Nadene Goldfoot
As a Jew, I was shocked to read the comments telling of the "Researchers", whoever they may have been, slamming the recounting by Moses in the Torah in his Five Books of Moses. I suppose its just too hard for them to believe that someone, Moses, had the where-with-all to recount for posterity this amazing journey from Egypt to Canaan almost 4,000 years ago, but I believe it. Though the writing on the wall, literally, seems impossible to read, there are people today and yesterday who can hieroglyphics. Therefore, the people in Moses's day, the higher leveled ones, were literate. They could read and write. All the Middle East histories were recounted this way, in Akkadian or Egyptian or some such form of writing. The Middle East people had the reputation for telling an event so as to make them the star, not the loser. So you have to remember that fact when reading. Opinions always show up in one's writing.
How about the Rosetta Stone with 3 languages on it allowing the translation of many languages? "The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. The decree has only minor differences between the three versions, making the Rosetta Stone key to deciphering the Egyptian scripts."
Here's what researchers thought of Jews of yesterday and today:
"The Exodus is the founding myth of the Israelites. The scholarly consensus is that the Exodus, as described in the Torah, is not historical, even though there may be a historical core behind the Biblical narrative.
Modern archaeologists believe that the Israelites were indigenous to Canaan and were never in ancient Egypt, and if there is any historical basis to the Exodus it can apply only to a small segment of the population of Israelites at large. Nevertheless, there is also a general understanding that something must lie behind the traditions, even if Moses and the Exodus narrative belong to the collective cultural memory rather than history. "
Egyptologist Jan Assmann, mentioned, suggests that the Exodus narrative combines, among other things, the expulsion of the Hyksos, the religious revolution of Akhenaten, the experiences of the Habiru (gangs of antisocial elements found throughout the ancient Near East), and the large-scale migrations of the Sea Peoples into "a coherent story that is fictional as to its composition but historical as to some of its components."
In looking at the given Egyptologist, Johann Christoph "Jan" Assmann (born 7 July 1938) is a German Egyptologist. 1938 was a year that Nazis were attacking Jews in Germany by taking away their citizenship rights by many cruel ways. By 1939 the Germans will invade Poland.
In the 1990s, Assmann and his wife Aleida Assmann developed a theory of cultural and communicative memory that has received much international attention. He is also known beyond Egyptology circles for his interpretation of the origins of monotheism, which he considers as a break from earlier cosmotheism, first with Atenism and later with the Exodus from Egypt of the Israelites. Cosmotheism is 1. the doctrine that God is the transcendent reality of which humankind, nature, and the material universe are manifestations. 2. any doctrine that regards God as identical with the material universe or the forces of nature. Atenism, also known as the Aten religion, the Amarna religion, and the Amarna heresy, was a religion in ancient Egypt. It was founded by Akhenaten, a pharaoh who ruled the New Kingdom under the Eighteenth Dynasty. The religion is typically described as monotheistic or monolatristic, although some Egyptologists argue that it was actually henotheistic. Atenism was centred on the cult of Aten, a god depicted as the disc of the Sun. Aten was originally an aspect of Ra, Egypt's traditional solar deity, though he was later asserted by Akhenaten as being the superior of all deities.
Akhenaten was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning c. 1353–1336 or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Before the fifth year of his reign, he was known as Amenhotep IV .As a pharaoh, Akhenaten is noted for abandoning Egypt's traditional polytheism and introducing Atenism, or worship centered around Aten. The views of Egyptologists differ as to whether the religious policy was absolutely monotheistic, or whether it was monolatry, syncretistic, or henotheistic. This culture shift away from traditional religion was reversed after his death.
Assmann suggests that the ancient Egyptian religion had a more significant influence on Judaism than is generally acknowledged. He used the term "normative inversion" to suggest that some aspects of Judaism were formulated in direct reaction to Egyptian practices and theology. He ascribed the principle of normative inversion to a principle established by Manetho which was used by Maimonides in his references to the Sabians. His book The Price of Monotheism received some criticism for his notion of The Mosaic Distinction. He too no longer holds this theory, at least not in its original form (specifically, the mosaic aspect). His word seems to be THE word on the Exodus, even receiving in 2005 a PhD. (honoris causa) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem...what had he written to garner that? He has been awarded all sorts of prizes, many which include his wife.
No doubt Moses knew about the idea of one G-d overall, and so did the rest of Egypt. This helped introduce the idea that Moses had developed through G-d, making the teaching of his concept from G-d, much easier. Learning and change comes in baby steps; not suddenly like an unprepared storm.
Avraham Faust is an Israeli archaeologist and professor at Bar-Ilan University of Ramat Gan, Israel. He directs excavations at Tel 'Eton, widely regarded as the probable site of biblical Eglon. According to the Book of Judges, Eglon was a king of Moab who oppressed Israel. No archaeological evidence has been discovered to prove his existence, though some possible candidates for his palace exist.
According to Avraham Faust "most scholars agree that the Exodus narrative has a historical core, and that some of the highland settlers came, one way or another, from Egypt."
I say that Assmann is using his personal feelings towards Jews to color his conclusions. His personal feelings are formed from his German heritage; parents and country where he was from. He was zealous in proving the Exodus as a false history; couldn't have had an open mind.
"A British scientist is making two claims about Jewish history this Passover season that could surely spark discussion over the Seder meal. Colin J. Humphreys of Cambridge University has concluded that science backs traditional beliefs that the Israelites' exodus from Egypt was led by Moses pretty much the way the Bible and the Haggadah ritual tell it.
He details his ideas in a readable new book, "The Miracles of Exodus: A Scientist's Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes of the Biblical Stories" (HarperSanFrancisco).The 61-year-old academic brings a solid intellectual reputation in his own fields of physics and materials science to the table, though admittedly amateur status in archaeology and Bible scholarship.Humphreys doesn't feel his lack of expertise is a problem: He believes it gives him an open mind. "I am not preconditioned to accept standard interpretations," he says.Other scholars have proposed that Sinai was in Arabia.But Humphreys' claim is distinct because he reckons the holy mount must have been an active volcano, since it shook and emitted fire and smoke (Exodus 19:18). And he has carefully examined records ancient and modern to fix the site." I guess he didn't know about the volcano on the Greek Island of Thera. Everyone colors the facts without having been there.
As a Jew, I and many others believe our heritage as told in the Torah; I and researcher, Simcha Jacobovici believe it's true, and he has developed some marvelous truths in video about his findings.
In writing, Moses (1391-1271 BCE) was a part of the Exodus, writing about it as he lived it. It was first-hand reporting. Maybe he knew it was proof of the 40 years trek after 400 years of confinement as slaves where he was given time to condition the slaves to a different way of living. The Exodus could be vetted this way in future days.
Resource:
https://www.mrt.com/news/article/Scientist-defends-account-of-Exodus-7888955.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone
No comments:
Post a Comment