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ARTICLE VI.

EGYPTOLOGY, ORIENTAL TRAVEL AND DISCOVERY.

BY JOSEPH P. THOMPSON, D.d., NEW YORK.

THE identification of the hieroglyphic group Aperi-u or Apuruju, as the Egyptian name for the Hebrews, already mentioned in this Journal,1 is endorsed by the high authority of Dr. Heinrich Brugsch. M. Chabas of Chalon-sur-Saone was the first to call attention to this name as found in two reports of a commissary of Ramses II. This officer makes a return of the rations furnished by him to these Aperi-u Hiberi-m, who were employed upon the public works. In noticing the monograph of M. Chabas, Dr. Brugsch calls attention to this reading as giving a special historical significance to the papyri in which the name occurs; adding, "the Hebrews are therein described as foreigners, who under Ramses II. were compelled to haul stone for building the city Ramses."

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If this curious identification shall be generally admitted by Egyptologers, it will go far to determine the date of the exodus. Ramses II. is assigned by Lepsius, Bunsen, and Brugsch to the third term of the 19th dynasty, the two former dating his reign from 1388 B.C.; the latter, from 1407 B.C. Poole places him 1340 B.C., Palmer at 1486 B.C., while Uhlemann and Seyffarth assign him to the 18th dynasty, and at about 1690 B.C. Egyptologers agree in ascribing to Ramses II. immense public works, and a reign of more than sixty years.

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Manetho styles him Ramses Miammoun, and assigns to him a reign of sixty-six years; and Boeckh, in his chronological tabulation of Manetho's dynasties, dates the commencement of this reign at 1411 B. C.3 Here, then, is an extreme range of three hundred years between the different schools of Egyptian chronology, within which the period of Ramses II. falls; and within which also falls the date of the exodus according to the received chronology of the Bible. The term " Aperi-u" is clearly an ethnic name, and is applied to some foreign race held in subjection in Egypt, and compelled to labor upon the public works of Ramses II. If these can fairly be identified with the Hebrews, then it will only remain to fix the date of one of the most prominent monarchs of the 18th or the 19th dynasty.

The new Journal of Egyptian Philology and Archaeology, edited by Dr. Brugsch, promises to be of great value to students in this department. It is published monthly by J. C. Hinrichs of Leipsic, in numbers of ten or twelve pages quarto. Each number contains one or more plates of hiero

1 Bib. Sacra, Vol. XX. pp. 881-883 (Oct. 1863)

2 Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Alterthumskunde, p. 28.
3 Manetho und die Hundsstern periode, von August Böckh, p. 391.

glyphic text, with an accompanying dissertation upon the subject-matter, and a translation. Then follow critical notices of recent works on Egyptology, and correspondence from scholars in this specialty. Among the topics discussed in the earlier numbers are the recently-discovered lists of the Egyptian Nomes or districts, as registered under the Ptolemies; and the phonetic value of the Phallus group, so common in the hieroglyphic writing. The recent exploration, by captain Speke, of the head-waters of the Nile, calls forth an interesting paper from Dr. Brugsch on the sources of the Nile, as indicated by occasional references to the subject in the most ancient Egyptian monuments. The conclusion arrived at is, that in the earliest geography of the Egyptians, the Nile was supposed to issue from two whirlpools or rocky vortices in the vicinity of Elephantine. This belief shows that the Egyptians had not explored the head-waters of their river.

Dr. Sepp's "Jerusalem and the Holy Land," whose First Part was announced in the Bibliotheca Sacra for October, 1862, is now completed, and makes two volumes octavo, pp. 781 and 791. A very thorough index, covering sixty-seven pages, printed in double-columns, is appended to the second volume. The work is illustrated by more than four hundred woodcuts, well executed, and representing natural scenery, ancient monuments and remains, modern buildings, plans of temples, palaces, cities, etc.; in short, whatever can give interest to the past or the present of Palestine and Egypt. Combining with a pleasant narrative of travel, archaeological disquisitions and historical and Biblical references, Dr. Sepp's work will be a useful companion-book for the study of the Holy Land, whether for the actual tourist or for the imaginary traveller in his closet. It sheds little light, however, upon disputed questions, and its principal value lies in the wealth of scriptural and historical associations which the author gathers about his subject.

Sepp's plan of Jerusalem has some peculiarities which distinguish it from almost any other. Taking Milo in the sense of a citadel, according to the Septuagint, he locates it at the extreme north of the city, upon the site of the present Mosque Mulawieh, near the Damascus gate. There also he places the city of David proper, with the Akra and Silla (2 Kings xii. 20). These all lay upon the eastern side of the Tyropoean, which Sepp identifies with the present Wad al-Tawâchin, familiarly called el-Wad, which runs from the Damascus gate, in a southeasterly direction, through the entire city. The variations of this plan from the topography of Dr. Robinson are obvious at a glance.

A still bolder departure from that topography is made by Rev. Mr. Sandie, in his "Horeb and Jerusalem."1 Mr. Sandie argues with a good deal

1 Horeb and Jerusalem. By Rev. George Sandie. pp. 417. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas. 1864.

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of ingenuity, from Josephus, the Scriptures, and the Book of Maccabees, that a transverse valley once crossed the present area of the Haram, descending into the Kedron at a point near the modern St. Stephen's gate. The long valley from the Damascus gate down to Siloam he regards as the Tyropoean of Josephus and the Gihon of the scriptures. The entire hillarea to the west of this valley he makes the Upper City of Josephus and the Jerusalem of the scriptures. The northeastern hill east of the Tyropoean and north of the "valley of the Maccabees " - he regards as the Akra of Josephus and the Zion of David, beyond which lay Bezetha, on the north and east. The temple and the castle of Zion (afterward the tower of Antonia) stood face to face upon opposite sides of the transverse valley, or "valley of the Maccabees." In the descent of this valley into the Kedron, near the present St. Stephen's gate, were the Tombs of the Kings. The stairs of the City of David crossed this transverse valley from the castle of Zion to the temple. The name "Zion" was given to the whole eastward hill, thus divided, so that the temple stood upon Mount Zion.

Mr. Sandie regards as unanswerable the architectural argument of Mr. Ferguson for the "Dome of the Rock" (Mosque of Omar) as the Church of the Sepulchre built by Constantine; and he brings together a variety of collateral evidences, topographical and historical, to illustrate and confirm this view. According to this theory, the scene of the crucifixion was in the vicinity of the Golden gate of the Haram enclosure, and the sepulchre was under the present Mosque. Mr. Ferguson's argument may be found in Dr. Smith's Bible Dictionary, art. Jerusalem, sec. Topography. It is worthy of profound consideration, and may yet revolutionize our modern notions of the topography of the holy city.

Other points in Mr. Sandie's volume deserve notice; e.g. his argument for the Sinai of Robinson, in opposition to the Serbal of Lepsius, as the scene of the giving of the law; and that for Jebal-Attakah as the point of crossing the Red Sea. This last, however, is by no means borne out by biblical and geographical data.

Mr. Sandie notices the difficulties raised by Colenso with regard to the sustentation of the Israelites in the desert. The following is a summary of his argument:

"They came from Egypt with numerous cattle, but their exodus took place in the season when the vegetation of the desert was most abundant. They slaughtered them for food at their first stage of desert life, and only began to cry for the 'flesh-pots' when they were a month away from Egypt, and had come into the wilderness of Sin. The manna was then vouchsafed. They passed on to Rephidim, and there gained a victory over the Amalekites, whose cattle they secured. There was no foe left to dispute the pasture of the peninsula, which was anciently much more abundant, as is proved by the traces of a far more numerous population in the past than can possibly subsist now. The various typical sacrifices prescribed were indispensably carried out in the desert; but those of a ceremonial kind very partially, the people not having yet come into the land of their inheritance.

Moreover, as slaughter of animal life was not permitted after the promulgation of the law, save for sacrifice alone, their cattle needed not to have been so numerous as is generally supposed. During the desert sojourn, the daily manna and the milk of the flock sufficed them for food" (p. 131).

Some additional light is cast upon the Egpytian doctrine of the future state by a dissertation on the sixth chapter of the Egyptian Ritual (in the well-known Turin papyrus), lately published by F. Chabas, of Chalon-surSaone. A funeral statuette in excellent preservation, now in the Museum of Langres, contains entire this chapter of the funeral ritual, engraved upon a durable surface of black basalt. The substance of it appears to be a commendation of the deceased as competent to 'perform all labors required in Kar-Neter, the Egyptian Hades, such as flooding the canals, fertilizing the fields, etc. Other sides of the statuette are covered with drawings of agricultural implements: a hoe, a mattock, a sack of seed, etc. Thus equipped and commended, the deceased was supposed to enter at once upon the duties appropriate to departed shades. As the North American Indian made his heaven a hunting-ground, so the Egyptian seems to have reproduced the peculiarities of the Nile valley and its agriculture in his conception of Hades.

ARTICLE VII.

NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

REV. J. Hannah, of Trinity College, in the Bampton Lectures for 1863, discusses THE RELATION BETWEEN THE DIVINE AND HUMAN ELEMENT IN THE SCRIPTURES. While he considers each of these elements complete in itself,-the scriptures being strictly divine and strictly human, the book of God and the book of man he carefully guards against two opposite theories, one of which excludes the human element, and the other the divine. The human nature of the sacred writers acts in its completest development and freedom; yet is "guarded from communicating its own imperfections to the revelation which was sent from God to man." No attempt is made to draw the boundary line between the human and divine element.

The subject is discussed with thoroughness, with a reverent, devout, and candid temper. The Lectures are accompanied by over a hundred pages of very valuable Notes (London: 1863. pp. 364).

A very appreciative and discriminating view of THE CHARACTEr of THE APOSTLE PAUL is given in the Hulsean Lectures for 1862, by Rev. 1 Observations sur le Chapitre VI. du Rituel Égyptien. Paris: Poitevin.

2 Several extended Critical Notices intended for this Number are excluded for want of space.

J. S. Howson, D.D., joint author of The Life and Epistles of Saint Paul. The subjects of the five Lectures are: Tact and Presence of Mind; Tenderness and Sympathy; Conscientiousness and Integrity; Thanksgiving and Prayer; Courage and Perseverance. The able treatment of these topics brings out the varied characteristics of the apostle in an unusually clear and tangible form. The work deserves to be republished in this country (London: 1864. pp. 258).

CALVIN, HIS LIFE, LABORS, AND WRITINGS, is by Felix Bunginer, author of The Preacher and the King, The Priest and the Huguenot, etc., and is published by the Messrs. Clark of Edinburgh. It is written in the vigorous and graphic style for which the author is distinguished. Though less elaborate than most of the Lives of Calvin, being but 349 pages, it gives a more distinct and impressive view of the marked characteristics and services of the great Genevan divine than some of the more voluminous biographies. It is full of interest in every part.

EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY AND EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANITY, with their Influence on the Opinions of Modern Christendom, is a small volume of 116 pages, by Samuel Sharp, author of the History of Egypt. It is designed to explain the Egyptian mythology and "to show the remarkable readiness with which its religious opinions were copied by the neighboring nations, especially the Greeks and Romans." It is an instructive volume, illustrated by 104 wood-cuts (London: 1864).

Among the numerous replies to Bishop Colenso, we have met with none whose arguments are more fatal to his theories than those by Isaac Taylor (CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PENTATEUCH, 3d edition. pp. 80) and Johannes Laicus (ANTI-COLENSO, an Essay towards Biblical Interpretation, a hand-book for thinkers. pp. 358). The authors are both laymen, and do not deal with nice points of philology; but their practical, sound sense and sharp dialectics are an overmatch for the difficulties which the Bishop thought impregnable. Some of the exceptions which he takes to the Mosaic history are the very arguments which these grasping minds "seize upon as the most significant evidences of the truth of that history."

HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN NAMES, by the author of the Heir of Redcliffe. We have full treatises on surnames, but Christian names have been investigated with much less thoroughness. The present work (2 vols. pp. cxliv, 446, and 504) is a broader and more critical investigation of this subject, including the various changes through which the forms of the names have passed, than has yet been made. It treats of patriarchal, Israelite, Persian, and Greek names; those from Greek mythology; animals, flowers, historic Greek names, Christian Greek; Latin nomina, cognomina, praenomina; names from Roman deities, old Italian deities, from holy days, from the Celtic and ancient Celtic, Teutonic mythology, Slavonic, descriptive names, etc. The glossary, giving the definition of all the Christian names, occupies over a hundred pages (London: 1863).

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