Studies in Jewish History*
The Hebrew in Egypt
Long before the advent of the Hebrews in Egypt, Semitic tribes are known to have wandered into the country. Sometimes they came as marauders and made raids upon the land. Sometimes they came like the Semitic Hyksos or Shepherd-kings, as conquerers; or, like the Hebrews, they were allowed to settle peacably in the land. And they left profound impressions upon the customs, language, art and religion of the Egyptians.
Thus, there is evidence that the Egyptians often gave Semitic names to their children; and they incorporated Hebrew words in their language such as sus for a horse, Kamal for a camel, rosrf for head, sar, a king, beit, a horse, bab, a door, bir, a spring, birkato, a lake, ketem, gold, shalom, to greet, rom, to be high, barak, to bless, and many others. Indeed, says one authority, the endeavor to pay court in the most open manner to whatever was Semitic became, in the time of the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties which was after the Hyksos domination had passed away, an "absurd mania." They introduced Semitic words in place of the native and transposed syllables in order to make others sound Semitic. The best informed, the priests and scribes, found an especial pleasure in decking their history with Semitic words in place of Egyptian expressions. Again, the Semites modified and enlarged the native conception of art, introducing new forms and shapes the Semitic origin of which is easily discernible; the winged Sphinx is a notable example, not to mention the statues of the Hyksos Kings and other works. The names of Semitic officials are handed down to us, while the religious influence of the Semites is still traceable even after the Egyptians had finally shaken off the yoke of the Hyksos, in the Pharaoh Khunaten or Amen- hotep IV., called the Heretic King, who
*Under this heading will appear, from time to time, articles on phases of Jewish History.
disowned the national gods for a more monotheistic conception and was compelled to leave his ancient capital and found a new one, as a consequence of his temperity. Ramses I. was devoted to the Semitic god Baal.
The Pharaoh of Joseph's days and of the Hebrew settlement is thought to have been Apopi. He was clearly coincident with the Hyksos dynasty. It is hardly to be wondered at, therefore, that the Hebrews should have enjoyed considerable prestige in the land while it was under the rules of this kindred race who were themselves never looked upon save as foreigners by the natives.
Thus the Hebrews prospered in Egypt. And it seems clear from the illustrious position which, in the course of time, they attained in the land that they were by no means an ignorant people, untutored in the ways of the world.
How and whence did they come, before their early tarrying on the other side of the Jordan? Perhaps they were the unconquered and roving wing of a great people like their civilized kinsmen, the Phoenicians, famine-stricken and with a smarting memory of past dominion and greatness to enlarge their vision and give them their extraordinary range of sympathies and never-failing hardihood. It was with a remote past charged with pain and struggle, victories and defeats, experiences of great wastes and rich countries, turmoils, stretches of silence and deep measures of contrasting fortunes that the Hebrew Race settled in Mizraim.
Certainly, the civilized Egyptians found in them a people difficult to compete with, as they are to-day. Caste-ridden, thoroughly tyrannized as the natives were, even on their own soil, they must have been no match for the free, untrammelled immigrants who were active, ambitious, full of intelligence and hardhood. They saw them forging ahead in the cities as well as elsewhere, winning favor with the ruling dynasties and sharing in the government, as in the case of Joseph, acquiring riches, excercising power, succeeding by dint of