims regarding Hebrew/Israelite life in Egypt.
Disclaimer: This answer is not a claim about the truth of the Hebrew Bible.
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