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Two Egyptian Lessons in the Exodus Account Dr. Rodger Dalman Around 1446 BC, Moses was led his sheep to an ancient holy mountain named Horeb or Sinai. As he walked on the slopes of the mountain, he had a strange experience. He saw a bush burning with an internal fire. Yet the bush was not consumed by the blaze. Then God called to Moses from the bush, and God commanded him to remove his shoes because he stood on holy ground. One of the hardest questions to understand in this passage is why God would appear to Moses in a burning bush. Theophanies were common in the Pentateuch. God appeared to Adam and Eve in Gen. 3:8, to Abraham in Gen. 19:1, to Moses and Israel’s elders in Ex. 24:9-10. Why would God not have simply appeared to Moses as He did on so many other occasions? Why did He appear in a burning bush? The answer to this question might come from Egyptian culture and religion. One of the oldest motifs in Egyptian theology was the myth of a great conflict between the Egyptian gods Horus and Seth. Each Pharaoh claimed to be the incarnation of the god Horus, and Pharaoh’s claims to authority were based on his claims of divinity. The ancient Egyptian god Seth was always a troublemaker in Egypt. He was associated with all things foreign and especially with Semitic people on Egypt’s northeast frontier.1 The conflict between Horus and Seth in the ancient myth may have had behind it the ancient struggle between Egypt’s rulers and semi-nomadic people who raided Egypt’s northeast frontier. In the myth, Horus and Seth fought a terrible battle within a supernatural tree in the wilderness on Egypt’s eastern horizon. Jan Zandee described this battle. He noted that the conflict involved a unique bush called a hmm plant, and the conflict occurred either for or in the plant. The bush had been created by the Egyptian god Geb, and it was located in the fiery, spiritual realm northeast of Egypt (Zandee 1972:72). While Horus would normally defeat Seth, the result of this conflict was a surprise. Seth defeated, humiliated, and crippled Horus by striking out his eye. Horus returned to Egypt in defeat. Each year, the Egyptians held a six day ceremony commemorating the rebuilding of the Eye of Horus. This myth was such an important part of the culture that numerical fractions were written in hieroglyphic by writing parts of the plucked out Eye of Horus (Te Velde 1967: 46-49). The earliest expressions of this myth only mentioned the damage that Seth did to Horus. Later versions of the myth claimed that Horus also injured Seth severely. This motif was already well known in the Pyramid Texts. These texts were written on the walls of the Old Kingdom pyramids centuries before Abraham was born. Utterance 54 of the Pyramid Texts claimed in part, “O King, take the Eye of Horus, which was wrested from Seth and saved for you” (Faulkner 1969:11). The Egyptian Coffin Spells were in use during the Middle Kingdom. This was roughly Israel’s Patriarchal Age. Coffin Spell 335 recorded in part, “I restored the Eye after it had been injured on that day when the Rivals fought. What is the fighting of the Rivals? It means the day in which Horus fought with Seth when Seth inflicted a wound on the face of Horus (Faulkner 1973: 263). The Eye of Horus motif also played an important role in the New Kingdom Book of the Dead tradition where the motif was used in several ways. What light might this myth have shed on Moses’ Sinai experiences? The motif of Seth’s battle against Horus would have been known by anyone in Egypt. When Moses explained his encounter at the burning bush, both the Egyptians and the Israelites may have heard Moses’ words in the context of that myth. No matter how badly the Egyptians were dominating the Israelites, both may have heard in Moses’ words a reminder that the heart of Egypt’s religion included a warning that the God of the wilderness supernatural bush could humiliate and defeat Pharaoh.2 When Moses brought Israel from Egypt, he led Israel to Mount Sinai. After Israel’s sin with the golden calf, Moses returned to Sinai. In Ex. 33:18-23, Moses asked to be shown God’s glory. Ex. 33:18-23 seems at first glance to be a strange passage. Moses had seen God’s theophanic appearance before this request. Ex. 19:9, 20 claimed that Yahweh came down to Sinai in a thick cloud. Ex. 20:21 noted that Moses approached the cloud in which God’s was present. Ex. 24:2, 9-10 recorded that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and Israel’s 70 elders had all seen Yahweh on Sinai although only Moses drew near to Him.3 These men may have seen more than a cloud because the text described a crystal pavement beneath God’s feet. Ex. 33:11 claimed that Moses spoke with God face to face when the pillar of cloud and fire stood at the entrance of the tabernacle. Yet Moses prayed for a clearer vision of God than that. In Ex. 33:14, Moses prayed that he may know God’s ways so that he could know God. In that context, Moses asked to see God’s face. Yahweh responded that no man could see His face and live. Yahweh showed Moses His “back” but not his face. Ex. 34:29-35 then noted that the skin on Moses’ face shown brightly because he had seen just the lesser part of God’s glory. The glory reflected in Moses’ face was enough to terrify the Israelites, and Moses covered his face with a veil except when he spoke to Yahweh. An Egyptian parallel to this text may suggest how the Israelites understood the resulting glory in Moses’ face. If Israel left Egypt during the 18th Dynasty, Moses grew up during the struggle between Thutmose III and Hatshepsut. Thutmose III came to the Egyptian throne at a very young age through a complicated process. Thutmose III was too young to rule effectively. So Hatshepsut took over the reins of government. She ruled as de facto pharaoh until her death despite the fact that Thutmose III was in theory the ruler. Hatshepsut and Thutmose III were locked in a bitter struggle for power. In this conflict, Hatshepsut and Thutmose III made rival claims to divine authority. Hatshepsut claimed that Amon-Re had appeared to her mother in the form of a god and slept with her. Hatshepsut claimed that she had been born as the daughter of Amon-Re and that she was the divinely appointed ruler of the land. Hatshepsut claimed that Amon-Re commanded the potter god Khnum to form her body, and Khnum responded, I have given to thee (fem.) to appear upon the throne of Horus like Re, forever; --- I have given to thee (fem.) to be before the ka’s of all the living, while thou (fem.) shinest as King of Upper and Lower Egypt, of South and North, according as thy (fem.) father who loves thee (fem.) has commanded (Breasted 2001 reprint: 82). In this passage, Hatshepsut claimed to be the daughter of a god. She claimed the right to sit on Pharaoh’s throne like the sun god, and she claimed to shine like the sun god. Thutmose III responded with even more dramatic claims. In his coronation inscription, Thutmose III claimed,
Coronation in Heaven Re himself established me, I was dignified with the diadems which [we]re upon his head, his serpent-diadem, rested upon [my forehead] ----- [he satisfied] me with all his glories; I was sated with the counsels of the gods, like Horus, when he counted his body at the house of my father, Amon-Re. I was [present]ed with the dignities of a god, with ------ my diadems commanded (Breasted 2001 reprint: 61). At his coronation, Thutmose III was given a series of names that expressed his character. The first name given to Thutmose III was, First Name He fixed my Horus upon the standard; he made me mighty as a mighty bull. He caused that I should shine in the midst of Thebes [in this my name, Horus: "Mighty Bull, Shining in Thebes"] (Breasted 2001 reprint: II: 62). In his coronation inscription, Thutmose III made astounding claims. He claimed that he had already been taken up into heaven where he had seen the sun god in his true heavenly form. As a result of this experience, he was given the right to rule and the ability to shine in the Egyptian capital of Thebes. These claims were strikingly different from claims that Egypt’s rulers had made in the past. The Egyptians knew that no one could see the true form of the sun god. Those who tried would be blinded by the sun’s brilliance. Before Thutmose III, Egypt’s rulers claimed that they would reach the sun god’s presence in the afterlife. Then they hoped to see the sun god in his true form and to join the sun god on his daily journey around the earth. For example, Middle Kingdom Coffin Spells 491 and 492 claimed that the deceased would enter the sun god’s shrine and see Re’s true shape (Faulkner 1977: 133-4). Thutmose III’s claims also exceeded the claims of other 18th Dynasty tomb texts.4 How could the claims of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III shed light on Moses’ Sinai experiences? The conflict between Hatshepsut and Thutmose III had shaped Egyptian politics during Moses’ youth. Thutmose III had dominated Egypt and Canaan with an iron hand while Moses hid in the wilderness. Thutmose III had only died shortly before the exodus. It is likely that almost every Israelite at Sinai was aware of the claims made by Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. When Moses returned from the mountain with supernatural radiance and explained that he had asked to see God’s face, the Israelites would have heard his words in the context of those claims. The Israelites would have seen the glory of Moses’ face as a divine affirmation of his right to rule the nation. Whether the claims of Thutmose III influenced Moses’ request is more difficult to determine. Notes 1 When Semitic words were transliterated into hieroglyphic, they were sometimes written with the Seth animal determinative sign to show that they were not proper Egyptian words. 2 While Baal was associated with Seth in the 19th Dynasty, there is no evidence that Yahweh’s was seen as a manifestation of Seth in the New Kingdom. Neither the Egyptians nor the Israelites would have equated Israel’s God with Seth. Moses’ burning bush account would only have provided a parallel to that earlier myth. 3 Hilber argued that this was a formal covenant ratification ceremony (Hilber 1996). 4 In the 18th Dynasty, Nakht of Thebes only hoped to see the face of the sun god in his temple (Manniche 1986: 61). A stela of the high priest Amenhotep only hoped that the king would be given transfiguration in heaven with the sun god (Cumming 1984: 306). Bibliography Breasted, James H. 2001 reprint Ancient Records of Egypt: Volume 2: The Eighteenth Dynasty. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Cumming, Barbara 1984 Egyptian Historical Records of the Later Eighteenth Dynasty. Warminster: Aris & Phillips. Faulkner, R. O. 1969 The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1973 The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts: Volume I: Spells 1-354. Warminster. Aris & Phillips. 1977 The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts: Volume II: Spells 355-787. Warminster: Aris & Phillips. Hilber, John. 1996 “Theology of Worship in Exodus 24.” Journal of the EvangelicalTheological Society 39: 177-190. Manniche, Lise 1986 “The Tomb of Nakht, the Gardener, at Thebes (No. 161) as Copied by Robert Hay.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 72: 55-78. Te Velde, H. 1967 Seth, God of Confusion: A Study of His Role in Egyptian Mythology andReligion. Leiden: E. J. Brill. Zandee, Jan 1972 “A Site of the Conflict between Horus and Seth.” Ex Orbe Religionem. Leiden: E. J. Brill, |
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Copyright © 2009 Dr. Rodger Dalman
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