Buried Cities and Bible Countries

by George St. Clair

But apart from such side-lights as these upon ancient history, the discovery of the Tell-el-Amarna tablets has a lesson for us of momentous interest. The collection cannot be the only one of its kind. Elsewhere, in Palestine and Syria as well as in Egypt, similar collections must still be lying under the soil. Burnt clay is not injured by rain and moisture, and even the climate of Palestine will have preserved uninjured its libraries of clay. Such libraries must still be awaiting the spade of the excavator on the sites of places like Gaza, or others whose remains are buried under the lofty mounds of Southern Judea. Kirjath-Sepher must have been the seat of a famous library, consisting mainly, if not altogether, of clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform characters. As the city also bore the name of Debir, or “Sanctuary,” we may conclude that the tablets were stored in its chief temple, like the libraries of Assyria and Babylonia. When such relics of the past have been disinterred—as they will be if they are properly searched for—we shall know how the people of Canaan lived in the days of the Patriarchs, and how their Hebrew conquerors established themselves among them in the days when, as yet, there was no king in Israel.

[The information contained in this section is derived almost exclusively from the writings of Dr A. H. Sayce, who has taken a chief part in England in the decipherment of the Tell-el-Amarna inscriptions. See “Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch.” “Records of the Past.” New Series, vols, ii., iii., iv., and v.; “Victoria Institute Annual Address, 1889.” See additional facts in the Contemporary Review, Dec. 1890, and opinions in Naville’s Bubastis. For later excavations at Tell-el-Amarna, by Mr Flinders Petrie, see the Academy, 9th April 1892. For a suggestion by Conder that the tablets are in the Phœnician or Amorite language and writing of that time, see Quarterly Statement, July 1891.]

6. Israel in Egypt.

We have seen how well the general political circumstances in Egypt and Palestine, in the centuries before the Exodus, supplement the Bible narrative, explaining on the one hand why the Israelites were oppressed, and showing on the other how Canaan was prepared for their easy conquest. But while the fact that Rameses II. was the Pharaoh for whom Israel built “treasure cities” is demonstrated beyond reasonable contradiction, it is remarkable that the inscriptions do not say anything about the Israelites. We must suppose, with Brugsch, that the captives were included in the general name of foreigners, of whom the documents make very frequent mention. It would be satisfactory, no doubt, to find upon some contemporary Egyptian monument, a record of the arrival of Jacob, or the tasks imposed upon the Israelites, or the destruction of Pharaoh’s host in the Red Sea. But the Egyptians were not accustomed to record their defeats, and as to the labours imposed upon the Israelites, they were but a matter of course in the case of captives.

But short of direct mention, the Egyptian monuments and records afford ample confirmation to the Biblical account of the Sojourn. The Scripture references to Egyptian manners and customs are, in all respects, accurate; and this absolute accuracy could only result from actual contact and intimate acquaintance.

The Bible history of Abraham implies that when he visited Egypt, driven thither by famine, that country was already under a settled government, having a king, and princes who acted as the king’s subordinates. It requires us to believe that the king was called Pharaoh, or by some name or title which conveyed that sound to Hebrew ears. And further, it assumes that Egypt was so fruitful and so prosperous, as to be a granary for surrounding nations in years of famine. On all these points the Bible is in harmony with what we learn from other sources.

Again, according to Genesis xii. 12, Abram feared for Sarai his wife, lest the Egyptians should take her from him, and should kill him in order to make the proceeding safer. The possibility of such a thing being done by a people so civilised and cultured as the Egyptians has sometimes been doubted: but M. Chabas has called attention to a papyrus which actually states that the wife and children of a foreigner are by right the lawful property of the king. In the “Tale of the Two Brothers” also—an Egyptian romance of the days of Seti II.—we are told that the king of Egypt sent two armies to bring a beautiful woman to him, and to murder her husband.

In this same tale of The Two Brothers the wife of the elder solicits the love of the younger in almost exactly the same way that the wife of Potiphar tempts Joseph. The whole story of Joseph agrees minutely with what we learn of Egypt from her own records. The outward details of life, the officers of the court, the traffic in slaves, the visits for corn, are all pictured on temple walls and stone slabs. No feature in the Bible narrative is out of harmony with what we know of the country from other sources. “Potiphar” appears to be a good Egyptian name, and Egyptologists have pointed out that its probable equivalent in hieroglyphs signifies “Devoted to the Sun-god.” Joseph’s new name, Zaphnath-paaneah, means “Storehouse of the house of Life,” and was given to him when he entered Pharaoh’s service, just as a new name was given to the Hittite princess when she became Pharaoh’s wife. The king’s absolute authority appears abundantly from Herodotus, Diodorus and others. He enacted laws, imposed taxes, administered justice, executed and pardoned offenders at his pleasure. He had a bodyguard, which is constantly seen on the sculptures, in close attendance on his person. He was assisted in the management of state affairs by the advice of a council, consisting of the most able and distinguished members of the priestly order. His court was magnificent and comprised various grand functionaries, whose tombs are among the most splendid of the early remains of Egyptian art. When he left his palace for any purpose, he invariably rode in a chariot. His subjects, wherever he appeared, bowed down or prostrated themselves.[5] The civilisation of the Egyptians, even at a period long before the Israelitish Sojourn, comprised the practice of writing, the distinction into classes or castes, the peculiar dignity of the priests, the practice of embalming and of burying in wooden coffins or mummy cases, the manufacture and use of linen garments, the wearing of gold chains, and almost all the other points which may be noted in the Bible description.

In Genesis xl. 20, Pharaoh held a feast on his birthday, and the chief butler being restored to favour, gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand. We know from the Rosetta Stone that as late as the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes it was customary to make great rejoicing on the king’s birthday, to consider it holy, and to do no work on it. That it should be a day on which pardons were granted as an act of grace, is more than probable. Cups such as the king would have taken his wine from are portrayed on the monuments; baskets such as the baker would have carried his bakemeats in are used even unto this day, and may be seen in the British Museum. Before Joseph entered the royal presence he shaved himself and changed his raiment: and here, again, the monuments and profane history offer us illustrations. The Egyptians only allowed their hair to grow during the times of mourning, and to neglect the hair was considered very slovenly and dirty. When a man of low station had to be represented, the artist always drew him with a beard. The British Museum possesses Egyptian razors of various shapes; and in a tomb at Beni-Hassan the act of shaving is actually represented.