Part 13 (2/2)

That Pharaoh should have pursued a tribe of diseased slaves, _whom he had driven out of his country_, is altogether improbable. In the words of Dr. Knappert, we may conclude, by saying that:

”_This story, which was not written until more than five hundred years after the exodus itself, can lay no claim to be considered historical_.”[57:2]

FOOTNOTES:

[48:1] Exodus i. 14.

[48:2] Exodus ii. 24, 25.

[48:3] See chapter x.

[48:4] Exodus ii. 12.

[48:5] The Egyptian name for G.o.d was ”_Nuk-Pa-Nuk_,” or ”I AM THAT I AM.” (Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 395.) This name was found on a temple in Egypt. (Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 17.) ”'I AM' was a Divine name understood by all the initiated among the Egyptians.” ”The 'I AM'

of the Hebrews, and the 'I AM' of the Egyptians are identical.” (Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, p. 38.) The name ”_Jehovah_,” which was adopted by the Hebrews, was a name esteemed sacred among the Egyptians. They called it Y-HA-HO, or Y-AH-WEH. (See the Religion of Israel, pp. 42, 43; and Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 329, and vol. ii. p. 17.) ”None dare to enter the temple of Serapis, who did not bear on his breast or forehead the name of JAO, or J-HA-HO, a name almost equivalent in sound to that of the Hebrew _Jehovah_, and probably of identical import; and no name was uttered in Egypt with more reverence than this IAO.” (Trans. from the Ger. of Schiller, in Monthly Repos., vol. xx.; and Voltaire: _Commentary on Exodus_; Higgins' Anac., vol. i. p. 329; vol. ii. p. 17.) ”That this divine name was well-known to the _Heathen_ there can be no doubt.”

(Parkhurst: Hebrew Lex. in Anac., i. 327.) So also with the name _El Shaddai_. ”The extremely common Egyptian expression _Nutar Nutra_ exactly corresponds in sense to the Hebrew _El Shaddai_, the very t.i.tle by which G.o.d tells Moses he was known to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.”

(Prof. Renouf: Relig. of Anc't Egypt, p. 99.)

[48:6] Exodus iii. 1, 14.

[49:1] Exodus iii. 15-18.

[49:2] Exodus iii. 19-22. Here is a command from the Lord to _deceive_, and _lie_, and _steal_, which, according to the narrative, was carried out to the letter (Ex. xii. 35, 36); and yet we are told that this _same Lord_ said: ”_Thou shalt not steal._” (Ex. xx. 15.) Again he says: ”_That shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him._” (Leviticus xix. 18.) Surely this is inconsistency.

[49:3] Exodus iv. 19, 20.

[49:4] Exodus iv. 10.

[49:5] Exodus iv. 16.

[49:6] Exodus v. 3.

[50:1] Exodus vii. 35-37. Bishop Colenso shows, in his Pentateuch Examined, how ridiculous this statement is.

[50:2] Exodus xiii. 20, 21.

[50:3] ”The sea over which Moses stretches out his hand with the staff, and which he divides, so that the waters stand up on either side like walls while he pa.s.ses through, must surely have been originally the Sea of Clouds. . . . A German story presents a perfectly similar feature.

The conception of the cloud as sea, rock and wall, recurs very frequently in mythology.” (Prof. Steinthal: The Legend of Samson, p.

429.)

[51:1] Exodus xiv. 5-13.

[51:2] Orpheus is said to have been the earliest poet of Greece, where he first introduced the rites of Bacchus, which he brought from Egypt.

(See Roman Antiquities, p. 134.)

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