"ANOTHER
KING"
(Acts 7:17, 18). (Being supplemental to Appendix 37.) Appendix 188 To The Companion Bible. |
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Discoveries
of late years have thrown
much light on ancient
Egyptian life and history,
as touched upon in the Bible.
But so many unsolved problems
and
"debated questions"
remain as to the dynasties
and individual kings,
that it is not yet possible
to give any reliable
"table"
such as that referred to in
Appendix 37.
Nevertheless,
we are now able to accept
definite conclusions as to
the Pharaoh of the Exodus
of whom Stephen spoke:
"The People grew
and multiplied in Egypt,
till another king arose,
which knew not Joseph."
How this could be has
long been a difficulty with many,
but discoveries in Egypt
have removed it.
If we read
this passage accurately
in the original we notice
that the word for
another is
heteros,
which means
another of a
different kind;
and not allos,
which means
another
of the same
kind.¹
(See
Appendix 124. 1 and 2.)
The word points,
therefore,
to the fact that it was not
another king of the
same dynasty,
but one of a different
dynasty altogether,
and this agrees with
Exodus
1:8.
The Septuagint there uses
heteros
for the Hebrew word
hadash
("new");
and aneste
for the Hebrew word
kum
("arose"),
which means to stand up and,
in some connections,
occupy the place of
(or instead of)
another.
____________________________ ¹ The force of these may be seen in Matthew 2:12: "another way" (allos). Matthew 4:21: "other two brethren" (allos). Galatians 1:6, 7: "a different (heteros) gospel, which is not another" (allos). Matthew 6:24 R.V: "hate the one and love the other" (heteros). Matthew 11:3: "do we look for another" (heteros). Hebrews 7:11: "another priest" (heteros). |
(See the kindred
Chaldee word in
Daniel
2:31, 39, 44;
3:24.
For the meaning of
hadash see
Deuteronomy
32:17,
and compare
Judges
5:8.)
Josephus says,
"the crown being come
into another family"
(Antiquities
ii. 9. 1).
The discoveries now made
in Egypt prove that this was the case.
The mummy of this very Pharaoh is to
be seen to-day in the Museum at Bulak,
and it is clear that this Rameses
was the Pharaoh of the Oppression.¹
He was an Assyrian,
and every feature of his face
is seen to be quite different
from the features of the
Pharaoh who preceded him.
Now
we can comprehend
Isaiah
52:4
which has so puzzled the commentators,
who were unable to understand
why the two oppressions,
in Egypt and by Assyria
(centuries apart),
should be mentioned together
in the same sentence,
as though they were
almost contemporary.
There was no oppression
(on the lines of Egypt)
in Assyria.
The discoveries
in Egypt thus independently
and entirely confirm the
perfect accuracy of the
Divine words in showing
that this was so,
for in
Isaiah
52:4
we read:
"Thus saith Adonai Jehovah, My People went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; And the Assyrian oppressed them without cause." Compare Jeremiah 50:17. ____________________________ ¹ While Meneptah, his son, was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. |
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