One of *those* topics.
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Posted on 12/25/2019 11:51:20 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The tip came from a lawyer, a faithful reader from Brooklyn named Harvey Herbert- An Egyptian hieroglyphic papyrus now in the Brooklyn Museum mentions an Asiatic slave named Shiphrah.
Shiphrah, of course, is the name of one of the Hebrew midwives (the other is Puah) whom Pharaoh summoned to carry out his order that all boys born to the enslaved Israelites be killed (Exodus 1-15)...
And here was an Asiatic slave with this same name mentioned in an Egyptian papyrus written in hieroglyphics...
All I can do is report what to some (surely, to me) are previously unknown facts that have nevertheless been known to scholars for a long time --
- The papyrus was purchased by an American journalist and Egyptologist named Charles Wilbour.. On Wilbour's death the papyrus was placed in a trunk and languished there until it was given to the Brooklyn Museum in 1935... It has been dated to about 1740 B.C.
- The back side of the papyrus contains a long list of slaves who are to become the property of the new owner's wife. Each is identified as Egyptian or Asiatic. The Asiatic slaves, unlike the Egyptian slaves, almost all have Northwest Semitic names -- nearly 30 of them. Among them is a female slave named Shiphrah.
- ...Another, according to Albright, has a name that is the feminine form of Issachar... Another is the feminine form of Asher.. Still other... names are related to the Hebrew names Menahem and Job.
- Based on the date of the papyrus, Albright comments that "we should expect significant points of contact with Israelite tradition ... Virtually all the tribal names of the House of Jacob go back to early times."
(Excerpt) Read more at cojs.org ...
The story of Joseph is one of the best known in the Bible... in order to find out whether the personality of Joseph or the patron of the early stage of his career, Potiphar, is referred to in the historical documents, we have to look into those of the Middle Kingdom. The task appears simple. According to the Book of Genesis Potiphar was "an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard." In the register of the private names to the Ancient Records of Egypt by James Breasted, we find the name Ptahwer... at the service of the Pharaoh Amenemhet III of the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. According to an inscription of Ptahwer at Sarbut el-Khadem in Sinai dated in the forty-fifth year of Amenemhet III, his office was that of "master of the double cabinet, chief of the treasury." ...The inscription records the successful accomplishment of some peaceful expedition. Since there is only one Ptahwer in the historical documents, and since he lived in the time when we expect to find him, we are probably not wrong in identifying the biblical Potiphar with the historical Ptahwer. This being the conclusion concerning Potiphar, we are curious to find whether any mention of Joseph is found in historical documents, too. the fact that from the great and glorious age of the Middle Kingdom only a very few historical inscriptions are extant. Since a great famine took place in the days of Joseph, it is, of course, important to trace such a famine in the age of which we speak. In the days of Amenemhet III there occurred in Egypt a famine enduring nine long years... Thus it seems that the Pharaoh in whose days was the seven years' famine was the successor of the Pharaoh in whose days began the rise of Joseph's career (if Yatu is Joseph). Potiphar, who lived under Amenemhet III, probably lived also under his successor. The inscription which deals with Ptahwer mentions a man whose name is transliterated by Breasted as Y-t-w. Among the monuments of Amenemhet III's reign is one of the Storekeeper... The inscription that mentions Ptahwer refers to his activity in the mines of the Sinai peninsula. In this respect it is of interest to find that the Jewish traditions connect Joseph with the area of the Sinai Peninsula saying that he kept a large quantity of treasuries near Baal Zaphon, the scene of the Passage of the Sea.
Probably a verr-ry common name in that period in that area.
Like saying you are looking for a guy named "Mike," from Chicago.
For purely statistical reasons, I would attach absolutely no significance to this.
Come back to us when you find two references to the same Social Security number.
Regards,
Aside from the possibility of identification with a specific person, isn’t it significant that the names themselves were found under the circumstances described?
No.
Regards,
A.B.—
As someone who teaches in the field, I respectfully disagree with your no.
If you are told that nearly everyone in Chicago was Barak, Hasan, Omar, Mohammad and the like, and that the culture of Alphonso, Rocco, and Giuseppe had no connection with the town until later, and that their culture didi not exist until much later, this is a big deal.
Few, if any, of these names could refer directly to relevant Biblical persons, but showing that the cradle of Biblical culture existed as described in terms of name usage and was in contact with Egypt is of great value given the present state of archaeology as it interacts with Biblical Scholarship.
Shanks had managed to do a lot of good work in terms of advancing the fruitful interaction of archaeology and the Bible—esp. given that he was trained as a lawyer. If he thinks that something is worth getting out in front of the public, I’d trust his opinion over that of most others.
On a side note, William Foxwell Albright, an important Biblical scholar of the last century, took his mother’s maiden name as his middle name out of respect for her and her ancestor’s heritage as settlers in the New World in the 1600’s.
To be honest, Hiernymous, I was a little incensed by this question, since it is so vague as to be unanswerable (or, worse yet, to allow almost any answer).
If you are told that nearly everyone in Chicago was Barak, Hasan, Omar, Mohammad and the like, and that the culture of Alphonso, Rocco, and Giuseppe had no connection with the town until later, and that their culture didi not exist until much later, this is a big deal.
Your comment at least provides more "meat."
All that these latest findings reveal is that, when you are "told" that "something" has "no connection," that is probably wrong.
Surprise!
Regards,
Everything happens for a reason.....................
Very interesting article. Thanks, SunkenCiv.
Man is not so much a rational animal as a rationalizing animal.
I think, therefore I am. You, I’m not so sure about................................;^)
Neither am I...
Aside from the possibility of identification with a specific person, isn’t it significant that the names themselves were found under the circumstances described?
Yes, it is.
My pleasure.
Back in the ancient Biblical times, specific names were usually reserved within families and the ‘extended’ family tribes, to preserve the memory of the ancestors that bore those names.
Since the name Shiphrah occurs on a papyrus dated to the expected time of the Biblical Shiphrah, it is highly unlikely that there was another of that same name at the same time...........
I agree.
...two references to the same Social Security number used by Obama.
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