lundi 8 décembre 2014

Relating Egyptian History And The Old Testament

By Claudine Hodges


There are many who claim that the Bible is not a very reliable source for history because there are a lot of discrepancies between it and the Egyptian timeline. However, if one would dig deeper, he would actually see that there are similarities between Egyptian history and the Old Testament. These points are some that one can take a look at.

Of course in order to gather all the events of Egypt, scholars would have to take note of several accounts written by several historians who have studied Egypt. One of the most popular of all the Egyptian historians is of course Manetho. Many historians have actually quoted Manetho but many of them like Josephus or Herodotus would still disagree with each other which means there is no real valid timeline.

Now the first account would actually be the account of Noah. Now the grandson of Noah was Mizraim who was said to have brought a tribe that dispersed from Babel with him and founded the race of the Egyptians. Historian Eusebius claimed that Mizraim was also known as Mestraim and was the one who did start the Egyptian race by settling down in an empty land.

Now the chapters of Genesis and Exodus both state how Abraham visited the land of Egypt with his wife Sarah. Now his visit was made after he made a covenant with God and also during the time when there was a huge plague in the land of Canaan. The Pharaoh during that time was Khufu.

Now one of the points that can be brought up would be the pyramids that were created by the great Khufu. Although the pyramids of Khufu were indeed great, they were not perfect because the blocks were not perfectly squared. This was simply because the Egyptians had no knowledge of complete arithmetic and geometry.

So relating this to the visit of Abraham, one will be able to notice that the pyramids of Egypt had actually become more symmetrical and perfectly squared after the visit. This would imply that Abraham taught the people of Khufu the art of mathematics and geometry. This is proof that the events that happened in the story of Abraham actually matches the events during the reign of Khufu.

Of course one of the very big figures in the Bible was none other than Moses. Many would not believe that Moses actually existed but if one would look at the 12th dynasty, one can fit Moses in the picture. The Pharaoh at that time, Amenemhet III, had two daughters and no sons with one of his daughters fostering an adopted child.

So if one would really take a look at all the accounts, he cannot really take the Bible out of history. One just has to take note that the dates may be different then and now which means that mistakes can be made. So far the Bible has been quite accurate historically which is why it can be used as a reference.




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