This view of the political position of the rharaohs is
not inconsistent with the theory, for which there is very strong proof from Manetho and elsewhere, that for long periods of Egyptian history there may have been subordinate dynasties of kings ruling throughout Egypt. There may also have been, but probably for much short- er periods, a total overthrow of the central power, or a practical disregard of it even while acknowledging its nominal authority. There is a passage of Manetho pre- served by Josephus which seems to point strongly to the view that the ancient internal constitution of Egypt was its government by subordinate kings under a su- preme ruler (Josephus, Con. Ap, i, 14 i. Such, he ex- pressly tells us, was its state during the oppression of the Shepherds: "These tyrannized over the kings of Thebais and of the other parts of Egypt." The gen- eral idea of ancient government was that of a supreme monarch over tributary kings ; and the great probability is that the Shepherds followed this analogy, ami. merely deposing the ruling Pharaoh, left the minor dynasties undisturbed. The Pharaohs are supposed to have been at all times invested with the highest sacerdotal dig- nity (Hengstenberg, Egypt, p. 35; Wilkinson, i. 245). From the circumstance that in the earliest names en- closed in ovals the title priest precedes that of king, and for other reasons, Wilkinson argues, as we think inconclusively, that Egypt was originally governed by hierarchical and not regal power (i. 16 I. See Egypt.
1. The Pharaoh of Abraham. — The first mention of a Pharaoh in the Bible is on the occasion of Abram's visit to Egypt during a famine in Canaan (Gen. xii. 10). Which of the ancient kings of Egypt is to be under- stood by this Pharaoh it is perhaps impossible to de- termine with certainty. Wilkinson supposes him to have bein Apappus; Africauus calls him Ramesseme- ues; and some have taken him to be one of the Shep- herd kings. We have, in truth, no materials in Scrip- ture or elsewhere for fixing the name and place of this king in the dynasties of Egypt. In regard to the date also of Abraham's intercourse with him there is great uncertainty. But as the investigation of the point would involve us in a discussion on the somewhat per- plexed chronology of the earlier parts of Old-Test, his- tory, and the still more perplexed chronology of ancient Egypt, we can here only touch upon it; but see for the refutation of extreme views on the part of the Egyptol- ogists, Hengstenberg's Egypt and th» Books of Jloses, and Sir C. Lewis's Astronomy of the Anchnts. At the time at which the patriarch went into Egypt, according to Hales's as well as Usher's chronology, it is generally held that the country, or at least Lower Egypt, was ruled by the Shepherd kings, of whom the first and most powerful line was the fifteenth dynasty, the un- doubted territories of which would be first entered by one coming from the east. Manetho relates that Sala- tis, the head of this line, established at Avaris, perhaps the Zoan of the Bible, on the eastern frontier, what ap- pears to have been a great permanent camp, at which he resided for part of each year. See Zoan. It is noticeable that Sarah seems to have been taken to Pharaoh's house immediately after the coming of Abra- ham ; and if this were not so, yet, on account of his flocks and herds, the patriarch could scarcely have gone beyond the part of the country which was always more or less occupied by nomad tribes. It is also possible that Pharaoh gave Abraham camels, for we read that Pharaoh " entreated Abram well for Sarah's sake : and he had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels" (Gen. xii, 16), where it appears that this property was the gift of Pharaoh, and the circumstance that the patriarch after- wards held an Egyptian bondwoman. Hagar, confirms the inference. If so, the present of camels would argue that this Pharaoh was a Shepherd king, for no evidence has been found in the sculptures, paintings, and inscrip- tions of Egypt that in the Pharaonic ages the camel was used, or even known there, and this omission can be best explained by the supposition that the animal
PHARAOH
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PHARAOH
was hateful to the Egyptians as of greal value to their enemies the Shepherds. On the other hand, Abraham's possessions, especiallj the camels, may have been pur- chased by liim from the nomad tribes with the proceeds of Pharaoh's liberality, and the facl thai Hagar was of this Aral) race hardly consists with her having been reduced to bondage while they were in the ascendant Indeed.il appears thai the Shepherd kings (q.v.) were iod terms with the Hebrews, as their interests were rival. The date al which Abraham visited Egypt (according to t he chronology which we hold most prob- able) was about B.C. 2081, which would not accord with the time of Salatis, the head of the fifteenth dy- nasty, B.C. 2006, according to our reckoning, but rather with thai of Biuothris of the second (Thinitic) dynasty, ami that of Othoe*s of the Bixth (Memphitic) dynasty, as well as with thai of Tancheres of the fifth ( Ilk— phantinitic) dynasty, bul anterior to all the other dy- nasties.