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Monday, July 27, 2020

Moses's Background in Egypt

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                               
Here we have Moses, a newly born child of Israelite slaves of Egypt, being secretly adopted by the Princess of Egypt, daughter of the acting Pharoah; in other words, being adopted by his people's enemy; people whose job it was to kill all baby Israelite  boys.  It's an interesting study of DNA over environment.  His adoptive mother's desire for a baby was stronger than her fear of his people.  She must have known of his origin and why he was in the Nile River.  
                                                            
Leah on the left, mother of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun and daughter, Dinah. Tribes of Levites and Judah are full brothers. 
All these males should be of Y haplotype J-M267.  Rachel and Leah are
sisters, sharing the same mt haplotype.  Their handmaidens, Zilpah and Bilhah,
were most likely unrelated Egyptians.  

Moses when over 80 years of age comes back to Egypt to lead his people out of it, some 600,000 slaves from his own original family and others collected over the 400 years of being in Egypt. Moses was born in Egypt to his mother, Jochebed and father Amran of the tribe of Levi   in 1391 BCE and died at age 120 in 1271 BCE.  That birth was 3,411 years ago.  The Pharaoh of the day was not known but it was at a time when Israelite boy babies were being killed so as to cull and end the growth of the Israelites as they were increasing in number.   
                                                                             
"He had been brought up in Egypt, a land of multiple gods, with one, Horus, being most important.  Horus, the falcon-headed god, is a familiar ancient Egyptian god. He has become one of the most commonly used symbols of Egypt, seen on Egyptian airplanes, and on hotels and restaurants throughout the land.  Horus is the son of Osiris and Isis, the divine child of the holy family triad." 

The legend of Horus goes as "when Horus was a infant, his father was killed by Osiris' brother Seth. To keep her son from being harmed, Isis hid Horus in the marshland of the Nile, where she protected him from the poisonous snakes, scorpions, crocodiles and wild animals. As he grew up, he learned to ward off danger and became strong enough to fight Seth and claim his rightful inheritance, the throne of Egypt. As a result, Horus is associated with the title of kingship, the personification of divine and regal power. Kings believed they were descended from Horus, who was considered to be the first divine king of Egypt."

Being hid in the marshland of the Nile is part of the story about Moses's infancy when his mother had to hide him among the bullrushes in a woven basket where the princess found him. Much of the legend from Egypt is  also used by early Christian Roman Emperors to tell their story.    
Horus was born to the goddess Isis after she retrieved all the dismembered body parts of her murdered husband Osiris, except his penis, which was thrown into the Nile and eaten by a catfish, or sometimes depicted as instead by a crab, and according to Plutarch's account used her magic powers to resurrect Osiris and fashion a phallus  to conceive her son (older Egyptian accounts have the penis of Osiris surviving).
After becoming pregnant with Horus, Isis fled to the Nile Delta marshlands to hide from her brother Set, who jealously killed Osiris and who she knew would want to kill their son. There Isis bore a divine son, Horus.
The Pyramid Texts (c. 2400–2300 BCE)  describe the nature of the pharaoh in different characters as both Horus and Osiris. The pharaoh as Horus in life became the pharaoh as Osiris in death, where he was united with the other gods. New incarnations of Horus succeeded the deceased pharaoh on earth in the form of new pharaohs. 

Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Egyptian society. It centered on the Egyptians' interactions with many deities believed to be present in, and in control of, the world.

Therefore, the Pharaoh was thought to be both human and god. William R. Cooper's 1877 book and Acharya S's self-published 2008 book have suggested that there are many similarities between the story of Horus and the much posterior story of Jesus. However, this has been refuted by both Christian and non-Christian scholars. Refuted also is Tom Harper's Youtube, THE PAGAN CHRIST, which shows the legend of Horus being similar to the stories of Jesus.  

Why didn't Moses mention the Pharaoh's name of his youth?  "The Torah makes reference to various pharaohs of Egypt. These include unnamed pharaohs in the legends of the Israelite settlement in Egypt, the subsequent oppression of the Israelites, and the period of the Exodus. They also include several later rulers, some of whom can be identified with historical pharaohs. " "If this is true, then the oppressive pharaoh noted in Exodus (1:2–2:23) was Seti I (reigned 1318–04), and the pharaoh during the Exodus was Ramses II (c. 1304–c. 1237). In short, Moses was probably born in the late 14th century bce.." Rabbis figure his time was (b: 1391-d: 1271 BCE) which would fit. 
"When it came to education, he probably had the finest tutors available in the land. We know for sure, from written records, that they had a great university, in its time comparable in esteem to an Oxford or a Harvard today. He would have been instructed in astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, music, and art. The movie, The Ten Commandments, depicted this well. Undoubtedly, much of what he was taught was nothing more than sheer foolishness—just as much in our modern universities also teach a lot of foolishness. Nevertheless, the overall effect of what he learned filled him with knowledge and understanding that would stand him in good stead later.

In reading between the lines of Scripture, during his 35 years in the palace, Moses never really lost contact with the people of Israel and with his real family, even though Jochebed and Amram turned him over to Pharaoh's daughter. From time to time, he would have been able to visit with them. He would, then, have had access to the language, history, and expectations of Israel. His mind, to be used later by God, was being formed by being filled with knowledge.
Stephen says that he was "mighty in words and deeds." He became a statesman, representing Egypt to foreign peoples and leaders. Ancient historians say that he was a soldier. The years passed. But despite being prepared for high office in Egypt, the memories of his early childhood and his real parents—the knowledge that they were slaves and that his kinsmen were groaning in the brickyards—never left him."

Moses had left Egypt when a young man after losing his temper and killing a cruel overseer of the Hebrew slaves.  He ran to Midian as he knew the penalty of such an act could be death for him.  There he met up with a priest, JETHRO, a man with many daughters and wound up marrying oe, ZIPPORAH who gave him  2 sons, GERSHOM AND ELIEZER who never live long enough to father children.  That's why all descendants are from Aaron, his brother.  Jethro was a good man who had flocks of sheep that Moses learned to tend.  Jethro advised Moses about his legal administration and Moses's son in law went with him to Canaan.  The Druze of Israel honor Jethro at a shrine.  The Midians were a Beduin tribe related to Abraham, therefore related to Moses as well.  In fact, they were closely related to the Israelites.  They had lived near the Moabites and Edomites.  From 2nd Temple times, their land was thought to be in NW Arabia.  " It is uncertain which deities the Midianites worshipped. Through their apparent religio-political connection with the Moabites they are thought to have worshipped a multitude, including Baal-peor and the Queen of Heaven, Ashteroth. It was a religion believing in multiple gods.  

It seems that the Israelites were the only  group that carried on the belief of Abraham in that of one G-d.  Others had married with native people of the land who believed in a polytheist world of many gods such as Ishmael, half brother of Isaac, sons of Abraham.  Isaac's son was Jacob, father of the 12 tribes of Israel.  

Every culture at the time believed in multiple gods.  They could not conceive of a world under one force, but Moses came along at the age of 80+ with the notion given to him by G-d that there existed only one G-d, and he imparted such information to his people as they marched back to Canaan, a trip that wound up taking 40 years.  It was an unheard of idea, as the whole universe was under the idea of multiple gods that it took to create such a complex world. Every god was in charge of a job.  It spread throughout the Middle East to the Greeks and Romans, to the Vikings, and to Europe. Many people lacked the respect of and value of life.  
                                                     
  
 The main culture of the day was in Egypt, however, and as advanced as they were, only produced one pharoah who thought of one G-d, and that to him was the sun, that he called RA.  It was not a popular idea, and his thoughts were quickly forgotten. That was "Akhenaten the Heretic 1352–1336 BC. Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten and defied tradition by establishing a new religion that believed that there is but one god; the sun god Aten..Notice that this coincides with the dates when Moses lived.  

Moses has a lisp so gets his birth-brother, Aaron to speak for him before the pharaoh they must parley with in order to free the slaves.  Pharaoh is smitten with 10 plagues before he releases them besides seeing magic performed by Moses and his own son dying from his stubbornness.  Moses leads out 603,550 slaves in their 1st census and 40 years later leads in 601,730 into Canaan.  They lost 1,820 along the way even with births and deaths, but had met up with many challenges; earthquakes and fighting along with hunger and thirst. They were people mostly descendants from his family of Jacob and others, all slaves.
                                                          

Moses had experienced many out of this world events, such as a burning bush that spoke to him, causing him to accept the concept of one G-d.  It had to take such events to cause him to realize that his Israelite people knew what they had told him about of Abraham, their forefather's beliefs in one force; one G-d.  That's why they had left Mesopotamia in the first place along the Euphrates and Tigris River area and had journeyed Westward; to find new land to raise their children away from people who believed in many gods that they had sacrificed their own children in order to live a safer and healthier life.       

Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(1956_film)-how many people have seen this marvelous movie? 
https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/egypt/egcrgh3e.html#:~:text=Horus%2C%20the%20falcon%2Dheaded%20god,of%20the%20holy%20family%20triad
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia .
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Moses-Hebrew-
prophet#:~:text=If%20this%20is%20true%2C%20then,the%20late%2014th%20century%20bce.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaohs_in_the_Bible
https://discoveringegypt.com/ancient-egyptian-kings-queens/akhenaten/#:~:text=Akhenaten%20the%20Heretic%201352%E2%80%931336%20BC&text=Amenhotep%20IV%20changed%20his%20name,god%3B%20the%20sun%20god%20Aten.
https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/13931/Education-Moses.htm

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