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Hebrew and Egyptian Apocalyptic Literature*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

C. C. McCown
Affiliation:
Pacific School of Religion

Extract

The long-accepted theory that Hebrew literature is largely the product of Babylonian influences is now discredited, both because of the unquestionable originality of Hebrew thought, in general, and in particular because the use of cuneiform models and materials is recognized to have been greatly overrated. Eventually Amurru or Khatti or Caphtor may be found to have made important contributions in the intellectual realm, as they have in the material, but at present the most powerful antidote for Pan-babylonianism is to be found in Egypt. Not that the view is returning which once prevailed among the Greeks, that all culture and wisdom came from the valley of the Nile, but the extent and importance of its influence, especially in Palestine, is becoming more and more evident.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1925

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References

1 Der alttestamentliche Prophetismus, Leipzig, 1912, pp. 144–148, 164–167, 172–183, 228–287.

2 Journal Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Society, X (1923), pp. 8 f.

3 Die Propheten. Untersuehungen zur Religionsgeschichte Israels, Leipzig, 1914, pp. 140 ff., 180 f.

4 Hölscher, pp. 457 ff.

5 Hölscher, pp. 458 ff.

6 ‘Southern Influences upon Hebrew Prophecy,’ Am. Journal of Semitic Lang, and Lit., 35 (1918), 119, esp. p. 8.Google Scholar and ‘The Prophet and His Problems,’ Chicago, 1914, pp. 1635.Google Scholar

7 Der Ursprung der israelitisch-jüdischen Eschatologie, Göttingen, 1905.

8 Gressmann-Ranke, , Altorientalische Texte und Bilder zum A. T., Tübingen, 1909, 1, 204–210Google Scholar, and Am. Journal of Theology, XVII (1913), 191 ff.

9 Journal of Biblical Literature, 41 (1922), 109.Google Scholar

10 The fullest discussions known to me are those by Smith, J. M. P., see above. Unfortunately neither Petrie (Egypt and Israel, London, 1911)Google Scholar nor Peet (Egypt and the Old Testament, Liverpool, 1922) refers to the question. The full collection of materials in G. A. F. Knight, Nile and Jordan, being the Archaeological and Historical Inter-relations between Egypt and Canaan from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70, London, 1921, lacks critical scholarship; see review by Jacob Hoschander, Jewish Quarterly Review, n.s. XV (1984), 123–132. An excellent article is Mace, A. B., ‘The Influence of Egypt on Hebrew Literature,’ Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology. Univ. of Liverpool, IX (1922), 326.Google Scholar

11 Gardiner, JEA, VI, 99. In the present article, the following abbreviations are used: CAH, Cambridge Ancient History; JBL, Journal of Biblical Literature; JEA, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology; RTAE, Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, New York, 1912; SBA, Sitzungsberichte, Berlin Academy.

12 Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Chicago, 1906, 1, 146Google Scholar; History of the Ancient Egyptians, New York, 1908, pp. 27, 114 f.Google Scholar

13 See Syria, vols. II, III, and IV; Comptes Rendus, beginning 1921; Revue Biblique, 34 (1925), 161–193; Museum Journal, beginning 1921.

14 Peet in CAH, II, 225; Cook, ibid., 326 f.

15 Albright, in Journal Palestine Oriental Society, IV (1924), 147 f.Google Scholar

16 Hogarth, JEA. I, 13–16.

17 The recently discovered account of the fall of Nineveh shows that the part which Egypt played in Asiatic politics in the seventh century was different from what had been supposed, and was probably greater; Gadd, C. J., ‘Fall of Nineveh,’ Proc. Brit. Acad., 1923, summarized in Ancient Egypt, 1924, p. 58Google Scholar; Zeitschr. f. d. alttest. Wissenschaft, 1924, pp. 157 f.; Smith, J. M. P., The Prophets and their Times, Chicago, 1925, pp. 122 f.Google Scholar

18 See the article of J. M. P. Smith, already cited, AJSL, 35, pp. 1–19. Even Hölscher, Die Propheten, p. 459, n. 1, admits “alte Beziehungen der Südstämme zu Ägypten.”

19 Gegenwart, Kultur der, I, iii. 1, Die Religionen des Orients, 2d ed., Leipzig, 1913, p. 40.Google Scholar

20 Die Propheten, p. 459.

21 See Barton, G. A., Archaeology and the Bible, 3d ed., 1920. pp. 413–116.Google Scholar

22 See Barton, pp. 464 ff., ‘A Babylonian Song of Songs’; Stephan, St. H., ‘Modern Palestinian Parallels to the Song of Songs,’ Studies in Pal. Customs and Folklore, III, Jerusalem, 1923 (Journal Pal. Or. Soc, II, 199–278)Google Scholar; Hyde, W. W., ‘Greek Analogies to the Song of Songs,’ in The Song of Songs: a Symposium, Philadelphia, 1924, pp. 3142.Google Scholar

23 See the full discussion of Peet, Egypt and the O. T., pp. 91–104. The decisive evidence is to be found in the personal and geographical names, which for the most part belong to the XXI and XXII dynasties.

24 Following the translation in Gressmann, ‘Die neugefundene Lehre des Amen-emope,’ Zeitschr. f. d. Alttest. Wissenschaft, 42 (N. F. I), 1924, 280Google Scholar, compared with that of Budge, The Teaching of Amen-em-apt, London, 1924, p. 148.

25 Op. cit., p. 284.

26 See Gunn, JEA, III. 83 ff.; Breasted, RTAE, 350 ff.

27 Papyrus Sallier, I, 8, 2–3; Breasted, RTAE, p. 356.

28 Brit. Mus. Ostrakon, No. 5656; Breasted, RTAE, p. 355.

29 See Breasted, RTAE, pp. 344–357; Gunn, JEA, III, pp. 81–94; Kittel, Die Psalmen (Sellin's Kommentar zum A. T. XIII), pp. xxviii ff.

30 See Ps. 17. 1–6; 18, 21 ff.; 26, and Kittel ad loc; Job 31, 5–40. Kittel cites Gressmann, Altorientalische Texte u. Bilder, I, 92, for a Babylonian parallel. Surely he would have done better to turn to Egypt. See Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Chicago, 1906, 1, pp. 252 f.Google Scholar, sec. 523, RTAE, p. 248 and pp. 299 ff., and Knight, Nile and Jordan, chap. XXVIII.

31 See Breasted, Hist. Anc. Egyptians, pp. 273–277; Hist, of Egypt, 2d ed., New York, 1916, 371–376Google Scholar; or Arthur Weigall, Life and Times of Akhnaton Pharaoh of Egypt, rev. ed., 1923, pp. 134 ff. Weigall considers the possibility that both are derived from some Syrian source and decides for the originality of Ikhnaton's authorship.

32 See Breasted, RTAE, pp. 346 ff.

33 Published by Budge, E. A. Wallis, Facsimiles of Egyptian Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum, Series II, London, 1923Google Scholar, and again, with new translation accompanied by the translation of other Egyptian books of ‘instructions’ in The Teaching of Amenem-apt, Son of Kanekht, London, 1924. See the article by Dunsmore, Marion H., ‘An Egyptian Contribution to the Book of Proverbs,’ Journal of Religion, V, 3 (May, 1925), pp. 300308CrossRefGoogle Scholar, where most of the literature is cited. Mr. Dunsmore evidently had not seen the more recent article of Gressmann when he completed his account.

34 ‘Eine ägyptische Quelle der Sprüche Salomos,’ SBA. Phil.-hist. Klasse, 1924, pp. 8693.Google Scholar

35 Zeitschr. f. d. alttest. Wiss., 42 (N. F. 1), 1924, pp. 272–296.

36 Breasted, RTAE, pp. 193f.; Berlin papyrus No. 3024, written in the Middle Kingdom.

37 “The only touch of originality that the writer shows consists of the very words wherein he seems to cast doubt upon his powers in that respect,” Gardiner, Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage, Leipzig, 1909, p. 110Google Scholar, where the document is published as an appendix, from Brit. Mus. Writing Board, No. 5645, written not later than the XXIII Dynasty, op. cit. p. 96.

38 Gardiner, op. cit., pp. 95–110; Breasted, RTAE, 200 f.

39 Gardiner, JEA, IX, 11, 13 f., 18, a translation based upon a renewed study of the numerous papyri which contain the ‘Complaint’; see also Breasted, RTAE, 216–226.

40 Leiden Papyrus No. 344, published in definitive form by Gardiner, A. H., The Admointions of an Egyptian Sage, Leipzig, 1909.Google Scholar

41 Admonitions, p. 11. Apprehensions of this fate seem to have been a constant terror to the Egyptians. In one of the astrological predictions attributed to the “ancient Egyptians” (παλαιοἰ Αἰγύπτιοι) it is said that three years after an eclipse of the sun in Ζυγ̑ῳ (ἤτοι χήλαις τȏυ Σκορπίου) the king of Egypt will make a campaign against the king of Syria. He will be defeated, in Egypt armies will gather, and, an insurrection occurring, the nobles will be destroyed by the crowds (τοὺς πρώτους ναιρεθήσεσθαι ὑπ τ̑ων χλων). Hephaestio of Thebes, I. c. 21, ed. Engelbrecht, quoted by Riess, ‘Nech. et Petos. frag, magica,’ Philologus, Supplementband VI, p. 337 (130).

42 Cf. Jer. 20, 14–18; Job 3, 1–13; both are personal and individual.

43 ‘Prophezeiungen eines ägyptischen Weisen,’ SBA, 1903, pp. 601 ff.

44 Admonitions, pp. 7 f., 13 f.

45 Breasted, RTAE, pp. 212 f. and note; Gardiner, JEA, I, 100. So also Meyer, , Die Israeliten u. ihre Nachbarstämme, Halle, 1906, pp. 451 f.Google Scholar; Geschichte des Altertums, 2d ed., I, 2, Stuttgart, 1909, pp. 274 f.; Peet, CAH, I, 344 ff.

46 Geschichte des Altertums, 2d ed., I, 2, 274.

47 See I Enoch 46, 4 f.; 48, 8f.; 62, 4 f.; 94, 6–11; 96, 1; Lk. 1, 47–53. Cf. McCown, , Promise of His Coming, New York, 1921. pp. 120 f., 167Google Scholar; Causse, ‘Les “Pauvres “d'Israel,’ Strasbourg-Paris, 1922.Google Scholar

48 Geschichte des Altertums, 2d ed., I, 2, 274; see above, p. 378.

49 ‘Die Mahnworte eines ägyptischen Propheten,’ SBA, 1919, pp. 804815.Google Scholar

50 Cf. Breasted, RTAE, p. 212, note; Gardiner, JEA, 1,100.

51 Hermitage papyrus No. 1116 B, translated in JEA, 1,100–166; cf. Peet in CAH, I, 344 f. In Gressmann-Banke, Altor. Texte u. Bilder, pp. 204–266, Ranke attempted a translation from a defective text found on a Cairo tablet.

52 For the latter see Schrader-Zimmern, , Keilinschriften und das Alte Test., 3d ed., Berlin, 19021903, pp. 380 f.Google Scholar

53 See Gressmann, , Ursprung der israelitisch-jüdischen Eschatologie, Göttingen, 1905, pp. 250300.Google Scholar

54 RTAE, p. 212.

55 Die sogenannte demotische Chronik des Pap. 215 der Bibliothèque Nationale zu Paris, nebst den auf der Rückseite stehenden Texten, Leipzig, 1914.

56 ‘Ägyptische Dokumente aus der Perserzeit, I. Eine eschatologische Prophetie über die Geschichte Ägyptens in persischer und griechischer Zeit,’ SBA, 1915, 1, 287304.Google Scholar

57 Spiegelberg, p. 4; Meyer, pp. 287 f.

58 Op. cit., p. 299.

59 An instructive modern parallel is to be found in the oracular prophecies of Nicholas Van Rensburg, a Boer prophet who, according to the official report, played no small part in encouraging the pro-german outbreak among the Boers led by General Beyers at the beginning of the World War. In this modern instance, the ‘prophet,’ who already had a wide reputation as a seer, saw visions and heard voices of an ambiguous sort which he interpreted as prophecies indicating a favorable outcome of the insurrection. See Fouché, Leo, Report of the Outbreak of the Rebellion and the Policy of the Government with regard to its Suppression, London, 1915.Google Scholar

60 Meyer, Eduard. SBA, 1915, I, pp. 303 f.; Ursprung und Anfänge des Christentums, 1921, II, pp. 187 f.Google Scholar

61 A Rainer papyrus (Vienna) found in the ruins of Sokhnopaiou Nesos, by Birket Karun (Lake Moeris) north of the Fayum, translated by Krall, ‘Vom König Bokchoris,’ in Festgaben zu Ehren Max Büdinger's, 1898, pp. 111.Google Scholar See Moret, A., De Bocchori rege, Paris, 1903, pp. 3549Google Scholar; Gressmann, Altor. Texte und Bilder, pp. 206 f.

62 i. 65.

63 Lysimachus (the paradoxographer, 2d or 1st century b. c.; Christ, Griech. Literaturgeschichte, 6th ed., München, 1920, II, pp. 223, 238), according to Josephus, c. Ap. i. 304–311 (34), apparently attributed to him the Amenophis legend of Manetho concerning the origin of the Hebrews from lepers and outcasts. See also Tacitus, Hist. v. 8.

64 Frag. hist, graec., II, pp. 592 f., 610; IV, pp. 539 f. (John of Antioch).

65 Collected, discussed, and explained by Moret, op. cit.

66 De nat. animal., xii. 3 (ed. Didot, p. 202).

67 See Die Griech. Christl. Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhund., Eusebius, V, p. 68, 34 f., p. 69, 2 f. (Armenian); VII, p. 86; “Bocchoris Aegyptus iura constituit, sub quo agnus locutus est” (Hieronymus).

68 Crusius, O., Plutarchi de proverbiis Alexandrinorum libellus ineditus, Leipzig; 1887, p. 12.Google Scholar

69 Krall, pp. 7 f.; Moret, esp. pp. 36 f.; Gressmann, Altor. Texte und Bilder, pp. 206 f. See Breasted, Hist, of Egypt, 2d ed., 1916, p. 547. But it is not “the last example of prophetic literature.”

70 Moret, p. 43; Christ, Griech. Literaturgeschichte, 6th ed., München, 1920, II, pp. 437 f., 438, note 2, 625; see especially M. Wellmann, Hermes, 31,1896, pp. 251 ff.; Meyer, Zeitschrift für ägypt. Sprache, 46 (1909–10), p. 135; and Reitzenstein, Poimandres, p. 145, note 3.

71 Christ, II, 223.

72 Βόκχωρις Σαΐης ἔτη ς᾽ ̃᾽ ȏὐ ρνίον ̃θέγξατο ἔτη πό, from Syncellus, Fragmenta hist, grace, II, p. 592; Routh, Reliquiae sacrae, ed. 2,1846, II, pp. 260,401.

73 Christ, II, p. 225.

74 Zeitschr, . für ägypt. Sprache, 46 (19091910), pp. 135 f.Google Scholar The authenticity and date of De prov. Alex, are uncertain, see Christ, Griech. Iiteraturgeschichte, II, p. 516. Suidas, s. v. ρνίον σοι λελάληκεν, has practically the same statement regarding the lamb and its uraeus. See O. Crusius, loc. cit.

75 See below, p. 399.

76 De Bocchori rege, p. 45. Xrall, Festgaben zu Ehren M. Büdinger's, p. 10, suggests that more than one figure was in circulation.

77 Krall, pp. 5 ff.; Moret, pp. 39 ff.

78 First published by Wessely in ‘Neue griechische Zauberpapyri,’ Denkschr. d. Akad. d. Wiss. zu Wien, Phil.-hist. Kl, 42 (1893), No. 2, pp. 3 ff.Google Scholar. discussed by Wilcken, Ulrich, Aegyptiaca (Festschr. für Georg Ebers), 1897. pp. 146152Google Scholar; Reitzenstein, Richard, ‘Ein Stück hellenist. Kleinlit.’ in Nachr. v. d. kgl. Ges. d. Wiss. zu Göttingen, Phil.-hist. Kl., 1904, pp. 309–332.Google Scholar I follow the text of Wilcken, Hermes, 40 (1905), pp. 546–549, which is not final, since the original had not been properly cleaned and mounted. See also the translation in Gressmann, Altor. Texte u. Bilder, pp. 207 ff., and Schmidt's summary, JBL, 41 (1922), pp. 108 f.

79 See Ezek. 26, 5; 14, ψυγμς σαγηων LXX; Wilcken, Hermes, 40, p. 552.

80 Alexandria is meant. As a Greek city it must disappear and its glory return to Memphis, the city of the sun-god Re, who is to send the new king.

81 The enemies are worshippers of Set. Cf. Neferrohu, above, p. 385.

82 The order of the phrases in the subscription is peculiar. It runs,

π(ο)λογία κεραμέως μεθηρμενευένη

πρ()ςμεωπιν τν βασιλέα κατ τ

(δυνα)τν περ τ̑ων (τ) ̑η Αἰγύπτῳ μελλόν

(των)

83 Cf. Josephus, c. Ap. i. 227–250 (26).

84 See above, p. 396; Wilcken, pp. 558 f.

85 So Gressmann thinks possible, Altor. Texte u. Bilder, pp. 207 f., and also Wilcken, loc. cit.

86 Moret, De Boc. rege, p. 44; Wilcken, p. 552.

87 Josephus, c. Ap. i. 236 (26).

88 Papyrus U of the Leiden Museum, purchased in 1829 from the collection of the Swedish consul Anastasy. It was first published by C. Leemans, Papyri Graeci musaei antiquari publici Lugduni Batavorum, 1843, pp. 122–129. The best reconstruction of the text is that of Wilcken, Mélanges Nicole, Geneva, 1905, pp. 579–596. See the translation of Maspero, Les contes populaires de l'Égypte ancienne, 3d ed., 1905, pp. 254–258, 4th ed., pp. 306–310; Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt, translated by Mrs. C. H. W. Johns, London, 1915, pp 285–289. The scribe wrote but four lines on the fifth page of his manuscript, and amused himself by filling up the remainder with a comic figure of a man. Maspero, Pop. Stories, p. 285; Contes pop., p. 254, 4th ed., pp. 306 f.

89 Griffith, F. Ll., Stories of the High Priests of Memphis, Oxford, 1900, pp. 3338, 121–135Google Scholar; Maspero, Contes populaires, 3d ed., pp. 120–126, cf. p. 257; Popular Stories, pp. 135–140, cf. p. 289.

90 Πετήσως ἱερογλύϕου πρς Νεκτοναβὼν τν βασιλέα.

91 Maspero, Contes pop., 4th ed., p. 307; Pop. Stories, pp. 285 f.

92 Wilcken, Mélanges Nicole, pp. 580 f.; Witkowski, St., Epistulae privatae graecae, ed. 2, 1911, pp. 5592.Google Scholar

93 Op. cit., p. 594.

94 Smyly, J. G., Archiv für Papyrusforschung, V (1909), 417Google Scholar; Witkowski. ibid., p. 573.

95 Wilcken suggests that if this oracle may be supposed really to come from the time of the Old Kingdom, it may also refer to the next Sothis cycle, which began in 2783–2779 b.c., Hermes, 40, 560. Breasted dates Men-ku-re's death about 2774 b.c.

96 Published by Erman, , with translation, ‘Die Märchen des Papyrus Westcar,’ vols. V and VI of Mitteilungen aus den orient. Sammlungen der kgl, Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, 1890, translated by Erman, Aus den Papyrus der kgl. Museen, Berlin, 1899, pp. 33 ff.Google Scholar; Maspero, Contes populaires, 3d ed., pp. 34–42, 4th ed., pp. 36–44; Popular Stories, pp. 35–42; Gressmann, Altor. Texte u. Bilder, pp. 221 ff. The papyrus was written about the beginning of the Hyksos period, ca. 1750 b.c., more than 1200 years after the time of Khufu; the tales some centuries earlier.

97 Breasted, History of the Ancient Egyptians, New York, 1908, pp. 111 f.Google Scholar

98 1 Kgs. 21, 27 ff.

99 Gressmann, Ursprung der isr.-jüd. Eschat., pp. 141–158; McCown, Promise of His Coming, pp. 31–59.

100 The position taken in my Promise of His Coming, pp. 81 ft.

101 See above, p. 2.

102 Thus correcting slightly the views implicit in my Promise of His Coming, pp. 66, 80 f., and esp. p. 86; cf. Sellin, Alttest. Prophetismus, pp. 188 ff.