ANALOGY OF THE EGYPTIAN AND JEWISH RELIGIONS.
Modern archaeological researches in Egypt have disclosed a very striking resemblance between the ancient Egyptian religion and that found in the Jewish Old Testament, which, with the evidence of the greater antiquity of the former, has fastened the conviction upon the mind of every impartial reader of history, that the Jewish religion was constructed from materials obtained in Egypt and India; and this conclusion is corroborated by the Bible itself, which tells us Moses was skilled in all the wisdom and learning of Egypt, and was by birth an Egyptian. When we compare the doctrines, precepts, laws, and customs of the two religions, we find but little difference between them.
Even to the ten commandments there is a striking resemblance. The account of the creation and the order of its development is essentially the same in both. 1. The Egyptians had a leader filling the place of Moses by the name of Hermes; and his writings were held in similar estimation, as they were believed to be inspired and dictated by Infinite Wisdom. 2. The Egyptians had a priesthood of wealth and power, and possessing the same sacerdotal caste as those of the Jews. 3. And the priesthood, Mr. Pritchard tells us (Debate 116), was hereditary, and confined to a certain tribe, as was that of the Jews. According to Diodorus Siculus, and also Mr. Wilkinson, nearly all their ceremonies were essentially the same. 4. And their religious temples were constructed upon the same model, with an outer court and an inner court,—a sanctum sanctorum. 5. The Egyptians had numerous prophets like the Jews. And Herodotus says, "The art of predicting future events came from the Egyptians." 6. The Egyptians had an ark, or shrine, which served as an oracle, and was carried about on a pole by a procession of priests, as the ark of the covenant of the Jews was by the Levites. The Rev. John Kendrick, in his "Ancient Egypt," acknowledged that he believed "the ark of the covenant of the Hebrews was constructed on the model of the Egyptian shrine." 7. Kitto, in his "Cyclopedia," says the Egyptian sphinxes explain what is meant by the cherubims of the Jews. 8. In their selection of animals for sacrifices, we find the same rules were adopted. Each were controlled by the singular fancy of choosing a red heifer. 9. Each had their scape-animals to carry away their sins,—the Egyptians an ox, and the Jews a goat. 10. Both practiced circumcision. And we have the authority of Herodotus for saying the Jews and Phoenicians borrowed the custom of the Egyptians. 11. Both Jews and Egyptians took off their shoes when approaching a holy place, which, with the Egyptians, was in the temple. 12. Both believed in one supreme, over-ruling God, and many subordinates, known either as angels or deities, which, in their character and their offices, were essentially the same. And a hundred other analogies might be pointed out, which indicate the Oriental origin of Judaism.