under Rehoboam by Sbisbak or Sheshonh — nevertheless, there are
other periods of intercourse much earlier in date, which may be
reached approximately : and while, on the one hand, Egyptian monuments,
so far as known synchronisms extend, hear testimony to the
historical truth of Jewish records posterior to Solomon, these, on the
other, furnish evidence in favor of the reliability of the hieroglyphics.
The histories of Abraham, of Joseph, of Jacob and his descendants,
and of Moses, all hear witness to the antiquity, grandeur, and high
civilization attained by Egypt’s Old Umpire before the birth of the first
Hebrew patriarch : but when we compare the genealogical and chronological
systems of the two people, as well as their respective physical
types, there is really nothing in common between them. Abraham,
according to the Rabbinical account, is hut the tenth in descent
from Noah ; his birth occurring 292 years after the Deluge: but,
substituting the more critical computation o*f Lepsius, Abraham must
have lived in the time of A m u no ph HE., Memnon, of the XVHIth
dynasty, about 1500 years b . c. H ow, the epoch of M e n e s , the first
Pharaoh of Egypt, is placed by the same savant at 3893 b . c., or some
2400 years before Abraham.
The epoch of Abraham has ordinarily, indeed, been computed by
Biblical commentators, a few centuries farther back than the date
assigned to him by Lepsius ; but we are inclined to adopt the estimate
of this superior authority, for the following simple reasons :
There are but five generations—viz. : I saac, J acob, L e v i , K o hath ,
A m r am— between Abraham and Moses; and the era of the latter
is now approximately fixed in the fourteenth century b . c. By adding
to the latter age — assuming the Exodus, when Moses was 80 years
old, at b . c. 1322146—the average duration of life for five generations,
the time of Abraham falls about 1500 b . c. It may be objected that
people in olden times were gifted with a longevity immeasurably
greater than our modem generations ; but this presumption is contradicted
by a thoroughly-established fact, that the Egyptians, whose
ages are recorded on the hieroglyphical tombstones for twenty centuries
before Abraham’s nativity, and whose mummied crania, of generations
long anterior to this patriarch, abound, lived no longer than
people do now. Another proof, likewise, that numerical errors have
always existed in the Book of Genesis, is the fact, that the manuscript
Texts differ irreconcilably in respect to the ages of the Patriarchs;
while tnese extraordinary ages are rendered nugatory by the physiological
laws governing human life. If farther proof be wanted, it
may' oe gathered/from the story of Abraham and Sarah. Though
contemporary with every one of her ancestors bach to Noah himself> (all
of whom, according to Genesis,147 lived from 205 to 600 years), yet
Sarah, when told, in her ninetieth year, that she should bear a child,
laughed twice, having never heard of such an occurrence! But, even
admitting such superhuman longevities for the Patriarchs, that does
not mend the difficulty; for, after all, there are but ten generations
between Abraham and Hoah, to set ofif against no less than seventeen
dynasties of Egypt, each of which included many kings, whose united
ages exceed 2000 years. • - •
The following is the popular view of the genealogy of Abraham:
the scientific results of Hebraical inquiry into which are discussed in
Part 111. of our work.
1. Shem. 2. Arphaxad. 3. Salah. 4. Eber.
5. Peleg. 6. Reu. 7. Serug. 8. Nahor.
9. Terah. 10. Abraham.
Now, as we have stated, Abraham was not only contemporary with
this ancestry, fTut, according to the Jewish system, 58 years old when
Noah himself died; and yet, when he visits Egypt, he meets with no
acquaintances nor kindred there; but, on the contrary, he finds a
great empire, composed of millions of strange people; and beholds
standing around him pyramids and temples, erected by this more ancient
and distinct race —with records, hieroglyphical and hieratic,
written in a language to him foreign, stretching hack more than 2000
years before his birth. The reasons, then, are obvious, for passing
over that part of Egyptian history subsequent to b . c. 1500, and for
commencing our analysis of the monuments with those of the X.V I Itli
dynasty, (of Lepsius —XVIHth, of Rosellini,) which was contemporary
with Abraham. Although Jewish chronicles, as they have
reached us, beyond this Abrahamic point are all confusion, it will be
seen, that Egyptian monuments afford vast materials, bearing upon
some Types of Mankind, in Asia and Africa, whose epoch antedates,
by twenty centuries, that of the Father of the Abrahamidse.
It is now known to every educated reader that the Egyptians from
the very earliest times of which vestiges remain, viz., the Hid and
IYth dynasties, were in the habit of decorating their temples, royal
and private tombs, &c., with paintings and sculptures of an historical
character; and that a voluminous, though interrupted, series of such
hieroglyphed monuments and papyri is preserved to the present day.
These sculptures and paintings not only yield us innumerable portraits
of the Egyptians themselves, but also of an infinitude of foreign
people, with whom they held intercourse through wars or commerce.
They have portrayed their allies, their enemies, their captives, servants,
and slaves; and we possess, therefore, thus faithfully delineated, most
if not all the Asiatic and African races known to the Egyptians 3500
years ago — races which are recognized as identical with those that
occupy the same countries at the present day.