Egyptology

When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 32:15

The ancient Egyptians, or at least its earliest inhabitants were descendants of the Biblical Ham, the father of the dark races (Gen. 10:6, 13, 14).  Egypt, which is geographically situated in North Africa is called 'the land of Ham' in the Holy Scriptures (Ps. 105:27; 106:22) and the Egyptians interestingly enough also called their geographical terrain the land of Khem, which like Ham means "black" (the Hebrew word for Ham is Khem).  This empire played a central role in the history of the children of Israel from Joseph to Moses and is probably mentioned more than any other pagan nation in the Holy Scriptures.  It is also represented as a symbol of atheistic pagan idolatry in the book of Revelation (Rev. 11:8). 

The Egyptians reached technological heights of achievement that have never been surpassed even up until this very day and archaeologists, linguists and anthropologists scratch their head in a state of confusion and amazement at their remarkable mathematical achievements that does not fit into their unscientific evolutionary paradigm.

The English scholar and historian Canon George Rawlinson was a prolific researcher in antiquities whose works are now quite difficult to obtain.  He was not swayed by the Western ignorance of his day, but allowed the bare faced evidence to bear witness of itself and through his extensive laborious research and an unbiased mind, he made a great contribution to the history of ancient civilisations, especially Egypt.

George Rawlinson (1812-1902), Camden professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford and Canon of Canterbury

"Now, in Egypt, it is notorious that there is no indication of any early period of savagery or barbarism.  All the authorities agree, that, however far back we go, we find in Egypt no rude or uncivilised time out of which civilisation is developed.  The pyramid period falls very early in Egyptian history, but "the scenes depicted in the tombs of this epoch show that the Egyptians had already the same habits and arts as in after-times; and the hieroglyphics in the Great Pyramid prove that writing had long been in use.

The author of Genesis unites together as members of the same ethnic family the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the southern Arabians, and the primitive inhabitants of Babylon.

Mizraim, the second "son," or (in modern phraseology) the second great race descended from the patriarch Ham.  As offshoots of this race, - the Egyptian, - he proceeds to enumerate the eight tribes or nations, - the Ludim, the Anamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim, the Pathrusim, the Casluhim, the Philistim, and the Caphtorim." (1) 

 The racial features of the Egyptians vary over a period of time.  Some are very black with Africoid features and others are light brown with an Asiatic/Eastern look

The Egyptians had an early writing system from its very beginnings

'About 5,300 years ago a series of symbols and squiggles were scratched on fragments of clay and ivory to be presented to the taxman.

Carbon dating reveals that the tax receipts were made for a king called Scorpion between 3,300 BC and 3,200 BC. 

They represent nothing more exotic than quantities of linen or oil delivered as tax payments.

Although they show symbols of plants, animals and mountains rather than an alphabet, archaeologists say they are definitely part of a complex written language.

The writings show that the early Egyptians were far more developed than previously thought and that writing was developed as a tool so that rulers could keep financial records of their subjects.

Vivian Davies, keeper of Egyptian antiquities at the British Museum, said the writing was relatively sophisticated. 'This was clearly a phonetic system, where symbols represented different sounds,' he said. 'It appears to have been invented overnight as a full system and doesn't appear to have any prehistory.'

(2) 

A magnifying glass found in a tomb in ancient Egypt

The Turin Papyrus map (1300 BC) is the oldest discovered topographical map in the world

The Saqqara Bird Plane

'In 1898, a small model plane was discovered in a tomb near Saqqara, Egypt, and was dated at approximately 200 BC.

In 1969, Dr Kalil Messiha, an Egyptologist and archaeologist, was cleaning out the museum's basement storage area when he happened on a box marked simply 'bird objects' and discovered the model.

When asked to analyze the model, several aerodynamics engineers and pilots found a number of remarkable features, all indicating knowledge of principles of aircraft design which had taken European and American designers a century of airfoil experimental work to discover and perfect.' (3)

A schist is a metamorphic rock that is made up and consists of layers of different minerals

The schist disk, a wheel-like object carved from a solid block of schist and dated to the first dynasty of Egyptian history, c.3100-3000 BC.  Egyptologists are dumbfounded how the ancient Egyptians accomplished such a task

Two beautifully carved stone vases dated to c. 3500-3100 BC and others have been discovered that have been dated to pre-dynastic times.  Scholars can give no explanation why such advanced pottery existed at such an early period and what tools were made to accomplish this technological feat    

The Dendera Light bulb is an exact replica of a light bulb in a temple in ancient Egypt

Colossus pillars in Karnak, Egypt  that dwarfs the passer by.  They show a high level of architectural and mathematical wisdom

The Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt is made up of 2,300,000,000 bricks weighing a ton each and it is aligned with the circumference of the earth' surface. Whoever designed and built it were extremely advanced mathematicians and astronomers   

'A stone circle constructed 6,500 years ago is the world's oldest observatory, scientists have revealed.

Astronomers say the 9ft-high slabs found in the Sahara Desert several years ago were arranged with a basic knowledge of the stars and Sun.  The discovery follows a satellite survey which revealed evidence of stone aligned with the summer solstice.

The Circle, Nabta, in southern Egypt, was erected more than 2,000 years before Stonehenge and similar sites around the world.

Astronomers at the University of Colorado believe the Nabta culture may have stimulated the growth of the society that eventually constructed the first pyramids along the Nile abut 4,500 years ago.  Professor McKim Malville said: 'This is the oldest documented astronomical alignment of megaliths in the world.'

(4) 

These archaeological discoveries baffle Egyptologists and it interferes with their ignorant concepts of early man who they portray as these savage, backward, hairy brutish cannibalistic cave dwellers.  The evidence contradicts their Darwinian/Huxley pagan theories of early man, for the Holy Scriptures is very clear that the very first men were technically advanced and were building cities (Gen. 4:17), tent makers, agriculturalists (Gen. 4:20), musicians (Gen. 4:21) and metallurgists (Gen. 4:22).

One of the few scholars who were able to merge secular and religious history was the brilliant mind of scientist and theologian Sir Isaac Newton.  His posthumous work titled 'The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms' gives a fairly good record of ancient Egyptian history and its connection to the Holy Scriptures.

Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727), Theologian, mathematician

'The Egyptians anciently boasted of a very great and lasting Empire under their kings Ammon, Osiris, Bacchus, Sesostris, Hercules, Memnon, &. reaching eastward to the Indies, and Westward to the Atlantic Ocean; and out of vanity have made this monarchy some thousands of years older than the world: let us now try to rectify the Chronology of Egypt; by comparing the affairs of Egypt with the synchronizing affairs of the Greeks and Hebrews. 

The river Nile, might give the name of Mizraim to its founder and people. 

Historians agree that Menes Reigned in Egypt next after the Gods, and turned the river into a new channel, and built a bridge over it, and built Memphis and the magnificent Temple of Vulcan: he built Memphis over-against where Grand Cairo now stands, called by the Arabian historians Mesir: he built only the body of the Temple of Vulcan, and his successors Ramesses or Rhampsinitus, Moeris, Asychis, and Psammiticus built the western, northern eastern, and southern pirtico's thereof. 

The Egyptians originally lived on the fruits of the earth, and fared hardly, and abstained from animals, and therefore abominated Shepherds: Menes taught them to adorn their beds and tables with rich furniture and carpets, and brought in amongst them a sumptuous, delicious and voluptuous way of life. 

After the study of Astronomy was set on foot for the use of navigation, and the Egyptians by the Heliacal Risings and Settings of the Stars had determined the length of the Solar year of 365 days, and by other observations had fixed the Solstices, and formed the fixt Stars into Asterisms, all which was done in the Reign of Anmon, Sesac, Orus, and Memnon; it may be presumed that they continued to observe the motions of the Planets; for they called them after the names of their Gods. 

When Joseph entertained his brethren in Egypt, they did eat at a table by themselves, and he did eat at another table by himself; and the Egyptians who did eat with him were at another table, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that was an abomination to the Egyptians, Gen. xliii. 32. These Egyptians who did eat with Joseph were of the Court of Pharaoh; and therefore Pharaoh and his Court were at this time not Shepherds but genuine Egyptians; and these Egyptians abominated eating bread with the Hebrews, at one and the same table: and of these Egyptians and their fellow-subjects, it is said a little after, that every Shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians: Egypt at this time was therefore under the government of the genuine Egyptians, and not under that of the Shepherds.

After the descent of Jacob and his sons into Egypt, Joseph lived 70 years, and so long continued in favour with the King of Egypt: and 64 years after his death Moses was born: and between the death of Joseph and the birth of Moses, there arose up a new King over Egypt, which knew not Joseph, Exod. i. 8. But this King of Egypt was not one of the Shepherds; for he is called Pharaoh, Exod. i. 11, 22: and Moses told his successor, that if the people of Israel should sacrifice in the land of Egypt, they should sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and the Egyptians would stone them, Exod. viii. 26. that is, they should sacrifice sheep or oxen, contrary to the religion of Egypt. The Shepherds therefore did not Reign over Egypt while Israel was there, but either were driven out of Egypt before Israel went down thither, or did not enter into Egypt 'till after Moses had brought Israel from thence: and the latter must be true, if they were driven out of Egypt a little before the building of the temple if Solomon, as Manetho affirms. 

The division of Egypt into more Kingdoms than one, both before and after the Reign of the Ethiopians, and the conquest of the Egyptians by Asserhadon, the prophet Isaiah seems allude unto in these words: I will set, saith he, the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour, city against city, and Kingdom against Kingdom, and the Spirit of Egypt shall fail. - And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel Lord [viz. Asserhadon] and a fierce King shall Reign over them. - Surely the Princes of Zoan [Tanis] are fools, the counsel of the wise Councellors of Pharaoh is became brutish: how long say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the ancient Kings. - The Princes of Zoan are be come fools: the Princes of Noph [Memphis] are deceived, - even they that were the stay of the tribes thereof. - In that day there shall be a high-way out if Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians. (5)

  

When studying ancient Egypt it has a close relationship to events in Bible times.  Biblical archaeology was strengthened in the 18th century by the discovery of a priceless artefact that is housed in the British Museum.  It was unearthed during the Napoleanic wars by the French while they were on a colonial expedition in Egypt and it was stolen from them by the British along with other artefacts.  This artefact opened a bridge to the  ancient world and without it men would be totally unable to understand the pictographic glyphs that are drawn and carved on Egyptian temples, statues, papyri, deities and amulets and Egyptian history would of been an enigma. This remarkable gem is the Rosetta stone and not only did it help the linguists in studying Egyptology it also strengthened the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures where a number of kings that were mentioned who many thought were mere mythological figures were actually real historical kings who played major roles in world history and left traces of their history on temples and different monuments.

The Rosetta Stone, a black granite slab that is 3ft 9in in length and dated to 197-196 BC 

Sir Earnest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (1857-1934), English scholar, Egyptologist, Orientalist and Sometime keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum

'The decipherment of the Egyptian texts on the ROSETTA STONE opened up a new and vitally important field of study to the historian and the philologist, and above all to the students of the Bible.  During the past century Egyptologists have made a study, ever more and more intensive, of the literature of Egypt, both sacred and profane; and nearly all the principle works which help to explain, or which supplement the Biblical narrative, have been published and translated.  The information which has been derived from the monuments and papyri of Egypt supports sections of the historical books of the Bible which describe the relations of the Hebrews with the Egyptians in a very remarkable manner, and attests their general accuracy even in details.  The papyri have given us access to "all the wisdom of the Egyptians" in which Moses was learned, and we can perceive the greatness of the administrative and financial ability of Joseph, the Viceroy of Pharaoh.' (6) 

Here are two of the three scripts on the Rosetta Stone.  There is the Greek at the bottom and at the top is the Demotic, which is a cursive form of the Hieroglyphic.  The stone was a bilingual inscription

The following linguists made painstaking efforts to decipher the language on the Rosetta stone.  Greek was already familiar to men in the West, as it was a European language that was still in use in the Roman Empire (John 19:20; Rev. 9:11) and was also the language in which the New Testament of the Bible was written in and this knowledge helped in deciphering the two Egyptian scripts on the Rosetta Stone.

Dr Thomas Young (1773-1829) was an English polymath who studied French, Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, Samaritan, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Ethiopic.  His philological works laid the foundation of the science of Egyptology where he partly deciphered the Hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone by showing the original identity of the enchorial [i.e. Demotic] with the sacred characters [i.e. hieroglyphic].

Antoine Isaac, Baron Silvestre de Sacy (1758-1838) was a French linguist and Orientalist and a friend of the English scientist Thomas Young.  He laid the foundation for deciphering the scripts on the Rosetta Stone

Jean-François Champollion, (1790-1832) was a French classical scholar, philologist and Orientalist.  He was a student of Silvestre de Sacy who had a fair knowledge of Hebrew, Syriac and Chaldee by the age of 13.  He continued where Thomas Young had left off and completed the deciphering of the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone and that's how we can understand ancient Egyptian today

The notes of the laborious efforts made by Jean-François Champollion that is housed and on display in the British Museum

The deciphering of the Rosetta Stone led to a great interest into the ancient world, an interest that has not ceased, but it was the artefacts that bore the names of Biblical characters that took the greatest interest, not just by Bible students but even by non-believers as well.  

The Merneptah Stele, also known as the Israel Stele (13th century BC) was discovered in 1861 by English Egyptologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942). It is a stone that records the military victories of Pharaoh Merneptah in Africa and the Near East, where it records the earliest reference to "Israel" outside of the Bible

Queen Nefertiti (c.1370 BC - c.1330 BC) was the wife and consort of 18th dynasty monarch Pharaoh Akhenaton

Pharaoh Akhenaton (reigned from 1379 BC to 1362 BC), has been labelled by historians as the heretical king that introduced a sort of monotheistic solar worship and eradicated all of the previous gods of Egypt.  Some say he was influenced by Moses

The Tel el-Armana tablets discovered in Egypt in 1887

Tel el-Armana tablets:

One of the most remarkable finds in the history of God' people' just after the Exodus, was the discovery of the Tel el-Armana letters in 1887 in Egypt.  They are a number of stone tablets that are now housed in a number of museums across Europe that were written, not in Egyptian, but in Akkadian (early Babylonian),  and they were letters or diplomatic correspondences between Near Eastern monarchs during the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep (Amenophis) IV, also known as Akhenaton (which means pleasing to the Aton, the sun-god) and his wife Queen Nefertiti.  One of the tablets records the first mention of the name "Hebrews" outside of the Bible.  A portion of that tablet reads thus:

"Why is the land in slavery to the chief of the 'Abiri (Hebrews) and the rulers fear the end." (7)

Archibald Henry Sayce (1846-1933), D, D., Professor of Assyriology in the University of Oxford from 1891 to 1919, Member of the Old Testament Revision Company

"A discovery made in Egypt in 1887 has revolutionised all our old conceptions of ancient oriental life and history, and has proved the population of Western Asia in the age of Moses were as highly cultured and literary as the populations of Western Europe in the age of the Renaissance. The discovery was that of the cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Armana. 

Under "the heretic king" Khu-n-Aten Egypt and Canaan were again close union with one another.

The Tel el-Armana tablets have made it clear... that Canaan could not have been invaded by the Isrealites until after the fall of the Eighteenth dynasty. 

Thanks to the discoveries made in Babylonia and at Tel el-Armana, we have learnt how deep and lasting was the influence of Babylonian culture and literature upon pre-Israelitish Canaan." (8)

A temple in Karnak, Egypt where Pharaoh Shishak records his invasions of the nations he invaded and conquered which includes Jerusalem

The cartouche of Pharaoh Shishak

And it came to pass that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

I Kings 14:25, 26

The first Egyptian king that is officially mentioned by name after the Exodus in the Holy Scriptures is Pharaoh Shishak, who ruled within the 22nd dynasty of Egypt and played a role in Biblical history with his invasion of Jerusalem.  Shishak is known as offering asylum to Jeroboam after he fled Jerusalem in the reign of King Solomon (I Kings 11:40).

Manetho, who, living under the Ptolemies ... called the seventeenth dynasty Phoenician or Arabian, the twenty-fifth Ethiopian, and the twenty-seventh Persian - declared the twenty-second to be Bubastite, and therefore native Egyptian. Sheshonk, having royal blood in his veins ... Shortly after his ascension, he took the throne name of Hut-khepr-ra-sotep-en-ra, and bore this name in his second shield on most occasions.

It was probably not long after his accession that he received a fugitive of importance from the neighbouring country of Palestine, where Solomon still occupied the throne of his father David. (9) 

Shishak had started a new and vigorous dynasty on the eastern border of the Delta. Jeroboam was his friend, and Judah was therefore his enemy.

From the Jewish and Assyrian chronology, the fifth year of Jeroboam, in which the invasion took place, was in 993 B.C.; and if we count the twentieth year of Shishak as equal to that, it agrees very well with all the other facts of Egyptian chronology. (10) 

Sheshonk (Shishak), who pillaged the temple of Jerusalem, and laid Judaea under tribute B.C. 971. 

Shishak, the Egyptian Sheshonk, had with him 600,000 horsemen when he went to fight against Jerusalem; and mention is made of the Egyptian cavalry in other parts of sacred and profane history; as well as in the hieroglyphics, which show that the command of the cavalry" was a very honourable and important post, and generally held by the most distinguished of the king's sons. (11) 

Pharaoh Neco (II Kings 23:29; II Chron. 35:20, 22; 36:4; Jer. 46:2) was the last Pharaoh recorded in the Holy Scriptures. His exploits were also recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus.  He was known in history to wage a powerful military expedition and he had met the young reforming Judaean king, Josiah. Necho' role in world history was to be cut short by the sudden rise of the Neo-Babylonian Empire under Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar II which God foretold would hinder Egypt' progress for world domination (Eze. 31, 32).  The 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus  gives the best account of Pharaoh Necho' adventurous endeavors.

Heordotus ( c.484 BC - c.525 BC), known as 'the father of history'

''Psammetichus left a son, Necos, who succeeded him.  It was Necos who began the construction of the canal to the Arabian gulf, a work afterwards completed by Darius the Persian.  The length of the Canal is four days' journey by boat, and its breadth sufficient to allow two triremes to be rowed abreast.  Necos did not complete the work, broke it off in deference to an oracle, which warned him that his labour was all for the advantage of the 'barbarians' - as the Egyptians call anyone who does not speak their language.  He then turned his attention to war; he had triremes built, some on the Mediterranean coast, others on the Arabian gulf, where the docks are still to be seen, and made use of his new fleets as occasion arose; and in addition he attacked the Syrians by land and defeated them at Magdolus, afterwards taking Gaza, a large town in Syria.  The clothes he happened to wear on this occasion he sent as an offering to Apollo at Branchidae in Milesia.  Then, after a reign of sixteen years, he died, and was succeeded by his son Psammis.' (12)

Though Egypt' fall was prophesied among the many nations for its pagan idolatry (Jer. 25), its ideologies have sadly been revived under many pioneers of the New Age Movement and in popular culture, especially among the African-American community.  Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), a New Age occultist, magician, and heroin addict who was labelled in his day as ' the most wickedest man in the world' was the pioneer for reviving Egyptian paganism and he has become the icon of the hedonistic subculture of the Hippy Movement in the 1960s.

Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess on display in the British Museum

US fashion label Baby Phat whose icon is the Egyptian goddess Bastet

'The counterculture that was foisted on the 1960s adolescent youth of America is not merely analogous to the ancient cult of Isis.  It is a literal resurrection of the cult - down to the popularization of the Isis cross as the counterculture's most frequently used symbol.' (13)

The most popular symbol in ancient Egypt was the Ankh which was a symbol for eternal life and the sun.  It was all over the temples and papyri

Neo-soul artist Erykah Badu, a follower of the teachings of the New Age philosophy of the 5% Nation popularises the occult symbol of the Ankh

Egyptology like its younger sister Assyriology, has helped to unravel  the enigma of the ancient cultures in the Orient (Middle East/ Asia) and Africa.  Though pictures on papyri and on temple walls tells a story, it was the deciphering of the North African glyphs by the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and the Babylonian nail shaped writing called cuneiform that opened the door to the Old Testament world of the Holy Scriptures.  Though critics will always be busy, ever warring against the word of God, the deciphering of the monuments have strengthened the authenticity of the word of God and before Jesus returns more truths will be made manifest.  

Source: (1) The Origin of Nations by George Rawlinson pp. 13, 14, 214, 215; (2) Daily Mail, Wednesday, December 16, 1998; (3) Secrets of the Lost Races by Rene Noorbergen pp. 109, 111; (4) The Daily Mail, Thursday, April 2, 1998; (5) The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms by Isaac Newton pp. 68, 70, 72, 85, 86, 90, 92 (6) The Rosetta Stone by E. A. Wallis Budge pp. 14, 15; (7) The Tell Armana Tablets by C. R. Conder p.141; (8) The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments by A. H. Sayce pp. 46, 47, 72, 222, 241; (9) History of Ancient Egypt vol. II by Professor George Rawlinson pp. 418, 419; (10) Egypt and Israel by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie pp. 72, 73; (11) The Ancient Egyptians by Sir J Gardner Wilkinson p.340; (12) Herodotus, Book Two 138, 139 (13) Dope Inc. p.537