Jews in Egypt 01:
Before Arab rule
Old kingdoms - Asian imperialism - Egypt imperialism
- first Palestine data - Hellenistic period - comparison
of Egypt and Bible literature - Roman period with
ghettos, "Christian" Antisemitism and Jewish revolts -
Persian occupation
from: Egypt; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 6
presented by Michael Palomino (2008)
[[Remark: Bible stories about Jews and Egypt are not all
safe. Discussion about Jews in Egypt according to Jewish
archeology research can be found in the book written by
Finkelstein and Silberman: "The Bible Unearthed:
Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel"]].
<EGYPT, country
in N.E. Africa, centering along the banks of the River Nile
from the Mediterranean coast southward beyond the first
cataracts at Aswan. The ancient Egyptians named their land
"Kemi", the "black Land", while the neighbouring Asiatic
peoples used the Semitic word "Misr" which is still the
country's name in both Hebrew and Arabic.
Geographically Egypt consists of two areas. Lower Egypt, the
northern part of the land, which contains the Delta, and
Upper Egypt, the south which comprises the narrow strip of
cultivable land on both sides of the river as far south as
Aswan.
Ancient Egypt: The OLD
KINGDOM
About 3000 B.C.E. an Upper Egyptian king, Narmer (who is
perhaps to be equated with the legendary Menes mentioned by
the historian Herodotus), conquered Lower Egypt, unified the
two portions of the land, and began the first dynasty in
Egyptian history (col. 479).
|
Encyclopaedia
Judaica (1971): Egypt, vol. 6, col. 488,
ceremonial slate palatte with king Narmer
depicting the conquests of Egyptian king Narmer
(c. 3000 B.C.E.). In the top register the
crowned king, preceded by his standard-bearers,
surveys his slain enemies. At the bottom, the
king, symbolized by a bull, batters at the
fortified walls of a city. Cairo Museum.
|
This conquest was commemorated on a large ceremonial slate
palette, the Narmer Palette (now in the Cairo Museum).
Studies of the palette by Y. Yadin, S. Yeivin, and R. Amiran
have shown that events recorded on it also indicate an
Egyptian penetratio of West Asia, across the northern Negev
deep into Transjordan. Potsherds bearing the name of Narmer
and one of his predecessors have been found in Israel at
Tell Erany (Tel Gat).
[[A "Tell" is a town in ruins which was destroyed several
times and rebuilt several times on the old ruins, so the
town was on a hill at the end. So a "Tell" is a ruin hill
with it's different layers of the different ages]].
The excavations of the lower city at Tel Arad near Beersheba
have revealed close connections of a commercial nature with
the Egyptian First and Second Dynasties. Pottery of a type
well-known and well attested in Egypt at this time, but of
Palestinian origin, was found in great quantity. Toward the
end of the Old Kingdom, in the reign of Pepi I of the Sixth
Dynasty, an inscription of Uni, one of his officials,
describes a successful campaign by land and sea which he
waged against the "Land of Gazelle Nose", a region which has
been equated by most modern scholars with the Mount Carmel
range. On the whole, however, the relations between Egypt
and Palestine during the Old Kingdom were of a peaceful
nature and were confined to trade.
The MIDDLE KINGDOM: [Egypt-Palestine relations:
trade, caravans, and craftsmen]
With the collapse of the Old Kingdom (c. 2200 B.C.E.), Egypt
entered into the First Intermediate period, a time of
political chaos, anarchy, and civil war which lasted a
little over two centuries. The land had split apart at its
geographical seams, central authority disappeared, the
social order seemed to be overturned, and all this was
conveniently blamed upon the penetration of the eastern
Delta by Asiatics.
With the accession of Amenemhet I of the Twelfth Dynasty (c.
1991 B.C.E.) began the flowering period of the Middle
Kingdom in Egypt, which coincided with the *patriarchal
period in Palestine, and interrelations between the two
regions are attested in a diverse number of sources. On the
whole these still remained peaceful and friendly. The most
famous literary text of the Middle Kingdom, the Story of
Sinuhe, a propagandist tale designed to show the glory of
Egypt under Sesostris I (c. 1971-38 B.C.E.), related the
wanderings of an Egyptian exile in northern
Palestine-Coele-Syria and sheds much information on the life
and customs of these (col. 479)
regions. A painting in the tomb of Prince Khnumhotep III at
Beni Hasan in Middle Egypt (c. 1890 B.C.E.) portrays the
arrival of a trading caravan of 37 gaudily dressed Asiatics
led by their chief Ibsha to Khnumhotep's court. The main
product which these Asiatics brought was a cosmetic for
painting the eyes, but they may also have been traveling
metalworkers since their donkeys are shown carrying bellows
(cf. Gen. 4:19-22). (col. 480)
Encyclopaedia Judaica:
Egypt, vol.6, col. 493-494, painting of the arrival of an
Asiatic trade caravan, depicted on a mural
in the tomb of Prince Khnumhotep III (c. 1890 B.C.E.) at
Beni Hasan.
That there may have been an administrative and possibly
military domination of Asia by Egypt during the Middle
Kingdom can be inferred from the statue, found at [[Tell]]
*Megiddo, of the governor of the 15th nome of Upper Egypt
and high priest of Thoth at Hermopolis, Djehuty-hotep, who
lived under Amenemhet II and Sesostris III (c. 1938-1849
B.C.E.), and a group of Statuettes of the vizier
Sesostris-'enekh found at *Ugarit in Syria.
This is borne out by the fact that the Asiatic rulers of
Byblos bore the Egyptian title of "count", which in Egypt
was conferred by the king, implying some sort of Egyptian
control over them. A papyrus of the Late Middle Kingdom, in
the Brooklyn Museum, lists among the personnel of a large
estate in Middle / Upper Egypt a large number of slaves and
serfs who bear Northwest Semitic names, including those of
*Shiphrah and Puah who are attested in Exodus 1:15 as
midwives.
[Sinai mines - wars against
Asiatic nomads - curses against neighbours in pottery]
Under Amenemhet III the brother of the prince of Retjenu
(the Old and Middle Kingdom Egyptian name for Palestine) is
frequently pictured in rock drawings at the turquoise mines
of Ser
abît-el-Kh
adim in Sinai
assisting the Egyptians in working or administering the
mines.
Direct military activity by the Egyptians in Palestine
during the Twelfth Dynasty is occasionally attested in
Egyptian documents. On the stele of the general Nesmontu
from the coregency of Amenemhet I and Sesostris I (c.
1971-62 B.C.E.), Nesmontu relates how he campaigned against
the Asiatic nomads and destroyed their strongholds. The
stele of the soldier Sebekkhu under Sesostris III (c.
1878-49) B.C.E.) records that king's campaign against the
Asiatics of the region of Sekmem, which most scholars equate
with Shechem in Samaria, and several Twelfth Dynasty blocks
from the Temple of Amun in Karnak record the names of
Palestinian tribute bearers. Certain literary texts, the
Story of Sinuhe and the Prophecy of Neferti (Nefer-rohu),
mention fortifications on the eastern frontier of Egypt,
called the "Walls of the Ruler", which had been built by
Amenemhet I "to repel the Asiatics and crush the
Sandfarers".
There is a series of interesting texts dated about the end
of the Middle Kingdom which record, on the one hand, the
real or potential enemies of Egypt, and on the other, a
series of detailed geographical lists of the lands and
territories neighbouring Egypt. These texts, the Execration
Texts, were curses which were inscribed on pottery bowls or
crude human figurines in clay and then ceremonially smashed.
The Asiatic texts mention Byblos, Ashkelon, Akhshaph, and
Aushamem (Jerusalem?).
[Asian rulers in Egypt]:
The HYKSOS
The Middle Kingdom collapsed about 1780 B.C.E. in chaos and
civil war. Some 50 years later the Delta had new masters who
claimed overlordship over all of Egypt. These were the
Asiatic "rulers of foreign countries", the *Hyksos of
Manetho, whose rule lasted until c. 1570 B.C.E. Earlier
scholership regarded the Hyksos as a single wave of
invaders, equipped with the horse-drawn chariot (previously
unknown in Egypt) and the compound Asiatic bow, who brutally
installed themselves by conquest in Egypt.
The most recent scholarship rejects this view, considering
the Hyksos, in the context of the *Amorite movement into
West Asia, as a heterogeneous group of different peoples,
Semites and Hurrians, infiltrating into the Eastern Delta
over a period of several centuries, coming as traders and
slaves, pasturing their cattle in times of famine (col.480)
in Canaan, and finally seizing power during the civil wars
of the Egyptian Thirteenth Dynasty. Although inscriptions of
the greatest Hyksos ruler, Khyan, have been found in Crete,
Anatolia, Iraq, and southern Palestine, there is no reason
to Believe (as was formerly thought) that the Hyksos ruled a
mighty empire embracing these regions. It is clear, however,
that under them trade was widespread. Later Egyptian
tradition has presented a biased picture of the Hyksos as
godless barbarians who harshly usurped power in Egypt and
humiliated the Egyptians; for in spite of the fact that the
Hyksos, possessing no material culture of their own quickly
adopted that of Egypt, the native Egyptians never became
reconciled to their rule.
Around 1550 B.C.E. the Egyptian rulers of Thebes began a war
of liberation against the Hykos, which culminated in the
capture of the Hyksos capital at Avaris (modern Khatana
Qantir?), the expulsion of the Asiatics from Egypt, the
destruction of their stronghold of Sharuhen in southwest
Palestine, and the beginnings of the Egyptian empire (the
New Kingdom). In the first century C.E., the Jewish
historian Josephus incorrectly equated the Ptolemaic
Egyptian historian Manetho's account of the Hyksos with the
biblical accounts of *Joseph and the *Exodus (Apion
1:82ff.). The most important effect of the Hyksos domination
was the complete shattering of Egyptian confidence and sense
of secure isolation afforded by the protection of the
deserts on each side of the Nile Valley.
18th dynasty: Extension of
Egypt to Asia as a "prevention" - many raids - and peace
by marriage
To prevent the recurrence of such foreign domination the
rulers of the Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1570-1304 B.C.E.)
extended their dominion east and north into West Asia where
they came into conflict with the Hurrian empire of Mitanni.
The battlefield was northern Palestine and southern Syria,
probably as far north as Kadesh on the Orontes [[river]].
The earlier kings of the dynasty raided Syria, Thutmose I
(c. 1525-1495 B.C.E.) going as far as the Euphrates River;
but it was his grandson Thutmose III (c. 1490-1436 B.C.E.),
the greatest of the Eighteenth Dynasty soldier-kings, who
laid the real foundations of Egypt's Asiatic empire, when in
1468 B.C.E. he crushed a coalition of Palestinian and Syrian
princes, under the leadership of the king of Kadesh, at
Megiddo, in the plain of Esdraelon (or Jezreel Valley).
Almost every year for the next 20 years Thutmose led or sent
his army into West Asia to consolidate his conquests,
raiding, as did his grandfather, even to the Orontes
[[river]]. His two successors continued this policy until
the reign of Amunhotep III (c. 1405-1367) who cemented peace
with Mitanni by marrying a Mitannian princess. During this
period of Egyptian conquest, it was the national god, Amun
of Thebes (see *Amon), who had given victory to Egypt and,
in return, the king gratefully gave vast shares of the
plunder and tribute to Amun's temple. The Asiatic regions
were ruled by puppet vassals, educated at the Egyptian court
and subordinate to Egyptian commissioners and governors.
As yet, there was no physical Egyptian occupation of West
Asia. Nevertheless there was a free interchange of goods and
ideas: Egyptian deities were worshiped by Asiatics in Asia
and Asiatic gods such as Resheph and *Baal were venerated in
Egypt by Egyptians; the tomb and temple art of Egypt
displayed pictures of Asiatics (Semites and Hurrians) and
their products. Respite from foreign war gave rise to new
problems in Egypt. The empire had been made possible by a
middle class of bureaucrats and soldiers; but social
penetration into the highest strata of Egyptian society -
the nobility and the upper clergy - was virtually
impossible.
Under Amunhotep's son *Akhenaton, a social revolution broke
out, cloaked in religious garb. Akhenaton attempted to
effect a change in the old, established order by suppressing
the cult of Amun and the (col. 481)
other major gods and replacing them with the worship of a
hitherto minor solar cult, that of the sun-disk Aton.
Although Akhenaton's religious "reforms" superficially
resemble the introduction of monotheism, there is no real
evidence that this was the case. Akhenaton's revolution did
not survive him; and not long after his death, the
revolution and its author's name and memory were
systematically blotted out.
The partial archive of the diplomatic correspondence of the
last years of Amunhotep III and of Akhenaton, found at the
latter's capital of Akhetaton (modern Tell *el-Amarna), is
the most important surviving collection of written sources
for the political history of Palestine and southern Syria at
the end of the 14th century B.C.E.
[[Jews are mentioned]].
EGYPT AND PALESTINE - [no
Jews mentioned there]
A careful study does not show any gradual disintegration of
the Egyptian Asiatic empire because of Akhenaton's
preoccupation with his religious reform. Egyptian policy was
to keep the trade routes to Mesopotamia open, and to keep
the Syro-Palestinian vassals disunited and hostile to one
another. Mention is frequently made in these letters of the
incursions of the *Habiru-nomads against the settled
Canaanite regions.
Scholars today, however, no longer identify them as the
Hebrews under Joshua. At the close of the Eighteenth
Dynasty, after the death of Akhenaton's successor
Tutankhamun, Egyptian defeat in Asia in a war against the
Hittites and a civil war in Egypt led to the temporary
independence of Palestine. The Ramesside kings of the
Nineteenth Dynasty (c. 1304-1200 B.C.E.) reestablished
Egyptian control, this time by direct occupation. Strong
Egyptian garrisons were placed in *Gaza, *Jaffa, *Megiddo,
and *Beth-Shean, among other cities, where archaeological
excavations revealing a marked Egyptian occupation level.
[Israel mentioned on
an inscription - biblical Exodus - invasion of Sea
Peoples]
Rameses II, the most famous king of the dynasty, fought a
militarily inconclusive battle with the resurgent Hittites
at Kadesh on the Orontes [[river]] (c. 1298 B.C.E.), which,
however, politically fixed the northern limits of Egyptian
control and influence in southern Syria. An inscription of
his successor, *Merneptah, which mentions the name *Israel
for the first time in an Egyptian text and definitely places
it somewhere in Palestine, has been accepted as evidence
that the biblical *Exodus had already taken place, probably
in the reign of Rameses II.
Merneptah
stone (stele) mentioning Israel, c. 1230 B.C.E., with the
first-known inscription of the name "Israel". It reads
"...
carved off is Ashkelon, seized upon is Gezer ... Israel is
laid waste, his seed is not..."
The reign of Merneptah also saw the beginnings of
invasion-migrations of the Sea Peoples, the first of which
Merneptah successfully repelled.
[[This Sea Peoples invasion is the reason for burning the
towns in Palestine, not Joshuah, according to the latest
Jewish
archeology. This is no conspiracy theory, stupid Church and
stupid dogmatic "Christian" groups, but this is fact! see:
Finkelstein / Silberman: The Bible Unearthed]].
[Syrian period in Egypt]
The end of the Nineteenth Dynasty was a period of anarchy
culminating when a Syrian, Irau, seized the Egyptian throne
(c. 1224-1214).
This Syrian interregnum was followed by the establishment of
the Twentieth Dynasty (c. 1200-1090 B.C.E.) which at its
very outset was threatened by new waves of invading Libyans
and Sea Peoples. Rameses III, the most important ruler of
the dynasty (c. 1195-1164 B.C.E.), who halted the Sea
Peoples' invasion which had overrun Asia Minor and northern
Syria, destroying the Hittite empire in the process, was the
last pharaoh of the dynasty to hold Palestine.
[since 1150 b.c.: no mining
in the Sinai any more - Philistines governing in Palestine
- Jews in the hills - Salomonian times and wars]
By 1150 B.C.E. the Egyptians had ceased to exploit the Sinai
copper and turquoise mines, and in Palestine itself the
Egyptian occupational levels were replaced by those of the
Peleshet (*Philistines), the Sea People group which Rameses
III had employed as mercenaries in Egypt and Palestine after
he had defeated them.
West Asia played a noticeable part in the cultural and
economic life of Egypt during the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Dynasties, particularly under the early Ramessides. An
important literary text of the period, Papyrus Anastasi I,
emphasizes the detailed geographic and topographic knowledge
the Egyptians had of Palestine. Asiatic themes occur
frequently in Egyptian art and literature, and men bearing
Semitic names rose to prominence in Egyptian society.
That the political loss of her (col. 482)
Asiatic empire did not, however, end Egypt's cultural
influence in West Asia is shown by a literary text, the
Travels of Wenamun, dating to the beginning of the
Twenty-First Dynasty (c. 1090 B.C.E.). In Palestine the
Philistines had established themselves, along with at least
one other of the Sea Peoples, Tjeker, along the coastal
plains and valleys, while Israelite tribes were settling in
the hill country of the interior. It was only after the
United Monarchy had been established by David that Egypt
again appeared in Palestine. During *David's campaigns
against *Aram Zobah, an Egyptian king of the Twenty-First
Dynasty, either Siamun or Psusennes II, seizing the
opportunity, ravaged the Philistine enclave of Gezer and
captured the city, which subsequently was handed over to
David as the dowry [[marriage portion]] of Solomon's bride -
probably as a face-saving gesture when David returned from
his triumph over Hadadezer. Peaceful and friendly relations
between Egypt and Palestine, however, did not survive the
death of Solomon.
[[According to Jewish archeology David and Solomon did not
exist because there are no remnants at all to find, and
Egypt documents never mention them. But there are other
Jewish kingdoms which are missing in the Torah]].
The Twenty-Second Dynasty, of Libyan origin, had come to
power in Egypt (c. 950 B.C.E.). Sheshonk I (the biblical
*Shishak) gave refuge to the Israelite pretender *Jeroboam
and, after the latter had returned to Israel, invaded first
Judah, thoroughly ravaging and looting the country, and then
Israel, treating it in like manner.
Returning with vast plunder, and leaving a weakened
Palestine behind him, Sheshonk retired to Egypt. Henceforth
the Libyan rulers of Egypt, having shown their power, left
West Asia alone.
By the end of the eighth century B.C.E. the Egyptianized
Nubian rulers of *Cush had displaced the Libyans in control
of Egypt, while the Assyrians under *Tiglath-Pileser III
made their presence felt in Syria and Palestine. During the
last revolt of Israel against Assyria (724-721 B.C.E.) Hosea
wrote to So, the king of Egypt, for support against the
Assyrians. This otherwise unknown king has been plausibly
identified recently as Tefnakht, the ruler of Sais (So), a
vassal of the Nubians. However, Egyptian support was to no
avail; Tefnakht was repulsed and Samaria fell.
Nevertheless Egypt still appeared to be powerful, and in the
following decades *Hezekiah, king of Judah, again relied on
Egypt. Although the biblical account names *Tirhakah
(Taharka), king of Cush (Nubia; II Kings 19:35) as
Jerusalem's ally, there are chronological problems involved,
since the decisive battle of this campaign, that of Elteke,
took place in 701, and Taharka's rule began only in 689.
[Palestine under Egypt and
Babylonian rule - deportation of Jews to Babylon or flight
to Egypt]
*Sennacherib's successors subjugated Egypt, expelled the
Cushites, and installed puppets who managed to regain
Egyptian independence under the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. The
founder of this dynasty, Psammetichus I (c. 664-610 B.C.E.)
strengthened Egypt by the widespread employment of
foreigners - Greek and Jewish mercenary troops and
Phoenician sailors and merchants. During his reign or that
of Psammetichus II (c. 595-89 B.C.E.) the famous colony of
Jewish mercenary soldiers was established at *Elephantine to
protect the southern frontier of Egypt. After the fall of
the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in 612 B.C.E. to the
Neo-Babylonians and Medes, the king of Egypt, Neco II, "went
up against the Babylonians", but found his way barred by
*Josiah, king of Judah, whom he defeated and killed at
Megiddo in 609. Four years later, the Babylonians decisively
defeated him at the battle of Carchemish. The subsequent
Babylonian invasion of Egypt, preceded by the siege and sack
of Ashkelon, was, however, beaten back, although Palestine
remained under Babylonian control.
In 589 *Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, whose kin,
*Zedekiah, had rebelled at the instigation of the pharaoh
Apries (*Hophra). The latter invaded Syria in an attempt to
relieve Jerusalem, but again Egyptian support proved
ineffectual, and in 587 Jerusalem fell. Most of the (col.
483)
city's population was deported to Babylon; some, however,
took refuge in Egypt, including the prophet *Jeremiah.
Egyptian Literature in the
Bible
[[One of the strange things is that David and Solomon are
never mentioned in Egypt literature]].
The major body of extant Egyptian literature dates to the
third and second millennia B.C.E., i.e., to the Old, Middle
and New Kingdoms. Although it was one the tendency of
scholars to include every sort of written text from the
ancient Near East within the broad definition of literature,
the Egyptologist today can point to a distinct and rich
literature in the true sense of the word, including fiction,
poetry, wisdom literature, satire, biography, and narrative.
Since the vast bulk of Egyptian literature was written in
cursive script with pen or brush and ink on perishable
materials - papyrus, wooden writing boards, and occasionally
on pottery or limestone ostraca - it is hardly surprising
that only a small fraction of what once must have existed is
preserved today.
It should be noted that although several copies of the same
texts frequently occur, there are very few complete texts.
Moreover, many copies of texts on papyri and ostraca appear
to have been schoolboys' copies and exercises which are
replete with errors.
Much of this literature, particularly in the areas of wisdom
literature, religious and secular poetry, fiction, and epic,
frequently parallels the literature of the Bible in theme,
content, language, or style. While not all Egyptian
literature has parallels with the literature of the Bible,
even much of the rest deals intimately with Palestine and
Syria. The "Story of Sinuhe", has already been mentioned, In
one of his many adventures, Sinuhe slays an enemy champion
in a duel reminiscent of that between David and Goliath (I
Sam. 17:51). The Late Egyptian "Tale of Two Brothers"
(Papyrus D'Orbiney), which dates to about 1225 B.C.E.,
relates how an upright youth, Anubis, rejects the advances
of his older brother's wife. Afraid that her infidelity
would become known, she falsely accused Anubis of attempting
adultery with her. The rest of the story deals with Anubis'
flight, adventures, transformation, and subsequent
vindication.
The beginning of this text resembles the account of Joseph
and Potiphar's wife (Gen. 39:1-20), which appears to be a
case of literary borrowing from the Egyptians as is attested
by the Egyptian elements in the biblical tale, particularly
by the Egyptian names of Joseph (Zaphenath-Paneah) and the
native Egyptians, which can be dated from their Egyptian
prototypes to the tenth century B.C.E.
The biblical tale of the seven lean years in Egypt (Gen.
41:27, 56) finds a parallel in an Egyptian story written to
explain why the ram-headed god Khnum was honoured in the
region just south of the island of Elephantine.
The extant version of the text is late (c. late second
century B.C.E.), but the document itself is dated to the
reign of Djoser at the beginning of the Old Kingdom (c. 28th
century B.C.E.). Like most ancient peoples, the Egyptians
had a story recounting how a god, dissatisfied with mankind,
attempted to destroy it, and how mankind survived. The
Egyptian account, however, differs from that in Genesis 6
(see also *Cosmogony; *Creation).
[Parallels between Egypt
and Biblical poetry]
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Egypt, vol.6, col. 499,
goddess Hathor, goddess of the mines,
face carved in stone, at the turquoise mines of
Sarabt-el-Khadim in Sinai.
Several Egyptian works parallel biblical poetry in spirit
ant wording: "The Hymn to Aton" from the reign of Akhenaton
at the end of the 18th Dynasty (late 15th century B.C.E.)
and Psalm 104; the 19th-Dynasty love songs (Papyrus Harris
500 and Papyrus Chester Beatty 1) and the Song of Songs. The
resemblance in spirit, language, and phraseology between the
Aton Hymn and Psalm 104 led earlier scholars to maintain
that there was a direct relationship between the two works.
Because, at first glance, Akhenaton's devotion to Aton and
the suppression of Amun and non-solar Egyptian cults
appeared to be monotheistic, Breasted and his generation of
scholars argued that the Aton Hymn was the product of a
monotheistic religion. However, this view has been
challenged since the general acceptance by modern
scholarship of Akhenaton's religion as a form, at best, of
monoidolatry, rather than as monotheism. A less close, but
still strong parallelism exists between the Egyptian love
songs and the Song of Songs.
The Egyptians excelled most in wisdom literature,
collections of wise sayings and advice, usually taking the
form of a letter of instruction from a vizier or king to a
successor. Two well-known collections, the "Instruction of
the Vizier Ptah-hotep" (written c. 2450 B.C.E.) and the
"Instruction of Amunemope" (written between the tenth and
sixth centuries B.C.E.), are paralleled by the biblical Book
of Proverbs, particularly by Proverbs 22:17-24:22, as well
as by Ecclesiastes, Psalms, and Jeremiah. A related genre of
Egyptian texts, the so-called prophetic literature, in which
the prophet stands before the king and denounces the past
and present, (col. 484)
contains much that resembles the biblical conception of a
prophet. The Prophecy of Neferti from the Middle Kingdom
finds strong echoes in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and
Zechariah.
[AL.R.S.]
The Hellenistic Period in Egypt
Jewish
communities in Egypt during Hellenistic and
Medieval times, maps
|
 |
Encyclopaedia
Judaica (1971): Egypt, vol.6, col. 486, map with
Jewish communities during Greek and Medieval
period.
Hellenistic
period (indication in rings, Greek names):
Alexandria, Oahopus, Hermopolis Parva, Busiris,
Pelusium, Daphnae, Leontopulis, Bubastis,
Athribis, Heliopolis, Memphis, Socnopaei Nesus,
Karanis, Philadelphia, Arsinoe, Tebtunis,
Ptolemais; further up the Nile: Heracleopolis
Magna, Oxyrhynchus, Hermopolis Magna, Ptolemais,
Coptos, Thebes, Apollonopolis Magna, Aswan
Elephantine.
Medieval period (detailed map, indication in
black spots, Arab names): Alexandria, Rosetta,
Fūwa (Fuwa), Damanhūr (Damanhur), Abwān (Abwan),
Fāraskūr (Faraskur), Dantiena, Tinnis, Damīra,
Jawjar, al-Mahalla, al-Kubrā (al-Kubra), Būsīr
(Busir), Sunbāṭ (Sunbat), Tatay, Minyat Zifta,
Shubrā (Shubra), Malīj, Subk, Shaṭṭanawf
(Shattanawf), Sanīt (Sanit), Ushmūm Tannāḥ
(Ushmum Tannah), Samannūd (Samannud), Damsis,
Minyat Ashnā (Minyat Ashna), Minyat Ghamr,
Sahrajt, al-Banā (al-Bana), Ghayfa, Banhā
al-'Asal, Bilbays; further up the Nile: Qalyūb
(Qalyub), al-Maṭariyya (al-Matariyya), Cairo;
big map: Helwan, Faiyum, Ikhmim, Qūṣ (Qus), Qifṭ
(Qift), Aswan.
|
|
|
The PTOLEMAIC PERIOD
[Jewish mass flight to Egypt from Alexander the Great -
Jewish settlement under Ptolemid dynasty with center
Alexandria - and further incidents - bible translation]
Egyptian Jewry traced its history back to the time of
Jeremiah (Letter of Aristeas, 35), but it was not until the
conquest of *Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.E. that the
second great wave of Jewish emigration to Egypt began.
Alexander's successors in Egypt, the Ptolemid dynasty,
attracted many Jews early in their reign to settle in Egypt
as tradesmen, farmers, mercenaries, and government
officials. During their reign Egyptian Jewry enjoyed both
tolerance and prosperity. They became significant in culture
and literature, and by the first century C.E., accounted for
an eight of the population of Egypt. The majority of the
Jews of Egypt lived, as the Greeks, in *Alexandria, but
there were also very many in the
chora, the provincial districts outside
Alexandria.
*Ptolemy I Soter (323-283) took a large number of Jewish
prisoners of war in Palestine and forcibly settled them as
mercenaries in Egypt to hold down the native Egyptians
(ibid., 36). On Ptolemy I's retreat from Palestine many Jews
fled with him to Egypt, where they found a haven of
tolerance. *Ptolemy II Philadelphus (283-44) emancipated the
Jews taken captive by his father and settled them on the
land as cleruchs or in "Jew-Camps" as Jewish military units.
He was remembered by the Jews of Egypt as having instigated
the translation of the Septuagint (see Letter of *Aristeas;
*Bible, Greek translation). Since *Manetho's anti-Semitic
work was written in his reign there must have been a fair
number of Jews already in Egypt.
[Jewish government
connections: Ptolemy III Euergetes - Ptolemy IV Philopator
- Cleopatra III]
*Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-221) was said to have been
favourably disposed toward the Jews and to have respected
their religion. Two facts confirm this. One is the number of
Jews who settled in the nome of Arsinoe (*Faiyum) in his
reign, and the other is the synagogue inscription dedicated
to him, declaring that he granted the rights of asylum to
the synagogues (Frey, Corpus 2 pp. 374-6). There is also a
synagogue inscription from Schedia, which was also probably
dedicated to him (Reinach in REJ, 14 (1902), 161-4).
*Ptolemy IV Philopator (221-203) attempted to institute a
massacre of the Jews of Alexandria in 217 B.C.E., but was
later reconciled with them (III Macc. 5-6). During the reign
of *Ptolemy VI Philometor (181-145) a marked change took
place. Ptolemy VI won Jewish favour by opening up the whole
of Egypt to the Jews, on whom he relied, as well as by
receiving Jewish exiles from Palestine such as *Onias VI, to
whom he granted land to build a temple at Leontopolis (c.
161 B.C.E.; Jos., Wars 1:33). The Jewish philosopher
*Aristobulus of Paneas was said to have advised him on
Jewish affairs, and he appointed two Jews, Onias and
Dositheos, to high military posts (Jos., Apion, 2:49).
During the struggles of *Cleopatra III (116-101) with her
son *Ptolemy IX Lathyros (116-80) the Jews of Egypt sided
with the Queen, thus earning her esteem but alienating the
Greek population from them (Ant. 13:287). She appointed two
Jewish brothers, *Ananias and Helkias, as commanders of her
army.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENTS: Jewish professions in Hellenistic Egypt
Most of the Jews who settled in the
chora were either
farmers or artisans. The Ptolemies did not generally trust
the native Egyptians and encouraged the Jews to enter three
professions:
(a) the army, where, as other nationalities in Egypt, they
were allowed to lease plots of land from the king (called
cleruchies),and were granted tax reductions;
(b) the police force, in which Jews reached high ranks (cf.
the Jewish district chief of police in Frey, Corpus, 2, p.
370) (col. 485)
and (c) tax collecting (a government executive job) and
sometimes in the
chora,
tax farming (a government administrative post; see
Tcherikover, Corpus nos. 107, 109, 110). Others were
managers in the royal banks or administrators (ibid., nos.
99-103, from middle of second century B.C.E.). In Alexandria
there was a greater diversity of occupations and some Jews
prospered in trade and commerce.
Early in the third century B.C.E. synagogues were founded in
Egypt. They are known to have existed at Alexandria, Schedia
(third century B.C.E.), Alexandrou Nesou (third century
B.C.E.), Crocodilopolis-Arsinoe (three: third century
B.C.E., second century B.C.E., and second century C.E.),
Xenephyris (second century B.C.E.), Athribis (two:; third or
second century B.C.E.), and Nitriae (second century B.C.E.).
They were usually called Tpooevxn or evxeiov (from the Greek
euche = prayer), and tablets were often erected dedicating
the synagogue to the king and the royal family.
[Languages and names of the
Jews in Egypt: Aramaic and later Greek]
At first the Jewish immigrants spoke only Aramaic, and
documents from the third century and the first half of the
second century B.C.E. show a widespread knowledge of Aramaic
and Hebrew (cf. Frey, Corpus 2, pp. 356, 365). But from the
second century on there was a rapid Hellenization. Documents
were written in Greek, the Pentateuch was read in the
synagogue with the Septuagint translation, and even such a
writer as *Philo probably knew no or little Hebrew.
At first the Egyptian Jews transliterated their names into
Greek, or adopted Greek names that sounded like Hebrew ones
(e.g., Alcimus for Eliakim, or Jason for Joshua), but later
they often adopted Greek equivalents of Hebrew names (e.g.,
Dositheos for Jonathan, Theodoras for Jehonathan). Gradually
Egyptian Jewry adopted any Greek name (even those of foreign
gods), and among the *Zeno Letters only 25% of the names are
Hebrew.
In the
chora the
the Hellenization was not so strong, but there the Jews were
influenced by the native Egyptians. Documents testify to
Egyptian names among the Jews, and sometimes to an ignorance
of Greek (presumably these Jews spoke Egyptian). However,
the
chora Jews
were more observant of the Sabbath and dietary laws than
those of Alexandria.
The relations between Greek and Jews was on the whole good
under the Ptolemies. The Jews often sought to explain
Judaism to the Greeks (cf. Aristobulus of Paneas, Philo, and
others). They tried to enter the Greek gymnasium which was a
sign of the cultured Greek. Cases of actual apostasy were
rare; that of Dositheos, son of Drimylos, who renounced
Judaism to enter court, was exceptional (III Macc. 1:3).
CONSTITUTION questions in
Hellenistic Egypt
It used to be thought that the Jews were given equal rights
with the Greeks by Alexander the Great, and that they called
themselves Macedonians (Wars, 2:487-88). This has been
disproved by papyri where it appears that only Jews or
Jewish military units, who were incorporated into Macedonian
units, were termed "Macedonians" (compare Tcherikover,
Corpus nos. 142 line 3 with no. 143). Since the population
registered its name and racial origin, each nationality in
Egypt formed a separate group through the Ptolemid period.
The Jews, unlike the Greeks, were not granted a
politeia (rights of
free citizenship), but received a
politeuma (a constitution by which they
had the right to observe their ancestral laws). Individual
Jews were granted citizenship occasionally by the polis or
the king, or by managing to register in a gymnasium. These,
however, were exceptions. From the papyri of Faiyum and
Oxyrhynchus it seems that the majority of Jews did not use
the right of recourse to Jewish courts, but attended Greek
ones even in (col. 487)
cases of marriage or divorce. The head of the Jewish
community in Alexandria was the *ethnarch, while in the
chora elders held sway.
[End of Hellenistic time
with Antisemitism]
Toward the end of the Ptolemid period Jewish-Greek relations
steadily worsened. The Greeks, supported by the Egyptians,
were struggling to strengthen the power of the polis, while
the Jews supported the Ptolemids, first Cleopatra III (see
above), and then *Ptolemy XIII and *Gabinius in 55 B.C.E.
Papyri of 58 B.C.E. recorded some unrest in Egypt of an
anti-Semitic nature (e.g. Tcherikover, Corpus no. 141).
Josephus records that *Julius Caesar was aided by Jewish
cleruchs in Egypt when *Antipater brought reinforcements
from Palestine. In return for this Caesar is said to have
reaffirmed the citizenship of the Alexandrian Jews in 47
B.C.E. (Ant., 14:131, 188-96).
Egypt in the Roman period
EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE: [Jewish
privileges are abolished]
The new administration under *Augustus at first was grateful
to the Jews for their support (cf. the stele of their rights
set up in Alexandria; Jos., Ant. 14:188), but generally it
relied on the Greeks of Alexandria for help, which fact
caused a great rift between the Jews and the rest of the
population early in their rule. Augustus disbanded the
Ptolemaic army and abolished the tax-collection system about
30 B.C.E. Both of these acts caused great economic hardships
for the Jews. Few of them joined or were permitted to join
the Roman army in Egypt (an exception being a centurion of
116 C.E., in Tcherikover, Corpus no. 229). Jewish tax
collectors were mostly replaced by Greek government
officials. The
cursus
honorum was closed to Jews unless they renounced
their religion, which most refused to do (an exception being
*Tiberius Julius Alexander, prefect of Egypt).
[Augustus puts the Jews
into the lowest social class - Jewish resistance regains
the rights]
Jewish civil (col. 488)
rights (
politeuma)
were endangered by Augustus' revision of the constitution of
Egypt. Three [[social]] classes [[of human beings]] were
created:
(a) the upper class of Romans, priests, Greek citizens of
Alexandria, Naucratis, and Ptolemais, and those who had
registered in the gymnasium;
(b) Egyptians, the lowest class, who paid a burdensome poll
tax; and
(c) the middle class
metropolitae
(i.e., half-Greeks who lived in the
chora), who paid the
poll tax at a reduced rate. Augustus placed the Jew in the
lowest class, forced to pay the tax. This was a blow to
Jewish pride, for besides those few individual Jewish
families who had received the distinction of Greek
citizenship, the vast majority of Jews could no longer
register in the gymnasia and had to pay the poll tax.
From that time began a long struggle by the Alexandrian Jews
to confirm their rights. The works of writers such as
Josephus (
Contra Apionem)
and Philo (Vita Moysis 1:34) contain a defense of
Alexandrian Jews' rights. The Greeks in turn approached
Augustus suggesting that they would keep all non-Greeks out
of the gymnasia, if he, in turn, would abolish the
privileges of the Jews. Augustus refused and confirmed the
Jewish ancestral rights, to the intense anger of the Greeks.
Augustus abolished the post of ethnarch of Alexandria in
10-12 C.E., replacing it by a
gerusia of elders.
[since 37 C.E.:
Antisemitism against Jewish rights: Jewish ghetto in
Alexandria under Caligula - massacre on the Greeks after
Caligula's death]
The Greeks of Alexandria seized their opportunity with the
rise of the pro-Hellenic emperor, Caius *Caligula in 37 C.E.
The following year they stormed the synagogues, polluted
them, and set up statues of the emperor within. The prefect,
Valerius *Flaccus, was embarrassed and dared not remove the
images of Caesar. The Jews were shut up in a
ghetto and their houses
plundered. Philo, who wrote
In Flaccum and
De Legatione on the affair, headed a
Jewish delegation to Caligula to complain, but was dismissed
with derision [[mockery]]. On the assassination of Caligula
in 41 C.E. the Jews of Alexandria took vengeance by
instigating a massacre of the Greeks.
The new emperor, *Claudius, issued an edict in favour of the
Jews in 41 C.E., abolishing the restrictions imposed at the
time of the pogrom of 38 C.E., but he banned the Jews from
entering the gymnasia, and refused them Greek citizenship.
Much anti-Semitic material was written at this period in
Egypt, e.g., *Apion's works, and the Acts of the *
Alexandrian Martyrs.
Consequently the Jews closed their ranks and became more
self-conscious of their Jewish heritage. Such works were
written as III *Maccabees and the Wisdom of *Solomon. The
Jews also tended to live closer together, though no ghettos
were imposed.
[66 C.E.: Jewish spies
burnt - revenge action prohibited and many Jews burnt]
In 66 C.E. the Alexandrians, in debating about a delegation
to be sent to Nero, presumably to complain about the Jews,
discovered several Jewish spies among themselves. Three were
caught and burnt alive. The Jews rose in revolt and tried to
burn the Greeks in their amphitheater, and Tiberius Julius
Alexander, the prefect, crushed them mercilessly, killing
more than were slain in the pogrom of 38 C.E. After the
destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E. Onias' Temple
at *Leontopolis was destroyed and the *
fiscus judaicus
imposed. However, the Egyptian Jews had to pay more than
other Jews, because the Egyptian calendar provided that they
pay in the first year of the fiscus (71 C.E.), two years in
arrears instead of one year, as other Jews. It is estimated
that they paid that year 27 million Egyptian drachmae in
taxes.
[115-117: Jewish revolt and
destruction of Egyptian Jewry]
In 115 the great revolt of the Jews of Egypt, Cyrene, and
Cyprus occurred (see *Trajan). The revolt was immediately
crushed in Alexandria, by Marcus Rutilius Lupus, but it
continued in the chora with the help of the Jews of *Cyrene
(in centers as Thebes, Faiyum, and Athribis). Marcius Turbo
was sent by the emperor to deal with the (col. 489)
situation, and crushed the revolt in 117. Much of Alexandria
was destroyed and the revolt resulted in the virtual
annihilation of Egyptian Jewry. From that time on Jews
almost vanish from the
chora.
In Alexandria the great synagogue was destroyed, large
tracts of Jewish-owned land in Heracleapolis and Oxyrhynchus
were confiscated, and Jewish courts were suspended. The
causes of the revolt suggested are the Antisemitism of the
local Greeks, and the "messianic" movement centered around
*Lucuas of Cyrene. The revolt spelled the end of Jewish life
in Egypt for a long time. From 117 to 300 only a few Jewish
names occur among the peasants in the
chora.
See also: *Diaspora; *Hellenism.
[ED.]
From the End of the Second Temple Period to the
Muslim Conquest
[[According to
Jewish
archaeologists the Second Temple is the only one]].
[Hit Jewish communities in
Alexandria and destroyed Jewish agriculture in Egypt -
persecution of Jews by "Christs" in Alexandria]
The defeat suffered by the Jews, both in Erez Israel under
Bar Kokhba and in the quelling of the rebellion in Egypt
during the years 116-117 C.E. almost crushed the Jewish
communities in Egypt, especially in Alexandria. The evidence
from the papyri of the presence of a large, cohesive
community in Egypt, found rather abundantly before 70 C.E.,
diminishes, until after the year 200 C.E. it becomes almost
negligible. The territory of Egypt was still a marked
battleground for imperial ambitions and rebellions during
this later period of the Roman Empire. The revolt of the
bovkolot (herdsmen) and its aftermath, finally settled by
the emperor Septimus Severus (194 C.E.), left the country
with its agriculture almost ruined and burdened with heavy
taxes.
During the latter half of the third century Egypt was again
racked with internal dispute. Finally, Diocletian brought a
period of relative peace to the land, reorganizing the
territory into three, and later four, provinces. Thelater
history of Egypt under the Byzantine emperors is closely
tied up with the growth and predominance there of hitherto
persecuted Christianity.
Centered as it was in Alexandria, Christianity in Egypt
inherited some of the classical Antisemitism of the city.
Clement of Alexandria mentions (Stromata, 3:63; 2:45. 5) the
fact that there existed in the primitive church there two
"Gospels", an "Egyptian Gospel" and a "Hebrew Gospel" -
evidence of the dichotomy [[split into two parts]] in the
early church between gentile and Jewish Christianity, the
latter being characterized in Egypt by a Gnostic tendency.
By 150 C.E., however, both Orthodox and Gnostic Christianity
found themselves allied with regard to the Jews. Basilides,
an Alexandrian Gnostic at the end of the second century,
tried to stress in Gnostic terms that Christianity is to be
completely dissociated from its Jewish ancestry. An early
work called the
Epistle
of Barnabas (c. 15 C.E.) argued for the abrogation
by God of the Old Covenant (Old Testament) and the
preference for an allegorical and "spiritual" interpretation
of the Jewish Scriptures, a tendency later adopted by
Clement of Alexandria and the exegetical school of the
Alexandrian, *Origen (d. 253 C.E.). Another early work,
found only in citations, the
Kerygma Petrou, accused the Jews of angel
and star worship.
Some of the knowledge of the Jews in these times is derived
from Christian sources. The martyrologies of the time, as a
matter of style, brought in the Jews as the accusers.
Generally though, as Baron reports (Social, 2 (1952), 188),
the early Christians got along with their Jewish neighbours.
Indeed, toward 300 C.E., Jewish names begin to appear more
frequently in the papyri, giving witness to a renewal of
activity. There are even some Hebrew fragments found at
Oxyrhynchus which speak of
rashei ("heads"),
benei ("members"), and
ziknei ("elders")
of the
keneset
("the community"; Cowley,
Journal
of Egyptian Archeology, 2 (1915), 209ff.).
An interesting feature of the Greek papyri of this period is
the appearance of the name (col. 490)
"Sambathion" among both Jews and non-Jews, giving testimony
to the great respect given the Sabbath among the Egyptians
(for a fuller discussion cf. Tcherikover, Corpus, 3 (1964),
43-56). It is true that the Jews did support the Arians in
their disputes with orthodox Christianity, and patristic
literature placed the Jews together with the heretics and
pagans as the hated enemies of the church. This attitude
later became codified into law by the
Codices of the emperors
Theodosius and Justinian.
[415: Expulsion of the Jews
from Alexandria - but Jews stay living there]
A pogrom and expulsion of the Jews from Alexandria by the
patriarch Cyril occurred in 415 C.E. Whether or not this
expulsion was fully carried out is still a moot point, since
later Christian literature points to the fact that Jews were
still living there (M. Chaine, in: Mélanges de la
Faculté orientale de l'Université
Saint-Joseph. Byrouth, 6 (1913), 493ff.).
The Persian conquest seemed to be especially helpful to the
Jews persecuted in Syria by the emperor Heraclius. The Arab
conquest in 632 saw the beginning of a new regime.
[E.D.M.]> (col. 491)
Sources
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Egypt, vol.6, col.
479-480
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Egypt, vol.6, col.
481-482
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Egypt, vol.6, col.
483-484
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Egypt, vol.6, col.
485-486
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Egypt, vol.6, col.
487-488
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Egypt, vol.6, col.
489-490
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Egypt, vol.6, col.
491-492
|
|
