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THE AWESOMENESS OF THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE
Upper and Lower Egypt refer to the direction in which the Nile flows, from south to north
The Old Kingdom: Egypt Becomes an Incredibly Impressive Force  2575-2134 BCE (And, no, the Israelites did not build the pyramids. At least not the famous ones.)
TIME LAUGHS AT ALL THINGS; BUT THE PYRAMIDS LAUGH AT TIME  – OLD ARAB PROVERB
BASIC PYRAMID PLAN: KHUFU’S PYRAMID
THE FAMOUS GIZEH PYRAMIDS WITH THE SPHINX
PHARAOH AS SUN GOD
Brick Making in Ancient Egypt From the tomb of Rekhmire, vizier to Thutmose III,  15 th  century BCE, New Kingdom
[object Object],[object Object]
Perhaps we can now better understand B’nei Yisrael’s remark in  Shmot  14:11: וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל - מֹשֶׁה ,  הֲמִבְּלִי אֵין - קְבָרִים בְּמִצְרַיִם לְקַחְתָּנוּ לָמוּת בַּמִּדְבָּר :   מַה   זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ לָּנוּ לְהוֹצִיאָנוּ מִמִּצְרָיִם “ And they [B’nei Yisrael] said to Moshe:  Was it for lack of graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness to die? What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt?”
WHAT WE’VE LEARNED AND SEEN SO FAR  ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
WHAT ELSE CAN WE LEARN ABOUT THE PHARAOH?
SO WHAT DID MUMMIES DO ALL DAY? Aside from look charming, that is
Mastaba of Ti, an official from the Old Kingdom (Fifth Dynasty)
The New Kingdom 1550-1070 BCE Era of the Exodus
Painted Chest from the Tomb of Tutankhamen
Speaking of Tut . . .
Tut’s Innermost Coffin
 
RAMSES II: PHARAOH OF THE EXODUS STORY? ,[object Object],[object Object],EXODUS 1:9 EXODUS 1:10 And he [the pharaoh] said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people  are much too numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that  they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.”
Stela of Khusobek ,[object Object],[object Object]
Semna Stela of Senusret III: Stela from Year 16, ca. 1862 BCE ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
RAMSES II BEGAN MANY NEW BUILDING PROJECTS 45 foot colossal statue of  Ramses II with his daughter Bent’anta
Abu Simbel: Ramses II’s Temple
Abu Simbel, Approached by Boat
Interior of Abu Simbel
[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

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AWESOMENESS OF EGYPTIAN EMPIRE

  • 1. THE AWESOMENESS OF THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE
  • 2. Upper and Lower Egypt refer to the direction in which the Nile flows, from south to north
  • 3. The Old Kingdom: Egypt Becomes an Incredibly Impressive Force 2575-2134 BCE (And, no, the Israelites did not build the pyramids. At least not the famous ones.)
  • 4. TIME LAUGHS AT ALL THINGS; BUT THE PYRAMIDS LAUGH AT TIME – OLD ARAB PROVERB
  • 5. BASIC PYRAMID PLAN: KHUFU’S PYRAMID
  • 6. THE FAMOUS GIZEH PYRAMIDS WITH THE SPHINX
  • 8. Brick Making in Ancient Egypt From the tomb of Rekhmire, vizier to Thutmose III, 15 th century BCE, New Kingdom
  • 9.
  • 10. Perhaps we can now better understand B’nei Yisrael’s remark in Shmot 14:11: וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל - מֹשֶׁה , הֲמִבְּלִי אֵין - קְבָרִים בְּמִצְרַיִם לְקַחְתָּנוּ לָמוּת בַּמִּדְבָּר :  מַה זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ לָּנוּ לְהוֹצִיאָנוּ מִמִּצְרָיִם “ And they [B’nei Yisrael] said to Moshe: Was it for lack of graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness to die? What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt?”
  • 11.
  • 12. WHAT ELSE CAN WE LEARN ABOUT THE PHARAOH?
  • 13. SO WHAT DID MUMMIES DO ALL DAY? Aside from look charming, that is
  • 14. Mastaba of Ti, an official from the Old Kingdom (Fifth Dynasty)
  • 15. The New Kingdom 1550-1070 BCE Era of the Exodus
  • 16. Painted Chest from the Tomb of Tutankhamen
  • 19.  
  • 20.
  • 21.
  • 22.
  • 23.
  • 24. RAMSES II BEGAN MANY NEW BUILDING PROJECTS 45 foot colossal statue of Ramses II with his daughter Bent’anta
  • 25. Abu Simbel: Ramses II’s Temple
  • 27. Interior of Abu Simbel
  • 28.

Editor's Notes

  1. Let’s start by saying that the pharaohs of Exodus, and the time of the Israelite presence in and exit from Egypt, cannot be identified with any degree of certainty. However, the Exodus story in the Torah is very aware of typical Egyptian practices, beliefs and general lifestyle, and the Torah seeks to refute belief in Egyptian paganism and Pharaonic hegemony and to establish God as the one, awesome ruler. The Torah does this more for the sake of the Israelite people – who no doubt feared the might of a great superpower – than for the Egyptians (who typically reworked any military defeat into a success and portrayed it on a stele for the masses to admire). Not knowing the exact time and date of the Exodus pharaoh or story is not as problematic as one may think when discussing the art, history and beliefs of ancient Egypt. The Egyptians were a conservative lot, and aside from the Amarna period – a twenty-year period during the New Kingdom – Egyptian paganism and art remained pretty conventional throughout the empire’s 3000-year existence. This conventionality is in stark contrast to, let’s say, the Greeks, who saw rapid changes and developments in their art from the geometric to the Hellenistic periods, 850 BCE to 31 BCE, respectively. Though we’ve established that there is no real way of knowing which Pharaoh the Israelites were enslaved by and then defeated, it is interesting to note that the twenty-year period that marked the only time the Egyptians veered from paganism and an established artistic canon was during the reign of Akhenaton, a monotheistic ruler who worshiped the sun disk and erased all signs of paganism from his cultic center, now called Tell el-Amarna. After Akhenaton reigned, the famous Tutankhamen ruled and then Ramses II – whose name we know from the Torah, from the eponymous city. Though there were thirty Ramses, after Ramses II ruled, Egypt went into a steady decline. For the last millennium BCE, it lost the power it once held in the ancient Near East, its wealth drained away, and foreign powers took over until Alexander the Great finally conquered it fully. Some thinkers suggest then that Ramses II was the pharaoh of the Exodus story. Egypt in its heydey was a force to be reckoned with, and the goal of this presentation is to appreciate the ancient empire’s might and power and what it would have meant for someone to come along and tell the Israelites that they were going to be freed from the seemingly unbreakable hold Egypt had over them. Their probable answer: “I don’t think so.” In other words, the Israelites would have needed some pretty convincing signs that whoever was going to rescue them was going to be able to succeed, because -- hey, have you seen ancient Egypt? It’s pretty daunting. Let’s take a look . . . .