 |  |
"From all times", writes M. J. Sourig, in an article in the Revue des deux Mondes,
"the Egyptian have held in peculiar esteem the services of Semitic slaves . . . . . in the
crowded streets, Syrians and negroes ran before the chariots of the rich citizens".
The land of Goshen must now be given our attention, for here the sons of Jacob were
fostered by Joseph and here they multiplied and prospered until there arose the new king
who knew not Joseph. From the statement made in Genesis, Goshen must have been of
easy access to Canaan, not far from the Red Sea and suitable for the grazing of cattle.
The LXX translates "the land of Goshen" by "Heroonpolis in the land of Rameses"
(Gen. 46: 28). We shall have to return to this presently.
A part of the land of Goshen is called "the field of Zoan" (Psa. 78: 12), and we
learn that "Hebron was built seven years before Zoan" (Numb. 13: 22). The Greeks
called this place Tanis, but we now know that the Egyptian name was Zean or Zoan, and
that the book of Genesis has preserved it for us intact.
"The town of Tanis is everywhere in the Egyptian inscriptions designated as an
essentially foreign town, the inhabitants of which are represented "as the people in the
eastern borderland" (Brugsch). The Egyptian Commandment of the fortresses which
were erected here is called "Governor of the foreign peoples". Ancient Semitic names
meet the archæologist in this district.
"We meet everywhere on the eastern side of the Delta with towns and fortresses, the
names of which point to very ancient Semitic colonies" (Brugsch).
"The endeavour to pay court, in the most open manner, to whatever was Semitic,
became, in the time of the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties, a really absurd mania
. . . . . They used Semitic expressions like the following rosh "head"; sar "king"; beit
"house" . . . . . shalom "to greet"; rom "to be high"; barak "to bless" and many others"
(Brugsch).
We have actual monumental authority to show that the reception of the sons of Jacob
by Pharaoh was not exceptional. A Governor writing to Menephtah, the son of
Rameses II says:
"I will now pass to something else which will give satisfaction to the heart of my
lord--that we have permitted the races of the Shashu of the land of Adumo (Edom) to
pass through the fortress . . . . . to nourish themselves, and to nourish their cattle on the
property of Pharaoh, who is a sun for all nations" (Brugsch).
We have already observed that the LXX translated "the land of Goshen" by
"Heroonpolis in the land of Rameses", and we find that the Coptic version gives the name
of the place "Pithom". M. Naville tells us in his "The Store-city of Pithom" that he
found Roman inscriptions bearing the name ERO CASTRA, i.e. "the (Roman) Camp
Ero". Now the Greek erou represents the Egyptian aru plural of ar "magazine" or
"store-house".
"The traveler who leaves the station of Zagazig and journeys towards Tel-el-Kebir
crosses, in all its width, what was the old land of Goshen" (Naville).