The History of the Ancient Civilizations. Duncker Max

in order to oppress them with burdens. The children of Israel were compelled to perform heavy tasks in the field, and taskwork in clay and bricks; and they built for Pharaoh the treasure cities of Pithom and Ramses, and Pharaoh commanded all his people to throw into the Nile all the male children born to the Israelites, but to let the daughters live.

It is no longer possible to discover what motives were given in the Judæan text for the settlement of Jacob and his sons in Egypt. In it the land thus apportioned to the Hebrews is not called Goshen, but Ramses. Yet it is clear that even in that account it was Joseph who procured a habitation and possessions for his father and brethren in Egypt.[604] The reasons given for the change in the narrative, as it now stands, are taken from the Ephraimitic text, which describes in the most lively manner, the virtues and glory of the ancestor of this tribe. The prophetic revision only added a few details, and sharpened a few of the traits. The second text represented Joseph as falling into the hands of Midianite merchants, the revision added Ishmaelites. According to the second text, Joseph was a servant in the house of Potiphar, in whose house as captain of the body-guard the butler and baker of Pharaoh were imprisoned, and there Joseph interpreted their dreams. The revision inserts the temptation of Joseph by Potiphar's wife, and makes him, owing to her false accusation, a fellow-prisoner of the butler and baker.[605] Thus it was able to exalt Joseph, not from servitude only, but from the misery of imprisonment to the steps of the throne.

      The ethical traits of the narrative, the national and religious views underlying it, are obvious. The evil of which his brothers are guilty towards Joseph, without any offence on his part, he bears with submission. In the service of the Egyptian he shows himself a faithful slave; he withstands the most enticing temptation. In return for this faithful honesty he is compelled again to suffer innocently. After long endurance he receives the highest exaltation; from prison he is summoned to be ruler of the land, and second only to Pharaoh. As he had been a faithful steward to Potiphar in small things, he is now a faithful servant to Pharaoh in great things; all the events, which he correctly foresaw, he knew how to turn to the advantage of his master. When he has shown his brothers, in order to touch their consciences for the evil they had done to him, how men may innocently fall into suspicion, punishment, and misfortune, he generously pardons them. In this pardon, this rescue of the whole tribe by the man whom they had attempted to destroy, rests the true punishment laid upon the brothers. It is the wonderful guidance of Jehovah which assists the innocent out of misery and distress, which turns the evil, which the brothers had committed against Joseph, in such a direction that in the grievous years of famine the race of Jacob finds a helper and protector near the throne of Egypt, who is able to give food and a habitation to that tribe, and allot to their flocks the magnificent pastures of the land of Goshen. The carrying of the corpse of Jacob to Hebron is intended to signify that Canaan, and not Egypt, was to be the lasting abode of the posterity of Jacob. At the same time the tradition of the Hebrews shows the benefits which a man of their race conferred upon the Egyptians in a time of evil; it marks how Egypt, owing to his foresight, was saved from destruction, in order at the same time to show how little the Egyptians regarded these benefits, and how great is the contrast presented by their subsequent conduct towards the Hebrews.

The description of Egypt corresponds exactly to the circumstances of the land as we have found them before. Both the author of the Ephraimitic text and the reviser were well acquainted with the life and customs of Egypt. We have found captains of the body guard in the retinue of Pharaoh (p. 190), a chief baker is also to be seen on the monuments, and although we cannot point to any butler of the king upon them, we know that in Egypt wine was not wanting at the table of Pharaoh, any more than among his workmen.[606] In the whole of the East, and demonstrably in Egypt, great importance was attached to dreams.[607] By knowing how to explain their meaning more correctly than the wise men and interpreters of Egypt—i.e. than the prophets, and temple-scribes of the Egyptian priesthood[608]—Joseph is liberated from prison, and raised to the position of grand vizier. The robes of byssus, in which Joseph is now clad, we have found to be the prescribed dress of the priests (p. 197), and if Pharaoh puts a golden chain round his neck, we have already met with an instance of this kind of distinction (p. 131). That the Pharaohs regarded themselves as proprietors of the soil, that they collected a land-tax, and that the fields would require to be measured in order to collect this tax, has been already stated (p. 194). This tax, so surprising to them, the Hebrews explained by assuming that the Egyptians sold their plots to Joseph in the time of the famine, which were then given back to the proprietors in return for a fifth of the yearly produce. Hereby the services of Joseph to the throne are placed in the clearest light. We saw above that it was the first object of Pharaoh and his ministers to provide Egypt with life and sustenance (pp. 104, 184). Joseph's wisdom and providence put Pharaoh in a position to attain this object, even in the years of the famine. The names also quoted in the Hebrew narrative seem to correspond to the ancient Egyptian. The name Potiphar may be explained by Petphra, i.e. "dedicated to Ra," or by Puti-phra, i.e. "given by Ra." The name of the daughter of the priest at On (Heliopolis), Asenath, whom Joseph took to wife, can be explained by As-neith, and the Egyptian name of Joseph, Zaphnath-paaneah, by Zpentpouch, i.e. "creator of life" (in the time of famine).[609]

Setting aside these points in the narrative, what historical value can be given to the tradition that the children of Jacob went from the south of Canaan to the east of Egypt, that they remained there 430 years, according to the older text, and in this period increased into a mighty people?[610] The district given to the children of Jacob for their abode lies, as the tradition plainly shows, in the lower country east of the Nile, beyond the Eastern or Tanitic mouth. The name Goshen, given in the Ephraimitic text, appears to correspond to Keshem, the name of a province in Lower Egypt.[611] The chain of mountains running on the east of the Nile, sinks down between the Tanitic arm and the north-west corner of the Arabian Gulf, and on the slopes nearer the river presents a flat extent of pasture land. In Egypt a tribe of shepherds could have no share in the regular system of cultivation, and the fixed order of Egyptian life; a district suitable for the maintenance of their flocks would be allotted to them, and nothing more. On the north of this district, the nearest of the great cities of Egypt was Tanis (Zoan), on the south, Heliopolis (On, Anu), with which we have become acquainted as a great centre of religion, and the seat of the worship of the sun god Ra, and the god of life Bennu-Osiris (pp. 44, 69). Hence with perfect consistency, the Hebrew tradition narrates that the daughter of a priest of Heliopolis was given to Joseph to wife.

But what could induce the children of Jacob to go to Egypt, or the Egyptians to give them a pasture-land on their north-eastern border? We arrived above at the conclusion that the tribe of Jacob was a branch of the Edomites, whose dwelling-place is fixed by tradition in the mountains between the north-east point of the Arabian Gulf and the Dead Sea, where in fact we find them in historical times. This tribe, therefore, both at the time when in union with the Edomites it passed along the eastern and southern borders of Canaan, and after separating from the Edomites—who may have already taken Mount Seir from the Horites, or have pastured their flocks in the vicinity—was at no great distance from Egypt. When divided from the Edomites, the fear of the stronger part of the tribe from which they had separated,