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“Did I Not Bring Israel Out of Egypt?


Biblical, Archaeological, and Egyptological
Perspectives on the Exodus Narratives

Edited by

James K. Hoffmeier, Alan R. Millard,


and Gary A. Rendsburg

Winona Lake, Indiana


Eisenbrauns
2016
Copyright © 2016 Eisenbrauns
All rights reserved.
Printed in the Uni ted States of America.

www.eisenbrauns.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data


Names: Hoffmeier, James Karl, 1951– editor. | Hoffmeier, James Karl,
1951– Egyptian religious influences on the early Hebrews. Container of
(work):
Title: Did I not bring Israel out of Egypt? : biblical, archaeological, and
egyptological perspectives on the Exodus narratives / edited by James
K. Hoffmeier, Alan R. Millard, and Gary A. Rendsburg.
Description: Winona Lake, Indiana : Eisenbrauns, 2016. | Series: Bulletin
for biblical research supplements ; 13 | “Most of the papers herein were
presented at a symposium organized by James K. Hoffmeier at the
Lanier Theological Library in Houston, Texas, January 17–18, 2014”—
Preface. | Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016001901 (print) | LCCN 2016002610 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781575064291 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781575064307
(pdf )
Subjects: LCSH: Exodus, The—Congresses. | Jews—History—To 1200
B.C.—Congresses.
Classification: LCC BS1199.E93 D53 2016 (print) | LCC BS1199.E93
(ebook) | DDC 222/.12095--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016001901

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984. ♾™
Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Part 1
Egyptology and Linguistic Matters

 1. Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews . . . . . . . . .   3


James K. Hoffmeier

 2. Onomastics of the Exodus Generation in the Book of Exodus . . . 37


Richard S. Hess

 3. Egyptian Loanwords as Evidence for the Authenticity


of the Exodus and Wilderness Traditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Benjamin J. Noonan

 4. The Significance of the Horns (‫)קרֶן‬


ֶ of Exodus 27:2:
The Egyptian ( ṯst ) and Levantine Four-Horned Altars . . . . . . 69
David Falk

Part 2
Exodus in the Pentateuch/Torah

 5. The Practices of the Land of Egypt (Leviticus 18:3): Incest,


ʿAnat, and Israel in the Egypt of Ramesses the Great . . . . . . . 79
Richard C. Steiner

 6. The Kadesh Inscriptions of Ramesses II and the


Exodus Sea Account (Exodus 13:17–15:19) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Joshua Berman

 7. The Literary Unity of the Exodus Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113


Gary A. Rendsburg

 8. Moses, the Tongue-Tied Singer! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133


Alan Millard

vii
viii Contents

 9. The Egyptian Sojourn and Deliverance from Slavery in the


Framing and Shaping of the Mosaic Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Richard E. Averbeck

10.  “Tell Your Children and Grandchildren!”


The Exodus as Cultural Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   177
Jens Bruun Kofoed

Part 3
Exodus, the Wilderness Period, and Archaeology

11.  Recent Developments in Understanding the Origins of the


Arameans: Possible Contributions and Implications
for Understanding Israelite Origins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
K. Lawson Younger Jr.

12.  Exodus on the Ground:


The Elusive Signature of Nomads in Sinai . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Thomas W. Davis

Part 4
Exodus in the Hebrew Prophets

13.  “I Am Yahweh Your God from the Land of Egypt”:


Hosea’s Use of the Exodus Traditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Jerry Hwang

14.  Some Observations on the Exodus and Wilderness Wandering


Traditions in the Books of Amos and Micah . . . . . . . . . . .   255
J. Andrew Dearman

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   313
Index of Modern and Premodern Authors  313
Index of Scripture  319
Index of Other Ancient Sources  329
Offprint from:
James K. Hoffmeier, Alan R. MIllard, and Gary A. Rendsburg, eds.
“Did I Not Bring Israel Out of Egypt?” Biblical, Archaeological,
and Egyptological Perspectives on the Exodus Narratives
© Copyright 2016 Eisenbrauns. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

Egyptian Religious Influences


on the Early Hebrews

James K. Hoffmeier
Trinity International University

Introduction
Forty years ago, Ronald J. Williams wrote his seminal article “‘A People
Come Out of Egypt’: An Egyptologist Looks at the Old Testament.” 1 Tak-
ing his title from the words of Balak, king of Moab, at the approach of the
Israelites into the Transjordan (Num 22:5, 11), Williams quite passionately
and persuasively argued that when it comes to study and interpretation of
the Hebrew Bible Egyptological data need to be considered. They were,
however, and still are often overlooked by biblical scholars who lack train-
ing in Egyptian history, culture, and language. As Williams reminds us, “Is-
rael was always conscious of her ties with Egypt, and the traditions of her
sojourn there were indelibly impressed on her religious literature.” 2 After
citing numerous examples of Egyptian influence on Hebrew language and
institutions in Israel, Williams concluded his essay by declaring: “Due cau-
tion must always be observed in assessing claims of direct influence, but the
evidence is overwhelming that Israel drank deeply at the wells of Egypt. In
a very real sense the Hebrews were ‘a people come out of Egypt’ (Num 22:5,
11).” 3
I stand in the academic tradition of Professor Williams, my esteemed
Doktorvater, who was an Egyptologist who had expertise in Old Testament
studies and Semitic languages, and I concur with his sentiment, which is
reflected in my own research over nearly four decades. 4 It is my conten-
tion that, due to the Hebrew sojourn in the Nile Valley, certain Egyptian
elements, linguistic, cultural, social, and religious “were indelibly impressed

1. R. J. Williams, “‘A People Come Out of Egypt’: An Egyptologist Looks at the Old
Testament,” in Congress Volume: Edinburgh 1974 (VTSup 28; Leiden: Brill, 1975): 231–52.
2. Ibid., 231–32.
3. Ibid., 352
4. James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996/99);
idem, Ancient Israel in Sinai (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005/11).

3
4 James K. Hoffmeier

on her religious literature.” With this assumption in mind, I want to inves-


tigate Egyptian elements of Israelite religion, focusing on the Levites, the
significant number of Egyptian names among the exodus-wilderness gen-
erations, and terms associated with priestly regalia. Last, I will examine the
Korah rebellion narrative in Num 16 which may shed some light on Israelite
religion during the sojourn in Egypt. Prior to this, however, let us consider
some theoretical matters.

Sociological Factors
Genesis describes how the extended family or clan of Jacob/Israel, who
were pastoralists, migrated to Egypt during a time of protracted drought in
Canaan (Gen 41:53–42:5; 45–46). The practice of south Levantine pastoral-
ists migrating to the Nile Valley in times of draught follows a well-attested
pattern after the Old and Middle Kingdoms, especially in the first half of
the 2nd millennium BC 5 The duration of the Hebrew sojourn according to
the MT of Exod 12:40 was 430 years. Although the textual tradition in the
LXX also reads 430 years, it includes the years Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
lived in Canaan prior to the move in Egypt—that is, 215. The implication is
that 215 years were spent in Egypt. 6 On the other hand, Gen 15:14–16 offers
seemingly conflicting data. Four hundred years are offered as the length of
the sojourn (a rounding off of 430?), but v. 16 states, “but they (Abraham’s
descendents) shall come back here (Canaan) in the fourth generation (‫דֹור‬
‫יעי‬
ִ ‫ ְר ִב‬dôr rĕbîʿî ).” The standard meaning of the word dôr, cognate with Ak-
kadian dāru and Ugaritic dr is “generation.” 7 It has been shown, however,
that dôr in the Hebrew and cuneiform sources has a rather fluid meaning
and does not necessarily represent a fixed figure. 8 There is a reference to
7 dāru during the reign of Shamshi-Adad I (ca. 1800 BC) that turns out to
represent a period of 350–500 years or even 530 to 730 years, suggesting
to Kenneth Kitchen that the 4 dôr in Gen 15:16 could correspond to the
400-year figure cited in v. 14. 9 Regardless of whether the Hebrews were
in Egypt 4 generations (80–120 years) or 400 years, there was ample time
for them to wrestle with questions of cultural and religious adaptation and
assimilation.

5. For a review of the Egyptian literature and archaeological evidence, see my Israel
in Egypt, 52–76.
6. For treatments of the 430 years in Exod 12:40, see J. P. Hyatt, Exodus: Based on
the Revised Standard Versions (NCBC; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1971), 140. Nahum
Sarna, Genesis: The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989),
62–63. Cornelis Houtman, Exodus [7:14–19:25] (Kampen: Kok, 1996), 2.203–4. William
Propp, Exodus 1–18 (AB; New York: Doubleday, 1999), 415–16.
7. HALOT 217–18.
8. Sarna, Genesis, 116.
9. Kenneth Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd-
mans, 2003), 356.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 5

Determining ethnicity through archaeological data has been one of the


challenging problems with which archaeologists have grappled in recent
years. The impetus behind this debate has been how to recognize or distin-
guish the Israelites from Philistines, Canaanites, or other people groups. 10
To be sure, much relevant material is lost when only working with ancient
remains. Language, hairstyles and dress, clear ethnic markers, do not leave
an archaeological footprint, unless texts and iconography preserve such
information. In Egypt and during certain periods in Mesopotamia, such
material has survived in abundance. When it comes to early Israel (i.e., the
period from the exodus until settlement in Canaan), 11 direct archaeological
evidence is lacking to illustrate Williams’s view that “Israel was always con-
scious of her ties with Egypt, and the traditions of her sojourn there were
indelibly impressed on her religious literature.” 12 While this observation is
true, the biblical data supporting the Egypt sojourn and exodus traditions
are overwhelming, 13 and as we shall see in this study, the indirect evidence
from Egypt does indeed support his contention.
The scope of this paper is limited to some possible influence of Egyptian
religion on early Israel. The biblical narratives that cover the Hebrew so-
journ in Egypt (Gen 46–Exod 14) offer insight into the religious beliefs and
practices of the early Israelites. On leaving Canaan for Egypt, Jacob made
an offering at Beer-sheba “to the God of his father Isaac” (Gen 46:1) and a
theophany followed, “I am God, the God of your father” (Gen 46:3). In the
famous burning bush revelation to Moses, the deity introduces himself in
like manner: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exod 3:6). 14
To what extent did Egyptian religion influence the religion of the He-
brews during the sojourn? Religion indeed can serve as a marker of ethnicity

10. Israel Finkelstein, The Archaeology of the Israelite Settlement ( Jerusalem: Israel Ex-
ploration Society, 1988); Kenton Sparks, Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Israel: Prolegomena
to the Study of Ethnic Sentiments and Their Expression in the Hebrew Bible (Winona Lake, IN:
Eisenbrauns, 1998); William Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come
From (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003), especially chap. 11; Ann E. Killebrew, Biblical
Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early
Israel (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005).
11. For evidence for Israelites in Canaan, see references in previous note.
12. Williams, “‘A People Come Out of Egypt,’” 231–32.
13. For a thorough review of the OT’s memory of the sojourn in Egypt, see my
“‘These Things Happened’: Why a Historical Exodus Is Essential for Theology,” in Do
Historical Matters Matter to Faith? (ed. James K. Hoffmeier and Dennis R. Magary; Whea-
ton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 99–134.
14. On the God of the fathers, see Albrecht Alt, Der Gott der Väter: Ein Beitrag zur
Vorgeschichte der israelitischen Religion (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1929). For a translation of
this study, see “The God of the Fathers: A Contribution to the Prehistory of Israelite
Religion,” in Essays on Old Testament History and Religion (trans. R. A. Wilson; Garden City,
NY: Doubleday, 1966), 3–86.
6 James K. Hoffmeier

and assimilation and can also be a valuable tool to resist assimilation. 15 Stud-
ies by sociologists of immigrants to the U.S.A. have shown this to be the
case, as Prema Kurien has observed: “Religion has been the most legitimate
form of ethnic expression in this country (USA).” 16 In fact, in some in-
stances Muslims and Hindus who migrate to America who, in their home-
lands had not been particularly observant become more serious practitio-
ners when taking up residence in a predominantly Christian culture, while
at the same time making some adjustments. Kurein has documented how
Indians “adapt Hinduism to fit the American context.” 17 So while embrac-
ing their traditional religion more fervently than before coming to a new
land, they modify and adapt to “create new identities in the face of changing
conditions that make old ones irrelevant or unsuitable.” 18
Studies of Chinese immigrants in the U.S.A. tell a different story. Espe-
cially among Hong Kong and Taiwan Chinese, there are significant numbers
of conversions to Christianity in American. Somewhere between 25 and
30% are Christian, whereas in Taiwan the number is a paltry 3.9%. 19 While
there is a significant conversion rate to Christianity among Chinese immi-
grants, they largely tend to worship in Chinese churches where other as-
pects of their culture and language are preserved. 20 Thus while embracing
the majority religion in the U.S.A., ethnic Chinese in America have taken
intentional steps to maintain various Chinese traditions through Chinese
churches. These sociological studies illustrate that, among ethnic minori-
ties who relocate to another culture, even while resisting total assimilation
and seeking to maintain cultural boundaries, they undergo a certain amount
of adaptation in the area of religion. This process of adapting and trans-
forming an immigrant culture in a new land resulting in “multi-stranded so-
cial relations” is called “transnationalism” by sociologists. 21 The Hebrews in
Egypt, as the Genesis narratives portray them, were pastoralists and as such
did not have a homeland or associate with a nation per se. Therefore, they
might be regarded as having an “imagined community,” as Benedict Ander-

For a recent investigation of “the God of the fathers,” see Jerry Hwang, The Rhetoric
of Remembrance: An Investigation of the “Fathers” in Deuteronomy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisen-
brauns, 2012).
15. Here, the story of Daniel and his friends in Babylon comes to mind (Dan 1 and 3).
16. Prema Kurien, “Becoming American by Becoming Hindu: Indian Americans
Take Their Place at the Multicultural Table,” in Gatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communi-
ties and the New Immigration (ed. R. Stephen Warner and Judith G. Wittner; Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 1998), 59.
17. Ibid., 37.
18. Ibid., 59.
19. Fenggang Yang, Chinese Christians in American: Conversion, Assimilation, and Ad-
hesive Identities (University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1999), vii–viii. Carolyn
Chen, Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), 1–3.
20. Yang, Chinese Christians in American, 5–16.
21. Ibid., 26.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 7

son understands this phenomenon. 22 Anne Porter has argued that this idea
of “imagined community” is applicable to pastoralists in the ancient Near
East. 23 
While it is clear that differences persist between the socioreligious con-
texts of modern immigrant groups (e.g., Chinese in the U.S.A.) and ancient
immigrant groups in an alien land (e.g., the Hebrews in Egypt), the influ-
ence of the religion of the host nation appears to affect the minority immi-
grant group. The following article aims to articulate how this phenomenon
is observable in the exodus and wilderness narratives.

Two Case Studies of Egyptianization


Before turning to the question of evidence for an Egyptian imprint on
early Israelite religion, let us consider the case studies of two different eth-
nic groups and their interactions with Egypt. During the Middle Kingdom
(ca. 2000–1760 BC), Egypt had colonized Nubia (Wawat and Kush), ruling
this area through a system of forts and Egyptian administered centers. 24
Stuart Tyson Smith, an anthropologist and Egyptologist, refers to Egypt’s
dominance of northern Sudan as “acculturation colonialism” because “Nu-
bia was brought completely within the Egyptian social, economic, religious
and administrative systems.” 25
In the New Kingdom (ca. 1525–1200 BC), after the hiatus of the Second
Intermediate Period, Egyptian hegemony returned to Nubia. 26 Smith has
convincingly argued that Egypt ruled Nubia with a colonial model, whereas
during the same period an imperial model was used in the Levant. 27 The
chief difference is that the colonial system was completely administered by
Egyptian officials and, led by the “Overseer of Southern Foreign Lands, the
King’s son of Kush,” 28 often simply referred to as “the Viceroy of Kush”
by Egyptologists. In Canaan where the imperial model was employed, loyal
local rulers were appointed to administer the city-state system under the

22. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 2006).


23. Anne Porter, Mobile Pastoralism and the Formation of Near Eastern Civilizations
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 57.
24. Barry Kemp, “Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period
c. 2686–1552 bc,” in Ancient Egypt: A Social History (ed. B. Trigger et al.; Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1983), 130–36.
25. Stuart T. Smith, Askut in Nubia: The Economics and Ideology of Egyptian Imperialism
in the Second Millennium BC (London: Kegan Paul, 1995), 9–10.
26. James K. Hoffmeier, “Aspect of Egyptian Foreign Policy in the 18th Dynasty,” in
Egypt, Israel and the Ancient Mediterranean World: Studies in Honor of Donald B. Redford (ed.
G. Knoppers and A. Hirsch; Leiden: Brill, 2004), 121–41.
27. Stuart T. Smith, “Askut and the Role of the Second Cataract Forts,” JARCE 28
(1991): 107–32; idem, Askut in Nubia.
28. David O’Connor, “New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period, 1552–664
bc,” in Ancient Egypt: A Social History (ed. B. Trigger et al.; Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1983), 208.
8 James K. Hoffmeier

authority of the “Overseer of Northern Lands.” 29 There was no “Viceroy


of Canaan.”
In the Second Intermediate Period, when Egyptian control of Nubia
was lost, the C-Group culture (the dominant Nubian culture of the period
2300–1500 BC) “co-opted” the Egyptian administrative system, and their
elites depicted themselves in Egyptian-style tombs “with all the markers of
Egyptian ethnicity.” 30 Lázló Török further describes the “Egyptianization”
of the Nubian elites “who received Egyptian education, their members fre-
quently adopted Egyptian names, and were buried in Egyptian-type tombs
which attest to the adoption of Egyptian mortuary religion.” 31
Along with Egyptian administration and exploitation of Nubia in the
New Kingdom came Egyptian temples to Amun-Re and other prominent
deities that were built throughout the area controlled by Egypt. While the
full extent of Egyptian religious influence on Nubians may not be evident
during the New Kingdom, 32 when Egyptian dominance ended in the 11th
century, Egyptian influence did not wane; rather, it blossomed. In two cen-
turies, a Nubian state emerged that gave rise to the rulers who eventually
controlled Egypt. 33 The Nubian name of King Piankhy (or Piye), is coupled
with an Egyptian one, User-Maʿat-Re, which happens to be the first part of
Ramesses II’s throne name (User-Maʿat-Re Setep-en-Rʿ). 34 In his famous
victory stela (written in Egyptian hieroglyphs and using archaizing language
and grammatical forms) 35 in the Cairo Museum, Piankhy documents his
northern campaign from Napata all the way into the Delta in 727 BC. The
Theban Amun-Re becomes Lord of Gebel Barkal, the holy mountain of
Napata, and is Nubia’s chief deity. 36 Pharaonic ideology is found through-
out this stela. As city after city fell, Piankhy visited the temples and made
offerings to the local gods. At Thebes he presided over the Opet Festival
of Amun (as a pharaoh would), 37 at Memphis “Ptah and the gods of Mem-

29. S. T. Smith, Askut in Nubia, 9–10.


30. Idem, Wretched Kush: Ethnic Identities and Boundaries in Egypt’s Nubian Empire
(New York: Routledge: 2003), 84–85.
31. Lázló Török, The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Merotic Civilization
(Leiden: Brill, 1997), 97.
32. For the purposes of this article, I am concentrating on Egypt’s influence on the
Nubians. At the same time, cultural influence goes in both directions, as S. T. Smith has
shown (Smith, Wretched Kush, 2).
33. David O’Connor, Ancient Nubia: Egypt’s Rival in Africa (Philadelphia: The Univer-
sity Museum, 1993), 58.
34. Jürgen von Beckerath, Handbuch der ägyptischen Köningsnamen (Mainz: von Zab-
ern, 1999), 207.
35. N. C. Grimal, La stèle triomphale de Pi(ʿank)y au Musée du Caire (Cairo: IFAO,
1981), 270–72
36. Ibid., §1.
37. Ibid., 17.2–3.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 9

phis” received offerings, 38 and at Heliopolis the king received purification


rites and stood before the sacred solar image, the benben-stone to honor
Atum-Khepri. 39 The picture presented throughout this stela is of a legiti-
mate pharaoh.
Piankhy and his successors were Egyptian in death. “More than eight
hundred years after the last royal Pyramid had been constructed in Egypt,”
I. E. S. Edwards notes, “pyramidal tombs suddenly made their appearance
in the Sudan.” 40 Indeed, Nubian rulers were buried with all the pomp of
the great pharaohs of Egypt yet in much humbler pyramids, complete with
the Egyptian-style shawabtis (funerary figurines), with funerary texts writ-
ten on them in Egyptian hieroglyphs 41—in some cases 400–500 years af-
ter Egypt’s hegemony had ended in northern Sudan. Some anthropologists
consider such “complex adaptations” as those witnessed in Nubia, due to
Egyptian cultural influence, to be an example of “transculturation.” 42
A second example that illustrates such transculturation of a foreign
people who actually lived in Egypt is the Semitic-speaking people who came
to Egypt during the 12th–15th Dynasties (1900–1600 BC). First, we will ex-
amine the textual evidence, followed by the archaeological data.
During the 12th Dynasty, especially during the 45-year reign of Ame­
nemhet III (1843–1789 BC), numerous Egyptian mining expeditions were
sent to Serabit el-Khadim in south-central Sinai for turquoise and cop-
per. Included in these expeditions were ʿꜢmw. The term ʿꜢmw is a ge-
neric term used by the Egyptians for Semitic-speaking people from West-
ern Asia. 43 Stela 110 from Serabit el-Khadim mentions 20 ʿꜢmw from
Ḥomi, 44 an unknown location, possibly in Sinai or the southern Negev.
Another stela, no. 120, speaks of 20 men of Retenu (Syria–Canaan), and
no. 114 refers to 10 “foreigners” ( ḫꜢstyw) on the respective expeditions. 45
It is uncertain whether these non-Egyptian participants resided in Sinai
or the Negev or in Egypt. Some clearly lived in Egypt. On stela no. 110, a
house domestic (e.g., ḥry-pr) is identified as an ʿꜢm while having an Egyp-
tian name, Sinefer. 46

38. Ibid., 30–34.


39. Ibid., 36–38.
40. I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt (Baltimore: Penguin, 1961), 247–48.
41. For pictures of some, see O’Connor, Ancient Nubia, 142.
42. S. T. Smith, Wretched Kush, 2.
43. Raymond Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1962), 38; ʿꜢm is singular; ʿꜢmw is plural. See discussion in my Israel in Egypt,
53–56. Further on ʿꜢm , see Gary Rendsburg’s review of Robert M. Good, The Sheep of His
Pasture (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983) in JAOS 107 (1987): 558–59.
44. Alan H. Gardiner and T. Eric Peet, The Inscriptions of Sinai (London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1955), 2.113.
45. Ibid., 2.118, 123.
46. Ibid., 2.115.
10 James K. Hoffmeier

On stelae 93, 95, and 98, we encounter a “chief steward” named Ameny
(short for Amenemhet) whose mother’s name was Ituneferu (an Egyptian
name), and yet she was identified as “the Asiatic” whose mother’s name was
Sit-Urteḥu. 47 Sit-Urteḥu appears to be a Mischname, or mixed name, the first
element being Egyptian and the second being Semitic. Interestingly, Ameny
was a Semite or possibly of mixed race (Egyptian-Semite?). In one instance
(stela 95), Ameny is portrayed offering a loaf of bread, standing behind his
pharaoh. 48 He is presented as a Canaanite (beard and hairstyle), and he is
making offerings to the Egyptian goddess Hathor, patron of the region. 49
The verso of Brooklyn Pap. 35.1446, dated by W. C. Hayes to the first
half of the 13th Dynasty (ca. 1786–1700 BC), 50 contains the names and oc-
cupations of 79 household servants attached to an estate in Thebes. 51 Of
these, 33 were apparently native Egyptians, 45 are identified as ʿꜢm or ʿꜢmt
(fem.), and one has an ethnicity that is uncertain. 52 The Brooklyn Papyrus
is laid out like a ledger, an ancient spreadsheet. Column A contained the
names of the individuals, their ethnicity (if an ʿꜢm/t), and their personal
names. The ʿ Ꜣmw all have Semitic names. Column B contains Egyptian
names either taken by the servant or given to him or her by a master or
mistress. 53 The formulas used for the entries are X (Semitic name), who is
called (ddw n.f [masc.] or ddt n.s [fem.]) 54 Y (Egyptian name). The Egyptian
names, Hayes observed, seem to be an attempt to “reproduce in the names
assigned to these people either the meaning or the sound of their original
names.” 55 Column C includes the title of or trade in which the individual
worked. 56
The foregoing texts demonstrate that Semites were entering Egypt in
the Middle Kingdom. Hayes thought that some of the servants named in
the Brooklyn Papyrus may have reached Egypt as POWs from military cam-
paigns, although none were known when he made this proposal. 57 He there-

47. Ibid. 2.101–5.


48. Alan H. Gardiner and T. Eric Peet, The Inscriptions of Sinai (London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1955), vol. 1, pl. 30.
49. Ibid., vol. 1, pl. 30, front panel.
50. The recto contains regnal year dates from years 10 to 36, but the royal name is
missing (William C. Hayes, A Papyrus of the Late Middle Kingdom in the Brooklyn Museum
[Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446] [New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1955], 15–16). It is probably
Amenemhet III, who reigned 45 years. The only other pharaoh who surpassed 36 years in
the 12th Dynasty was Senusert I, who also had a 45-year reign. On the verso are two dates
(years 1 and 2) of Sobek-hotep III.
51. Hayes, ibid., 87–99.
52. Ibid., 90.
53. Ibid., 99–102.
54. The passive participle is used.
55. Hayes, A Papyrus of the Late Middle Kingdom in the Brooklyn Museum, 101
56. Ibid., 103–9.
57. Ibid., 99.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 11

fore concluded that there must have been “a brisk trade in Asiatic slaves
carried on by the Asiatics themselves, with Egypt.” 58 Not much is known
of such activities in the early centuries of the 2nd millennium BC, but the
recent discovery of a historical inscription of Amenemhet II (1901–1866
BC) sheds some light on the question. It reports that the king brought back
1,554 POWs from a campaign in the Levant. 59 Such foreigners may well be
the source for the Semitic household servants encountered in the Brook-
lyn Papyrus, who were given or voluntarily took Egyptian names. Whether
they came to Egypt as the spoils of war, from slave trade, or by voluntary
migration, the process of assimilation followed. Indeed, the archaeological
evidence reviewed below shows that periodic immigration was probably the
major factor to explain the presence of Levantine peoples of the Middle
Bronze Age culture in the Delta.
The emerging archaeological data from the northeastern Delta, and
particularly at Tell el-Dabʿa, are helping to clarify the nature of the for-
eign presence there. Starting in 1966, Manfred Bietak began his system-
atic excavation of Tell el-Dabʿa in Sharqiya (eastern) Province. 60 The work
of the Austrian Institute in Egypt over more than 40 years has produced
mountains of data about the history of the site t­ hat is, Avaris, the Hyksos
capital. 61
The earliest evidence for the occupation of Tell el-Dabʿa comes from an
inscription bearing the name Khety in the toponym (Ḥwt rꜢ-wꜢty ̱Htıʾ ), sug-
gesting it may have started during the Herakleopolitan period—that is, the
10th Dynasty (ca. 2160–2140 BC). 62 It may be recalled that in the “Wisdom
for King Merikare” the ruler’s father, Meryibre Khety (perhaps the same
Khety of the toponym) 63 tells his son of the measures he had taken to se-
cure the northeastern Delta from the presence of troublesome Levantine

58. Ibid.
59. Jaromír Málek and Stephen Quirke, “Memphis, 1991: Epigraphy,” JEA 78 (1992):
13–18.
60. For a survey of the work preceding 1966 and the ongoing work there, see Man-
fred Bietak, “Tell ed-Dabʿa,” OEANE 2.99–101.
61. Several notable monographs and articles by Manfred Bietak offer synthetic
analyses of his decades of work; see idem, Avaris and Piramesse: Archaeological Exploration
in the Eastern Nile Delta (London: Proceedings of the British Academy, London, 1986);
idem, Avaris the Capital of the Hyksos: Recent Excavations at Tell el-Dabʿa (London: British
Museum, 1996); idem, “The Center of Hyksos Rule: Avaris (Tell el-Dabʿa),” in The Hyk-
sos: New Historical and Archaeological Perspectives (ed. E. D. Oren; Philadelphia: University
Museum, 1997), 87–139.
62. Shehata Adam, “Report on the Excavations of the Department of Antiquities at
Ezbet Rushdi,” ASAE 56 (1959): 216, pl. 9.
63. There were at least four 10th-Dynasty kings named Khety (von Beckerath,
Handbuch der ägyptischen Köningsnamen, 73–75). Only Meryibere Khety, the wisdom
teacher in the “Wisdom for Merikare,” seems to have been active in trying to neutralize
the growth of the ʿꜢmw in the Delta.
12 James K. Hoffmeier

immigrants, calledʿꜢmw, including locating Egyptians “to repulse barbarians


among them.” 64
King Khety urges his son also to control the eastern Delta by taking vari-
ous defensive measures. 65 It may be that the text mentioning Khety dis-
covered at Tell el-Dabʿa points to Egyptian efforts to get a handle on this
rich but vulnerable area. No architecture associated with the 10th Dynasty
has yet been identified, however. With the founding of the 12th Dynasty
by Amenemhet I (1963–1934 BC), 66 occupation of the site began and grew
continuously through the coming centuries.
It is now evident that, in the waning years of the 12th and into the 13th
dynasties (ca. 1800–1630 BC), “settlers of the Syro-Palestinian MBA cul-
ture,” as Bietak notes, began to occupy this area; this is revealed by the high
volume of Levantine ceramics (90%) in burials of this period, while only
20% of the ceramics in the domestic areas are foreign. 67 Donkey burials
are also found, along with bronze Canaanite-type weapons. 68 A Canaanite-
style temple was uncovered in this “Pre-Hyksos” period that used other
Levantine architectural patterns, such as the plan of the Syrian “middle
hall house.” 69 These settlers (urban) from the West Semitic world were not
the only newcomers to appear at this early date. Bietak has observed that,
“rather than argue that the population of Tell el-Dabʿa consisted purely
of settlers from the northern Levantine coast, I no longer believe that its
population was homogeneous.” 70 He points to “crudely fashioned MB IIA
cooking pots” that are strikingly different from those of the residents of a
more urban context. The pots likely indicate that these settlers were “of
Bedouin origin,” 71 that is, pastoralists, the ʿꜢmw in Egyptian literature. 72
Nomadic shepherds are also attested later at Tell el-Dabʿa, after the
abandonment of the palatial area in the mid-18th Dynasty (ca. 1450–1425
BC), their signature being sheep interments, where the sheep were care-
fully buried. 73 It is noteworthy that pastoralists, who are not always pres-
ent in the archaeological record (but see the essay by Thomas Davis in this

64. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt, 55.


65. For a translation of the pertinent passages of “Merikare” and commentary, see
ibid., 55–58.
66. For some of the inscribed materials, see Labib Habachi, “Khataʿna-Qantir or
Avaris-Piramesse,” in Tell el-Dabʿa I: Tell el-Daba and Qantir—The Site and Its Connections
with Avaris and Piramesse (ed. M. Bietak and E. Czerny; Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sci-
ence, 2001), pls. 1a–b, 5–9.
67. Bietak, “The Center of Hyksos Rule,” 87, 90.
68. Idem, Avaris: Capital of the Hyksos, 23–27.
69. Idem, “The Center of Hyksos Rule,” 99; idem, Avaris: Capital of the Hyksos, 9–12.
70. Idem, “The Center of Hyksos Rule,” 98.
71. Ibid., 99.
72. For a useful collection of these texts and commentary, see my book Israel in
Egypt, chap. 3.
73. Manfred Bietak, “Nomads or mnmn.t-Shepherds in the Eastern Nile Delta in the
New Kingdom,” in “I Will Speak the Riddles of Ancient Times”: Archaeological and Historical
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 13

volume), are attested at Tell el-Dabʿa. “This region,” Bietak held, “received
an irregular but nonetheless continuous flow of Asiatic immigrants, who
contributed distinctly Asiatic elements to the life and customs of the local
population.” 74 The recent evidence shows that, prior to the period of Hyk-
sos rule, there was a variety of classes of people ranging from urban settlers
to pastoralists. It is not inconceivable to think that one such pastoral group
was the proto-Hebrews.
The archaeological data uncovered by Bietak have shown that the
Levantine presence at Avaris continued in the 13th Dynasty, because the
percentage of Middle Bronze Age ceramics increased from 20% to 40%
in this level. 75 A seal impression portraying the Syrian weather-god Baal-
Ṣaphon was discovered that points to the principal deity of these foreign-
ers. 76 Indeed the Baal Sanctuary, the main Temple of Avaris, continued to
be refurbished and used from this period onward throughout the Hyksos
era and New Kingdom. 77 Baal was quickly associated with the Egyptian
storm-god Seth, and so was “Egyptianized.”
Equating Syro-Canaanite Baal with the Egyptian deity Seth is an in-
dication that these Asiatics were accommodating their religion to a de-
gree. Interestingly, at Tell el-Dabʿa in the 18th century BC, a Canaanite/
Near Eastern–style temple “existed simultaneously alongside” an Egyp-
tian temple. 78 The latter, Temple V, Bietak explains, “is that of a memorial
chapel, based on the same type of plan as the Royal ka-chapel at (nearby)
ʿEzbet Rushdi dating to the Twelfth Dynasty.” 79
This Baal-Seth fusion apparently was acceptable to the Egyptians. The
400-year stela of Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC) discovered at Tanis, 80 but al-
most certainly originating at Tell el-Dabʿa, depicts the deity “Seth, Great of
Might” with his name written in a cartouche. 81 Rather than being presented
with the bizarre Seth animal, possibly a wild pig, he is depicted in human
form with a gown of Canaanite style and looks like Baal in Late-Bronze-
era iconography. 82 Other examples of this “Asiatic” presentation of Seth
are known from the Ramesside era and presently, none from earlier times
are known.

Studies in Honor of Amihai Mazar on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday (ed. Aren Maeir and
Pierre de Miroschedji; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006), 1.123–26.
74. Bietak, Avaris and Piramesse, 226.
75. Idem, Avaris: Capital of the Hyksos, 31.
76. Edith Porada, “The Cylinder Seal from Tell el-Dabʿa,” AJA 88 (1984): 485–88.
77. Manfred Bietak, “Zur Herkunft des Seth von Avaris,” AeuL 1 (1990): 9–16.
78. Idem, “The Center of Hyksos Rule,” 105–6.
79. Ibid.
80. Pierre Montet, “La Stèle de l’an 400 Retrouvée,” Kêmi 4 (1933): 191–215.
81. Ibid., pl. 15, line 7.
82. Izak Cornelius, The Iconography of the Canaanite Gods Reshef and Baʿal: Late Bronze
and Iron Age I Periods (c 1500–1000 bce) (OBO 140; Fribourg: Fribourg University Press,
1994), pls. 29–44.
14 James K. Hoffmeier

Beginning with Pharaoh Seti I (1295–1279 BC), the first pharaoh to em-
brace the name of the god Seth, a royal residence was built in the vicinity of
Tell el-Dabʿa. In Labib Habachi’s opinion, Seti was “living at the place for
part of the year, since he built a palace there.” 83 An inscribed block from the
Seth Temple at Avaris has the name of Horemheb on it, possibly over that
of Tutankhamun. 84 The names of the successors of Akhenaten probably
reflect the reestablishment of the Baal/Seth cult and the restoration of that
temple after the neglect and abuse of temples by the monotheistic Amarna
king. 85 The 400-year stela seems to celebrate the origin of the Baal/Seth
cult at Avaris by Horemheb or Seti (ca. 1300 BC), perhaps around 1700 BC.
It is noteworthy that King Nehsy (ca. 1700 BC) of Avaris is the first ruler on
record who is called “beloved of Seth, Lord of Avaris.” 86
From this general period, we find that some men buried at Tell el-Dabʿa
are of Asian origin, based on the tomb-type, donkey burials, Canaanite
ceramics, and bronze weapons, but they were also interred with glyptic
objects of Egyptian style. One such tomb yielded a scarab with the hiero-
glyphic inscription ı͗ dnw n ı͗ my-r sḏꜢwt, “the Deputy treasurer (or Seal-bearer)
named ‘the Asiatic’ (ʿꜢm).” 87 The use of hieroglyphs by a Semite bearing a
high-ranking Egyptian title, demonstrates that in this pre-Hyksos period,
foreigners were serving in the still Egyptian administration and that they
were adapting to Egyptian ways in some areas, but not in burial practices.
Another Asiatic type tomb (Tomb 28: Str. [G]–F), with Levantine ceram-
ics, from the early Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1710–1680 BC), yielded
a highly significant scarab. While the tombs in this field remain unpub-
lished, the area is presently being studied by Miriam Müller. 88 The perti-
nent scarab is included in a general study of the scarabs from Tell el-Dabʿa
by Christine Mlinar. 89 The text reads ḥm kꜢ yk wḥm ʿnḫ, “The Ka-priest,
Yak, repeating life.” This priestly title is an ancient one that goes back to the

83. Labib Habachi, “Khataʿna-Qantir or Avaris-Piramesse” in Tell el-Dabʿa I: Tell el-


Daba and Qantir the Site and its Connections with Avaris and Piramesse (ed. Manfred Bietak
and Ernst Czerny; Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie Der Wissenschaften,
2001), 108.
84. Bietak, “Zur Herkunft des Seth von Avaris,” 11–13; idem, “The Center of Hyksos
Rule,” 125.
85. Ibid.
86. Idem, Avaris: Capital of the Hyksos, 41.
87. Ibid.
88. Miriam Müller presented a preliminary report of her work at the 64th annual
meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt in Cincinnati, OH, April 2013. Sub-
sequently, I have had personal communication via email with Dr. Müller on her work, for
which I am grateful.
89. Christine Mlinar, “The Scarab Workshops of Tell el-Dabʿa,” in Scarabs of the
Second Millennium bc from Egypt, Nubia, Crete and the Levant: Chronological and Historical
Implications—Papers of a Symposium, Vienna, 10th–13th of January 2002 (ed. M. Bietak and
E. Czerny; Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2004), 112, fig. 3.2.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 15

Old Kingdom and is associated with the funerary cult. 90 Specifically, the
Ka-priest was responsible for offering food and libations for the dead. This
service was rendered by Ka-priests, Serge Sauneron affirmed, “on a daily
basis or periodically on the occasions of the festival of the necropolis.” 91
The name of the Ka-priest is otherwise not attested, 92 but since the
tomb and those surrounding it “show clear links with the material culture
of the Levant,” 93 a Semitic name might be expected. As it appears, this
name could be a shortened form of an “Amorite Imperfective” type per-
sonal name. 94 There are, in fact, several examples of this name type among
the Hyksos rulers. The name Yak could be shortened form of the names
like Yakbimu and Yakbim, 95 the names of two 14th Dynasty rulers. Other
imperfective forms occur in the Hyksos names Yaḳob-her, Yaʿmu and Ya­
kebmu. 96 The last example is a near match linguistically for the name of the
Ka-priest’s name in the scarab under study. Perhaps the diminutive form
was written that could accommodate the limited space on the scarab more
easily.
What this Tell el-Dabʿa scarab, owned by a Semite and buried in a
Levantine-type grave, demonstrates is that the foreign population of the
northeastern Delta, in at least a small way, had begun to adopt some ele-
ments of Egyptian funerary practices. In this instance the Egyptian title of
Ka-priest is used along with the common wish formula, wḥ ʿnḫ, “repeating
life” or “live again.”
Further signs of religious adaptation are found in the Delta with the
Hyksos rulers during the 15th and 16th Dynasties, ca. 1650–1525 BC. Royal
names and titles are salient in this regard. The presently attested Hyksos
royal names—presumably not all are attested—are found in the Turin Canon
of Kings from the Ramesside era, on scarabs and some inscribed blocks dis-
covered at Tell el-Dabʿa and other sites. Khayan, thought to be a Semitic
name, is mentioned on scarabs along with his prenomen (throne name) nfr
nṯr swsr.n Rʿ ḫyꜢn, “The good god whom Re makes powerful, Khayan.” 97 A

90. WÄS 3.90.


91. Serge Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
2000 [based on 1988 French ed.]), 109.
92. Mlinar, “The Scarab Workshops of Tell el-Dabʿa,” 109.
93. Personal communication via email with Miriam Müller.
94. Kitchen, Reliability of the Old Testament, 341–43. See also M. P. Streck, Das amurriti­
sche Onomastikon der altbabylonischen Zeit, vol. 1: Die Amurriter: Die onomastische Forschung,
Orthographie und Phonologie, Nominalmorphologie (AOAT 271/1; Münster: Ugarit-Verlag,
2000).
95. K. S. B. Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period,
c. 1800–1550 BC (Copenhagen: Carsten Niebuhr Institute, 1997), 251. These two slightly
different spellings, Ryholt suggests, point to two different individuals, father and son.
96. Von Beckerath, Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen, 115–21.
97. Ibid., 115. Interestingly, Khayan seals have recently been discovered in Upper
Egypt at Edfu; see Nadine Mueller and Gregory Marouard, “Discussion of the Late
16 James K. Hoffmeier

partial hieroglyphic inscription with the double cartouche of Khayan was


discovered at Tell el-Dabʿa. 98 Although only the bottom of the royal names
survive, the reading Khayan is certain. Beneath the vertical cartouches is a
single horizontal line of text that reads: sꜢ nsw smsw ynss, “the eldest royal
son, Yanass.” Clearly Egyptian titles associated with kingship were used by
Khayan, as they were for the prince and heir to the throne, whose name
also was Semitic. Kim Ryholt has noticed that royal seals of this period use
exclusively the royal epithet nfr nṯr, “the good god,” 99 a royal epithet that
rose to prominence in the Middle Kingdom. This epithet stands before the
prenomen, while the title “Son of Re” precedes the nomen (birth name).
Another 15th-Dynasty ruler was Apophis (named after the Egyptian de-
ity ʿApep). His throne name was ʿꜢ ḳnn Rʿ, “Great is the bravery of Re.” The
title sḥtp tꜢ.wy, “he who pacifies the Two Lands” also appears. 100 The “Two
Lands,” of course, was the standard term for “Egypt”—Upper and Lower
Egypt. A later Hyksos king likewise named Apophis had the throne name
nb ḫpš Rʿ, “Re is the possessor of a powerful arm.” 101 The epithet nb ḫpš has
a long history and was associated with the pharaoh as a military champion
and defender of Egypt. 102
Apophis II’s successor, Sheshi (Egyptian name), 103 used the prenomen
mꜢʿ ı͗ b Rʿ, “True is the heart of Re,” 104 and Yakob-har (Semitic name) of the
16th Dynasty had the Egyptian throne name SꜢ Rʿ mrı͗ wsr Rʿ, “Son of Re,
beloved is the strength of Re.” 105 One could go on and cite additional royal
names associated with the Hyksos kings. They also employed various Egyp-
tian names and epithets, even while some continued to have Semitic birth
names. Repeatedly, the name of the sun-god Re was employed in royal titles
and in throne names.
The use of Egyptian pharaonic titles and epithets demonstrates that the
foreign rulers of Avaris sought to emulate Egyptian royal ideology. These
kings embraced Re in their Egyptian names, a long cherished feature of
royal ideology in Egypt. The first king to incorporate Re in his name was
the 2nd-Dynasty pharaoh Neb-Re (ca. 2800 BC), 106 and in the 4th Dynasty

Middle Kingdom and Early Second Intermediate Period History and Chronology in Re-
lation to the Khayan Sealings from Tell Edfu,” AeuL 21 (2011): 87–122.
98. Manfred Bietak, “Eine Stele des ältesten Königssohnes des Hyksos Chajan,”
MDAIK 37 (1981): 63–71.
99. Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Period, 45.
100. Von Beckerath, Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen, 115.
101. Ibid., 117.
102. James K. Hoffmeier, “The Arm of God versus the Arm of Pharaoh in the Exodus
Narratives,” Bib 67/3 (1986): 378–87.
103. Hermann Ranke, Die Ägyptischen Personennamen (Glückstadt: Augustin, 1935),
1.330.
104. Von Beckerath, Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen 117.
105. Ibid.
106. Ibid., 43.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 17

(ca. 2600–2500 BC) royal names with Re increased (i.e., Khaʿfre, Menkaure,
Djedefre). The epithet “Son of Re” made its appearance at this time and,
from the 5th Dynasty (ca. 2500–2350 BC) on, the inclusion of Re in the pre-
nomen was the norm for pharaohs. 107
These religioregal practices had a millennium of history in Egypt by
the time the Hyksos rulers claimed the kingship of northern Egypt, and
it seems that they embraced these traditions fully. Over a century after the
explusion of the Hyksos by the Theban ruler Ahmose, Hatshepsut claimed
that she restored the Temple of the Lady of Cusae (i.e., Hathor) in middle
Egypt. It had fallen into ruin due to neglect, she asserts, when “the Asiatics
(ʿꜢmw) were in Avaris,” claiming that “they ruled without Re.” 108 The textual
evidence from Tell el-Dabʿa and elsewhere, on the contrary, suggests that
the Hyksos attributed their kingship to the sun-god, whose bodily son ruled
as the “Son of Re.”
The material reviewed in this section demonstrates that both the Nu-
bians south of Egypt and the Levantine Semites in the Delta were indeed
influenced by many aspects of Egyptian culture and language, and religious
matters as well. With these data in mind and the sociological evidence re-
viewed in the previous section that demonstrate how immigrant minorities
are indeed impacted by the majority religion of their new homeland, let us
turn to the biblical text to see what indications there might be that Israel
experienced some of the same phenomena as did other Semites who came
to Egypt in the 2nd millennium BC.

Egyptian Elements in Israelite Religion


Theophile J. Meek delivered the 1933–34 Haskell Lectures at Oberlin
College, which two years later were published in his classic book Hebrew
Origins. 109 Meek considered the significant number of personal names
of Egyptian etymology among the Levites as evidence for the Egyptian
sojourn, 110 an observation made a few years before by Martin Noth. 111
Meek’s list of Levites included “Moses, Phineas, Hophni, Hur, Pashur, As-
sir, Putiel, Merari, and perhaps also Aaron.” 112 He acknowledged that not all
of these were from the exodus-wilderness generations. Based on the ono-
mastic evidence, Meek concluded, “This would indicate that the Levites
at least were once resident in Egypt, so long in fact that they must have

107. Ibid., 56–61.


108. Alan Gardiner, “Davies’s Copy of the Great Speos Artemidos Inscription,” JEA
32 (1946): 47–48.
109. Theophile J. Meek, Hebrew Origins (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1936).
110. Ibid., 31–32.
111. Martin Noth, Die israelitischen Personennamen im Rahmen der gemeinsemitischen Na-
mengebung (Hildesheim: Olms, 1928), 63.
112. Meek, Hebrew Origins, 31.
18 James K. Hoffmeier

intermarried to some degree with the Egyptians and so have given Egyptian
names to their children.” 113
Meek’s common sense treatment of the data was immediately chal-
lenged by Leroy Waterman. He assumed a “nomadic southern origin” for
the Levites from outside Canaan (but not from Egypt). 114 He dismissed the
presence of Egyptian names as evidence of the Levites’ sojourn in Egypt.
Waterman’s critique in turn prompted a rejoinder from Meek, who main-
tained his position while refining his arguments. 115 In the intervening 75
years since Meek and Waterman debated over the possible Egyptian roots
of the names cited above, further Egypto-Semitic work has been done, and
there is wider recognition of the authenticity of some of the names while
acknowledging that some linguistic challenges remain (see also the essay
by Richard Hess in this volume). I have dealt with these and other names
previously 116 and so will discuss those relevant to the present subject: Egyp-
tian names among the Levites and Egyptian theophoric names among the
exodus-wilderness generations.

Egyptian Personal Names


Meek was quite right in recognizing Egyptian names among the Levites.
Not only are such names found among the exodus-wilderness generations,
but they also appear in later generations. Consider the following:
Merari (‫)מ ָר ִרי‬
ְ is the name of the son of Levi who immigrated to Egypt
(Gen 46:11) 117 and became the name of the division of priests—that is, the
sons of Merari (Num 3:33–36). This name is only attested in Israel in the
Semitic world, but it was a common name in Egypt in the Middle Kingdom
(ca. 1963–1700 BC). 118 The root name is mrı͗ , meaning “love” or “beloved.” 119
The doubling of the rr as it occurs in this name indicates that the imperfec-
tive active participle is the form. 120

113. Ibid., 32.


114. Leroy Waterman, “Some Determining Factors in the Northward Progress of
Levi,” JAOS 57 (1937): 375–80.
115. Theophile J. Meek, “Moses and the Levites,” AJSL 56 (1939): 113–20.
116. Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai, 223–28.
117. It could be that this genealogical list simply includes the names of the sons of
the tribal chiefs and not all were born in Canaan. Yoshiyuki Muchiki suggests that Merari
may have been born in Egypt, hence the Egyptian name (Egyptian Proper Names and Loan-
words in North-west Semitic [Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1999], 216).
118. Ranke, Die Ägyptischen Personennamen, 1.162:22. Dating the arrival of the migrat-
ing Hebrews to Egypt is the subject of some debate, but a date during the 13th Dynasty
when numbers of Asiatics begin to appear at Tell el-Dabʿa (and elsewhere in the NE
Delta and Wadi Tumilat) is not inconceivable; see Kitchen, Reliability of the Old Testament,
347–48.
119. WÄS 2.98–99.
120. Alan H. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar (London: Oxford University Press,
1969), §357.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 19

Miriam (‫)מ ְריָם‬ ִ was the name of Moses’ and Aaron’s sister, who was
known as a prophetess (Exod 15:20). One proposal is that the root mrı͗ men-
tioned in the previous entry is found in this name. In Hebrew Origins, Meek
proposed an Egyptian name behind Miriam. Also, in 1936, Sir Alan Gar-
diner penned an article on “The Egyptian Origin of Some English Personal
Names.” 121 Gardiner argued that behind the Hebrew name was the root mrı͗
(as in the name Merari), although he acknowledged that, for the feminine
form, one would expect the writing to be mrı͗ t. As early as the Old Kingdom,
the final t in words was not vocalized (yet was written); 122 hence mrı͗ t would
have been vocalized mrı͗ /y. Gardiner was nevertheless quite confident that
“a good case can be made out for an Egyptian derivation of Miriam.” 123
Yoshiyuki Muchiki has recently reexamined this name and proposed an-
other Egyptian possibility, namely, mr-ı͗ b, meaning “heart desires,” with the
bilabial b shifting to another bilabial, m. 124 This name is attested in most
periods of pharaonic Egypt. 125 Another possibility is that the name Miriam
represents the verb mrı͗ + divine name, another popular name type, 126 such
as for example mrı͗ + mwt, Beloved of Mut (the Theban goddess and consort
of Amun). Theophoric names with Mut were popular in the New Kingdom
(see the names Ahimoth, Meremoth, and Jerimoth below). 127 Thus, there
are several possible Egyptian name-types behind Miriam.
Moses (‫ׁשה‬ ֶ ֹ ‫ )מ‬is certainly the best known of the Levitical family in the
Pentateuch. The etymology of the name Moses is disputed. There is a wide
range of scholars who accept its Egyptian origin. Philip Hyatt 45 years
ago proclaimed that: “Most scholars now favour the view that the name
mōšeh is to be associated with the Egyptian verb ms.” 128 John Van Seters
allows the Egyptian root behind this name while rejecting any historical
implications. 129 The suggested root msı͗ means “bear, bore, give birth, and
child.” 130 Kitchen, however, has cautioned against this explanation since in
Hebrew Moses is written with a š not an s. 131 He takes seriously the popular

121. Idem, “The Egyptian Origin of Some English Personal Names,” JAOS 56 (1936):
189–97.
122. Idem, Egyptian Grammar, 34 n. 1a and 432 n. 4. I am grateful to Dr. Edmund Melt-
zer for providing me with this reference.
123. Idem, “The Egyptian Origin of Some English Personal Names,” 194.
124. Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 215.
125. Ranke, Die Ägyptischen Personennamen 1.155:17.
126. Ibid., 155–62.
127. Ibid., 147–49; but Mery-Mut is only documented in the late period (159.26).
Given the popularity of the mrı͗ + divine-name formula, and Mut’s high status in the New
Kingdom, it is hard to believe that the name Mery-Mut did not exist in this period.
128. J. Philip Hyatt, Exodus (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1971), 64.
129. John Van Seters, “Moses,” Encyclopedia of Religion (ed. M. Eliade; New York: Mac-
millan, 1987), 10.115–16.
130. WÄS 2.137–39.
131. Kitchen, Reliability of the Old Testament, 296–97.
20 James K. Hoffmeier

etymology in the naming of Moses in Exod 2:10 as the explanation for the
Hebrew name mōšeh: “She named him Moses, ‘because,’ she said, ‘I drew
him out (‫יתהּו‬ִ ‫ׁש‬
ִ ‫)מ‬
ְ of the water.’” There are, therefore, problems with ascrib-
ing an Egyptian name to Moses. I wonder if there could be some sort of
bilingual wordplay at work; what was drawn out (mšh—Heb.) of the water
was a child (mose—Eg.).
Aaron (‫ ) ַאהֲרֹן‬is the name of the Levitical priest whose descendants
alone could serve as priests of Yahweh. Meek and others posited that Aaron
might be an Egyptian name, and some have followed this suggestion, 132
even though a convincing etymology eludes us. Certainly no Hebrew or Se-
mitic root has been identified for this name. Michael Homan has recently
made an ingenious suggestion to explain this elusive name. His theory is
that ʾahărōn derives from an “Egyptianized form of the Semitic word for
tent (‫)אֹהֶל‬, meaning something like ‘tent man’ because of his priestly role
in the tabernacle.” 133 Because Egyptian lacked a lamed, a reš was used in
Egyptian to accommodate the Semitic el sound (e.g., consider the writing
of Israel in the Merenptah stela, where r is used in place of l ). The problem
with Homan’s explanation, and he acknowledges it, is that there is no other
example of a Semitic word in the Bible that has been altered under the in-
fluence of another language and then “reentered the original language as a
borrowing.” 134 There is, however, a name similar to Aaron in Egyptian dur-
ing the New Kingdom, namely, ʿaharaya. 135
Phinehas (‫)ּפי ְנחָס‬
ִ is most assuredly an Egyptian name—that is, pꜢ nḥsy,
meaning “the Nubian.” 136 The aforementioned 14th Dynasty king Nehsy
has the same name, less the definite article ( pꜢ). In the New Kingdom, this
personal name is consistently written with pꜢ. One notable Egyptian who
bore this name was a priest of the Aten cult of Akhenaten at Amarna. 137
Phinehas, Exod 6:25 reports, was the grandson of Eleazer, while his father-
in-law’s name was Putiel, and he was also a Levite (see next entry). Phinehas
turned out to be a popular name in Israelite priestly circles. It is encoun-
tered twice more after Eleazer’s son. It is the name of the son of Eli the
priest, Phinehas II (cf. 1 Sam 1:3, 2:34, 4:4) and it is the name of a priest in
postexilic Judah, Phinehas III (Ezra 8:33). In the Persian Period, there are
several cases of the high priests of Judea being named after earlier priests,

132. Meek, Hebrew Origins, 31. John Spencer, “Aaron,” ABD 1.1.
133. Michael Homan, “A Tensile Etymology for Aaron,” BN 95 (1998): 21–22
134. Ibid.
135. Thomas Schneider, Äsiatische Personennamen in ägyptischen Quellen des Neuen
Reiches (OBO 114; Freiburg: Freiburg University Press, 1992), 105–6.
136. Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen, 1.113, 13; Gardiner, “The Egyptian Origin
of Some English Personal Names,” 191–92; Kenneth Kitchen, “Phinehas,” NBD 934; Mu-
chiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 222.
137. Norman de Garis Davies, The Rock Tombs of El-Amarna (London: Egypt Explora-
tion Fund, 1903), 1.9–11 and pls. 3–23.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 21

especially after their grandfathers (paponymy). 138 The reuse of names of


earlier priests is well attested among with Coptic Orthodox patriarchs (e.g.,
19 named John, 8 named Mark and Gabriel) and Roman pontiffs (e.g., 23
named John, 16 named Benedict, 16 named Gregory). The reuse of earlier
priestly names is usually tied to esteem and respect for the original indi-
vidual who bore the name.
Putiel (‫)ּפּוטיאֵל‬
ִ was the father-in-law of Eleazer, mentioned only in Exod
6:25. As this verse suggests, Putiel was a Levite. This name is challenging for
Hebraists to analyze. 139 The final element (‫)אֵל‬, is clearly the Semitic word
for god/God. The initial element ‫ּפּוטי‬ ִ is the same as the name of the Egyp-
tian officer Potiphar (‫)ּפֹוטיפַר‬
ִ of Gen 37:36 and 39:1. Putiel, thus, appears to
be a Mischname or hybrid name that combines Egyptian and Semitic (He-
brew) elements. This was the view of Noth and others. 140 Putiel couples
Egyptian pꜢ-dı͗ with the Hebrew ʾēl, “god,” and would mean “He whom god
has given.” 141 A Yahwistic variation on this name is now attested from Israel
that dates to ca. 600 BC, namely, ptyhw. 142 The pꜢ-dı͗ type names first ap-
pear in Egypt in the New Kingdom. 143 A striking New Kingdom example of
this name type is pꜢ dı͗ bʿl, Pa-di-Baal, 144 “He whom Baal has given,” clearly
an Egyptian-Semitic Mischname. In the absence of a Hebrew verb ‫ּפּוט‬, the
Egyptian pꜢ-dı͗ makes best linguistic sense for the initial element of this
name.
Assir (‫ )א ִַּסיר‬was a son of Korah (Exod 6:24), who was the nemesis of Mo-
ses and Aaron in the Sinai Wilderness (Num 16). Koehler and Baumgartner
followed a suggestion by Noth that the name derives from the Egyptian
deity Osiris (wsı͗ r). 145 Muchiki agrees with this possibility, pointing out that
Osiris is found as a personal name in the New Kingdom 146 but suggests
another linguistically acceptable option, namely, Egyptian ı͗ sr, for the Tama-
risk tree, which appears as a loanword in Hebrew (‫ֶׁשל‬ ֶ ‫ )א‬147 and also occurs as
 148
a personal name in Egypt. He also observes that the Assir of Exod 6:24,

138. See Benjamin E. Scolnic, Chronology and Papponomy: A List of the Judean High
Priests of the Persian Periods (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999).
139. HALOT 908.
140. Noth, Die israelitischen Personennamen, 63; Meek, Hebrew Origins, 32.
141. Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 220.
142. Robert Deutsch, Biblical Period Bullae: The Josef Chaim Kauffman Collection (Tel
Aviv: Archaeological Center, 2003), 423.
143. Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen 1.122:9, 123:8, 124:16, and 125:21.
144. Ibid., 123:8.
145. HALOT 73; Noth, Die israelitischen Personennamen, 63. See also Meek, Hebrew
Origins, 32.
146. Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen; for examples of Osiris + verb or adjective,
see 1.84:22, 23, 24, 25, 26; and 1.85:1, 2, 3. For Osiris alone as a personal name, see 1.85:4–5.
147. HALOT 95.
148. Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 208. For the Egyptian use of both
of these possibilities, see Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen, 1.46:24–25. Muchiki also
22 James K. Hoffmeier

as the text presents it, was “probably born in Egypt,” 149 and so an Egyptian
name seems likely. My inclination is to concur with the association with the
funerary god Osiris.
There are clearly Egyptian names among the Levites. Ironically, the
names of Moses and his siblings are the most uncertain, although various
scholars have seen Egyptian names associated with all three.

Egyptian Names among Later Levites


Phinehas was not the only Egyptian name associated with later priests
(see above). Others include the following:
Hophni (‫ָפנִי‬ְ ‫ )ח‬was the brother of Phinehas II, son of Eli the priest of
Shiloh at the end of the Judges era (mid–late 11th century BC). The Egyp-
tian origin of this name has long been recognized. 150 It is the Egyptian
word for “tadpole” (ḥfn[r]), 151 perhaps an indication of his small stature.
Ḥfn(r) is documented in Egypt as a personal name as early as the Middle
Kingdom. 152 The use of this name in Egypt might suggest the diminutive
size of the individual. The Hebrew vocalization of ‫ָפנִי‬ ְ ‫ ח‬accords well with
the Egyptian sound of ḥfn(r). It is well known that final r’s in Egyptian
words were not vocalized as early as Middle Egyptian, due to apocope. 153
The lack of vocalization of the final r is evident in the writing of Egyptian
personal names in the Amarna letters—for example, Merit-Aten > Mai-
yati 154 (EA 10.44, 11.26′), Mery-Re > Mai-Reya (EA 367.7). 155 The Hebrew
writing ‫—נֹף‬Memphis—for Egyptian mn-nf(r) also reflects this linguistic
phenomenon. It is intriguing to think that both sons of Eli the priest had
Egyptian names.
Ahimoth (‫ֲחימֹות‬ ִ ‫ )א‬occurs just once in the Hebrew Bible. It is found in a
genealogical list of Levites through Kohath (1 Chr 6:10[25]). Ahimoth could
be a Semitic theophore, “Brother of Mot (death, or the Canaanite deity
Mot)” 156 or “My brother is Mot.” Christopher Hays has recently considered

points out that a Hebrew root that means “prisoner” is possible, but a name with such a
negative connotation seems out of place.
149. Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 208.
150. Noth, Die israelitischen Personennamen, 63; Meek, Hebrew Origins, 32; idem, “Moses
and the Levites,” 118.
151. WÄS 3.74.
152. Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen, 1.239.
153. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, 430.
154. This writing of the name of Akhenaten’s daughter illustrates that the final t was
not pronounced, leaving a final r that was quiescent.
155. For these references, see Richard S. Hess, Amarna Personal Names (ASOR Dis-
sertation Series 9; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1993), 106–7.
156. Noth, Die israelitischen Personennamen, 40 n. 1.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 23

this and opted for ‫’מֹות‬s being the writing for the Egyptian goddess, Mut. 157
Mut was very important in the New Kingdom as the consort of Amun and
a member of the Theban triad. 158 Thus, Ahimoth could be “My brother
is Mut,” which one might not consider suitable as a man’s name. There is,
however, an Egyptian man’s name Senenmut, 159 which means “Brother of
Mut,” the name famously borne by Queen Hathsepsut’s high official. More
likely, the Hebrew Ahimoth means “My glory is Mut.” 160 This reading un-
derstands the initial element to be ʿḫ, meaning “glory or beneficial.” 161 Akh-
mut is found in New Kingdom Egypt as a personal name. 162 Undoubtedly
the best-known Akh-type name in Egypt is Akh-en-aten (“Beneficial to
Aten”). Dating the period of Ahimoth to the Chronicler is problematic;
however, Muchiki does place him in the generation of the exodus. 163 It is
worth noting that two different near relatives are named Assir (1 Chr 6:22–
23), which as we have seen above was the Egyptian name given to the son of
Korah (Exod 6:24).
The name of the deity Mut (or Mot) possibly occurs in the names Jeri-
moth (‫ )יְִרימֹות‬and Jeremoth (‫ )יְרֵמֹות‬in 1 Chr 7:7–8. Based on his place in
the genealogy, Muchiki posits that Jerimoth was born in Egypt before the
exodus. 164 If indeed this is an Egyptian theophoric name, I suggest that
the Hebrew writing of ‫ ירי‬might correspond to the Egyptian verb ı͗ rı͗ , which
means “begat.” 165 In other words, the name would mean “Begotten of Mut.”
The name Mut means “mother,” and as consort of Amun and mother of the
gods, she may have been a mother goddess 166 and hence associated with
fertility. Strengthening the possibility that these Hebrew theophoric names
allude to the goddess Mut is the occurrence of the name Merimoth (e.g.,
mrı͗ -mwt) which is found among the Arad ostraca, 167 and the Meri/mrı͗ type
name is certainly Egyptian. A nearly identical name is Meremoth (‫)מרֵמֹות‬, ְ

157. Christopher B. Hays, “The Covenant with Mut: A New Interpretation of Isa-
iah 28:1–22,” VT 60 (2010): 212–40. This matter is further treated in idem, Death in the
Iron Age II and in First Isaiah (FAT 79; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011); and most recently
and most significantly, idem, “The Egyptian Goddess Mut in Iron Age Palestine: Further
Data from Amulets and Onomastics,” JNES 71 (2012): 299–314.
158. Herman te Velde, “Mut,” OEAE 2.454–55; Richard Wilkinson, The Complete Gods
and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2003), 153–56.
159. Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen, 2.309.
160. Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 215.
161. WÄS 1.73–74.
162. Ranke, Die Ägyptischen Personennamen, 1.2:24.
163. Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 207.
164. Ibid., 213.
165. WÄS 1.108–9
166. Te Velde, “Mut,” 454–55; Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient
Egypt, 153.
167. Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 207.
24 James K. Hoffmeier

who was a priest and contemporary of Ezra in the mid-5th century BC (Ezra
8:33; 10:36). The occurrence of Mut in personal names in Judah in the latter
part of the Iron Age combined with the presence of amulets of Mut lead
Hays to believe that there was a thriving Mut cult in Judah during the late
monarchy. 168
A final note is in order regarding the vocalization (or quiescence) of the
final t. It was noted above that final t’s in Egyptian were not regularly vo-
calized from the Middle Kingdom on (see above discussion of Miriam). If
indeed these Hebrew names use the name of the Egyptian goddess, then
why are these names written with ‫ת‬/ṯ? As it turns out, in the case of the
names of deities with final t, this dental sound is preserved. The name
pꜢ-dı͗ mwt, “He whom Mut has given,” survives into Greek as πετωμουτς, 169
which demonstrates that, in the case of Mut, the final t was vocalized
even in the late period in Egypt. Another example of the preservation
of the vocalization of the final t is the name of the goddess Hathor (e.g.,
ḥ[w]t ḥr), which is vocalized as Ἀθυρ. 170 In the theta, the final t of ḥ(w)t is
preserved. What these examples mean is that the goddess Mut may be
intended in Hebrew ‫מֹות‬. Perhaps the reason that final t’s were vocalized
in the names of deities while they were quiescent in other words was due
to the fact that more-archaic vocalizations of deities continued into later
periods, even when regular words with final t’s were not pronounced in
common words.
Pashhur (‫ַׁשחּור‬
ְ ‫ )ּפ‬is the name of the priest in Jerusalem who arrested Jer-
emiah the prophet ( Jer 20). Because there is no possible Hebrew etymology,
the name has been widely recognized to be Egyptian, but there are two pos-
sible etymologies. P(s)š-ḥr means “Share (or division) of Horus.” 171 P(s)š-ḥr
is an especially significant expression in Egypt, for it refers to the territory
allotted to Horus by Geb, who adjudicated the territorial disputes between
Horus and Seth. Geb initially decided that Horus should receive the Delta
area; it was P(s)š-ḥr. 172 P(s)š-ḥr is not attested in Egypt as a personal name,
but this theophoric name type does occur in the name psš-mw.t (“Share of
Mut”) and psš-mn (“Share of Min”). 173
The name Pashhur was popular in the later period in Judah (e.g., 1 Chr
9:12; Ezra 2:38; 10:22; Neh 7:41), and it is attested numerous times in epi-

168. Hays, “The Egyptian Goddess Mut in Iron Age Palestine,” 299–324.
169. I am grateful to Dr. Edmund Meltzer for directing me to this example. Cf. Ranke,
Die ägyptischen Personennamen, 1.123:17.
170. Claas J. Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures of the Ancient Egyptian Religion
(Leiden: Brill, 1973), 25.
171. On the meaning of psš, see WÄS 1.554.
172. See the Memphite Theology, line 10, in James Henry Breasted, “The Philosophy
of a Memphite Priest,” ZÄS 39 (1901): table 2, line 10.
173. Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen , 1.137:5–6.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 25

graphic sources from the Iron II period in Israel. 174 The god Horus also
appears with some frequency among exodus-generation Hebrews (see be-
low). In fact, Horus is the most frequently occurring foreign deity found
in preexilic Hebrew personal names in the current epigraphic corpus from
Israel. 175

Egyptian Theophoric Names among the


Non-Levites in the Exodus Generation
Ahira (‫ֲחירַ ע‬
ִ ‫ )א‬is the name of a leader from the tribe of Naphtali who
would assist with the military census in Num 1:15. Later he is a tribal chief
or leader (‫ָׂשיא‬
ִ ‫ )נ‬who brings offerings for consecrating the tabernacle (Num
7:78, 83). Noth thought it unlikely that the second element was for [‫]רעע‬,
“evil,” but posited that the first part was the writing for the Egyptian sun-
god, Re of Heliopolis (Heb. ‫ > אֹן‬ʾōn). 176 Muchiki takes this name to be a He-
brew + Egyptian hybrid, “Brother of Re.” 177 Alternatively, as was suggested
above in the case of Ahimoth, the first part of the name could represent
Egyptian Ꜣḫ—glory or glorious—“Re is Glorious.” The element Ꜣḫ + divine
name was known in the Middle and New Kingdoms. 178
Hur (‫ )חּור‬is the name of a leader who, along with Aaron, stood with
Moses during Israel’s battle with Amalek (Exod 17:10, 12), and one of the
leaders who went up Mount Sinai with Joshua (Exod 24:14). He may be the
grandfather of the chief artisan of the tabernacle, Bezalel (Exod 31:2; 35:30;
38:22) 179 and is reported to be from the tribe of Judah (Exod 31:2). If the
grandfather of Bezalel was a different man, then there were two contempo-
raries named Hur. Both would have been born in Egypt. It is quite likely that
this name represents a transliteration of the Egyptian sky-god Horus (e.g.,
ḥr). 180 Horus served as a personal name in all periods of Egyptian history. 181
Hori (‫)חֹורי‬
ִ occurs but once in the Bible—namely, in Num 13:5; he was
the father of Shapat, a Simeonite, who was one of the 12 spies sent by Mo-
ses from Kadesh-Barnea to reconnoiter Canaan. Ernst Axel Knauf believes
that this name originally came from Gen 36:20 and 22. There, one ‫( חִֹרי‬ḥôrî)
appears who is of Edomite stock. 182 This leads Knauf to believe that the

174. Jeffrey Tigay, You Shall Have No Other Gods: Israelite Religion in the Light of Hebrew
Inscriptions (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986), 66.
175. Ibid., 13.
176. Noth, Die israelitischen Personennamen, 236.
177. Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 207.
178. Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen, 1.2:22, 24; 3:3.
179. Nahum M. Sarna, Exodus (ed. Nahum M. Sarna; JPS Torah Commentary; Phila-
delphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991), 95.
180. HALOT 348; Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 211.
181. Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen, 1.245:18.
182. Ernst Axel Knauf, “Hori,” ABD 3.211.
26 James K. Hoffmeier

Hori of the spy list of Num 13 is speculative, and thus it is “doubtful whether
a biblical personal name ‘Hori’ ever existed.” 183 Knauf ’s conjecture is un-
necessarily nihilistic. A simpler explanation is to consider a popular Egyp-
tian name derived from the name of the deity Horus (see previous entry),
which means “He of Horus.” 184 This name is widely used from the Middle
Kingdom onward. Since Hori is considered to be one of the 12 spies, he
would have been born in Egypt. Consequently, an Egyptian name for this
intelligence officer is probable.
Harnepher (‫ ) ַח ְרנֶפֶר‬is found only in 1 Chr 7:36, in a genealogical list. This
name falls sixth after the tribal ancestor Asher. Asher, Beriah, and Heber
represent a sequence found in a genealogical list in Gen 46:17 and may be a
clan name. 185 They appear again in the military census of Num 26:44–47.
It is thus difficult to determine precisely when Harnepher would have lived
but during the generation of the exodus-wilderness period is possible. A
clear Egyptian etymology stands behind this name, ḥr nfr, “Horus is Good” 186
or “Beautiful,” and it is attested as a personal name in Egypt in the Middle
and New Kingdoms and into the later periods. 187 This etymology is also
recognized by Diana Edelman, who explains that this Egyptian name may
have entered Judean archives during the period of Egyptian influence on
Judah in the Saite period (late 7th and early 6th century BC). 188 It is dif-
ficult, however, to believe that the Judeans would adopt this Egyptian
name during the very period when Necho II killed King Josiah, deported
his successor to Egypt, and set up Jehoiakim as his puppet (2 Chr 35:20–22;
36:4).
The frequency of Horus names among the exodus generation and later
in Israelite and Judean history should not be altogether surprising. Ranke
lists over 130 entries of Horus theophores. Horus names were especially
popular in the Middle and New Kingdoms. 189 A second consideration for
the frequency of Horus names among the early Hebrews is that this sky
god figured prominently in the northeastern Delta and eastern frontier. 190
This area is rich with various features that incorporate the name of Horus.
There is the well-known “Ways of Horus,” the road that led from Avaris and

183. Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen, 1.251:8.


184. Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 211, Ranke, Die ägyptischen Per-
sonennamen, 1.251.
185. Martin Selman, 1 Chronicles: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity, 1994), 117.
186. Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 212.
187. Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen, 1.249.
188. Diana Edelman, “Harnepher,” ABD 3.62.
189. Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen, 1.345–51.
190. James K. Hoffmeier, “Deities of the Eastern Frontier,” in Scribe of Justice: Egypto-
logical Studies in Honour of Shafik Allam (ed. Z. A. Hawass, K. A. Daoud, and R. B. Hussein;
ASAESup, Cahier 42; Cairo: Ministry of State for Antiquities, 2011), 197–216.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 27

Pi-Ramesses and crossed north Sinai. 191 Dominique Valbelle has advanced


the theory that the “Ways of Horus” was not the name of the route or road
(even though that is what wꜢt means) 192 but was the name of the region of
the northeastern frontier. 193 Either way, this area or route that runs through
the northeastern Delta included Horus in its name.
Horus’s name occurs in the toponym pꜢ š-ḥr, “the waters or lake of
Horus.” 194 Forty years ago, Bietak proposed that this ancient lake should
be associated with a desiccated depression east of the Suez Canal. 195 More
recent study of this feature seems to support Bietak’s contention. 196 Horus
the sky god was known in this area as “Horus of Mesen,” based on inscrip-
tions from the New Kingdom and later. 197
The point of this discussion is to show that Horus was a major deity in
the northeastern Delta, the very area where the Hebrews sojourned, known
in Genesis (47:11) as the land of Rameses and also called the land of Goshen
(e.g., Gen 45:10; 46:28–29; Exod 8:22; 9:26). It is therefore no surprise that
Horus theophores are found among the Hebrew personal names, a sure sign
of some religious symbiosis. As seen above, in addition to the Horus names,
other Egyptian deities are found among the personal names of the early
Hebrews in the books of the exodus and wilderness generations: Re, Osiris,
and possibly Mut.

The Korah Rebellion Narrative


Korah was the instigator of the cabal that challenged Aaron’s role as
priest in Num 16–17. This narrative is thought by source critics to be a com-
posite ( J or JE and P of rebellion traditions) that the Priestly writer used to
legitimize the Aaronic priesthood, coupled with the unrelated Dathan and

191. James K. Hoffmeier and Stephen Moshier, “‘A Highway out of Egypt’: The Main
Road from Egypt to Canaan,” in Desert Road Archaeology in Ancient Egypt and Beyond (ed.
F. Förester and H. Reimer; Africa Praehistorica 26; Cologne: Heinrich-Barth-Institut,
2013), 485–510.
192. WÄS 1.246–47.
193. Dominique Valbelle, “La (les) route(s)-d'horus,” in Hommages à Jean Leclant
(Cairo: IFAO, 1994), 379–86.
194. For references, see my “Deities of the Eastern Frontier,” 198; and for recent
geological analysis of this area, see James K. Hoffmeier and Stephen O. Moshier, “New
Paleo-Environmental Evidence from North Sinai to Complement Manfred Bietak’s Map
of the Eastern Delta and Some Historical Implications,” in Timelines: Studies in Honour of
Manfred Bietak (ed. Ernst Czerny et al., Leuven: Peeters, 2006), 2.167–74.
195. Manfred Bietak, Tell el-Dabʿa (Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie de Wissen-
schaften, 1975), 2.137, pls. 10 and 23
196. Hoffmeier and Moshier, “New Paleo-Environmental Evidence from North Si-
nai,” 167–69. Stephen O. Moshier and Ali El-Kalani, “Late Bronze Age Paleogeography
along the Ancient Ways of Horus in Northwest Sinai, Egypt,” Geoarchaeology 23 (2008):
450–73
197. Hoffmeier, “Deities of the Eastern Frontier,” 198–99.
28 James K. Hoffmeier

Abiram rebellion against Moses’ political leadership. 198 For the purposes


of the present study, we need not occupy ourselves with the contentious
issue of the composite nature of the text, although it is worth noting that
Robert Alter proposed that the narrative represents a “fusing (of ) the two
rebellions” and was not necessarily derived from different sources. 199 More
recently, Robert Gordon has argued similarly that these narratives should
be viewed as a conflation of stories of rebellions rather than a composite of
different sources. 200
The question that has not been adequately addressed is Why Korah?
Why should he be a ring-leader? The text reports that he is a Levite through
the priestly family of Kohath (Num 16:1), like Aaron’s family, but he was
not an Aaronide. While one might get the impression from his statement
in 16:3—that all Israel is holy—that he was advocating the abolition of a
particular priesthood and promoting everyone to be priests, it seems un-
likely that as a Levite he would want to diminish his own status. We are
informed in 16:17–18 that Korah and his associates had censers and incense.
Why would he have an incense brazier unless he had exercised some priestly
service in Egypt prior to the exodus?
The question I am trying to raise is whether there was some sort of He-
brew priesthood already established in Egypt, in which case, might Korah
have been one such cleric? With the ascendancy of Aaron and his sons to
serve as priests, the role of the Levites was diminished (cf. Num 3:5–10; 4:1–
48). Their duties would be carried out “under the direction of Ithamar, the
son of Aaron the priest” (Num 4:28 and 33). If indeed Korah and his cohorts
were demoted by the new order and were now forbidden to make offerings
and burn incense in the sanctuary, one can see why the uprising described
in Num 16 occurred.
Other than having censers, is there other evidence that Korah and his
company had been priests in Egypt? Korah (‫ )קֹרַ ח‬means “bald head” or
“shaved head.” 201 This name could be a descriptive name that points to
a trait especially of Egyptian wʿb-priests. The Egyptian word wʿb means
“pure.” 202 Ritual and ceremonial purification was achieved by ablutions or
incense fumigation. A text in the tomb of the 18th-Dynasty vizier Ramose

198. Martin Noth, Numbers: A Commentary (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1968), 120–22;


Philip Budd, Numbers (Waco, TX: Word, 1984), 181–86; Baruch Levine, Numbers 1–20
(New York: Doubleday, 1993), 405–6; Eryl Davies, Numbers: Based on the Revised Standard
Version (NCBC; London: Marshall Pickering, 1995), 162–68; Jacob Milgrom, Numbers: The
JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 129.
199. Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York: Basic Books, 1981), 133–36.
200. Robert Gordon, “Compositeness, Conflation and the Pentateuch,” JSOT 51
(1991): 57–69.
201. HALOT 1140.
202. WÄS 1.280–81.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 29

states: “Using incense, pouring libations, purifying the way (swʿb) 203 to the
necropolis.” 204 This passage occurs in the context of the funerary proces-
sion of the deceased’s mummified remains to the necropolis.
Wʿb-priests, Denise Doxey notes, were “a lower-ranked class of priests”
that assisted the ḥm ntr or priest “in the maintenance of the temple” and
assisted in the care for the cult image in the sanctuary, but the wʿb-priest
could not enter the “innermost sanctuary or come face to face with the
god’s image.” 205 However, she observes that they did “handle sacred objects
and cult instruments. They were therefore required to observe strict rules
of purity, and they can be identified in some representations by their shaved
heads.” 206 In his classic study of priests in ancient Egypt, Serge Sauneron
mentions the most visible characteristic of wʿb-priests as “their perfectly
smooth heads.” 207 Significantly, circumcision was also a custom practiced
by the priests. 208 These are the priests who are shown carrying shrines of
deities in New Kingdom scenes, and typically they are depicted with clean-
shaven heads.
In the Egyptian priestly system, one could work one’s way up the pecking
order. The biography of Bakenkhons, who served during the reign of Ra­
messes II, well illustrates how a priest could be promoted. His cultic service
began after 11 years of working as a groom in the stables of Seti I. 209 Ba­
kenkhons entered the priestly ranks as a wʿb-priest, where he spent 4 years
before being promoted to the position of “god’s father of Amun” (ı͗ t ntr n[y]
ı͗ mn) for 12 years. He was then promoted to be third priest (ḥm nṯr) of Amun
for 15 years, followed by being advanced to the second priest of Amun, a
position he held for 12 years. Finally, he was elevated to be the first priest
of Amun or high priest, a royal appointment. This appointment lasted 27
years, when he died in his early eighties. His son Roma or Roy followed the
same steps as his father, eventually becoming high priest. 210
Bakenkhons’s resumé illustrates that a priest could advance through the
ranks to the upper echelons. Could it be that Korah had been a priest in the
tradition of the wʿb-priest and was pressing Aaron for a promotion that
would give him the status of a ḥm ntr-priest (Heb. kōhēn) and direct access
to the holy place, rather than playing a secondary role?

203. Swʿb is the causative form of the verb, “to make pure.”
204. James Hoffmeier, Sacred in the Vocabulary of Ancient Egypt (OBO 59; Freiburg:
Freiburg University Press, 1985), 25–26.
205. Denise Doxey, “Priesthood,” in OEAE 3.69.
206. Ibid.
207. Serge Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt (trans. David Lorton; Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 2000), 36–37.
208. Ibid., 37.
209. For the text, see KRI 3.298. For a recent translations, see Elizabeth Frood, Bio-
graphical Texts from Ramessid Egypt (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), 40–43
210. Ibid., 46–59.
30 James K. Hoffmeier

My proposal is that Korah had held some sort of priestly function prior
to the establishment of the new Yahweh cult in the wilderness, because of
the references to his shaved head and his possessing an incense brazier, as
did his Levite associates (Num 16:6, 17–18, 38). The word used here for cen-
ser is ‫ מ ְַח ָּתה‬maḥtâ, which is sometimes rendered “censer” (Lev 10:1, 12; Num
16:6, 17, 18), and sometimes “fire pan” or “tray” (Exod 25:38; 37:23; Num 4:9),
usually made of bronze (Exod 38:3; Num 16:39) but sometimes of gold (Exod
37:23; 1 Kgs 7:50; 2 Kgs 25:15). Since no Semitic cognates for this word are
offered in Koehler and Baumgartner, 211 I previously suggested 212 a possible
Egyptian word, ḫt, that might stand behind Hebrew maḥtāh. Egyptian ḫt
means “fire,” and with a different determinative it is a word for “offering.” 213
The initial mem is the preformative, which occurs regularly in Egyptian and
Semitic languages with nominal forms. 214
Another point in favor of my hypothesis that Korah had been a priest in
Egypt is the fact that one of Korah’s coconspirators in Num 16:1 is a man
named On. He is a rather mysterious figure, whose name only occurs here,
and follows the Reubenite leaders Dathan and Abiram. Gordon has sug-
gested that these Reubenites were challenging Moses’ secular leadership
rather than Aaron’s cultic role. 215 They felt slighted that the civil leader-
ship normally went to the firstborn, which Reuben was (Gen 29:32; 49:3),
but Moses, a Levite, was taking charge. 216 Subsequent references to the
Reubenite rebels only mention Dathan and Abiram (e.g., Num 16:12, 24,
27). Philip Budd proposes omitting On from the text “as a piece of dittog-
raphy,” which explains his absence in subsequent references to the other
two men. 217 This seems unlikely to me because On’s patronymy is recorded
(“son of Peleth”), meaning one would have to delete “On, the son of Peleth.”
It is hard to explain how ‫ ְואֹון ּבֶן־ ֶּפלֶת‬is a dittography (from where?). The
Septuagint shows no sign of such an omission. A better accounting of On’s
presence in this narrative is therefore required.
The name On (‫ אֹון‬ʾôn) is the same as the Egyptian city located toward
the base of the Delta. The cult center of the sun-god Re/Atum was located
there; hence, from Hellenistic times it was called Heliopolis as it is in the
Septuagint (Gen 41:45, 50; 46:20). It might be recalled that Joseph’s wife

211. HALOT 572.


212. Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai, 216.
213. Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, 182.
214. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, §290.
215. Gordon, “Compositeness, Conflation and the Pentateuch,” 65.
216. Jacob Milgrom, Numbers: The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Pub-
lication Society, 1990), 130; Timothy Ashley, The Book of Numbers (Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1993), 303.
217. Budd, Numbers, 180.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 31

Asenath was the daughter of Potiphera, 218 the priest of On. Thus a direct
connection between the Hebrews and the cult center at On is evident. Par-
ticipation in Egyptian solar worship may explain why a man named On, who
was not a Levite, would join a conspiracy against Aaron the priest. Could it
be that On had served as a priest among the Reubenites? This might hint
that his interests were more in line with Korah’s than with Dathan’s and
Abiram’s.

Egyptian Terms Associated with Priestly Regalia


The garments worn by Aaronide priests were to be made of linen (e.g.,
Exod 39:27, 28, 29). Egyptian linen was of especially fine quality, was bright
white, and was the material worn by Egyptian priests. 219 The word ‫ ׁשֵׁש‬šēš
occurs just over 30 times in the Hebrew Bible. All but 2 occurrences are
found in the Torah. Its Egyptian etymology has long been accepted. It de-
rives from the Egyptian word šs for linen. 220 Avi Hurvitz has pointed out
that the use of šēš clearly reflects a preexilic usage, because in postexilic
sources, bûṣ is the word for “linen.” 221 For instance, 2 Chr 3:14, which is a
quotation of Exod 36:35, replaces šēš with bûṣ. Bûṣ, on the other hand, does
not occur in the Torah. It is found in Aramaic and Akkadian sources. These
factors lead Hurvitz to conclude that “the distribution of šēš and bûṣ in the
Bible should be explained in both chronological (pre-exilic/post exilic) and
geographical (Egypt/Mesopotamia–Syria) terms.” 222 The use of this Egyp-
tian word in the context of the tabernacle and the priestly garments sug-
gests to Hurvitz that these narratives are of an “early origin.” 223
A piece of priestly regalia in Exod 28:4, 39, 40; 29:9; and Lev 8:7, 13; 16:4
is a sash worn around the waist. 224 It is called ‫ א ְַבנֵט‬ʾabnet, and this word

218. Appropriately, the priest of the sun-god of On has a theophoric name, which
uses the name of the patron deity, Re. Potiphera follows the same name type as Putiel
discussed above. The name PꜢ-dı͗ -pꜢ-rʿ, which is thought to stand behind the Hebrew
writing Potiphera, is an attested name in Egypt (Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen,
1.102:11; Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 221.
219. A. Rosilie David, The Ancient Egyptians: Religious Beliefs and Practices (London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982), 136.
220. WÄS 4.539, HALOT 1663; Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 257–58.
221. Avi Hurvitz, “The Usage of Šēš and Bûṣ in the Bible and Its Implication for the
Date of P,” HTR 60 (1967): 117–21
222. Ibid., 120.
223. Ibid., 121.
224. In the only place that this word occurs, it refers to a nonpriestly figure in Isaiah’s
denunciation of the steward Shebna for making himself a marvelous tomb (Isa 22:15–20).
The prophet then announces that he will be replaced by Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah,
who will wear Shebna’s robe and sash (Isa 22:21). This suggests that the sash was worn by
individuals of special status.
32 James K. Hoffmeier

derives from the Egyptian verb bnd, which means “wrap up.” 225 In Egypt,
this word is first attested in Egyptian texts of the New Kingdom. 226
A piece of colorful linen apparel worn by Aaron mentioned in Exod 39:28
is the ‫ּפאֵר‬.ְ It has been translated “sash” (cf. niv, nrsv) and “turban” (cf. jps,
esv) and is thought by the Wörterbuch to be a loanword from Egyptian pry/
pyr, 227 a point with which Koehler and Baumgartner concurred. 228 In Egyp-
tian it applies to various kinds of bands, including a headband. 229 Thus it
could be a sash on the turban or the turban itself.
Exodus 28:32; 39:23 describes the robe worn with the ephod, and re-
ports that it had an opening for the head “like the opening in a coat of mail
(‫)תַ ְחרָא‬, so that it may not be torn.” 230 Taḥrāʾ—a rather obscure word—oc-
curs only one other time in the Bible, in Exod 39:23, where it is used in the
same way. Koehler and Baumgartner declared the word to be of uncertain
origin, 231 but the meaning “coat of mail” is accepted by some more-recent
translations (cf. nrsv, njps, nkjv, njb).
Some have suggested that the Egyptian word dḥr, which means “leather”
or “animal hide,” 232 stands behind this obscure Hebrew word. It is written
with the leather sign ( or ), as is the word for mail armor (mśś ). 233 Lambdin
has pointed to some linguistic problems with equating dḥr and taḥrāʾ. 234
The relationship between leather and mail armor, however, is not insignifi-
cant. If taḥrāʾ means leather, it could refer to the leather jacket for the mail
armor. The point of its use in this text is that the opening of the linen robe
probably had a leather collar similar to a coat of armor.
Alternatively, the Egyptian word tḫr may better correspond linguistically
to taḥrāʾ. 235 It occurs only twice in Egyptian texts (dating to the 13th cen-
tury BC), and relates to the side panel of a chariot body. 236 New Kingdom

225. HALOT 8–9; T. O. Lambdin, “Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament,”
JAOS 73 (1953): 146; Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 237.
226. WÄS 1.465. This particular word survives in Greek as Βυνητος and refers to “an
Egyptian garment”; see H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, and H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), 333b.
227. WÄS 1.531. A Semitic alternative not considered by Koehler and Baumgartner is
the Old Akkadian term barru/parru I (CAD B 113), which in one instance is a “fabric for
(covering) the head.” I am grateful to Alan Millard for pointing out this term to me.
228. HALOT 908.
229. WÄS 1.531.
230. nrsv translation.
231. HALOT 1720.
232. WÄS 5.481.
233. WÄS 2.149.
234. Lambdin, “Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament,” 155.
235. Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 258.
236. Alan Schulman, “The So-Called Poem on the King’s Chariot Revisited: Part II,”
JSSEA 16 (1986): 43–44.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 33

chariots typically had a large opening in the side panels, 237 and this may be
similar to the opening in the priest’s gown that is mentioned in Exod 28:32;
39:23.
Another item of priestly attire is the undergarments (‫ ִמ ְכנָ ַסיִם‬miknāsayim)
also made of linen (šēš). Miknāsayim occurs just four times in the Torah
(Exod 28:42; 39:28; Lev 6:3; 16:4), and once in Ezek 44:18, where it is also
priestly garb. It is commonly thought that this word derives from the He-
brew root ‫כנס‬, which means “gather.” 238 A good description of this garment
is found in Exod 28:42: “You shall make for them linen undergarments to
cover their naked flesh; they shall reach from the hips to the thighs.” S. D.
Sperling has argued that pants or trousers are only attested beginning in the
Persian Period, which supports the 5th-century date of P. 239 The absence
of earlier examples in representations is because one would not expect to
see undergarments on statues or in a relief at any period! Linen undergar-
ments, however, were discovered in the tombs of Tutankhamun 240 and
Khaʿ in Deir el-Medineh. 241 Furthermore, Zevit has pointed out that Sper-
ling failed to consider the pictorial representations of Judean officials wear-
ing pedal-pusher-like pants on the Lachish reliefs of Sennacherib (701 BC), 242
and Gary Rendsburg has also drawn attention to the possible connection
to Egyptian loincloths. 243 So clearly linen undergarments were known in
the biblical world centuries before the supposed 5th-century date of the P
source. 244
Exodus 28:42 suggests that the purpose of this garment was to cover the
sexual organs. Zevit suggests that the miknāsayim functioned like a jock-
strap. 245 Cassuto rightly connects the undergarments of Exod 28:42 with

237. For examples in reliefs, see Epigraphic Survey, The Battle Reliefs of King Sety I,
vol. 4: Reliefs and Inscriptions at Karnak (Chicago: Oriental Institute, 1986), pls. 3–6. See
also the actual chariot bodies of Tutankhamun: M. A. Littauer and J. H. Crouwel, Chariots
and Related Equipment from the Tomb of Tutʿankhamun (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1985),
pls. 7–11, 15–18.
238. HALOT 581.
239. S. D. Sperling, “Pants, Persians, and the Priestly Source,” in Ki Baruch Hu: An-
cient Near Eastern, Biblical, and Judaic Studies in Honor of Baruch A. Levine (ed. W. Hallo,
L. Schiffman, and R. Chazan; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1999), 373–85.
240. N. Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun (London: Thames & Hudson, 1995), 154.
241. These are on display in the Egyptian Museum, Turin.
242. Ziony Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches
(London: Continuum, 2001), 47.
243. I am grateful to Gary Rendsburg’s advising me of his review of Sperling’s book,
The Original Torah (New York: New York University Press, 1998) in AJSR 24 (1999): 359–
62. Rendsburg does not, however, associate the Hebrew term with the Egyptian root kns.
244. For challenges to the traditional academic 5th-century date of P in favor of
postexilic dating, see the discussion in Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16 (AB 3; New York:
Doubleday, 1991), 3–34.
245. Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel, 47.
34 James K. Hoffmeier

the reference in 20:26, 246 which says: “You [the priest] shall not go up by
steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.” He
maintains that modesty among the Israelite priests was valued. 247 This be-
ing the case, an alternative root behind miknāsayim is worth considering. In
Egyptian, kns refers to the sexual area 248 or pubic region. 249 Since we do not
know the Egyptian word for a man’s underpants, one wonders if miknāsayim
was a word that was borrowed along with other Egyptian terms related to
priestly attire.

Conclusion
Meek’s nearly 80-year-old theory that the presence of Egyptian names
among the Levites was sure evidence of their sojourn in Egypt has now been
substantiated further. More-careful analysis of additional names of some
Levites and other Egyptian theophoric names among the Hebrews further
supports this view. I have also argued that the theophoric names along with
Egyptian terms among the priest’s regalia and the word for “censer” in Num
16 all point to the influences of Egyptian religion on the Hebrews. Space
prevents me from laying out the Egyptian background to the tabernacle and
Egyptian words associated with various utensils of the tent-shrine. 250
The sociological data regarding the ways in which a minority group of
immigrants is influenced by the religion of its host country are consistent
with what the biblical data indicate happened to the Hebrews in Egypt. If
the Hyksos and the Semitic-speaking immigrants who preceded them to
Egypt’s Delta in time adapted to Egyptian culture and became transna-
tional, as reflected in employing Egyptian names, Egyptian administrative
offices, and priestly titles and in associating with Egyptian deities, it should
not be surprising for the Hebrews to have had a similar experience with
Egyptian culture and religion.
The materials offered in this essay along with the arguments made cer-
tainly buttress Ronald Williams’s affirmation that “Israel was always con-
scious of her ties with Egypt, and the traditions of her sojourn there were

246. U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus ( Jerusalem: Magnes, 1983), 257.
247. Ibid., 387.
248. WÄS 5.134.
249. Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, 286.
250. The following studies are helpful in this regard: Kenneth Kitchen, “The Tab-
ernacle: A Bronze Age Artifact,” ErIsr 24 (Abraham Malamat Volume; 1993): 119–29;
Michael Homan, “The Divine Warrior in His Tent: A Military Model for Yahweh’s Taber-
nacle,” BR 16 (2000): 22–33, 55; idem, To Your Tents, O Israel! The Terminology, Function, Form,
and Symbolism of Tents in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (Leiden: Brill, 2002);
Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai, 193–222.
Egyptian Religious Influences on the Early Hebrews 35

indelibly impressed on her religious literature.” 251 I therefore maintain that


the evidence and proposals presented here are best understood as reflecting
the fact that, indeed, the Israelites were “a people come out of Egypt.”

251. Williams, “A People Come out of Egypt,” 231–32.

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