The First Vision and First Beast: Egypt

The First Vision and the First Beast-Egypt

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The First Vision and the First Beast-Egypt

by

Norman E. Nabatar

Rodolfo Atienza Davao City, Philippines2014

The First Vision:

In his first vision, Daniel spoke thus:

“2 Daniel said: "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. 3 Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea. 4 "The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a man, and the heart of a man was given to it. 5 "And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, `Get up and eat your fill of flesh!' 6 "After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule. 7 "After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast-terrifying and frightening and

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very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns. 8 "While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully. 9 "As I looked, "thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. 10 A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. 11 "Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. 12(The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were

allowed to live for a period of time.) 13 "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” (Dan 7:2-14 NIV)

The angel in his vision explained to him:

“23 He gave me this explanation: `The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. 24 The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. 25 He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will

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be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time. 26 "`But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. 27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.'” (Dan 7:23-27 NIV)

The first three beasts are the kingdoms or ancient civilizations that began in: 1) Egypt, 2) Mesopotamia, and 3) Media - Persia. These kingdoms comprised the Fertile Crescent, a term coined by the Orientalist James Breasted in 1916.1 The name is given to the area of the Middle East where the earliest known civilizations of the ancient world began. The region extends like an arc from the Nile Valley of Egypt north along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, then east and south through the Tigris and Euphrates valley to the head of the Persian Gulf, passing through present-day Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and western Iran. The Fertile Crescent includes the areas once occupied by the ancient kingdoms of Palestine at its western end, Assyria in the central portion, and Babylonia and Elam in the

eastern part. The fertile Nile River delta north of Egypt characterized by dry summers and rainy winters is where farming originated in the Middle East at around 9000 BC. Later in 5000 BC, the oldest urban and literate societies emerged from Egypt at the western end of the crescent and at Sumer at the eastern end. In the centuries that followed, the Canaanite kingdoms rose on the Mediterranean coast. These were succeeded by Phoenicia and ancient Israel while the Babylonians and Assyrians dominated Mesopotamia.2 Egypt's hegemony over its area has fairly been consistent, while Mesopotamia gave rise to Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria.

The First Beast - EgyptObjections have been made over the strict

application of science to the interpretation of scriptures and several books have been published about it. Not a few of them were about Darwin’s On the Origin of Species which propounded how human beings evolved through branching over the course of generations through a process of natural selection.3 His theory implied that all species of life could probably have come from a single original species. Darwin’s theory is very briefly being discussed here together with some new theories in

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paleoanthropology to construct a plausible time-line for the creation of man according to the Books of Genesis and Daniel that is reconciled with established and authoritative scientific discoveries.4 By employing this method, we will never be arbitrary, much less whimsical nor capricious - a charge too often levied against a strictly spiritual approach to interpretation of scriptures. Neither are we writing in favor of a particular church or an alliance thereof but out of a personal motivation. Furthermore, I would like to declare at the outset, that it is my belief that in this exegesis, I recognize our human limitation to fathom the power and wisdom of the Almighty that is awesome in its superiority and beyond our human capacity to fully comprehend. It goes with it my own limitation to describe certain parts of scripture using human language. And for this reason, I am inclined to qualify the use of scripture (including those from the Qur'an) whose definitions may actually construe a concept rather than is traditionally or secularly meant. For example, my study of the Bible has led me to a conclusion that angels and heavenly beings are not parties to the covenant that men are bound. It is possible that there is a separate covenant with them. Nevertheless, it is for this reason I went

above and beyond the average human conception of time, space and the universe. Its application in this exegesis recognizes the limitation of the account in the Book of Genesis of creation, for the simple reason that the bodies of knowledge today that are available to accurately describe it were not available then. For example, the word “day” as it is used in the Book of Genesis could also have described the awesome power of our Creator and could simply mean that the power that is behind creation is so great it can achieve so much in a day. That this is no simple day. As Peter propounds, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8, Ps 90:4)). In this verse, the word like does not exclude other interpretations of day to mean not just a thousand years, but millions or even billions of years.

Strongly worded prejudices of the perceived irreconcilable differences between the scriptures and science on the subject of creation and natural law in Darwin's controversial book, Origin of the Species alone can be found, and arguments like this found below by Robert Chambers, secret author of the book Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, are not uncommon, saying:

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'It will be objected that the ordinary conceptions of Christian nations on this subject (creation) are directly derived from Scripture, or, at least, are in conformity with it. If they were clearly and unequivocally supported by Scripture, it may readily be allowed that there would be a strong objection to the reception of any opposite hypothesis. But the fact is, however startling the present announcement of it may be, that the first chapter of the Mosaic record is not only not in harmony with the ordinary ideas of mankind respecting cosmical and organic creation, but is opposed to them, and only

in accordance with the views here taken."5 (italics mine)

The said book was thus quoted by Darwin in his Origin, saying:

“The 'Vestiges of Creation' appeared in 1844. In the tenth and much improved edition (1853) the anonymous author says: —

'The proposition determined on after much consideration is, that the several series of animated

beings, from the simplest and oldest up to the highest and most recent, are, under the providence of God, the results, first, of an impulse which has been imparted to the forms of life, advancing them, in definite times, by generation, through grades of organisation terminating in the highest dicotyledons and vertebrata, these grades being few in number, and generally marked by intervals of organic character, which we find to be a practical difficulty in ascertaining affinities ; second, of another impulse connected with the vital forces, tending, in the course of generations, to modify organic structures in accordance with external circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat, and the meteoric agencies, these being the 'adaptations' of the natural theologian.'

The author apparently believes that organisation progresses by sudden leaps, but that the effects produced by the conditions of life are gradual. He argues

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with much force on general grounds that species are not immutable productions. But I cannot see how the two supposed "impulses" account in a scientific sense for the numerous and beautiful co-adaptations which we see throughout nature; I cannot see that we thus in any insight how, for instance, a woodpecker has become adapted to its peculiar habits of life. The work, from its powerful and brilliant style, though displaying in the earlier editions little accurate knowledge and a great want of scientific caution, immediately had a very wide circulation. In my opinion it has done excellent service in this country in calling attention to the subject, in removing prejudice, and in thus preparing the ground

for the reception of analogous views.”6

How true, for often we would hear about the church describe creation in a literary sense than a scientific one.

In the period scientists call the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic Period (2.5 million years to 8000 BC) archaic man was yet primitive, settled in caves crouched on all fours, pursued the herds or fished in stone-made implements and gathered fruits. Approximately between 100,000 and 40,000 BC, a

semi-erect archaic human - the brutish Neanderthals (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) appeared. The Neanderthals eked a living from the most challenging habitat and developed the Levallois stone-making technique used for making specialized tools (microliths) such as knives and scrapers for cutting and preparing meat, scraping hides, and working wood. Evidence of rituals in burials suggests the existence of religious beliefs. It is believed that the brain of this archaic Homo sapiens was sufficiently evolved to permit the use of true language, however, the Neanderthal's vocal chords, which the hyoid bone represents, were not sufficiently developed for speech.7 About 150000 BC, tools that included microliths and new weapons like the bow and arrow enabled hunters to pursue game and use traps, snares, and nets to exploit alternative resources. These ushered in the Mesolithic Age or New Stone Age (8300 to 6500 BC).8 Earlier, about 9000 BC, sheep in the Near East was domesticated. Anthropologists believe that it was only sometime after 100000 BC, as the tundra vegetation and ice sheets rapidly gave way to coniferous and hardwood forests and great herds of game were replaced by more elusive animals, that Homo sapiens developed practices and technology to adapt. By 8000 BC, the

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tundra and taiga was a well defined area of the northern hemisphere.9 As a result of the increasing difficulty of hunting herds that have migrated northward, anthropologists believe that very few archaic populations may have directly evolved into the more intelligent modern Cro-Magnon man and Homo sapiens sapiens, the rest displaced as modern man expanded his range. During the Mesolithic Period, people began to practice farming by sowing seeds and waiting for the harvest with tools made of a haft of bone, wood, or antler fitted with a microlith - a small, sharp blade of stone, for reaping grain. Dogs, the first animals to be tamed, were already in use in hunting and such herd animals as goats, sheep, and cattle, already domesticated. Thus, paleoanthropology, the scientific study of human fossils, confirms the Book of Daniel concerning the first beast - Egypt and the history of ancient civilizations. The study suggests that modern man originated only very recently, sometime after 10,000 years ago. It can be theorized that it coincides with the rise of the ancient civilizations that began in Mesopotamia and migrated to Egypt.10 The above, are as close that our measuring instruments and processes can best do. They do not preclude the probability that creation, defined in the Jewish

tradition of a 7,000-year or a week or a seven-day (of a thousand years a day) plan by G-d beginning with Adam (year 0) which may very well have begun sometime after 4000 BC with the “evolution” of Homo sapiens sapiens – the first humans; and end at Judgment Day, sometime after 6000 years later - during the Lord's day of rest on the seventh day, the Sabath. 11

The Meaning. “Fierce as a lion” means possessing the character and ferocity of a lion that are best suited for such a primitive environment. A lion is lord of the jungle as ancient Egypt was lord of the kingdoms around it. “The wings of an eagle” means possessing an extraordinary mind setting it above its peers. These were the characters that gave ancient Egypt, the first beast, the capability to achieve and advance its civilization. Then, “its wings are torn off thus lifting it off the ground to stand on two feet,” like modern man. We may surmise that the erect and intelligent Homo sapiens sapiens first showed its leadership ability to build a kingdom in the development of the Egyptian civilization overtaking Babylon, the earliest known civilization among the Mesopotamian states.12

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“Amid the newly collected and excavated evidence of Egypt from the Pre-dynastic and Early Dynastic ages there emerged a few cylinder seals, a knife handle with Mesopotamian-style models: the "dynastic race" theory of the foreign origin of Egyptian civilization gained a new lease on life. Sir Flinders Petrie, the founder of modern Egyptology, who himself subscribed to that theory, thus inferred several invasions of Egypt, on the basis of cultural changes seen in the shift from Predynastic Naqada I to II, and again from late Naqada III to Dynastic Egypt. Certain skeletal finds and naturally preserved bodies from Predynastic cemeteries seemed to support this view. In addition, the apparently sudden flowering of already well-developed hieroglyphics on First Dynasty monuments indicated that Egypt's writing system also must have been brought from abroad, probably by the selfsame dynastic race. Supporters of the Aryan Model could now detach Egyptian pharaonic civilization from any supposed African origin. Egypt's high civilization was proclaimed the work of the "dynastic race." This race was variously said to have come from somewhere to the north, from

Mesopotamia, from Elam, or even possibly from India. By the early decades of the twentieth century the dynastic race theory seemed unassailable. Thus far, Bernal's account of Aryan supremacy accords with the early study of Egyptian antiquity as it is

generally recognized.”13

To have “the heart of a man ... given to it” means his animal tendencies were cast aside and his humane side ruled his behavior. The remains of Homo sapiens sapiens found in ancient Egypt are evidence of the type of man which flourished during this time its civilization was developing. It is this species of man characterized by a developed brain as modern man today possesses.14

“Even those unfamiliar with craniometry will be struck by the difference in the measurements of the skulls in the two series shown in the table on p .83. The Predynastic people are seen to have had narrow skulls with a height measurement exceeding the breadth, a condition common also in negroes. The reverse is the case in the Dynastic Race, who not only had broader skulls but the height of these skulls,while exceeding that in the

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Predynastic Race, is still less than the breadth. This implies a greater cranial capacity and of course a larger brain in the invading people. Another remarkable point is the regularity with which the same or nearly the same figures appear in the different groups for the same diameter. In both races there is little difference in the length of the skull, but a mean of 132.0 mm. For the breadth in the Predynastic people and of 139.0 mm. In the Dynastic Race came to be regarded in my mind as characteristic. The two series in the above table which do not conform to this are both from Abydos and almost certainly, as shown by Dr. Morant, are not the pure Egyptian stock. It was stated above that only the earliest graves are dealt within this paper for the reason that mixture of the two races at later dates obscures the outstanding differences so marked in the earliest periods. It is, however, important to note that infiltration had begun already in Late Predynastic times, and the results of measurements of skulls from graves of this date frequently show the presence of a larger-headed people. This was the case in Petrie's original discovery at Nakadah where both Early and Late Predynastic

graves were brought to light, the latter including Early Dynastic burials. These are distinguished in Dr. Morant's tables (loc.cit.) as A and Q and B.T.R. Only the former, called by Dr. Morant 'Middle?' are

included in the above table.”15

Egypt's early civilization fast developed into the most sophisticated by 3000 BC. It possessed a stratified society and the royal court was replete with its entourage of advisers. Some of the earliest knowledge of mathematics are preserved in Egyptian papyri. It also maintained an army. Its civilization is undoubtedly considered the oldest.

Early History. The first reference to Egypt in the scriptures is found in the Book of Exodus, shortly after the time of Noah. The scripture tells us that Cush, Mizraim (Hebrew: Mizraim for Egypt), Put and Canaan were children of Ham, son of Noah.16

Mizraim later became Egypt.17 The evidence of rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert oases points to a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers in 100000 BC. Around 8000 BC as a result of climate changes and overgrazing, pasture was depleted and migration began into the Nile River where began a centralized society and settled

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agricultural economy.18 The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia describes Egypt’s civilization as a hunting community of archaic humans before 5000 BC, which settled by the Nile River valley as farmers after 4000 BC establishing villages in Merimdeh and Fayum in northern Egypt between these periods. Farm surpluses economically gave rise to an elite class by late Pre-dynastic times (c. 3300 BC) ruled by chieftains identifiable by its tombs, forerunners of the pyramids. By this time, the local kingdoms had coalesced into two competitive kingdoms, northern and southern. Throughout the period 5000-3100 BC domesticated grains and animals may have come via Syria and Palestine, perhaps at the time of Merimdehs’ earliest phase. Both northern and southern Egypt traded with Syria, Palestine, and northeast Africa throughout Pre-dynastic times.19

King Narmer (who may also be: Menes) unified the two kingdoms. He and his immediate predecessors, the pharaohs of the 1st and 2nd dynasties, were buried at Abydos in prototypes of the later pyramids also found in Memphis. Royal power had greatly increased by the 3rd dynasty (2686- 2613 BC) characterized by step pyramids in stone. Pyramids like the one at Giza where Khufu's

(Cheops') are found were also built. Later, in the 4th and 5th dynasties, Egyptian armies raided Palestine and southern Nubia. By the 6th dynasty, regional kingdoms became stronger putting Egypt on the defensive. Egyptian rule began to break down under the 7th dynasty. In the First Intermediate period (2181-2040 BC), provincial warlords were not prevented by the Memphitic pharaohs from fighting over territory that eventually resulted in two separate kingdoms. The 9th and 10th dynasties ruled from Heracleopolis. The 11th dynasty from Thebes. Finally, in 2000 BC, Nebhepetre Mentuhotep of the 11th dynasty conquered the north and rebuilt the monarchy, inaugurating the Middle Kingdom. About this time, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, came to Egypt from Canaan, where a famine had struck. They stayed there a little while until Pharaoh asked them to leave richer than they came after a little ploy by Abraham gave an unexpectedly handsome result (Gen 12:10). Decline marked the Second Intermediate period (1786-1567 BC) with internecine strife between high officials of the 13th dynasty over the royal succession followed by a severe famine that weakened Egypt to invasions by the Hyksos.

Hyksos (Egyptian: heqa khasewet for foreign rulers). Manetho (300 BC), an ancient

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Egyptian priest-historian, has an early account of the Hyksos migration and rise to become rulers of Egypt. This event is significant for at no time in Egypt’s history was there a period which could plausibly bring us to a conclusion that this period would account for Joseph’s presence in Egypt, his rise to power under the Hyksos' rule and how his family, the whole of Israel, came to Egypt. The biblical account spoke of a severe famine (Gen 41:53-54) in all the other lands saved in Egypt where there was food. This was the reason why the people from Canaan migrated to Egypt. The Hyksos exploited Egyptian ideology but remained Syro-Palestinian in culture.20

Another account, some 400 years year later may be found in the work of Josephus Flavius (37-100 AD), a Jewish historian known, among others for his account of the Jews under Roman domination. Josephus’ works include Against Apion. Here, Josephus sharply criticizes Manetho’s account of two Exodus-like events for misinterpreting them as the biblical Exodus and attempts to correct them. Nevertheless, the accounts are evidence of the period when peoples from Asia did enter Egypt to be later driven or led out during the Exodus. Manetho’s work Aegyptiaca, reconstructed from the few remaining

extant fragments (frag. 42, 1.75-79.2) recorded the Hyksos appearance as an armed invasion by a horde of foreign barbarians who plundered their cities and took the Egyptians into slavery. This theory is now overturned by the theory of a non-violent wave of migration. Under this theory, the Egyptian rulers of the 13th dynasty preoccupied by a serious famine, were unable to stop migrants from Asia looking for food and employment in Egypt.21 Historian Gae Callender notes:

“Numerous inscriptions record Amenmhat III's mining activities. In the Sinai region alone, where the king's officials worked the turqoise and copper mines on a quasi-permanent basis, fifty-nine grafiti have been identified. The quarries at Wadi Hammamat, Tura, Aswan, and various Nubian sites wer also worked. All this building and industrial activity symbolizes the prosperity that Egypt enjoyed during the reign, but it may also have exhausted the economy and, combined with a series of low Nile floods, late in his reign, resulted in political and economic decline. Ironically, the large intake of Asiatics, which seems to have occurred partly in order to subsidize the extensive building

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work, may have encouraged the so-called Hyksos to settle in the Delta, thus leading eventually to the collapse of native

Egyptian rule.”22

By 1700 BC Egypt had broken into local kingdoms in the northeastern Delta. One of these was ruled by King Nehesy whose capital was at Avaris. Hyksos of Syro-Palestinian origin, among them soldiers, sailors, shipbuilders and workmen during the 12th dynasty made up his kingdom. His dynasty may have been succeeded by West-Semitic-speaking Syro-Palestinians who later became the Hyksos kingdom that Joseph belonged to. Joseph, his brothers and father, Jacob very probably began the migration of the Israelites to Egypt during this period. Manetho described an invasion.

“Tutimaeus. In his reign, for what cause I know not, a blast of G-d smote us; and unexpectedly from the regions of the East, invaders of obscure race marched in confidence of victory against our land. By main force they easily seized it without striking a blow; and having overpowered the rulers of the land, they then burned our cities ruthlessly, razed to the ground the temples of the gods, and treated all the

natives with a cruel hostility, massacring some and leading into slavery the wives and children of others. Finally, they appointed as king one of their number whose name was Salitis. He had his seat at Memphis, levying tribute from Upper and Lower Egypt, and always leaving garrisons behind in the most advantageous

positions.”23

A study of ceramic artifacts from the Second Intermediate Period excavated in the Memphis-Fayum region of Lower Egypt by Janine Bourriau (as cited in Oren, E. ed., The Hyksos: New Historical and Archaeological Perspectives) did not find Hyksos influence debunking the view espoused by Manetho that the Hyksos invaded and plundered Memphis and subjected it to their authority.24 The Hyksos first appeared in the 11th dynasty of Egypt and invaded the eastern Nile Delta in the 12th dynasty which began the Second Intermediate Period. They rose to power in the 13th dynasty of Egypt and are often depicted in the art of the period wearing the cloaks of many colors associated with the mercenary Mitanni bowmen and cavalry of Northern Canaan, Aram, Kadesh, Sidon and Tyre.25 This was also the kind of coat Jacob gave his son, Joseph who wore it with

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pride (Gen 37:3). Herbert E. Winlock describes new military hardware introduced by the Hyksos, such as the composite bow, improved recurved bow, horse-drawn war chariot, improved arrowheads, various kinds of swords and daggers, a new type of shield, mailed shirts, and the metal helmet.26

The 15th Hyksos dynasty capital was at Memphis and their summer residence at Avaris. They ruled Lower Egypt until the end of the 17th dynasty of Egypt. The hiatus in native Egyptian rule began from the end of the 12th dynasty to the start of the 18th dynasty of Egypt when the capital moved to Thebes. Only four 15th Hyksos Dynasty rulers were known by their Canaanite names. The dates of their approximate reigns are: Sakir-Har (named as an early Hyksos king on a door jamb found at Avaris whose reign is yet unknown); Khyan (c. 1620 BC); Apophis (c. 1580 BC to 1540 BC); and Khamudi (c. 1540 BC to 1530 BC).27 The Hyksos kingdom was centered and limited to the eastern Nile Delta and Middle Egypt while the Theban-based native Egyptian rulers controlled the south into Upper Egypt.28 Commerce between them consisted of transit rights through Hyksos-controlled Middle and Lower Egypt and pasturage rights in the fertile

Delta.29

The Carnarvon Tablet I, narrates the Theban Pharaoh Kamose’ proposal to the council to move against the Hyksos, who were seen as a humiliating stain upon the holy land of Egypt. The councilors clearly did not wish to disturb the status quo:

“The great men of his council spoke: Behold, it is Asiatic water as far as Cusae, and they have pulled out their tongues that they might speak all together, (whereas) … we are at ease in our (part of) Egypt. Elephantine is strong, and the middle (of the land) is with us as far as Cusae. The sleekest of their fields are plowed for us, and our cattle are pastured in the Delta. Emmer is sent for our pigs. Our cattle have not been taken away… He holds the land of the Asiatics; we hold Egypt. Should someone come and act [against us], then we shall act against

him!” 30

Hyksos rule overlapped with the native Egyptian pharaohs of the 16th and 17th dynasties of the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt. The 15th

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dynasty Hyksos kings assimilated well into Egyptian culture's wide use of scarabs, art forms, royal titles and the god Seth. Howwever, native Egyptians continued to view the Hyksos as invaders.31 While the Hyksos controlled the Delta region the Thebans mined gold and traded in the Red Sea until the 17th dynasty when the Theban wars of liberation began. Bourriau found Theban wares in the Memphis-Fayum region corresponding to this period and agrees with Manetho's description of Hyksos rule which is confirmed in the Kamose texts that Kamose rejected vassal status, the strict control of the border at Cusae, the imposition of taxes on all Nile traffic and the existence of garrisons. The war against the Hyksos began in the latter part of the 17th dynasty when the Theban king Seqenenre Tao II attacked his Hyksos contemporary Auserra Apophis (also: Apepi or Apophis). His mummy in the Cairo Museum shows head wounds from a sharp blade that caused his death. His son Wadjkheperra Kamose, the last ruler of the 17th dynasty at Thebes, brought Egypt its first victory. In the third year of his reign, Kamose overran the southernmost garrison of the Hyksos at Nefrusy, north of Cusae (near modern Asyut) and led his army as far north as Avaris devastating the fields around it. A second stele discovered at Thebes

continues the account of the war broken off on the Carnarvon Tablet I, and narrates the interception and capture of a courier bearing a message from the Hyksos king Aawoserra Apophis at Avaris to his ally, the ruler of Cush, requesting support against the threat posed by Kamose on both their kingdoms. Kamose troops occupied the Bahriya Oasis in the Western Desert to block the desert route to the south. Kamose then sailed back up the Nile to Thebes for a joyous victory celebration. By the end of the reign of Apophis, the second last of the Hyksos kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty, the Hyksos had been routed from Middle Egypt and had retreated northward in the vicinity of the Fayyum at Atfih. Apophis outlived his first Egyptian contemporary, Seqenenre Tao II, and was still on the throne at the end of Kamose's reign. Khamudi, last Hyksos ruler of the Fifteenth Dynasty had a relatively shorter reign which fell within the reign of Ahmose, Kamose's successor and the founder of the 18th dynasty. Ahmose I, the first pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, finally expelled the Hyksos from their last holdout at Sharuhen after a three-year siege in the Negev desert between Rafah and Gaza by the 16th year of his reign. Egyptian literature until the Greek times, depict the Hyksos as ‘Asiatics’ referring to the Semitic groups who settled in Aswan or the Delta, and possibly led Manetho to believe the

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Hyksos episode with Joseph’s sojourn in Egypt. Modern historians have also identified the expulsion of the Hyksos with the Exodus due to the fact that some Hyksos pharaohs had familiar Semitic names, such as Jacobaam of the 16th dynasty.

At the end of the 19th dynasty, the Elephantine stele and the Harris Papyrus records that the first pharaohs of the 20th dynasty revived the anti-Hyksos sentiment. Setnakht, who founded the 20th dynasty, records in the Elephantine stele that in the second year he defeated and expelled a large force of ‘Asiatic’ invaders during the chaos between the end of Twosret's reign and the beginning of the 20th dynasty. In his Against Apion, Flavius Josephus debates the synchronism between the biblical Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt and two Exodus-like events that the Egyptian historian, Manetho records. Josephus identifies the Biblical Exodus with the first exodus mentioned by Manetho, when some 480,000 Hyksos (also referred to as 'shepherd kings’, 'shepherds', 'kings' or 'captive shepherds' in his discussion of Manetho) left Egypt for Jerusalem. The mention of Hyksos identifies this first exodus with the Hyksos period (c. 1600 BC). Josephus identifies a second exodus mentioned by Manetho when a renegade Egyptian priest called Osarseph led 80,000

‘lepers’ to rebel against Egypt. Manetho conflated events of the Amarna period (c. 1400 BC) and the events at the end of the 19th dynasty (c. 1200 BC).

Joseph. The 11th son of Jacob (Israel), Joseph was seventeen when his brothers sold him to Midianite merchants on their way to Egypt, where he would later become right hand man of the Hyksos Pharaoh.32 In Egyptian history, the Hyksos emergence to become rulers of Egypt was an opportunity for the development of the community of Hebrews brought about by the migration of Hebrews like Joseph and his brothers who brought their families and resettled in Egypt as a result of the periodic famine which swept through Canaan. The Hebrews will spend approximately 400 years in Egypt before Moses led them out of it to return to Canaan.33 By 1700 BC Egypt was weakened by internal problems and overran by Hyksos who set up two contemporaneous dynasties and ruled between 1674-1567 BC.34

In this study, the secular date of the Hyksos’ reign is an important reference for approximating the time of Moses’ and Joseph’s birth, their sojourn in Egypt, and the exodus out of her. The existence in

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Egypt of the Hyksos, who became its rulers explains Joseph’s rise as the right hand of the Hyksos ruler, both of them coming from Canaan. With the aid of the “middle of the seven” prophecy found in Daniel 9:27 and the period covering the 1260 years of the “church in the wilderness” discussed later in this study, we've already determined that the first half of the “seven” (prophetic days of years), which is “three and a half days” is also equivalent to 1260 years. These number of years going backward from 70 AD, the year of the end of the daily sacrifice in the temple of Solomon, is 1190 BC. This is the year beginning the old covenant, the covenant that Jesus confirms (“the law and the prophets”) together with the new covenant that he brought with him and sealed by his blood “for many” (both Jews and Gentiles). 70 AD is the “middle of the week”, all of which we shall discuss later. Moses lived to a hundred and twenty years and his life has been significant every fortieth year of his life. He was forty when he killed the Egyptian mistreating his Jew slave (Acts 7:23), eighty when called to argue before pharaoh to release the Hebrews (Ex 7:7; Acts 7:30), and the last forty spent wandering around the Sinai peninsula subsisting on manna before he brings the Hebrews back to Canaan from Egypt (Deut 34:7; Ex 16:35). In Exodus 12:40-41 it was already 430 years since the time of Joseph that

the Hebrews had lived in Egypt as they are led by Moses and set out for Canaan. In their third month in the desert, the Lord gave the covenant to Moses and the Hebrews on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:8). 430 years back from 1190 is 1620 when the Hyksos was on the 54th year of its 107 years of rule. Joseph was thirty years old (1627 BC) when he was made right hand of the Hyksos Pharaoh (Gen 41:46) and was already in Egypt for thirteen years. It was seven years later when the famine started and he called for his father to live in Egypt (1620 BC). This marks the beginning of the 430 years of Jacob (who is also called Israel: Gen 32:28) in Egypt. Joseph would be born in the year 1657 BC. Potiphar, a high Egyptian official who became the master of Joseph is significantly mentioned as an Egyptian, i.e. one of the native Egyptian officials at the Hyksos court.35 Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten (Gen 50:26).

Moses. The Hebrew people had been in slavery in Egypt for some 400 years in accord with God's words to Abraham that his seed, or descendants, would be in a foreign land in affliction (Gen 15:13). At the end of this time, God brought up Moses, a child of the Hebrew slaves to set them free. Moses lived to be a hundred and twenty (Deut 34:7).

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Moses was eighty years of age when he spoke to Pharaoh to convince him to let the Hebrews go (Ex 7:7). In that same year, the Israelites left Egypt and the covenant was given to Moses in Mt. Sinai. Moses would be born sometime in the year 1270 BC.

The native Egyptian monarchs of Thebes finally expelled the Hyksos and founded the 18th dynasty inaugurating ancient Egypt's most brilliant period, the New Kingdom (1570-1085 BC). Among its notable rulers were Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten, Seti I, and Ramses II. They reconquered southern Nubia and Palestine. The kingdom ended in a civil war under Ramses XI.

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1 Ralph Solecki, in New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Release 6. 1993. CD-ROM. s.v. “Fertile Crescent.”

2 Ibid.3 Charles Robert. Darwin, The Origin of Species. (ed. Charles

Eliot). New York: F.F. Collier and Son. pp. 13-14.4 Ibid.5 Robert Chambers, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,

London: John Churchill. October, 1844, pp. 154-1556 Charles Robert. Darwin, The Origin of Species. (ed. Charles

Eliot). New York: F.F. Collier and Son. pp. 13-14.7 Wikipedia contributors, "Hyoid bone," Wikipedia, The Free

Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hyoid_bone&oldid=59244204464 (accessed: November 13, 2009).

8 Collier’s Encyclopedia, 1969 ed. s.v. "Mesolithic Period."9 �“Tundra and Taiga,” The World Book Great Geographical Atlas,

(Mitchell Beazley Publishers, 1982). 62. 10 Wikipedia contributors, "Dynastic Race Theory," Wikipedia, The

Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dynastic_Race_Theory&oldid=57547054522 (accessed February 15, 2014).

11 God's Prophetic Timetable (The 7,000 Year Plan of G-d), Hebraic Heritage Ministries International, http://www.hebroots.com/lul6.html (Accessed: March 6, 2014)

12 Lefkowitz, M.R. and Rogers, G.M.L., Black Athena Revisited, (University of North Carolina Press, 1996). p. 65.

13 Ibid. 14 D.E. Deary, "The Dynastic Race in Egypt," Journal of Egyptian

ArchAeology, 42 (1956): p. 82-84. 15 Ibid. p. 84.16 Book of Genesis 10:6 Old Testament (NIV).

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17 “Mizraim,” Fausset’s Bible Dictionary, http://www.studylight.org/dic/fbd/view.cgi?number=T2585 (accessed: November 13, 2009).

18 Béatrix Midant-Reynes, The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Kings (Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers) as quoted in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Egypt,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt (accessed: November 13, 2009).

19 �New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Release 6. 1993. CD-ROM. s.v. “Ancient Egypt.”

20 Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Hyksos,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos (accessed: November 13, 2009).

21 Ibid.22 Callender, Gae, "The Middle Kingdom Renaissance," in Ian

Shaw, ed. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 2000, p. 156-157.

23 Manetho, trans. W. G. Waddell (London: Harvard University Press, 1940). pp. 79-81.

24 Eliezer D. Oren, The Hyksos: New Historical and Archaeological Perspectives (University of Pennsylvania, 1997) as quoted in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Hyksos,” http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hyksos&oldid=59409260041 (accessed: November 13, 2009).

25 Ibid.26 Herbert E. Winlock, The Rise and Fall of the Middle Kingdom in

Thebes (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1947) as quoted in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Hyksos,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos (accessed: November 13, 2009).

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27 Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Hyksos,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos (accessed: November 13, 2009).

28 Ibid.29 Ibid.30 James B. Pritchard. ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to

the Old Testament (ANET). 3d edition. (1969), p. 258. as quoted in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Hyksos,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos, (accessed: November 13, 2009).

31 Wikipedia, The Free Encylcopedia, s.v. “Hyksos,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos (accessed: November 13, 2009).

32 David O'Connor, in New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Release 6. 1993. CD-ROM. s.v. “The Hyksos.”

33 Book of Genesis 15:13 Old Testament. (NIV)

34 New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Release 6. 1993. CD-ROM. s.v. “The Hyksos.”

35 Book of Genesis 39:5 � Old Testament. (NIV).