 |  |
German or French pilgrim of that time, and give an accurate reflection of the period?"
(Urquhart).
It is implied in the narrative of Gen. 12:, that Egypt was open to strangers. Abraham
has no apprehension about his acceptance, his only fears are related to himself as Sarah's
husband. In later years the hatred of foreigners by the Egyptian, became proverbial, and
Strabo and Diodorus Siculus tell us that Egypt shut itself off from strangers until over a
thousand years after Abraham's day. When Abraham and his retinue presented
themselves at the frontier of Egypt, their names, and number would be carefully recorded.
In Papyrus Anastasi VI, we still possess the actual certificate of a similar company that
entered Egypt during the reign of Meneptah, thought by some to be the Pharaoh of the
Exodus. Speaking of the title of the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, which occurs for the first
time in Gen. 12: 15, it would be perhaps a pardonable mistake for the average reader to
make, that this title was universally acknowledged, and that the Scriptures merely record
what all knew. This however is by no means the truth of the matter. The word Pharaoh
means nothing in Hebrew, it is simply an Egyptian word put into Hebrew letters. No
classical writer of antiquity uses the title, and not until M. de Rouge discovered the true
pronunciation of the hieroglyph which occurred as a regular title of the Egyptian kings
did the ancient "Pharaoh" come to light. Perao, or Pherao signifies "The Great House"
and is parallel with the titles "The Sublime Porte" and Pontifex Maximus "The Great
Bridge". Sargon, the King of Assyria B.C.718-715 (Isa. 20: 1) speaks of Pir'u sar mati
Musri "Pharaoh, King of the land of Egypt", and Mr. Pinches reckoned that the Assyrian
would pronounce Pir'u as Phero, which brings the word very close to the Hebrew form.
We return to our inquiry as to the accessibility of Egypt to strangers, and particularly
to Semitic strangers, and we find a confirmation beyond our dreams. At Beni-hassan
there is depicted a procession of a Semitic people, and archaeologists at first identified
the picture with the sons of Jacob. The Lord of the tomb is Khnum-hotep, he stands staff
in hand, and two scribes barefooted, approach, one bearing a tablet upon which is
inscribed: "Sixth year of the reign of King Osortasa II; report of the Amu brought by the
son of prince Khunm-hotep, bringing stibium from the barbarian Petti-shu; their number
is thirty-seven." The second scribe has his name and office written: "The inspector of
these, Khiti by name."
Here is a concise official document. Date, number and nationality of the visitors, their
most important article of commerce, its origin, and the name of the inspector. It does not
need much imagination to reconstruct the official report of the advent of Abraham and his
family. We now come to the concern exhibited by Abraham about his wife.
"It shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is
his wife; and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive" (Gen. 12: 12).
What Abraham feared, turned out only too true:
"The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh, and the
woman was taken into Pharaoh's house" (Gen. 12: 15).