The Festival of the Golden Calf, &c., Ex. xxxii. and Lev. xvii. 7., Prohibition of Marriage between near Relatives, Lev. xviii., Defilement with Animals, Lev. xviii. 23; Exod. xxii. 18, &c., EGYPT AND THE BOOKS OF MOSES. NEGATIVE PART. It is incumbent on us, first, in the negative part of our inquiry, to disprove the pretended "mistakes and inaccuracies" of the author of the Pentateuch, in relation to Egypt. By these, as has lately been asserted, he has betrayed, that he lived out of Egypt, and long after the time of Moses. MATERIAL USED FOR BUILDING IN EGYPT, The author, says von Bohlen,' comes under strong suspicion of having transferred to the valley of the Nile, many things from Upper Asia; as the Egyptians were accustomed to build with hewn stone, and the great buildings of brick, Ex. i. 14, instead of being Egyptian, seem rather to have been borrowed from Babylonia. 1 Einleitung zur Genesis, S. LV. Von Bohlen (Peter) was born at Wäppels in 1796, of poor parents, and was left an orphan in 1811. In 1817 he was received into the Gymnasium at Hamburg, where he turned his attention to oriental studies. He was the pupil of Gesenius, Roediger and Hoffmann, in the University at Halle, in 1821; and in 1822 he went to Bonn and attended upon the instructions of Freytag and Schlegel. In 1825 he was elected Professor extraordinary of Oriental Languages at Königsberg, and regular Professor at the same place in 1830. He has since removed to Berlin. His work, so often referred to in this volume, is entitled, "Die Genesis historischcritisch erläutert," Königsberg, 1835. It was answered by Drechsler, at Leipsic, in 1837. The neological sentiments of the author may be easily inferred from the quotations and references made by Hengstenberg. Allusion is also made in this volume, in one or two cases, to his book on India: "Das alte Indien mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Aegypten." He has published several other works which are somewhat known in Germany. B We can scarcely trust our own eyes, when we read such things. Is it possible that any one who undertakes to comment upon the Pentateuch, and even ventures to accuse its author of ignorance in relation to Egyptian affairs, can show himself grossly uninformed in these same things, and make assertions whose incorrectness is conclusively shown by the first good compendium ! 1 In a case like the one before us, any one would first of all have recourse to O. Müller's Archæologia. There we read: "Building with brick was very common in Egypt. Private edifices were indeed generally of this material." If we examine further, Herodotus 2 mentions a pyramid of brick,3 which is probably still standing.* 5 But we are literally overwhelmed with proofs of the abundant use of brick in Egypt, when we turn to those who, during the present century, have explored the Egyptian monuments. Champollion, for example, speaks of a tomb built of crude brick at Sais, and a temple of brick at Wady Halfa. Rosellini says: "Ruins of great brick buildings are found in all parts of Egypt. Walls of astonishing height and thickness are preserved to the present time, as, for example, the circumvallation of Sais; also whole pyramids, as those of Dashoor, and a great number of the ruins of monuments, both great and small." Wilkinson says: "The use of crude brick, baked in the sun, was universal in Upper and Lower Egypt, both for public and private buildings. Enclosures of gardens and granaries, sacred circuits encompassing the courts of temples, walls of fortifications and towns, dwelling-houses and tombs, in short, all but the temples themselves, were of crude brick." The same author shows that building with brick was practised even in very early times, since the bricks themselves, 8 Four built of brick are still in existence in Lower Egypt, two at Dashoor and two at the entrance of the Fyoom. Several of smaller size are also found in Thebes. See Wilkinson, Vol. I. 131, and III. 317. See Bähr upon the passage. Mannert Geog. 10. 1. S. 444, 67. Macrizi, in his description of the condition of Egypt under the Mameluke Sultans, mentions a pyramid of brick in Lower Egypt, which is probably the same as that noticed by Herodotus. T. • In den Briefen aus Aeg. S. 14 der. Deutsch. Uebers. 7 I monumenti dell' Egitto e della Nubia, II. 2, p. 249. • S. 83. Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. London, 1842, Vol. II. p. 96. both in Thebes and the neighbourhood of Memphis, often bear the names of the monarchs who ruled Egypt in that early age.1 THE ANIMALS OF EGPYT AND THE PENTATEUCH. The author, remarks v. Bohlen further in the passage referred to, supposes the existence of camels and asses in Egypt. The allegation, as fully stated by him, with his reasons, is as follows: "The narrator mentions the animals of his own native land, a part of which Abraham could not receive in Egypt. Gen. xlv. 23. xlvii. 17. Ex. ix. 3. He ascribes to him no horses which were native to Egypt, as the relator indeed is aware, Gen. xli. 43, xlvii. 17; but, on the other hand, he mentions sheep, which are found in the marsh lands of Egypt as seldom as camels (hence these last are denied to the country by the ancient writers) and asses, which were especially odious to the Egyptians on account of their colour." It is said in the passage designated: "And he [Pharaoh] entreated Abraham well for her sake; and he had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men servants, and maid servants, and she-asses, and camels." We inquire, first, why the horse is not also among the presents. Even v. Bohlen dares not assert that this circumstance is accounted for, by supposing that the author did not know how abundant horses were in Egypt. In the enumeration of the animals of the Egyptians, in Gen. xlvii. 17, horses stand first, also in Ex. ix. 3. The rearing of horses is considered in the Pentateuch as so peculiar to Egypt, that in Deut. xvii. 16, it is represented as possible, that an Israelitish king, merely from love to the horse, might wish to lead back the people to Egypt. If now the reason why horses are not mentioned cannot be found on the part of the giver, it must be found with the receiver. It appears 1 As Hengstenberg has not given the precise dates here, it may be proper to add, that arches were constructed of brick at least as early as 1540, B. C. in the reign of Amunoph I., and probably in the time of the first Osirtasen, who is supposed by Wilkinson to have been contemporary with Joseph. "It is worthy of remark," says the same author, " that more bricks bearing the name of Thothmes III. (whom I suppose to have been king of Egypt at the time of the Exodus,) have been discovered, than of any other period." S. 163, upon Gen. xii. 16. |