We Were Slaves In Egypt
1751-1351 BCE
1570-1200 BCE Late Bronze Age
Nadene GoldfootIn 1751 BCE Jacob, later called “Israel,” and his family of 70 went into Egypt from Canaan where they had been living because a drought had hit their land. They were able to be reunited with Jacob’s son, Joseph, who had been lost to them many years before. After some time of living in Egypt, the new Pharoah took them as slaves. He thought the children of Israel were too numerous and strong. The Pharoah thought that if a war came about they would join their enemy in battle against the Egyptians. So they took them as slaves while they could. The Children of Israel were put to task building storage cities for the Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.
These Israelites were too dangerous to keep but too important to lose. They were given harder work- building with brick and mortar, field labor; anything that involved hard physical labor.
The Pharoah decided to cut their ranks by killing all newborn babies. The Hebrew midwives involved would not follow orders and the boys lived. The ultimate decision was made by the Pharoah. All baby boys born from that time were to be thrown into the river. Moses was then born to Jochebed and Amram, great grandson of Levi. He was put in a basket and placed in the river where the daughter of the Pharoah found him. She knew he was one of the Hebrew boy babies instantly but maternal instincts took over and she felt pity for him. Mirium, Moses’s sister was nearby and saw this happening. She offered to find a wetnurse for him; Jochabed, her mother, but she didn’t let the Pharoah’s daughter know the connection.
They were freed by Moses in 1351. Their time of existence in Egypt was 400 years.
Moses left with 600,000 men slaves, children, women, the elderly men and also with them came a mixed multitude of people of various nationalities, all headed for Canaan. In all there could have been about 3 million people. They all followed Moses into the wilderness. It took him 40 years to get to Canaan. G-d’s plan was to enter with people without a slave mentality, but as warriors. The whole older generation died out on this exodus. Moses himself was 120 years old by the time they reached Canaan and did not enter the land. He had given the leadership of the people to Joshua.. People today have lived till age 120. Usually have been either former black slaves, or just people that have been hard workers in their youth.
They had lived in Egypt for 4 generations that are listed:
Jacob’s son, Levi begat Kohath. Kohath begat Amram. Amram begat Moses. Moses was the great grandson of Jacob, and also Abraham’s 3rd great grandson.
The Torah writes that Abraham's father, Terah, died in the year 2083 according to the Hebrew Calendar starting with the date of creation of the world. His son, Isaac, was 35 years old at the time. Ishmael would have been a little older, perhaps by 8 years or so. The Torah's common practice is to record a person's death date when he ceases to be involved in the narrative. This year of 2013 of the modern calendar is also 5773 on the Hebrew calendar, so Terah died 3,690 years ago, or in the year 1,677 BCE.
Who were the people in this multitude during this Bronze age? Egypt took captives in war and used them as slaves. They captured lands and the people were taken as slaves. Others might have been violators of Egyptian law. Many came from neighboring states. Slave treaties have been found between these nations. Mesopotamia needed a lot of agriculture field laborers.
This Bronze Age was in the 13th century BCE during the 19th Egyptian dynasty that included the reign of Ramses II. Ramses was the 3rd Pharoah of the 19th Dynasty of Egypt. He ruled for 66 years, and his wife was the most beautiful Queen Nefertiti. It is thought that he was the Pharoah in Moses's history. It was a period where Egypt wasn’t new to Canaan. Canaan was in effect, an Egyptian province during the 14th century BCE.
The Pharoah Ramses fought against the Libyans and Hittites. Ramses fought the famous chariot Battle at Kadesh against the Hittites, who were from today's Syria. Ramses retreated in this battle but saved his army. Many colossal statues of Ramses are found throughout Egypt. He had the Ramesseum built at Thebes as his funerary temple as well as other temples, including 6 in Nubia. Building temples was considered a luxury that could be done only when Egypt was prosperous, so the large number attests to the success of his reign. He built Pi-Ramesse, a home for his family in the Nile delta. It is said that he had more than 100 children with a suitably large number of wives. Evidently the death of his eldest hadn't been the end to his offsprings.
Bronze Age Jerusalem wasn’t situated on the Canaanite trade routes, but it controlled the north to south traffic between Hebron and Shechem as well as the east to west traffic from the via Maris to the King’s Highway. The Egyptians had established a garrison at Manahat, just 2 miles SW of Bronze Age Jerusalem.
REVEALING J1 Y Haplogroup's Jewish-Muslim Connection
Other haplogroups are found among the Jewish men. My brother's Ydna haplogroup is Q1b1a. We all have 23 chomosomes, and matching some segments to mine are men with haplogroup E1b1b1; R1b1, J1e, J2b2; G2c, G2a; I1 and I2a26. I would say that we may have belonged to the multitude of slaves who left with the Children of Israel on the Exodus with Moses from Egypt headed for Canaan. Some of the R1b's could also come from Khazaria, a state that lasted for about 300 years or so in southern Russia where the Royal family had converted to Judaism out of choice. It became a safe haven for other Jews until the Russians overcame them. 7% of Ashkenazi Jews have G. 5% of Ashkenazi Jews have Q1b1 or Q-L245. It has been found to originate in and around the ancient city of Ur, now located in Iraq. It has been found in the Assyrian Empire, Mesopotamia, and the Akkadian Kingdom. Abraham came from Ur.
Albert Einstein, an Ashkenazi from Germany, was E1b1b1. Pharoah Ramses III was, also, according to the latest dna findings. That's hard for me to believe being that ancient Ydna is extremely hard to find. Mt dna is much easier, but they have been working on both with mummies in Egypt. Even I, a rare haplogroup, has been thought to come from the Middle East.
Eastern Europeans, of which my paternal grandparents belong to being they came from Poland and Lithuania, are found to have significant Eastern Mediterranean elements which show we have a close relationship with the Kurds, Armenians, Palestinian Arabs, Lebanese, Syrian and Anatolian Turkish people. The Y-DNA haplogroups (male line) of J and E are typical ones from the Middle East and are common among the eastern European Jews.
There are also traces, and that means a few cM's worth of segments on one or more of the 23 chromosomes of European Khazar ancestry among European Jews including northern Italian and western Slavic or eastern Slavic. "Many Greek and Roman women married Jewish men before conversion to Judaism was outlawed by the Roman Empire." Jews with southern European lines in Ashkenazim families came from these marriages. Ethiopian Jews now living in Israel could be related to Yemenite Jews as well as coming from converts to Judaism. Yemenite Jews descend from Arabs and Israelites. All "Jewish Y-DNA tends to come from the Middle East" Wives can be related to non-Jewish populations that were living in neighboring countries.
All existing studies cannot compare modern Jewish populations' DNA to ancient Judean DNA or medieval Khazarian DNA because of the absence of ancient DNA for comparison studies. YDNA mutates quickly compared to mtDNA. What scientists are doing is making comparisons with the people of today that have been tested to trace geographic roots. Considering how much Jewish people moved around in their ancient past history and how much a transfer of population was practiced, it is rather hard to tell. First it was the Assyrians who attacked the Jews and transported people away. Later on it was the Babylonians who did the same thing. Foreigners were brought in to take their place on the land. We've been all jumbled up.
One thing tells the story. A male friend of mine is a Cohen in the synagogue. This title is inherited through the father. It requires him to perform certain obligations in the synagogue, like read from the Torah first before the others. He had his Ydna tested. It turned out to be J1, the Cohen gene, thought to be the line from Aaron, first Cohen as instructed by Moses, his brother. We are pleased to see that for over 3,000 years, his family has kept up the ritual of performing as a Cohen is required. DNA testing is the proof. His family was Ashkenazi and wound up in Poland. He matches 12 to 12 with Sephardi from Greece, Italy, Spain (Anusim) and Turkey. With 11 of the 12 alleles he matches with an Algerian, a Lebanese Cohen, Spain, and even a Syrian Arab from Aleppo. His DNA test of 12 alleles shows that it is almost a match to a Muslim Iraqi. They also match with 11 of the 12 alelles or a distance of 1. My Jewish friend's test is labeled as a J-M267 and J-L147 which is J1c3d. This is identical to the Muslim. It shows that somewhere down the line, we were indeed, cousins. The Muslim line does veer off to show a distinct Arab connection.
In conclusion, once upon a time Jews were a people living in Eretz Yisrael, followers of the Laws of Moses. They got separated from each other. They have come back together again. There have even been marriages between Ashkenazi and Sephardi outside of Israel as well as in Israel. The DNA of Jews show that they are connected to each other, and even to some of the Middle East people that are their enemies today who we have always referred to as "our cousins." Indeed, they are back home in their old neighborhood. DNA has shown us where we came from. .
Resource:Bible: Tanach, the Stone Edition, Art Scroll Series, by Mesorah Publications, Ltd, Exodus
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.bu.edu/anep/LB.html
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/jerusalem/when-egyptian-pharaohs-ruled-bronze-age-jerusalem/
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/egypt/ig/Ancient-Egypt/Ramses-II.htm
http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/abstracts.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2010/01/jewish-genes-what-haplogroup-could-they.html
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