the time of King Apophis, who was the lMt king of the seventeenth or great Shepherd dynasty. Joseph probably outlived Apophis, and saw the commencement of the eight:eenth dynasty, so that the founder of that dynMty, Aahmes, cannot be the "king that knew not Joseph" (Ex. i. 8). Nor could the Israelit:es have been by that time so numerous as to rouse the king's fears. The Pharaoh int:ended is probably the founder of the nineteenth dynasty, Rameses I., or his son Seti, the great conqueror. If Moses was born under this monarch, his flight to Midian would have taken place under Rameses II., Seti's son and successor; and his return, forty years later, on the death of the Pharaoh who sought his life, would fall in the reign of Menephthah, the son and successor of Rameses II. It may have been the exhaustion of Egypt through ·the double loss of the firstborn and of the great bulk of the armed force in the Red Sea, together with the discontent caused by the unwise conduct of the king, that led shortly afterwards to those troubles which supervened on the death of Menephthah -first disputes with regard to the succession, and then a period of com- plete anarchy. 1 The Israelites were in the Sinaitic peninsula at this time. When the Egyptian troubles came to an end, and Rameses III. began his conquests, they were engaged in their wars on the eastern side of Palestine, and profited by his attack, which weakened their enemies. After Rameses III. Egypt declined ; and hence no more is heard of her in the Biblical history till the reign of Solomon. The subjoined table will show at a glance the view here taken of the synchronisms between the Egyptian and the Israelite history from the time of Joseph to the entrance into Canaan.
Crac.l B.C. EGYPl'IAB HlsTOB.T.
1900-1700 E!Q'Pt under the Shepherd Kings Joseph in Egypt. His brethren join J.JyuastyXVIL him. Commencement of the 430 years, about e.c. 1740. 1700 Accession of Dynasty XVIIl. Joseph dies about e.c. 1670. HOO Accession of Dynasty XIX. (Rameses L :first king). 1395 Seti L (great conqueror) . Rise of" king who knew not Joseph." Pithom and Rameses built 1385 Rameses II. (associated) . Birth of Moses (circa e.c. 1390). Flight of Moses to Midian ( circa B.C. 1350). 1320 Menephthah L Moses returns from Midian ( circa 1311). 1305 Seti II. (Seti-Menephthah) . The Exodus (circa B,C 1310) 1300-1280 Revolution in Egypt. Short reigns of Amon-meses and Siphths.h. Period of anan:hy. 1280 Accession of Dynasty XX. Set-Nekht. 1276 Bameses fil (conqueror) The Israelites enter Canaan ( circa B.C, 1270). 1255 Bameses IV.
1 Birch, 'Egypt from the Earliest. Times,' pp. 135-7; Brugsch, 'History of Egypt,' vol ii
Pl'· 130-6 INTRODUCTION. xxill
ON EARLY EGYPTIAN HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY.
The admitted uncertainty of the proper mode of synchronising Egyptian with Biblical history makes it desirable to add in this place a. few remarks on the main features of Egypti.aJ, chronology and history in the earlier times, that so the reader may bo able to judge for himself between the various synchronistic theories which come under hie notice, and form his own scheme, if that in the text ( BUpra, p. xxii.) does not eatisfy him. It is allowed on all hands that civilieation, kingly government, archi- tecture of a. remarkable kind, and fairly advanced mimetic art, existed in Egypt from a time considerably anterior to Abraham. The lowest date that has been assigned, so far as we are aware, by any modern scholar 1 to the commencement of the civilised monarchical Egypt, ie B.c. 2250, or from that to B.C. 2450. Some of the most learned writers raise the date by one thousand or two thousand years. 2 But, setting aside such extravagances, we may state it as universally agreed upon among historians of the present day that the history of Egypt goes back at least to the date mentioned above. It is maintained by many that, in this early period, the country was for the most part split up among several distinct kingdoms; bnt on the other hand it is allowed that at times a single monarchy held the whole, and kings possessed of great power and resollices rnled Egypt from the Tower of Syene to the waters of the Mediterranean. Manetho assigned to the period no fewer than folliteen dynasties, and though some of these may be purely mythical,3 and others 4 may represent lines of petty princes who bore sway in some obscure province, yet a certain number-as the fourth, fifth, sixth, eleventh and twelfth-were beyond a doubt dynasties of great power, dominant over the whole or the greater part of Egypt, and possessed of resources which enabled them to erect monuments of an extraordinary character. The two greatest of the Pyramids belong to the fourth dynasty, and must have been seen by Abraham when he visited Egypt, about B.c. 1950. The Third Pyramid in its present state is the work of a queen of the sixth dynasty. A king of the twelfth erected the obelisk which still stands at Heliopolis, as well as another which lies prostrate in the Fayoum. The artificial Lake Mceris, the Fayoum pyramids, and the celebrated Laby- rinth belong to the same period. Egypt from B.C. 2450 ( or at any rate from B.c. 2250) to a.bout B.c. 1900 was in a. :flourishing condition : unattacked by foreign foes, she developed during this time the chief features of her 1 See the author's ' Origin of Nations,' p 81, where he has suggested that " the establish ment of a settled monarchy in Egypt fell between B.c. 2450 and s.c. 2250." The date suggested by Mr. R. S. Poole is B.c. 2717; that preferred by Sir G. Wilkinson, B.c. 2691. ~ Bunsen gives B.c. 8059, Lepsius B.c. 8892, Dr. Brugsch B.c. 4400, Mariette and Lenormaut o.r.. 5004. 3 As the firat three, which have left no remains and no history • As tho seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth xxiv INTRODUCTION,