First Beast of Egypt

The First Vision and the First
Beast-Egypt

2
The First Vision and the First Beast-
Egypt
by
Norman E. Nabatar
Rodolfo Atienza Davao City, Philippines
2014

The First Vision:
In his first vision, Daniel spoke thus:
“2 Daniel said: "In my vision at night I
looked, and there before me were the
four winds of heaven churning up the
great sea. 3 Four great beasts, each
different from the others, came up out
of the sea. 4 "The first was like a lion,
and it had the wings of an eagle. I
watched until its wings were torn off
and it was lifted from the ground so
that it stood on two feet like a man,
and the heart of a man was given to it.
5 "And there before me was a second
beast, which looked like a bear. It was
raised up on one of its sides, and it had
three ribs in its mouth between its
teeth. It was told, `Get up and eat your
fill of flesh!' 6 "After that, I looked, and
there before me was another beast, one
that looked like a leopard. And on its
back it had four wings like those of a
bird. This beast had four heads, and it
was given authority to rule. 7 "After
that, in my vision at night I looked,
and there before me was a fourth
beast-terrifying and frightening and

4
very powerful. It had large iron teeth;
it crushed and devoured its victims
and trampled underfoot whatever was
left. It was different from all the
former beasts, and it had ten horns. 8
"While I was thinking about the
horns, there before me was another
horn, a little one, which came up
among them; and three of the first
horns were uprooted before it. This
horn had eyes like the eyes of a man
and a mouth that spoke boastfully. 9
"As I looked, "thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow; the
hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire, and
its wheels were all ablaze. 10 A river of
fire was flowing, coming out from
before him. Thousands upon
thousands attended him; ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated, and the books
were opened. 11 "Then I continued to
watch because of the boastful words
the horn was speaking. I kept looking
until the beast was slain and its body
destroyed and thrown into the blazing
fire. 12(The other beasts had been
stripped of their authority, but were

allowed to live for a period of time.) 13
"In my vision at night I looked, and
there before me was one like a son of
man, coming with the clouds of
heaven. He approached the Ancient of
Days and was led into his presence. 14
He was given authority, glory and
sovereign power; all peoples, nations
and men of every language worshiped
him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion that will not pass away, and
his kingdom is one that will never be
destroyed.” (Dan 7:2-14 NIV)
The angel in his vision explained to him:
“23 He gave me this explanation: `The
fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that
will appear on earth. It will be different
from all the other kingdoms and will
devour the whole earth, trampling it
down and crushing it. 24 The ten horns
are ten kings who will come from this
kingdom. After them another king will
arise, different from the earlier ones; he
will subdue three kings. 25 He will
speak against the Most High and
oppress his saints and try to change the
set times and the laws. The saints will

6
be handed over to him for a time,
times and half a time. 26 "`But the
court will sit, and his power will be
taken away and completely destroyed
forever. 27 Then the sovereignty, power
and greatness of the kingdoms under
the whole heaven will be handed over to
the saints, the people of the Most High.
His kingdom will be an everlasting
kingdom, and all rulers will worship
and obey him.'” (Dan 7:23-27 NIV)
The first three beasts are the kingdoms or
ancient civilizations that began in: 1) Egypt, 2)
Mesopotamia, and 3) Media - Persia. These kingdoms
comprised the Fertile Crescent, a term coined by the
Orientalist James Breasted in 1916.1
The name is
given to the area of the Middle East where the
earliest known civilizations of the ancient world
began. The region extends like an arc from the Nile
Valley of Egypt north along the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea, then east and south through the
Tigris and Euphrates valley to the head of the Persian
Gulf, passing through present-day Israel, Lebanon,
Syria, Iraq, and western Iran. The Fertile Crescent
includes the areas once occupied by the ancient
kingdoms of Palestine at its western end, Assyria in
the central portion, and Babylonia and Elam in the

eastern part. The fertile Nile River delta north of
Egypt characterized by dry summers and rainy
winters is where farming originated in the Middle
East at around 9000 BC. Later in 5000 BC, the oldest
urban and literate societies emerged from Egypt at
the western end of the crescent and at Sumer at the
eastern end. In the centuries that followed, the
Canaanite kingdoms rose on the Mediterranean
coast. These were succeeded by Phoenicia and
ancient Israel while the Babylonians and Assyrians
dominated Mesopotamia.2
Egypt's hegemony over its
area has fairly been consistent, while Mesopotamia
gave rise to Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria.
The First Beast - Egypt
Objections have been made over the strict
application of science to the interpretation of
scriptures and several books have been published
about it. Not a few of them were about Darwin’s On
the Origin of Species which propounded how human
beings evolved through branching over the course of
generations through a process of natural selection.3
His theory implied that all species of life could
probably have come from a single original species.
Darwin’s theory is very briefly being discussed here
together with some new theories in

8
paleoanthropology to construct a plausible time-line
for the creation of man according to the Books of
Genesis and Daniel that is reconciled with
established and authoritative scientific discoveries.4
By employing this method, we will never be
arbitrary, much less whimsical nor capricious - a
charge too often levied against a strictly spiritual
approach to interpretation of scriptures. Neither are
we writing in favor of a particular church or an
alliance thereof but out of a personal motivation.
Furthermore, I would like to declare at the outset,
that it is my belief that in this exegesis, I recognize
our human limitation to fathom the power and
wisdom of the Almighty that is awesome in its
superiority and beyond our human capacity to fully
comprehend. It goes with it my own limitation to
describe certain parts of scripture using human
language. And for this reason, I am inclined to
qualify the use of scripture (including those from the
Qur'an) whose definitions may actually construe a
concept rather than is traditionally or secularly
meant. For example, my study of the Bible has led
me to a conclusion that angels and heavenly beings
are not parties to the covenant that men are bound.
It is possible that there is a separate covenant with
them. Nevertheless, it is for this reason I went

above and beyond the average human conception of
time, space and the universe. Its application in this
exegesis recognizes the limitation of the account in
the Book of Genesis of creation, for the simple
reason that the bodies of knowledge today that are
available to accurately describe it were not available
then. For example, the word “day” as it is used in the
Book of Genesis could also have described the
awesome power of our Creator and could simply
mean that the power that is behind creation is so
great it can achieve so much in a day. That this is no
simple day. As Peter propounds, “With the Lord a day
is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like
a day” (2 Peter 3:8, Ps 90:4)). In this verse, the word
like does not exclude other interpretations of day to
mean not just a thousand years, but millions or even
billions of years.
Strongly worded prejudices of the perceived
irreconcilable differences between the scriptures and
science on the subject of creation and natural law in
Darwin's controversial book, Origin of the Species
alone can be found, and arguments like this found
below by Robert Chambers, secret author of the book
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, are not
uncommon, saying:

10
'It will be objected that the
ordinary conceptions of Christian nations
on this subject (creation) are directly
derived from Scripture, or, at least, are in
conformity with it. If they were clearly and
unequivocally supported by Scripture, it
may readily be allowed that there would be
a strong objection to the reception of any
opposite hypothesis. But the fact is,
however startling the present
announcement of it may be, that the first
chapter of the Mosaic record is not only
not in harmony with the ordinary ideas of
mankind respecting cosmical and organic
creation, but is opposed to them, and only
in accordance with the views here taken."5
(italics mine)
The said book was thus quoted by Darwin
in his Origin, saying:
“The 'Vestiges of Creation'
appeared in 1844. In the tenth and much
improved edition (1853) the anonymous
author says: —
'The proposition determined
on after much consideration is, that
the several series of animated

beings, from the simplest and oldest
up to the highest and most recent,
are, under the providence of God,
the results, first, of an impulse
which has been imparted to the
forms of life, advancing them, in
definite times, by generation,
through grades of organisation
terminating in the highest
dicotyledons and vertebrata, these
grades being few in number, and
generally marked by intervals of
organic character, which we find to
be a practical difficulty in
ascertaining affinities ; second, of
another impulse connected with the
vital forces, tending, in the course
of generations, to modify organic
structures in accordance with
external circumstances, as food, the
nature of the habitat, and the
meteoric agencies, these being the
'adaptations' of the natural
theologian.'
The author apparently believes that
organisation progresses by sudden leaps,
but that the effects produced by the
conditions of life are gradual. He argues

12
with much force on general grounds that
species are not immutable productions. But
I cannot see how the two supposed
"impulses" account in a scientific sense for
the numerous and beautiful co-adaptations
which we see throughout nature; I cannot
see that we thus in any insight how, for
instance, a woodpecker has become
adapted to its peculiar habits of life. The
work, from its powerful and brilliant style,
though displaying in the earlier editions
little accurate knowledge and a great want
of scientific caution, immediately had a
very wide circulation. In my opinion it has
done excellent service in this country in
calling attention to the subject, in removing
prejudice, and in thus preparing the ground
for the reception of analogous views.”6
How true, for often we would hear about the
church describe creation in a literary sense than a
scientific one.
In the period scientists call the Old Stone
Age or Paleolithic Period (2.5 million years to 8000
BC) archaic man was yet primitive, settled in caves
crouched on all fours, pursued the herds or fished in
stone-made implements and gathered fruits.
Approximately between 100,000 and 40,000 BC, a

semi-erect archaic human - the brutish Neanderthals
(Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) appeared. The
Neanderthals eked a living from the most challenging
habitat and developed the Levallois stone-making
technique used for making specialized tools
(microliths) such as knives and scrapers for cutting
and preparing meat, scraping hides, and working
wood. Evidence of rituals in burials suggests the
existence of religious beliefs. It is believed that the
brain of this archaic Homo sapiens was sufficiently
evolved to permit the use of true language, however,
the Neanderthal's vocal chords, which the hyoid bone
represents, were not sufficiently developed for
speech.7
About 150000 BC, tools that included
microliths and new weapons like the bow and arrow
enabled hunters to pursue game and use traps,
snares, and nets to exploit alternative resources.
These ushered in the Mesolithic Age or New Stone
Age (8300 to 6500 BC).8
Earlier, about 9000 BC,
sheep in the Near East was domesticated.
Anthropologists believe that it was only sometime
after 100000 BC, as the tundra vegetation and ice
sheets rapidly gave way to coniferous and hardwood
forests and great herds of game were replaced by
more elusive animals, that Homo sapiens developed
practices and technology to adapt. By 8000 BC, the

14
tundra and taiga was a well defined area of the
northern hemisphere.9
As a result of the increasing
difficulty of hunting herds that have migrated
northward, anthropologists believe that very few
archaic populations may have directly evolved into
the more intelligent modern Cro-Magnon man and
Homo sapiens sapiens, the rest displaced as modern
man expanded his range. During the Mesolithic
Period, people began to practice farming by sowing
seeds and waiting for the harvest with tools made of
a haft of bone, wood, or antler fitted with a microlith
- a small, sharp blade of stone, for reaping grain.
Dogs, the first animals to be tamed, were already in
use in hunting and such herd animals as goats, sheep,
and cattle, already domesticated. Thus,
paleoanthropology, the scientific study of human
fossils, confirms the Book of Daniel concerning the
first beast - Egypt and the history of ancient
civilizations. The study suggests that modern man
originated only very recently, sometime after 10,000
years ago. It can be theorized that it coincides with
the rise of the ancient civilizations that began in
Mesopotamia and migrated to Egypt.10
The above, are
as close that our measuring instruments and
processes can best do. They do not preclude the
probability that creation, defined in the Jewish

tradition of a 7,000-year or a week or a seven-day (of
a thousand years a day) plan by G-d beginning with
Adam (year 0) which may very well have begun
sometime after 4000 BC with the “evolution” of
Homo sapiens sapiens – the first humans; and end at
Judgment Day, sometime after 6000 years later -
during the Lord's day of rest on the seventh day, the
Sabath. 11
The Meaning. “Fierce as a lion” means
possessing the character and ferocity of a lion that
are best suited for such a primitive environment. A
lion is lord of the jungle as ancient Egypt was lord of
the kingdoms around it. “The wings of an eagle”
means possessing an extraordinary mind setting it
above its peers. These were the characters that gave
ancient Egypt, the first beast, the capability to
achieve and advance its civilization. Then, “its wings
are torn off thus lifting it off the ground to stand on
two feet,” like modern man. We may surmise that the
erect and intelligent Homo sapiens sapiens first
showed its leadership ability to build a kingdom in
the development of the Egyptian civilization
overtaking Babylon, the earliest known civilization
among the Mesopotamian states.12

16
“Amid the newly collected and
excavated evidence of Egypt from the Pre-
dynastic and Early Dynastic ages there
emerged a few cylinder seals, a knife
handle with Mesopotamian-style models:
the "dynastic race" theory of the foreign
origin of Egyptian civilization gained a new
lease on life. Sir Flinders Petrie, the
founder of modern Egyptology, who
himself subscribed to that theory, thus
inferred several invasions of Egypt, on the
basis of cultural changes seen in the shift
from Predynastic Naqada I to II, and again
from late Naqada III to Dynastic Egypt.
Certain skeletal finds and naturally
preserved bodies from Predynastic
cemeteries seemed to support this view. In
addition, the apparently sudden flowering
of already well-developed hieroglyphics on
First Dynasty monuments indicated that
Egypt's writing system also must have been
brought from abroad, probably by the
selfsame dynastic race. Supporters of the
Aryan Model could now detach Egyptian
pharaonic civilization from any supposed
African origin. Egypt's high civilization
was proclaimed the work of the "dynastic
race." This race was variously said to have
come from somewhere to the north, from

Mesopotamia, from Elam, or even possibly
from India. By the early decades of the
twentieth century the dynastic race theory
seemed unassailable. Thus far, Bernal's
account of Aryan supremacy accords with
the early study of Egyptian antiquity as it is
generally recognized.”13
To have “the heart of a man ... given to it” means his
animal tendencies were cast aside and his humane
side ruled his behavior. The remains of Homo sapiens
sapiens found in ancient Egypt are evidence of the
type of man which flourished during this time its
civilization was developing. It is this species of man
characterized by a developed brain as modern man
today possesses.14
“Even those unfamiliar with
craniometry will be struck by the difference
in the measurements of the skulls in the
two series shown in the table on p .83. The
Predynastic people are seen to have had
narrow skulls with a height measurement
exceeding the breadth, a condition common
also in negroes. The reverse is the case in
the Dynastic Race, who not only had
broader skulls but the height of these
skulls,while exceeding that in the

18
Predynastic Race, is still less than the
breadth. This implies a greater cranial
capacity and of course a larger brain in the
invading people. Another remarkable point
is the regularity with which the same or
nearly the same figures appear in the
different groups for the same diameter. In
both races there is little difference in the
length of the skull, but a mean of 132.0
mm. For the breadth in the Predynastic
people and of 139.0 mm. In the Dynastic
Race came to be regarded in my mind as
characteristic. The two series in the above
table which do not conform to this are both
from Abydos and almost certainly, as
shown by Dr. Morant, are not the pure
Egyptian stock. It was stated above that
only the earliest graves are dealt within this
paper for the reason that mixture of the two
races at later dates obscures the outstanding
differences so marked in the earliest
periods. It is, however, important to note
that infiltration had begun already in Late
Predynastic times, and the results of
measurements of skulls from graves of this
date frequently show the presence of a
larger-headed people. This was the case in
Petrie's original discovery at Nakadah
where both Early and Late Predynastic

graves were brought to light, the latter
including Early Dynastic burials. These are
distinguished in Dr. Morant's tables
(loc.cit.) as A and Q and B.T.R. Only the
former, called by Dr. Morant 'Middle?' are
included in the above table.”15
Egypt's early civilization fast developed into the most
sophisticated by 3000 BC. It possessed a stratified
society and the royal court was replete with its
entourage of advisers. Some of the earliest
knowledge of mathematics are preserved in Egyptian
papyri. It also maintained an army. Its civilization is
undoubtedly considered the oldest.
Early History. The first reference to Egypt
in the scriptures is found in the Book of Exodus,
shortly after the time of Noah. The scripture tells us
that Cush, Mizraim (Hebrew: Mizraim for Egypt), Put
and Canaan were children of Ham, son of Noah.16
Mizraim later became Egypt.17
The evidence of rock
carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert
oases points to a culture of hunter-gatherers and
fishers in 100000 BC. Around 8000 BC as a result of
climate changes and overgrazing, pasture was
depleted and migration began into the Nile River
where began a centralized society and settled

20
agricultural economy.18
The New Grolier Multimedia
Encyclopedia describes Egypt’s civilization as a
hunting community of archaic humans before 5000
BC, which settled by the Nile River valley as farmers
after 4000 BC establishing villages in Merimdeh and
Fayum in northern Egypt between these periods.
Farm surpluses economically gave rise to an elite
class by late Pre-dynastic times (c. 3300 BC) ruled by
chieftains identifiable by its tombs, forerunners of the
pyramids. By this time, the local kingdoms had
coalesced into two competitive kingdoms, northern
and southern. Throughout the period 5000-3100 BC
domesticated grains and animals may have come via
Syria and Palestine, perhaps at the time of
Merimdehs’ earliest phase. Both northern and
southern Egypt traded with Syria, Palestine, and
northeast Africa throughout Pre-dynastic times.19
King Narmer (who may also be: Menes)
unified the two kingdoms. He and his immediate
predecessors, the pharaohs of the 1st and 2nd
dynasties, were buried at Abydos in prototypes of the
later pyramids also found in Memphis. Royal power
had greatly increased by the 3rd dynasty (2686- 2613
BC) characterized by step pyramids in stone.
Pyramids like the one at Giza where Khufu's

(Cheops') are found were also built. Later, in the 4th
and 5th dynasties, Egyptian armies raided Palestine
and southern Nubia. By the 6th dynasty, regional
kingdoms became stronger putting Egypt on the
defensive. Egyptian rule began to break down under
the 7th dynasty. In the First Intermediate period
(2181-2040 BC), provincial warlords were not
prevented by the Memphitic pharaohs from fighting
over territory that eventually resulted in two
separate kingdoms. The 9th and 10th dynasties ruled
from Heracleopolis. The 11th dynasty from Thebes.
Finally, in 2000 BC, Nebhepetre Mentuhotep of the
11th dynasty conquered the north and rebuilt the
monarchy, inaugurating the Middle Kingdom. About
this time, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, came to
Egypt from Canaan, where a famine had struck. They
stayed there a little while until Pharaoh asked them
to leave richer than they came after a little ploy by
Abraham gave an unexpectedly handsome result
(Gen 12:10). Decline marked the Second Intermediate
period (1786-1567 BC) with internecine strife
between high officials of the 13th
dynasty over the
royal succession followed by a severe famine that
weakened Egypt to invasions by the Hyksos.
Hyksos (Egyptian: heqa khasewet for
foreign rulers). Manetho (300 BC), an ancient

22
Egyptian priest-historian, has an early account of the
Hyksos migration and rise to become rulers of Egypt.
This event is significant for at no time in Egypt’s
history was there a period which could plausibly
bring us to a conclusion that this period would
account for Joseph’s presence in Egypt, his rise to
power under the Hyksos' rule and how his family, the
whole of Israel, came to Egypt. The biblical account
spoke of a severe famine (Gen 41:53-54) in all the
other lands saved in Egypt where there was food.
This was the reason why the people from Canaan
migrated to Egypt. The Hyksos exploited Egyptian
ideology but remained Syro-Palestinian in culture.20
Another account, some 400 years year later
may be found in the work of Josephus Flavius (37-100
AD), a Jewish historian known, among others for his
account of the Jews under Roman domination.
Josephus’ works include Against Apion. Here,
Josephus sharply criticizes Manetho’s account of two
Exodus-like events for misinterpreting them as the
biblical Exodus and attempts to correct them.
Nevertheless, the accounts are evidence of the period
when peoples from Asia did enter Egypt to be later
driven or led out during the Exodus. Manetho’s work
Aegyptiaca, reconstructed from the few remaining

extant fragments (frag. 42, 1.75-79.2) recorded the
Hyksos appearance as an armed invasion by a horde
of foreign barbarians who plundered their cities and
took the Egyptians into slavery. This theory is now
overturned by the theory of a non-violent wave of
migration. Under this theory, the Egyptian rulers of
the 13th dynasty preoccupied by a serious famine,
were unable to stop migrants from Asia looking for
food and employment in Egypt.21
Historian Gae
Callender notes:
“Numerous inscriptions record Amenmhat
III's mining activities. In the Sinai region
alone, where the king's officials worked
the turqoise and copper mines on a quasi-
permanent basis, fifty-nine grafiti have
been identified. The quarries at Wadi
Hammamat, Tura, Aswan, and various
Nubian sites wer also worked. All this
building and industrial activity symbolizes
the prosperity that Egypt enjoyed during
the reign, but it may also have exhausted
the economy and, combined with a series
of low Nile floods, late in his reign,
resulted in political and economic decline.
Ironically, the large intake of Asiatics,
which seems to have occurred partly in
order to subsidize the extensive building

24
work, may have encouraged the so-called
Hyksos to settle in the Delta, thus leading
eventually to the collapse of native
Egyptian rule.”22
By 1700 BC Egypt had broken into local
kingdoms in the northeastern Delta. One of these
was ruled by King Nehesy whose capital was at
Avaris. Hyksos of Syro-Palestinian origin, among
them soldiers, sailors, shipbuilders and workmen
during the 12th dynasty made up his kingdom. His
dynasty may have been succeeded by West-Semitic-
speaking Syro-Palestinians who later became the
Hyksos kingdom that Joseph belonged to. Joseph, his
brothers and father, Jacob very probably began the
migration of the Israelites to Egypt during this
period. Manetho described an invasion.
“Tutimaeus. In his reign, for what cause I
know not, a blast of G-d smote us; and
unexpectedly from the regions of the East,
invaders of obscure race marched in
confidence of victory against our land. By
main force they easily seized it without
striking a blow; and having overpowered
the rulers of the land, they then burned our
cities ruthlessly, razed to the ground the
temples of the gods, and treated all the

natives with a cruel hostility, massacring
some and leading into slavery the wives
and children of others. Finally, they
appointed as king one of their number
whose name was Salitis. He had his seat at
Memphis, levying tribute from Upper and
Lower Egypt, and always leaving garrisons
behind in the most advantageous
positions.”23
A study of ceramic artifacts from the Second
Intermediate Period excavated in the Memphis-
Fayum region of Lower Egypt by Janine Bourriau (as
cited in Oren, E. ed., The Hyksos: New Historical and
Archaeological Perspectives) did not find Hyksos
influence debunking the view espoused by Manetho
that the Hyksos invaded and plundered Memphis and
subjected it to their authority.24
The Hyksos first
appeared in the 11th dynasty of Egypt and invaded
the eastern Nile Delta in the 12th dynasty which
began the Second Intermediate Period. They rose to
power in the 13th dynasty of Egypt and are often
depicted in the art of the period wearing the cloaks of
many colors associated with the mercenary Mitanni
bowmen and cavalry of Northern Canaan, Aram,
Kadesh, Sidon and Tyre.25
This was also the kind of
coat Jacob gave his son, Joseph who wore it with

26
pride (Gen 37:3). Herbert E. Winlock describes new
military hardware introduced by the Hyksos, such as
the composite bow, improved recurved bow, horse-
drawn war chariot, improved arrowheads, various
kinds of swords and daggers, a new type of shield,
mailed shirts, and the metal helmet.26
The 15th Hyksos dynasty capital was at
Memphis and their summer residence at Avaris.
They ruled Lower Egypt until the end of the 17th
dynasty of Egypt. The hiatus in native Egyptian rule
began from the end of the 12th dynasty to the start
of the 18th dynasty of Egypt when the capital moved
to Thebes. Only four 15th Hyksos Dynasty rulers
were known by their Canaanite names. The dates of
their approximate reigns are: Sakir-Har (named as an
early Hyksos king on a door jamb found at Avaris
whose reign is yet unknown); Khyan (c. 1620 BC);
Apophis (c. 1580 BC to 1540 BC); and Khamudi (c.
1540 BC to 1530 BC).27
The Hyksos kingdom was
centered and limited to the eastern Nile Delta and
Middle Egypt while the Theban-based native
Egyptian rulers controlled the south into Upper
Egypt.28
Commerce between them consisted of
transit rights through Hyksos-controlled Middle and
Lower Egypt and pasturage rights in the fertile

Delta.29
The Carnarvon Tablet I, narrates the Theban
Pharaoh Kamose’ proposal to the council to move
against the Hyksos, who were seen as a humiliating
stain upon the holy land of Egypt. The councilors
clearly did not wish to disturb the status quo:
“The great men of his council
spoke: Behold, it is Asiatic water as far as
Cusae, and they have pulled out their
tongues that they might speak all together,
(whereas) … we are at ease in our (part of)
Egypt. Elephantine is strong, and the
middle (of the land) is with us as far as
Cusae. The sleekest of their fields are
plowed for us, and our cattle are pastured
in the Delta. Emmer is sent for our pigs.
Our cattle have not been taken away… He
holds the land of the Asiatics; we hold
Egypt. Should someone come and act
[against us], then we shall act against
him!” 30
Hyksos rule overlapped with the native
Egyptian pharaohs of the 16th and 17th dynasties
of the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt. The 15th

28
dynasty Hyksos kings assimilated well into Egyptian
culture's wide use of scarabs, art forms, royal titles
and the god Seth. Howwever, native Egyptians
continued to view the Hyksos as invaders.31
While
the Hyksos controlled the Delta region the Thebans
mined gold and traded in the Red Sea until the 17th
dynasty when the Theban wars of liberation began.
Bourriau found Theban wares in the Memphis-Fayum
region corresponding to this period and agrees with
Manetho's description of Hyksos rule which is
confirmed in the Kamose texts that Kamose rejected
vassal status, the strict control of the border at Cusae,
the imposition of taxes on all Nile traffic and the
existence of garrisons. The war against the Hyksos
began in the latter part of the 17th dynasty when the
Theban king Seqenenre Tao II attacked his Hyksos
contemporary Auserra Apophis (also: Apepi or
Apophis). His mummy in the Cairo Museum shows
head wounds from a sharp blade that caused his
death. His son Wadjkheperra Kamose, the last ruler
of the 17th dynasty at Thebes, brought Egypt its first
victory. In the third year of his reign, Kamose
overran the southernmost garrison of the Hyksos at
Nefrusy, north of Cusae (near modern Asyut) and led
his army as far north as Avaris devastating the fields
around it. A second stele discovered at Thebes

continues the account of the war broken off on the
Carnarvon Tablet I, and narrates the interception and
capture of a courier bearing a message from the
Hyksos king Aawoserra Apophis at Avaris to his ally,
the ruler of Cush, requesting support against the
threat posed by Kamose on both their kingdoms.
Kamose troops occupied the Bahriya Oasis in the
Western Desert to block the desert route to the south.
Kamose then sailed back up the Nile to Thebes for a
joyous victory celebration. By the end of the reign of
Apophis, the second last of the Hyksos kings of the
Fifteenth Dynasty, the Hyksos had been routed from
Middle Egypt and had retreated northward in the
vicinity of the Fayyum at Atfih. Apophis outlived his
first Egyptian contemporary, Seqenenre Tao II, and
was still on the throne at the end of Kamose's reign.
Khamudi, last Hyksos ruler of the Fifteenth Dynasty
had a relatively shorter reign which fell within the
reign of Ahmose, Kamose's successor and the founder
of the 18th dynasty. Ahmose I, the first pharaoh of
the 18th dynasty, finally expelled the Hyksos from
their last holdout at Sharuhen after a three-year siege
in the Negev desert between Rafah and Gaza by the
16th year of his reign. Egyptian literature until the
Greek times, depict the Hyksos as ‘Asiatics’ referring
to the Semitic groups who settled in Aswan or the
Delta, and possibly led Manetho to believe the

30
Hyksos episode with Joseph’s sojourn in Egypt.
Modern historians have also identified the expulsion
of the Hyksos with the Exodus due to the fact that
some Hyksos pharaohs had familiar Semitic names,
such as Jacobaam of the 16th dynasty.
At the end of the 19th dynasty, the
Elephantine stele and the Harris Papyrus records that
the first pharaohs of the 20th dynasty revived the
anti-Hyksos sentiment. Setnakht, who founded the
20th dynasty, records in the Elephantine stele that in
the second year he defeated and expelled a large
force of ‘Asiatic’ invaders during the chaos between
the end of Twosret's reign and the beginning of the
20th dynasty. In his Against Apion, Flavius Josephus
debates the synchronism between the biblical Exodus
of the Hebrews from Egypt and two Exodus-like
events that the Egyptian historian, Manetho records.
Josephus identifies the Biblical Exodus with the first
exodus mentioned by Manetho, when some 480,000
Hyksos (also referred to as 'shepherd kings’,
'shepherds', 'kings' or 'captive shepherds' in his
discussion of Manetho) left Egypt for Jerusalem. The
mention of Hyksos identifies this first exodus with
the Hyksos period (c. 1600 BC). Josephus identifies a
second exodus mentioned by Manetho when a
renegade Egyptian priest called Osarseph led 80,000

‘lepers’ to rebel against Egypt. Manetho conflated
events of the Amarna period (c. 1400 BC) and the
events at the end of the 19th dynasty (c. 1200 BC).
Joseph. The 11th son of Jacob (Israel),
Joseph was seventeen when his brothers sold him to
Midianite merchants on their way to Egypt, where he
would later become right hand man of the Hyksos
Pharaoh.32
In Egyptian history, the Hyksos
emergence to become rulers of Egypt was an
opportunity for the development of the community
of Hebrews brought about by the migration of
Hebrews like Joseph and his brothers who brought
their families and resettled in Egypt as a result of the
periodic famine which swept through Canaan. The
Hebrews will spend approximately 400 years in
Egypt before Moses led them out of it to return to
Canaan.33
By 1700 BC Egypt was weakened by
internal problems and overran by Hyksos who set up
two contemporaneous dynasties and ruled between
1674-1567 BC.34
In this study, the secular date of the Hyksos’
reign is an important reference for approximating the
time of Moses’ and Joseph’s birth, their sojourn in
Egypt, and the exodus out of her. The existence in

32
Egypt of the Hyksos, who became its rulers explains
Joseph’s rise as the right hand of the Hyksos ruler,
both of them coming from Canaan. With the aid of
the “middle of the seven” prophecy found in Daniel
9:27 and the period covering the 1260 years of the
“church in the wilderness” discussed later in this
study, we've already determined that the first half of
the “seven” (prophetic days of years), which is “three
and a half days” is also equivalent to 1260 years.
These number of years going backward from 70 AD,
the year of the end of the daily sacrifice in the temple
of Solomon, is 1190 BC. This is the year beginning
the old covenant, the covenant that Jesus confirms
(“the law and the prophets”) together with the new
covenant that he brought with him and sealed by his
blood “for many” (both Jews and Gentiles). 70 AD is
the “middle of the week”, all of which we shall
discuss later. Moses lived to a hundred and twenty
years and his life has been significant every fortieth
year of his life. He was forty when he killed the
Egyptian mistreating his Jew slave (Acts 7:23), eighty
when called to argue before pharaoh to release the
Hebrews (Ex 7:7; Acts 7:30), and the last forty spent
wandering around the Sinai peninsula subsisting on
manna before he brings the Hebrews back to Canaan
from Egypt (Deut 34:7; Ex 16:35). In Exodus 12:40-41
it was already 430 years since the time of Joseph that

the Hebrews had lived in Egypt as they are led by
Moses and set out for Canaan. In their third month in
the desert, the Lord gave the covenant to Moses and
the Hebrews on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:8). 430 years back
from 1190 is 1620 when the Hyksos was on the 54th
year of its 107 years of rule. Joseph was thirty years
old (1627 BC) when he was made right hand of the
Hyksos Pharaoh (Gen 41:46) and was already in
Egypt for thirteen years. It was seven years later
when the famine started and he called for his father
to live in Egypt (1620 BC). This marks the beginning
of the 430 years of Jacob (who is also called Israel:
Gen 32:28) in Egypt. Joseph would be born in the
year 1657 BC. Potiphar, a high Egyptian official who
became the master of Joseph is significantly
mentioned as an Egyptian, i.e. one of the native
Egyptian officials at the Hyksos court.35
Joseph died
at the age of a hundred and ten (Gen 50:26).
Moses. The Hebrew people had been in
slavery in Egypt for some 400 years in accord with
God's words to Abraham that his seed, or
descendants, would be in a foreign land in affliction
(Gen 15:13). At the end of this time, God brought up
Moses, a child of the Hebrew slaves to set them free.
Moses lived to be a hundred and twenty (Deut 34:7).

34
Moses was eighty years of age when he spoke to
Pharaoh to convince him to let the Hebrews go (Ex
7:7). In that same year, the Israelites left Egypt and
the covenant was given to Moses in Mt. Sinai. Moses
would be born sometime in the year 1270 BC.
The native Egyptian monarchs of Thebes
finally expelled the Hyksos and founded the 18th
dynasty inaugurating ancient Egypt's most brilliant
period, the New Kingdom (1570-1085 BC). Among its
notable rulers were Hatshepsut, Thutmose III,
Akhenaten, Seti I, and Ramses II. They reconquered
southern Nubia and Palestine. The kingdom ended in
a civil war under Ramses XI.

35
1 Ralph Solecki, in New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Release
6. 1993. CD-ROM. s.v. “Fertile Crescent.”
2 Ibid.
3 Charles Robert. Darwin, The Origin of Species. (ed. Charles
Eliot). New York: F.F. Collier and Son. pp. 13-14.
4 Ibid.
5 Robert Chambers, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,
London: John Churchill. October, 1844, pp. 154-155
6 Charles Robert. Darwin, The Origin of Species. (ed. Charles
Eliot). New York: F.F. Collier and Son. pp. 13-14.
7 Wikipedia contributors, "Hyoid bone," Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Hyoid_bone&oldid=59244204464 (accessed: November 13,
2009).
8 Collier’s Encyclopedia, 1969 ed. s.v. "Mesolithic Period."
9 ““Tundra and Taiga,” The World Book Great Geographical Atlas,
(Mitchell Beazley Publishers, 1982). 62.
10 Wikipedia contributors, "Dynastic Race Theory," Wikipedia, The
Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Dynastic_Race_Theory&oldid=57547054522 (accessed
February 15, 2014).
11 God's Prophetic Timetable (The 7,000 Year Plan of G-d),
Hebraic Heritage Ministries International,
http://www.hebroots.com/lul6.html (Accessed: March 6, 2014)
12 Lefkowitz, M.R. and Rogers, G.M.L., Black Athena Revisited,
(University of North Carolina Press, 1996). p. 65.
13 Ibid.
14 D.E. Deary, "The Dynastic Race in Egypt," Journal of Egyptian
ArchAeology, 42 (1956): p. 82-84.
15 Ibid. p. 84.
16 Book of Genesis 10:6 Old Testament (NIV).

36
17 “Mizraim,” Fausset’s Bible Dictionary,
http://www.studylight.org/dic/fbd/view.cgi?number=T2585
(accessed: November 13, 2009).
18 Béatrix Midant-Reynes, The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First
Egyptians to the First Kings (Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers)
as quoted in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Egypt,”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt (accessed: November 13,
2009).
19 “New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Release 6. 1993. CD-
ROM. s.v. “Ancient Egypt.”
20 Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Hyksos,”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos (accessed: November 13,
2009).
21 Ibid.
22 Callender, Gae, "The Middle Kingdom Renaissance," in Ian
Shaw, ed. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. (Oxford:
Oxford University Press) 2000, p. 156-157.
23 Manetho, trans. W. G. Waddell (London: Harvard University
Press, 1940). pp. 79-81.
24 Eliezer D. Oren, The Hyksos: New Historical and
Archaeological Perspectives (University of Pennsylvania,
1997) as quoted in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v.
“Hyksos,” http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Hyksos&oldid=59409260041 (accessed: November 13,
2009).
25 Ibid.
26 Herbert E. Winlock, The Rise and Fall of the Middle Kingdom in
Thebes (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1947) as quoted
in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Hyksos,”
2009).

37
27 Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Hyksos,”
2009).
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid.
30 James B. Pritchard. ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to
the Old Testament (ANET). 3d edition. (1969), p. 258. as quoted
in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Hyksos,”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos, (accessed: November 13,
2009).
31 Wikipedia, The Free Encylcopedia, s.v. “Hyksos,”
2009).
32 David O'Connor, in New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia.
Release 6. 1993. CD-ROM. s.v. “The Hyksos.”
33 Book of Genesis 15:13 Old Testament. (NIV)
34 New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Release 6. 1993. CD-
ROM. s.v. “The Hyksos.”
35 Book of Genesis 39:5“ Old Testament. (NIV).

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