The New Egyptian Kingdom Era (around 1500 B.C. to 1070 B.C.)
JIV: “He who only studies parts of history will fail to connect the dots of history revealing the larger picture and fuller truth.”
Those who are Middle East enthusiast like I are likely to also be Old Testament buffs. The Old Testament (O.T.) is about Israel of old: God’s covenants with them, their failure to stay in God’s will, the consequences for falling away and the critical parallel of O.T. Israel and New Testament (N.T.) church. The promises made to God’s chosen people are unique to them. Jesus had not yet paid the debt of Adam’s sin. This is the N.T. facts. God will keep His covenants, Old Testament and New Testament.
This may be a poor parallel, but when we make a promise to someone that in no way means this is also a promise to the guy or gal next door. This is the difference between the O.T. and the N.T.; God’s covenants with Israel and His covenants with the N.T. church/Christian. However, it is not beyond simple thought that we can learn from others including keeping promises; i.e. God keeps his covenants. Deuteronomy 7:9; II Peter 3:2.
PS: I will let the reader make his or her fingers do the walking here and examine the scriptures per what I just stated. I stand on His promises.
Back to the topic of today’s research:
What archeologists and historians identify as the New Kingdom Era of Egypt is also a parallel with the Exodus (book of) of Israelis in Egypt during a 400 year dwelling or slavery within this land. For a reasonably good brief on this history go to http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/306324/Joseph
The end of Jacob’s descendants Israel, dwelling in Egypt and the New Kingdom of Egypt beginning is almost harmonious in facts. A bit of knowledge is needed here. Egypt of old was often two different kingdoms on the Nile River. There was the upper and lower Egypt, two distinct kingdoms and just as often… an Egypt as we know it today; one country. For a fairly good secular fact sheet, I encourage the reader go to http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=aqi. This website is somewhat exclusive history rather than inclusive, but one can glean overlapping dates of the time within which Israelite dwelt in Egypt, the fall of the Egyptian pharaoh (Red Sea incident) and their departure (Exodus 19:1) toward God’s Promised Land (sometime around 1400 B.C.).
It is also critical for the serious minded Bible and/or history buff to know there are two very different Ramses eras. Establishing when Jacob/Israel moved his family to Egypt due to famine in the Middle East, we need to do some small math. The first king of Israel was Saul from the Tribe of Benjamin. This was around 1040 B.C. Now back up a bit. The judges ruled Israel approximately between 1450 B.C. and to around 1043 B.C. About 400 years. Acts 13:17-20 states it was 450 years. Again, let your fingers do some walking and study this for yourself. But, add 400 plus years to the beginning of King Saul’s reign as King over Israel, we get: 1040 + 400 = 1450ish. Now look back at the turmoil and problems in Egypt at this time when they flip-flopped between a northern kingdom, a southern kingdom and a united Egyptian Kingdom.
Abram’s birth: 2166 BC
Isaac’s birth (when Abram was 100): 2066 BC
Jacob birth (when Isaac was 60): 2006 BC
*Jacob’s Migration (when he was 130): 1886 BC (subtract 450 years living in Egypt as slaves to the Egyptians, we come to around 1430; a very close date to this discussion of overlapping histories of Egypt’s kingdom problems and the exodus of the Israelites.
Joseph’s age at the time: 37
(17 when sent to Egypt as a slave; 30 when raised to 2nd ruler in the land; 7 years of plenty + 2 years of famine = 37)
Check these scripture: Gen 21:2; 25:26; 27:28; 45:6; 47:9; 50:22
*About this same time, and probably due to the same famine issues in the Middle East, the Hyksos started a similar migration into Middle and Lower Egypt. Keep in mind that Egypt is below the equator so Lower Egypt is closest to the Mediterranean Sea and Upper Egypt is closer to Nubia, Ethiopia, or the origins of the Nile River. The *Hyksos are possibly a Hebrew people but NOT n the direct line of Jacob, rather from the blood lines of Peleg, Esau or Ishmael. Peleg is the 4th great-grandfather to Abraham. Esau (Arabs) and Ishmael (Arabs) are the cousins to the Israelites of today. All are a Hebrew people.
If I haven’t lost you in the tracing of these parallel histories, we see statistically that there is a very close fit with what the Bible records as history and what secular history records minus scripture. Yes, there will always be the doubters but it isn’t an honest rejection of history that is their platform for trying to alter history into his or her desired perception. It is their rejection of God and that He is the only judge of what was, is and is to come.
Wikipedia: Hyksos…
The Hyksos rulers of the fifteenth dynasty of Egypt were of non-Egyptian origin. Most archaeologists describe the Hyksos as a mix of Asiatic peoples, suggested by recorded names such as Khyan and Sakir-Har that resemble Asiatic names, and pottery finds that resemble pottery found in archaeological excavations in the area of modern Israel. The name Hyksos was used by the Egyptian historian Manetho (ca. 300 BC), who, according to the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (1st century AD), translated the word as “king-shepherds” or “captive shepherds”. Josephus himself identified the Hyksos with the Hebrews of decadency from any one of Abraham’s sons, but not Isaac of the Bible (See *Genesis 25:1-3). Hyksos was in fact probably an Egyptian term meaning “rulers of foreign lands” (heqa-khaset), and it almost certainly designated the foreign dynasts rather than a whole nation. The Hyksos kingdom was centered in the eastern Nile Delta and Middle Egypt and was limited in size, never extending south into Upper Egypt, which was under control by Theban-based rulers except for Thebes’s port city of Elim at modern Quasir. (emphasis mine)
This helps explain why a new king or Pharaoh in Egypt who did not know Joseph, suppressed the Israelites putting them in slavery to the State. (Italicized emphasis mine)
*Keturah bore Abraham 6 sons. Abraham told them to not mix with the offspring of Jacob and told them to go east. Keturah, possibly Egyptian, is thought by some Jewish scholars to be none other than Hagar. We know that Hagar was Egyptian. If by some chance these “invaders (Hyksos) from the east” (historian Menthos) were actually descendants from the six sons of Abraham and Keturah, they were simply returning to their ancient mother’s homeland; i.e. Egypt, but of mixed blood; part DNA would have been from Abraham.
Of course as I usually try to include in any fact based article I write, “Don’t take my word for it. Do some honest research of the truth, WHOLE truth and nothing but the truth.”
AHA Bible Moments 