NOTICES IN GENESIS.
115
sixty years earlier, it seems almost certain that it must have " fallen into the time of that " old Egyptian Empire which the and great Hyksos invasion, preceded developed at that
remote date the original Egyptian
civilization.
Does then
the portraiture of the Egypt of this period resemble that of the ancient empire, as revealed to us by the monuments ? No doubt the portraiture is exceedingly slight, the main object of the writer, apparently, being to record an incident in the of Abraham wherein he fell into sin. Still certain points are sufficiently marked, as the following: 1. Egypt is a settled monarchy under a Pharaoh, who has princes (sarim) under him, at a time when the neighboring countries are occupied mainly by nomadic tribes under petty chiefs. 2. Reports are brought to Pharaoh by his princes with respect to foreigners who enter his country. 3. Egypt is already known as a land of plenty, where there will be corn and life
forage when famine has fallen upon Syria. 4. Domesticated animals are abundant there, and include sheep, oxen, asses, and camels, but (apparently) no horses. What has profane history to say on these four points? First, then, profane history lays it down that a settled government was established in Egypt, and monarchical institutions set up, at an earlier date than in any other country. On this point Herodotus, Diodorus, and the Greek writers generally, are agreed, while the existing remains, assisted by the interpretation of Eanetho, point to the same result. It is not now questioned by any historian of repute but that the Egyptian monarchy dates from a time anterior to >.o 2000, while there are writers who carry it back to B. c. 5004.* The title of the monarch, from a very remote antiquity,! was " " Per-ao," or the Great House,"! which the Hebrews would He was, from the naturally represent by Phar-aoh (JljTltJ). earliest times to which the monuments go back, supported " princes," who were hereditary by powerful nobles, or landed proprietors of great wealth. Secondly, a scene in a tomb at Beni Hassan clearly shows that, under the Old Empire, foreigners on their arrival in the country, especially if they came with a train of at* So Leuormant, following Mariette ("Manuel d'llistoire Anci enne," vol. i., p. 321). t See Canon Cook in the "Speaker's Commentary," vol. i. p. 478. } Compare the phrase "The Ottoman Porte." " Birch, Egypt from the Earliest Times," pp. 44, 64 etc.