by
Damien F. Mackey
“[Manfred] Bietak is convinced this is direct evidence of a plague or catastrophe. The large part of the remaining population abandoned their homes and left
en masse. Bietak says the site was then reoccupied after an unknown interval
of time by Asiatics who were not Egyptianised. Hence the break between
stratum G/1 and F”.
Berean Insights
Introduction
The Lord, through the agency of his servant, Moses - assisted by his brother Aaron - was about to bring the nation of Egypt so to its knees that it will hence disappear as a force in the Old Testament for about four centuries.
For several centuries prior to this, Egypt had been the stand-out power in the Bible, from the time of Abram (Abraham), through Isaac and Jacob, and then mighty Joseph, and for the first 80 years of the life of Moses. But the latter will deal Egypt such a shattering blow that the nation will not be able to rise up again as a power for centuries.
Some of it was pure miracle
Separating the miraculous from the natural in the Book of Exodus’ accounts of the Plagues and the Exodus may be difficult. Although, it was all miraculous in the sense that it was God’s perfect timing, using his ex nihilo creation (cf. John 1:3).
Obviously, the Lord had invested Moses with certain miraculous powers in order to encourage belief. That was the very same motive for which Heaven had worked the great Solar Miracle at Fatima, Portugal, on October 13th, 1917: ‘So that all may believe’.
“Do not forget the works of the Lord!” (Psalm 78:7)
Sadly, though, we do forget them, prompting Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to lament in 1983 (a Holy Year): “Over half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened’.”
And it is the reason why “all this” is happening again in our tragic contemporary world.
‘… unless you repent, you will all likewise perish’ (Luke 13:5).
The Egyptian ruler, Neferhotep, presumably the Pharaoh of the Plagues and Exodus, will display a very short retentive memory. Firstly, yielding under pressure from the horrific Plagues and the testimonies of his own magicians: ‘This is the finger of God’ (Exodus 8:19), he will permit Israel to depart from Egypt. But soon afterwards, and so typically of human beings, he will forget all the mighty works of the Lord, and will plunge his magnificent army of chariots headlong into the watery abyss.
Moses (with Aaron) would soon come before Pharaoh with a set of magician-like tricks - but firstly for his own people.
Exodus 4:1-9
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.
“Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
Just as the Lord here had invested Moses with miraculous powers, ‘so that they may believe’, so, too, at Fatima, in 1917, did He empower Our Lady of the Rosary to work the great Solar miracle, ‘so that everyone may see and believe’. For, as She had predicted on the 13th of July, 1917: ‘In October I will tell you who I am and what I want. And I will perform a miracle so that everyone may see and believe’.
Assuredly, ‘there is something greater than’ Moses here (cf. Matthew 12:42).
Our Lady of the Rosary will be invested by God with the power to perform an unprecedented Miracle, heralded three months in advance, in which the Sun will be spun about like a ball and depart from its place in the sky, irradiating rainbow colours.
But this was pure miracle, not natural, because - although viewed by 70,000-100,000 eye-witnesses, including Freethinking scoffers who later described it in their papers, and even seen apparently beyond the confines of Fatima - it did not register at all in any observatories.
‘This is the finger of God’.
Obviously, too, some of the feats of Moses were purely miraculous, incapable of being exactly reproduced by any of Egypt’s skilled court magicians.
These magicians were highly reputed. One, Dedi, is described in the Westcar Papyrus.
Djedi was honoured with an invitation by pharaoh Khufu (one of the names of the Oppressor baby-killing “new king” of Exodus 1:8). Dedi with all his books and scholars arrives at the royal palace. King Khufu welcomes them and then began to question them about whether all the tales and legends about him were true. Khufu then challenges the wizard if he can mend a severed head like he is famed to be able to do, the king orders a prisoner to be executed so the magician can put his head back. Dedi refused as he did not want any man to suffer, so instead the magician chose three animals. The first was the goose that was decapitated, and the body was placed on the western side of the audience hall, and its head was placed on the eastern side. After Djedi cast a certain spell, the head of the goose stood up and began to waddle, and the body started doing the same. Both body parts met in the middle and merged together like before, then the goose leaves the royal court cackling like any bird.
The exact same performance was done on a bull and a water bird, and both were brought back to life in the same manner. King Khufu was impressed.
As you would be.
“Egyptian magicians historically used snake charming techniques to perform snake tricks, particularly making a snake appear rigid and rod-like by pressing its neck to induce a temporary, stiff state”.
AI Overview
So much for all of that!
The miracles wrought before Israel by Moses had the desired effect upon the people (Exodus 4:30-31): “[Moses] also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped”.
Well that was for the moment. Everybody loves a good miracle.
But this was “a stubborn and rebellious generation” (cf. Psalm 78:8), that included, amongst others, the rogue pair, Dathan and Abiram (St. Paul’s Jannes and Mambres).
These, like the hard-hearted Pharaoh whom Moses and Aaron were about to confront, would quickly forget the works of the Lord, and would perish in the wilderness, just as their Egyptian pursuers would perish catastrophically at the Sea of Reeds (Yam Suph).
In fact, Moses and Aaron will quickly bring upon themselves the ire of their people after Pharaoh had rejected their demand and had only increased Israel’s misery.
Very next chapter:
Exodus 5:1-23:
Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness’.”
Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go’.
Then they said, ‘The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword’.
But the king of Egypt said, ‘Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!’ Then Pharaoh said, ‘Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working’.
That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies”.
Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all’.” So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, ‘Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw’. And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, ‘Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?’
Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people”.
Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord’. Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks”.
The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, ‘You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day’. When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and they said, ‘May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us’.
Once again we find Moses wishing that he had not been the one chosen by the Lord.
God Promises Deliverance
Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all’.
Archaeological Evidence for Israelites and their Departure
https://pharaohoppressionmosesisraelegyptdynasty.wordpress.com/category/mud-bricks-containing-straw/
…. There is considerable evidence to suggest that the 12th dynasty was the period when the Israelites were oppressed. The 12th dynasty pyramids had a mud brick core and a limestone veneer. (The limestone veneer has fallen away over the centuries leaving the mud brick core exposed.) There were seven such pyramids constructed over about 200 years [sic]. The Labyrinth, another monolith of the 12th dynasty, was also made from mud bricks.
There was a massive Exodus of slaves from Egypt in the 13th dynasty, after which, no more pyramids were constructed.
The only other significant exodus from Egypt was at the end of the second intermediate period when The Hyksos were chased out of Egypt in a rebellion lead [sic] by the family of Ahmose who went on to found the 18th dynasty. The Hyksos were rulers of Egypt and are clearly not the Israelites.
The only reasonable conclusion is that the Exodus of slaves in the 13th dynasty was in fact the Israelite Exodus. ….
[End of quote]
The Egyptianised Exodus Israelites will emerge most importantly as the nomadic Middle Bronze I (MBI) people. This is rock-solid archaeological evidence in support of the Bible.
Then, not long after the catastrophic reign of Pharaoh Neferhotep, during the reign of Pharaoh Dedumes (Dudimose), Manetho’s ill-fated “Tutimaeus”, the Hyksos invaders poured into Egypt (Aegyptiaca):
https://www.loebclassics.com/view/manetho-history_egypt/1940/pb_LCL350.79.xml?readMode=recto
“Tutimaeus … In his reign, for what cause I know not, a blast of God 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”.
The Hyksos had no trouble overwhelming an already devastated Egypt.
The ‘moment’ of the Hyksos can be pinpointed archaeologically, at Avaris (Tel ed-Daba), as we shall now read. Egyptianised Asiatics (the Hebrews) will depart (Exodus), making way eventually for non-Egyptianised Asiatics (the Hyksos), the latter sometimes being likened to an 11th Plague of Egypt.
https://www.bereaninsights.org/nugget/the-discoveries-at-avaris/
The Discoveries at Avaris
For more than two centuries archaeologists have sought evidence for the Israelites in Egypt. No Israelite settlement has ever been found in the 19th Dynasty where the Orthodox Chronology predicted it would be. I told you in the last Nugget about the Austrian team of archaeologists, led by Manfred Bietak, who have been excavating at Tel ed-Daba since 1960, more commonly called Avaris in ancient times. Bietak and his team have made many astounding discoveries.
Manfred Bietak and his team have found evidence of a long period of Asiatic settlement in Avaris. Between Stratum G/1 and F there is a definite break between two distinct phases of settlement. Both [David] Rohl and Bietak believe this line of demarcation between Stratum G/1 and F at Tel ed-Daba likely marks the break that resulted from the biblical Exodus of the Israelites from Tell ed-Daba. Around Goshen [Delta region] … there is incontrovertible evidence for a large Asiatic population. In just the time frame … where … the Israelite sojourn in Egypt would be.
The majority of the tombs in the earlier strata are of Asiatic people from Palestine and Syria. Bietak says the early Asiatics were heavily Egyptianized. These people have spent considerable time in Egypt and have taken on many of the cultural practices of the Egyptians themselves … these people have to be Israelites. The fit for the time period perfectly matches the other indications that this indeed is the correct time period for the Exodus. These earlier Asiatics are more likely to be Joseph’s relatives.
The later Asiatics were very different and were not Egyptianized at all and appear to be of Hyksos descent.
In the Brooklyn Papyrus there is a list of 95 names of slaves, over 50% of which are Semitic names. There are several Biblical names in the list, e.g. Menahem, Issachar, Asher and Shiphrah. The term Apiru (the equivalent of Hebrew) [sic?] appears first in the Brooklyn Papyrus. William Albright recognized the language belongs to the northwest Semitic language family which includes Biblical Hebrew. There is a high proportion of female slaves. More adult women are buried here than men. 65% of all burials are children under the age of 18 months with girls out numbering boys by a ratio of 3:1. This could be explained by the massacre of Israelite boys whose bodies were then disposed of in mass unmarked burial pits.
All over the city of Avaris are shallow burial pits with multiple victims. There were no careful interments as was required under Egyptian customs. The bodies were thrown one on top of another in mass graves. There is no evidence of grave goods being placed with the corpses as was the Egyptian custom. Bietak is convinced this is direct evidence of a plague or catastrophe. The large part of the remaining population abandoned their homes and left en masse. Bietak says the site was then reoccupied after an unknown interval of time by Asiatics who were not Egyptianised. Hence the break between stratum G/1 and F. There is a strange anomaly where the Asiatic folk who inhabited Stratum F lived in poor conditions yet their graves were richly endowed with precious metals and jewellery.
The sources are unconnected and yet intriguingly consistent. Putting all the pieces together one can build up a consistent story which supports the Biblical account. The break in archeological stratum between G/1 and F marks the intervening years following the exodus of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt.
The repopulation of Avaris sometime afterward by the Hyksos people who moved into Egypt matches the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period [Thirteenth Dynasty] of the Egyptian Pharaohs. They were Asiatic people from the same region as the Israelites but not Egyptianized as Joseph and his family had been.
The facts fit the period before the Exodus well. Given the disruption at the time of plagues and the magnitude of the deaths which occurred there would have been no time to bury the dead according to Egyptian customs. The predominance of females, especially among children would have been a result of the deliberate murder of the male children by the Pharoah. Where did such poor people (slaves no less) get such riches? Simple: read Ex 11:2 which says, “Tell all the Israelite men and women to ask their Egyptian neighbours for articles of silver and gold.”
[End of quote]
The mass departure of workers from Illahûn, or Lahun (Kahun), during the reign of Pharaoh Neferhotep archaeologically signals the Exodus.
Thus Dr. David Down: https://creation.com/searching-for-moses
Searching for Moses
….
Another striking feature of [Sir Flinders] Petrie’s discoveries was the fact that these slaves suddenly disappeared off the scene. Rosalie David wrote:
‘It is apparent that the completion of the king’s pyramid was not the reason why Kahun’s inhabitants eventually deserted the town, abandoning their tools and other possessions in the shops and houses.’ …. There are different opinions of how this first period of occupation at Kahun drew to a close … . The quantity, range and type of articles of everyday use which were left behind in the houses may indeed suggest that the departure was sudden and unpremeditated.’ ….
The departure was sudden and unpremeditated! Nothing could better fit the Biblical record. ‘And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt’ (Exodus 12:41).
Later we shall read (Exodus 11:3): “Furthermore, the man Moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people”.
His name may have been etched in stone, possibly signalling the beginning of the Hebrew alphabet – whether or not Moses himself had invented it:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/oldest-written-reference-moses-egypt-inscriptions-b2810114.html
Mr Bar-Ron argues the texts read “Zot M’Moshe” and “Ne’um Moshe”,
which may translate as “This is from Moses” and “Declaration of Moses”.
Oldest written reference to Moses may be etched into ancient Egyptian mine, claims researcher
Story by Steffie Banatvala
….
NEW STUDY CLAIMS EARLIEST REFERENCE TO MOSES FOUND IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MINE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhCRzpIA_EA
A researcher has claimed that two inscriptions dating back 3,800 years found in the Egyptian desert may be the oldest written references to Moses.
The etchings were first discovered in the early 1900s and are now being re-examined by American-Israeli epigraphist Michael S. Bar-Ron, a graduate student at Ariel University.
They were found at Serabit el-Khadim, a turquoise mining site in the Sinai Desert once worked by Semitic labourers during the Middle Bronze Age.
The Proto-Sinaitic etchings date back to between 1800 and 1600BC [sic], which are centuries before the earliest biblical texts were written between the 10th and 7th centuries BC.
Mr Bar-Ron argues the texts read “Zot M’Moshe” and “Ne’um Moshe”, which may translate as “This is from Moses” and “Declaration of Moses”.
If correct, they would represent the earliest known written reference to Moses outside of the Bible.
The inscriptions also refer to El, a deity linked to the Abrahamic God, according to Fox News.
Speaking to the broadcaster, Mr Bar-Ron said the inscriptions appear to resist worship of the ancient goddess Ba’alat by Semitic workers.
The Serabit el-Khadim site once housed a temple to Ba`alat, he added.
“Rather than lauding Ba`alat … [the] readings curse out the Ba`alat cult, with words of warning and rebuke to its followers,” Mr Bar-Ron said.
“They include the terms 'BŠ' – ‘for shame’ or ‘this is shameful' – and ‘nimosh,’ [which means] ‘let us leave’ [or] ‘remove ourselves.’”
Academic response to the interpretation has been mixed.
Thomas Schneider, an Egyptologist at the University of British Columbia told Daily Mail that the new interpretation is “completely unproven and misleading.”
Translating the ancient inscriptions took nearly a decade, the epigraphist said.
“I spent eight years actively involved in the painstaking, oft-frustrating reconstruction of some 23 wordy Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions.
“That is, based on the principles of the foremost greats in the field, and informed by the work of my distinguished colleagues in the field.”
Mr Bar-Ron also suggested to Fox News that the “Moses” inscriptions may have a single author, pointing to stylistic similarities in wording.
His wider thesis examines “a Mosaic-type leadership” in the region at the time. ….
Oldest written reference to Moses may be etched into ancient Egyptian mine, claims researcher
Dr. Davd Down continues:
The ten plagues on Egypt
Pharaoh had yielded to Moses’ demands to allow his slaves to leave because of the ten devastating plagues that fell on Egypt (Exodus 7–12). The waters of the sacred River Nile were turned to blood, herds and flocks were smitten with pestilence, lightning set combustible material on fire, hail flattened the crops and struck the fruit trees, and locusts blanketed the country and consumed what might have been left of plant life. The economy of Egypt would have been so shattered that there should be some record of such a national catastrophe–and there is.
In the Leiden Museum in Holland is a papyrus written in a later period, but most scholars recognize it as being a copy of a papyrus from an earlier dynasty. It could have been from the 13th dynasty describing the conditions that prevailed after the plagues had struck. It reads,
‘Nay, but the heart is violent. Plague stalks through the land and blood is everywhere … . Nay, but the river is blood. Does a man drink from it? As a human he rejects it. He thirsts for water … . Nay, but gates, columns and walls are consumed with fire … . Nay but men are few. He that lays his brother in the ground is everywhere … . Nay but the son of the high-born man is no longer to be recognized … . The stranger people from outside are come into Egypt … . Nay, but corn has perished everywhere. People are stripped of clothing, perfume and oil. Everyone says "there is no more". The storehouse is bare … . It has come to this. The king has been taken away by poor men’ ….
The Pharaoh of the Exodus
There are records of slavery during the reigns of the last rulers of the 12th Dynasty—Sesostris III, Amenemhet III and Sobekneferu (some include an obscure figure known as Amenemhet IV before Sobekneferu). With the death of Sobekneferu the 12th dynasty came to an end as she had no children born to her. Moses, the adopted heir, had fled to Midian.
A period of instability followed the demise of the 12th dynasty. …. (The idea of dynasties was not an Egyptian idea at the time. It was a later invention of Manetho, the Egyptian priest of the 3rd century BC who left a record of the history of Egypt and divided the kings into dynasties.) ….
The elevation to rulership over all Egypt by these kings resulted in fierce contention among themselves, resulting in a rapid succession of rulers and more or less anarchy in the country. This only settled down when Neferhotep I took the throne and restored some stability, ruling for 11 years.
I identify Khasekemre-Neferhotep I as the pharaoh from whom Moses demanded Israel’s release. I do so because Petrie found scarabs … of former kings at Kahun.
But the latest scarab he found there was of Neferhotep, who was apparently the pharaoh ruling when the Israelite slaves suddenly left Kahun and fled from Egypt in the Exodus. According to Manetho, he was the last king to rule before the Hyksos occupied Egypt ‘without a battle’. Without a battle? Where was the Egyptian army? It was at the bottom of the Red Sea [sic] Exodus 14:28). Khasekemre-Neferhotep I was probably the pharaoh of the Exodus. His mummy has never been found.
Egyptian magicians historically used snake charming techniques to perform snake tricks, particularly making a snake appear rigid and rod-like by pressing its neck to induce a temporary, stiff state. In the Book of Exodus, these "secret arts" were used to replicate Moses' miracle of turning his staff into a serpent by employing this technique, although Aaron's staff then swallowed the magicians' staffs, showing God's superior power.
