Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Who was Abraham? (6)

Based on the works of scholars, who will be revealed when the blogging for this topic ends. Works of other authors may be included, but where these are done, full acknowledgement will be made.

Advice: Those who may take offence in seeing biblical (OT) quotations or liberal discussion of OT biblical characters should not read this topic.

The Pharaoh was a God-King to his people. He was looked upon as more than a mere ruler; he was in fact a god, a divine being chosen to lead the people and maintain order, and provided an important link between the Egyptian people and their gods.

Yet, when the Hebrews resided in Egypt, according to the Bible they worshipped their own God. Even when Joseph, an Egyptian prisoner, interpreted the Pharaoh’s dream, he attributed his ability to his own Hebraic God (Genesis 41:16 & 25 &28-32). Then we even have Pharaoh acknowledging Joseph’s God in Genesis 41:39.

These biblical incidents represented repetitive affronts to the divinity of the Egyptian God-King. Egyptologists said that it was unacceptable for anyone to confront the divine Pharaoh with an alien God. He would have been executed or at best thrown into prison.

The Hebrews would never have been allowed to worship their own God, especially after they became slaves.

But could they have done it covertly? Would this be possible for a population of 2,000,000 Hebrews, and for a period of 430 years, to do so without the Pharaoh and his councillors ever knowing about it or stopping such alien worship? The logical answer has to be a resounding no.

Then, could there be another more sensible reason?

To be continued ……..

3 comments:

  1. What Egyptologists say so?

    The Egyptians were polytheists (although Hinotheism sprang up depending on the Pharaoh) and generally accepting of other Gods. They accepted no other Gods as superior, but had no problem with other God and knew many of them.

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  2. Akhenaten or Amenhotep even went to the extent of defacing the images of other Egyptian Gods, let alone an alien one.

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  3. He is a singular exception, and his successors attempted to blot his name out entirely. He was a monotheist.

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