EGYPT is Unquestionably one of the most wonderful countries in the world. It is also one of the most ancient, and the ore that had to do most prominently with God's chosen people Israel. It was God who took His people them, first by Ills servant Joseph, and then by Jacob Mid all his sons. And after they had been there two centuries and a quarter, and had increased into a great nation, God brought them out in a miraculous manner, after having visited the nation of Egypt with a series of terrible judgments, ending with the destruction of Pharaoh and his army in the depths of the Red Sea.
The many Missive works still in existence declare Egypt to have been a great country. The pyramids, temples, tombs, and colossal figures excite the admiration of modern visitors and leave them lost in wonder as to how such works could have beets accomplished in times so remote.
Egypt Was in early days one of the most advanced nations in civilization and learning. We read in the New Testament that Moses was instructed in "all the wisdom of the Egyptians." (Acts 7:2222And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. (Acts 7:22).) When it was needed to describe the Wisdom of Solomon, it is said that it "excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt." (1 Kings 4:3030And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. (1 Kings 4:30).) This is not simply What Egypt thought of itself, but what God in His book refers to as wisdom.
Everything that scripture says of Egypt is of interest to the student of God's ways. Egypt is still in existence: altered, of course, by the various masters it has had, and through intercourse with other nations; but in many things it is the same. Some of the prophecies concerning Egypt have been fulfilled; others are being fulfilled; and some are yet to be fulfilled. Egypt must be preserved for those prophecies.
What also enhances the interest is, that Egypt abounds with ancient monuments and documents, extending back to the time when Abraham visited that land because of the famine.
These monuments are so many ancient volumes respecting the nation. They show us its manners and customs, its houses and its people; its religion and its amusements; yea, as one has said, by those documents we can read their very thoughts.
Our aim is to bring before our readers some of these pictures, and examples of the picture-language, to tell them how the learned have been able to read that unknown tongue; and, as we do this, to compare all we look at with scripture. We have God's ancient book, the Bible, and we have the Egyptians' ancient books, their monuments and inscriptions. We shall see how beautifully they agree, as indeed we might have expected, they would. We do not suppose that the Egyptians had any motive for making either their picture& or their writings false; except that, as all men naturally do, they boast of that which they think to be to their glory, and hide that which they think will dishonor them. And thus, when we find monuments made thousands of years since, agreeing with scripture, it declares plainly that the sacred volume was written by the finger of God.
The Bible does not need any confirmation for the believer; but those ancient monuments being, in existence we examine them with it and the more we, examine, the more we are convinced that the oldest Book in the world and (as far as we know) the oldest monuments in the world, agree, and we are confirmed in the thought that the Bible is no other than the word of the living God.
It is important that the student of scripture should be able to look this question fully in the face, because of some who, on such a comparison, do not hesitate to doubt the word of God rather than the monuments, if, indeed, the monuments have, been rightly understood and correctly interpreted. Thus, for instance, some have not hesitated to declare that the chronology of scripture must be at fault, and that thousands of additional years must have elapsed since the flood; but a more careful examination of the monuments has shown that some of the kings were certainly contemporaneous, and that thus much less time had run its course.
We have felt constrained, therefore, not to omit the chronology of Egypt—a, difficult enquiry, but important because of the events recorded in scripture—and we have thought it best to furnish the reader with the chief material from which the chronology is gathered, so that any so disposed can re-investigate the subject for themselves.
Another important subject is as to how far Moses in the Jewish ritual, if at all, copied from Egyptian rites and ceremonies. We are grieved to find Christian writers represent this to have been the case to a large extent; whereas in scripture it is plain that the Jewish ritual was of God, and Moses constructed the tabernacle from what was shown to him in the mount. We hold it to be derogatory to the glory of God to think that anything in God's worship and service had been copied from idolatrous Egypt.
The land of Egypt is so well known as to need but a very few words. The river Nile may be said to be the heart and soul of the country. Where the river flows there is more or less fertility on both sides: so that Egypt is a narrow strip of country pointed out by the river—a valley between two chains of hills—the Libyan and the eastern ranges. The fertility of the land is ensured in other parts by numerous canals.
The Nile now flows into the Mediterranean Sea by two principal mouths: the Rosetta on the west (with Alexandria on its west), and the Damietta on the east. These run about a hundred miles and then unite: the piece of country thus made into an island is called the Delta, from its resemblance to the Greek letter of that name (Δ), only, as it is represented on the maps, it must be reversed thus. But the Nile had formerly other mouths into the Mediterranean Sea—Herodotus says seven, five natural, and two artificial—and thus the Delta embraced more land than is marked out by its present branches.
Near the junction of the waters on the east is the city of Cairo, and opposite this on the west side of the river, stand the large pyramids of Gizeh and the ruins of Memphis. To the north-east of Cairo was the district of Goshen and Ramses. The district of the Delta and the country east and west of it, forms Lower Egypt. Going south we pass through what is now called Middle Egypt, then Upper Egypt, and then Ethiopia. A bird's-eye view is given of the country as far as the second Cataract, on pages 276-7.
Much of the desert of Egypt is not, as many suppose, nothing but sand; but it is stone of various sorts. Mr. Gliddon, a long resident in the country, says that the desert is not a dreary plain of sand, but "a high tableland of limestone, sandstone, granite, and other rocks according to locality; broken and interrupted by alternate elevations and depressions; where, when not on the top of the table-rock itself, you travel in ravines, defiles, and spaces on hard gravel, upon which your tread often leaves no trail; and where frequently you are truly delighted, as the shades of evening warn you to search for a bivouac, if you can find as much sand as will make under your carpet a Bedawee's mattress." The Isthmus of Suez and other places are exceptions.
In such a book as this there is but little room for anything new. The same objects, descriptions of places and things, have to be copied from those who have made the various discoveries. This could not always be pointed out, or there would have been constant reference to well-known books on Egypt; but where direct quotations are made, we have given the writers. To those who have aided with the loan of their woodcuts, and assisted with counsel, we tender many thanks.
As various names are used in scripture referring to places and people in connection with Egypt, we give an alphabetical list of them and their identity as far as it is known.
Cars, Ezek. 30:55Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. (Ezekiel 30:5). Probably in the north of Egypt, but not known Cum', the ordinary name for Ethiopia, and is so rendered in some places in the Authorized Version. Named from one of the Kos of Ham.
GOSHEN, generally taken to be the north-east corner of Egypt, if not indeed lying outside Egypt proper.
HANES, Isa. 30:44For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. (Isaiah 30:4). Some have taken it for the same as Tahpanhes; but its identity is not made out.
HELIOPOLIS. This name does not occur in the Authorized Version, but it is in the LXX and the Vulgate, for On. It signifies city of the sun.' It was in Lower Egypt, a little to the north-east of where the branches of the river form the point of the Delta.
LIBYA. The same country as Mat.
LUBIM, LUD, LUDIM. These cannot be distinguished one from the other. They are placed on the north-west of Lower Egypt.
MEMPHIS. The capital of Egypt when Upper and Lower were united.
MIGDOL. On the east of Lower Egypt, twelve miles south of Pelusium.
MIZRAIM. The common name for Egypt in the Old Testament. From Mizraim, the son of Ham.
No, No-AMON. Thebes, a city in Tipper Egypt, about 50 miles north of the First Cataract.
ON, the same as Heliopolis.
PATHROS. Generally taken for a part of Upper Egypt, and probably about Thebes, called the Thebais.
PELUSIUM: see Sin.
PHUT, PUT. On the west of Egypt. Named from the son of Ham.
PI-BESETH. A city in the eastern part of Lower Egypt, called by the Greeks, Bubastis.
RAMESES, RAAMSES. Both a city and a district to the east of Lower Egypt. Probably the same as Goshen, or forming a part of it.
SERA. A country identified with the Island of Meroe, the south-west corner of Nubia or Ethiopia, but spoken of in scripture as distinct from Ethiopia.
SIN. Pelusium, a city in Lower Egypt, the spot not identified.
SYENE. Properly Seveneh. It was on the boundary between Upper, Egypt and Ethiopia.
TAHPANHES, TAHAPANES, TEHAPHNEHES. A town in the east of Lower Egypt. Perhaps the same as Daphnæ.
ZOAN. A town of Lower Egypt, identified with Tanis.