Were the Hyksos of Hebrew Origin?

[Sarah]

Who were the Hyksos?

The term "Hyksos" derives from the Egyptian expression heka khasewet ("rulers of foreign lands"), used in Egyptian texts such as the Turin King List to describe the rulers of neighbouring lands. This expression begins to appear as early as the late Old Kingdom in Egypt, referring to various Nubian chieftains; and as early as the Middle Kingdom, referring to the Semitic chieftains of Syria and Canaan. It is generally accepted that only the six kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty are properly to be called "Hyksos", because not only do they bear Egyptian royal titles, but they are specifically called Hyksos by Manetho. The Turin Canon king list also states there were 6 Hyksos or 'heka khasewet' rulers but only 4 of them are known with any certainty: Sakir-Har, Khyan, Apophis and Khamudy. Khyan and Apophis are by far the best attested kings of this dynasty whereas Sakir-Har is attested by only a single door jamb from Avaris which bears his royal titulary.
The names, the order, and even the total number of the Fifteenth Dynasty rulers are not known with any certainty. The names appear in hieroglyphs on monuments and small objects such as jar lids and scarabs. In those instances in which Prenomen and Nomen do not occur together on the same object, there is no certainty that the names belong together as the two names of a single person.
Manetho's history of Egypt is known only through the works of others, such as Against Apion by Flavius Josephus. These sources do not list the names of the six rulers in the same order. To complicate matters further, the spellings are so distorted that they are useless for chronological purposes; there is no close or obvious connection between the bulk of these names — Salitis, Beon or Bnon, Apachnan or Pachnan, Annas or Staan, Apophis, Assis or Archles — and the Egyptian names that appear on scarabs and other objects.
Three otherwise unknown Hyksos pharaohs are mentioned in archaeological remains. The hieroglyphic names of these Fifteenth Dynasty rulers exist on monuments, scarabs, and other objects.
1.   Sa-kha-en-ra Shalik (Each name is only found separately.)
2.   Mer-woser-ra Yaqub-har (Both names are found together on one scarab.) The element Yaqub is the same Hebrew/Canaanite name as Biblical Jacob.
3.   The "Heka-khasewet Sakir-Har"

[Sarah]

Identification as Hurrians or Semites

The German Egyptologist Wolfgang Helck once argued that the Hyksos were part of massive and widespread Hurrian and Indo-Aryan migrations into the Near East. According to Helck, the Hyksos were Hurrians and part of a Hurrian empire that, he claimed, extended over much of Western Asia at this period. While most scholars have rejected this theory and Helck has himself recently abandoned them[11], it is generally thought that the Hyksos were likely Semites who came from either Canaan or Mesopotamia although this has not been proven beyond all doubt.[12][13] The Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt sums up the complex situation by stating that "there are only vague indications of the origin of the Fifteenth Dynasty" and concurring that the small number of surviving names of the Fifteenth Dynasty are "too few to allow for general conclusions" about the Hyksos true background in his 1997 study of the Second Intermediate Period.[14] Furthermore Ryholt stresses that "we also lack positive indications that any of the rulers of the Fifteenth Dynasty were related by blood, and, accordingly we could be dealing with a dynasty of mixed ethnic origin."[15]

Kamose's explicit statement about the Asiatic origins of Apophis is the strongest evidence for a Canaanite background for the majority of the Hyksos. Kamose, the last king of the Theban 17th Dynasty, refers to Apophis as a "Chieftain of Retjenu (ie. Canaan)" in a stela which implies a Canaanite background for this Hyksos king. The issue of Sakir-Har's name, one of the three earliest 15th Dynasty kings, also leans towards a West Semitic or Canaanite origin for the Hyksos rulers--if not the Hyksos peoples themselves. As Ryholt notes, the name Sakir Har:

is evidently a theophorous name compounded with hr, Canaanite harru, [or] 'mountain.' This sacred or deified mountain is attested in at least two other names which are both West Semitic (Ya'qub-Har and Anar-Har) and so there is reason to suspect that the present name also may be West Semitic. The element skr seems to be identical with śkr, 'to hire, to reward', which occurs in several Amorite names. Assuming that śkr takes a nominal form as in the names sa-ki-ru-um and sa-ka-ŕu-um, the name should be transliterated as either Sakir-Har or Sakar-Har. The former two names presumably mean 'the Reward'...Accordingly, the name here under consideration would mean 'Reward of Har.'[16]
Finally, Khyan's name "has generally been interpreted as Amorite Hayanu (reading h-ya-a-n) which the Egyptian form represents perfectly, and this is in all likelihood the correct interpretation."[17] Ryholt furthermore observes the name Hayanu is recorded in the Assyrian king-lists for a remote ancestor of Shamshi-Adad I (c.1800 BC) of Assyria which suggests that it had been used for centuries prior to Khyan's own reign.[18] Since the names of at least two of the 6 Hyksos kings contain Canaanite elements, this may suggest a Canaanite or West Semitic origin for this dynasty.

The Georgian and Russian professors, T. V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov mention the Armenian leader Hayk combined with Hayasa, strongly resembling the Hyksos.

[Sarah]

Identification as Hebrews

Josephus and Apion

In his Against Apion, the 1st-century AD historian Josephus Flavius debates the synchronism between the Biblical account of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and two Exodus-like events that the Egyptian historian Manetho apparently mentions. It is difficult to distinguish between what Manetho himself recounted, and how Josephus or Apion interpret him.

Josephus identifies the Israelite Exodus with the first exodus mentioned by Manetho, when some 480,000 Hyksos "shepherds" left Egypt for Jerusalem.[20] The mention of "Hyksos" identifies this first exodus with the Hyksos period (16th century BC). If Manetho mentioned "Jerusalem", it may correspond with the Biblical account when Israelites under Joshua defeated the army of Jerusalem's city-king (Joshua 10:23).

Apion, with anti-Jewish bias, identifies a second exodus mentioned by Manetho when a renegade Egyptian priest called Osarseph led 80,000 "lepers" to rebel against Egypt. Apparently Manetho conflates events of the Amarna period (in the 14th century) and the events at the end of the 19th Dynasty (12th century).[citation needed] Then Apion additionally conflates these with the Biblical Exodus, and contrary to Manetho, even alleges that this heretic priest changed his name to Moses.[21] Many scholars[22][23][24][25][26] interpret "lepers" and "leprous priests" non-literally: not as a disease but rather as a strange and unwelcome new belief system.

Josephus records the earliest account of the false but understandable etymology that the Greek phrase Hyksos stood for the Egyptian phrase Hekw Shasu meaning the Bedouin-like "Shepherd Kings", which scholars have only recently shown means "foreign rulers".

Some scholars, while continuing to promulgate the idea of a Hyksos conquest of Egypt, assert that Josephus inaccurately associated the Hyksos with the ancient Israelites. This is primarily due to the fact that there is little or no information from ancient Egyptian sources to fill in the records of the period covering the thirteenth through the seventeenth dynasties. Based on random bits of information, Egyptian folk lore, and much conjecture, some historians conclude that during the fifteenth and sixteenth dynasties Egypt was under the domination of the Hyksos, and assume that a waning of native Egyptian power was limited to only the thirteenth and fourteenth dynasties.

As to a Hyksos “conquest,” some archaeologists depict the Hyksos as “northern hordes . . . sweeping through Palestine and Egypt in swift chariots.” Yet, others refer to a ‘creeping conquest,’ that is, a gradual infiltration of migrating nomads or seminomads who either slowly took over control of the country piecemeal or by a swift coup d’etat put themselves at the head of the existing government. In The World of the Past (1963, p. 444), archaeologist Jaquetta Hawkes states: “It is no longer thought that the Hyksos rulers... represent the invasion of a conquering horde of Asiatics... they were wandering groups of Semites who had long come to Egypt for trade and other peaceful purposes.” However, this view, still makes it difficult to explain how “wandering groups” could have gained control of Egypt, especially since the twelfth dynasty, prior to this period, is considered to have brought the country to a peak of power.

From the foregoing it is evident that there is considerable confusion, not only in ancient Egyptian history, but also among its modern interpreters concerning the Hyksos Period. Consequently, no concrete conclusion about the validity of this period can be reached. However, it may be that Manetho’s account, as quoted by Josephus, is simply a garbled Egyptian tradition. It should never be forgotten that the recording of history in Egypt, as in many Near Eastern lands, was inseparably linked with its priesthood, under whose tutelage the scribes were trained. So it would not be unusual if, in an effort to rewrite history, the scribes and priests invented some propagandistic explanation to account for the utter failure of the Egyptian gods to prevent the disaster that the Hebrew god brought upon Egypt and its people. In the pages of history, even recent history, there are many examples of such gross misrepresentation—the oppressed are depicted as the oppressors, and innocent victims as dangerous and cruel aggressors.

Therefore, if preserved with some accuracy by Josephus, Manetho’s account (written over one thousand years after Israel’s exodus from Egypt) perhaps represented the distorted traditions handed down by succeeding generations of Egyptians to explain away the truth about Israel’s residence in their land. Should this be the case, the Hyksos would be none other than the Israelites, though portrayed in a distorted manner.

[Sarah]

Jacobovici's Exodus Decoded

A 2006 documentary created by Jewish Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici (and fellow producer James Cameron), which explores new evidence in favor of the account of the Book of Exodus, "Exodus Decoded" (The History Channel, aired Sunday, 20 August, 2006), investigates Egyptian records concerning the departure of the mysterious Semitic Hyksos.

Jacobovici identifies the Hyksos as the Biblical Hebrews (whom he calls "Amo Israel", meaning, "His" - ie, God's - "people Israel"). He supports this thesis with Egyptian-style signet rings uncovered in the Hyksos capital of Avaris. These signets read Yaqob, similar to Hebrew/Canaanite name of the Biblical patriarch Jacob (יעקב Ya'aqov). Also, Jacobovici suggests the name of the city itself, Avaris, may derive from the Hebrew/Canaanite word ivri (עברי), meaning "Hebrew", which is often identified with the Habiru/Apiru. Today, the ruins of the ancient city is Tell el-Yahudiyeh, which is Arabic for "city-mound of the Jews". The archaeological site is known for its distinctive black-and-white ceramic pottery.

Thus, the Biblical Pharaoh whom Moses confronts would be Pharaoh Ahmose I who expelled the Hyksos and founded the 18th Dynasty of Egypt.

Jacobovici endorses the theory that the cataclysmic eruption of the volcano at the island of Thera/Santorini, which apparently ended Minoan civilization, may also be identified with the Biblical account of the plagues against Egypt. Currently Minoan radiocarbon dating for this eruption at roughly around 1623 BC ±25 contradicts the Egyptian chronology at roughly around 1550 BC. Controversially, Jacobivici redates this eruption later to around 1500 BC, and while not impossible, it is difficult because it requires the redating of Egyptian chronology and the synchronous East Mediterranean events (which may need redating anyway because of the conflicting dates of the eruption).

Jacobovici suggests some of the Hyksos who fled Egypt (understood as "Hebrews") were Mycenaean Greeks who returned to Greece. Thus, images on certain Mycenaean tombs may depict the volcanic and seismic disasters that occurred in Egypt, including a tidal wave corresponding to Moses' "parting the Sea of Reeds". Even more daring is the claim that certain Mycenaean images in gold foil depict the Ark of the Covenant and the sacrificial altar that Israelites used in their religious ceremonies.

Earlier, Ralph Ellis, in his book Tempest & Exodus (2002) made many of these arguments linking the Biblical Exodus with Pharaoh Ahmose I and the volcanic eruption of Santorini.

The academic response to the documentary is reluctant (eg [1]), noting that while at least some of the documentary's claims are plausible, they are weakly-supported and require rigorous scholarship to deal with serious problems that the archaeological evidence poses. Redating the established Egyptian chronology is especially disruptive as it underpins the chronologies of many surrounding ancient cultures. The jewish historian Israel Finkelstein from Tel Aviv University (and former director of Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University) explains that one can appropriately speak of jewish people as a distinct population of Canaan, only from the final decades of XIIIth century ("The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts"), fact that is contradicting the biblical (and Jacobovici) chronology of the event (Exodus).

Other suggested identifications

In his controversial book Ages in Chaos that redates the end of the Hyksos' 15th Dynasty (usually around the 16th century) to drastically earlier (around the 11th century), Immanuel Velikovsky identifies the Hyksos as the Amalekites.

In his 1962 book, David J. Gibson identified the Hyksos with the Edomite empire.

[Sarah]

Summary

The Hyksos were Asiatics who filtered into the eastern Egyptian Delta around the middle of the Thirteenth Dynasty taking advantage of a period of internal Egyptian weakness, probably bringing with them and using to their own advantage, the chariot. The Thirteenth Dynasty rulers had moved the capital of the country north to a centrally located town called Itjtawy near Memphis, near the apex of the Delta. Seizing the kingship, the Hyksos ruled Egypt went on to rule Egypt for over one hundred years under the Fifteenth Dynasty. The heterogeneous Sixteenth Dynasty was partly Hyksos, but also composed of local Egyptian rulers who had no choice but to go along with their new overlords. This general period of Egyptian weakness and foreign occupation is called the Second Intermediate Period, or more popularly, the Hyksos Period. The local princes of Thebes in the south formed the Seventeenth Dynasty when the Hyksos overran Itjtawy and ended the ephemeral 13th Dynasty. These vigorous Theban rulers kept the flame of Egyptian independence alive and were finally were able to lead a war of liberation that expelled the Asiatics. The Hyksos rulers and their military forces were driven from Egypt. Egypt was free, and Ahmose and his successors of the Eighteenth Dynasty could henceforth turn to the task of reconstruction. Some historians have linked various biblical stories to the beginning or the end of the Hyksos regime, but no consensus has emerged around any of the identifications.


Hyksos in popular culture

The invasion and subsequent expulsion of the Hyksos form an integral part in the fictional 'Egypt' novels by Wilbur Smith, notably River God, The Seventh Scroll and Warlock ("Egyptian Series"), in the Lords of the Two Lands trilogy by Pauline Gedge which chronicles the campaigns of Sequenenre, Kamose and Ahmose against them, and in Andre Norton's novel "Shadow Hawk".

[Majeston]

The Urantia Book -- Part III. The History Of Urantia
PAPER 97: Section 8.
Sacred And Profane History
------------------------------------------------------------------------



The custom of looking upon the record of the experiences of the Hebrews as sacred history and upon the transactions of the rest of the world as profane history is responsible for much of the confusion existing in the human mind as to the interpretation of history. And this difficulty arises because there is no secular history of the Jews. After the priests of the Babylonian exile had prepared their new record of God's supposedly miraculous dealings with the Hebrews, the sacred history of Israel as portrayed in the Old Testament, they carefully and completely destroyed the existing records of Hebrew affairs -- such books as "The Doings of the Kings of Israel" and "The Doings of the Kings of Judah," together with several other more or less accurate records of Hebrew history.

In order to understand how the devastating pressure and the inescapable coercion of secular history so terrorized the captive and alien-ruled Jews that they attempted the complete rewriting and recasting of their history, we should briefly survey the record of their perplexing national experience. It must be remembered that the Jews failed to evolve an adequate nontheologic philosophy of life. They struggled with their original and Egyptian concept of divine rewards for righteousness coupled with dire punishments for sin. The drama of Job was something of a protest against this erroneous philosophy. The frank pessimism of Ecclesiastes was a worldly wise reaction to these overoptimistic beliefs in Providence.

But five hundred years of the overlordship of alien rulers was too much for even the patient and long-suffering Jews. The prophets and priests began to cry: "How long, O Lord, how long?" As the honest Jew searched the Scriptures, his confusion became worse confounded. An olden seer promised that God would protect and deliver his "chosen people." Amos had threatened that God would abandon Israel unless they re-established their standards of national righteousness. The scribe of Deuteronomy had portrayed the Great Choice -- as between the good and the evil, the blessing and the curse. Isaiah the first had preached a beneficent king-deliverer. Jeremiah had proclaimed an era of inner righteousness -- the covenant written on the tablets of the heart. The second Isaiah talked about salvation by sacrifice and redemption. Ezekiel proclaimed deliverance through the service of devotion, and Ezra promised prosperity by adherence to the law. But in spite of all this they lingered on in bondage, and deliverance was deferred. Then Daniel presented the drama of the impending "crisis" -- the smiting of the great image and the immediate establishment of the everlasting reign of righteousness, the Messianic kingdom.

And all of this false hope led to such a degree of racial disappointment and frustration that the leaders of the Jews were so confused they failed to recognize and accept the mission and ministry of a divine Son of Paradise when he presently came to them in the likeness of mortal flesh -- incarnated as the Son of Man.


All modern religions have seriously blundered in the attempt to put a miraculous interpretation on certain epochs of human history. While it is true that God has many times thrust a Father's hand of providential intervention into the stream of human affairs, it is a mistake to regard theologic dogmas and religious superstition as a supernatural sedimentation appearing by miraculous action in this stream of human history. The fact that the "Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men" does not convert secular history into so-called sacred history.

New Testament authors and later Christian writers further complicated the distortion of Hebrew history by their well-meant attempts to transcendentalize the Jewish prophets. Thus has Hebrew history been disastrously exploited by both Jewish and Christian writers. Secular Hebrew history has been thoroughly dogmatized. It has been converted into a fiction of sacred history and has become inextricably bound up with the moral concepts and religious teachings of the so-called Christian nations.


A brief recital of the high points in Hebrew history will illustrate how the facts of the record were so altered in Babylon by the Jewish priests as to turn the everyday secular history of their people into a fictitious and sacred history.


http://urantiabook.org/newbook/ub/ppr097_8.html#P097_8_2

[Sarah]

Tnyou for your contribution, Majeston.  My but the Urantia Book likes to downplay the importance of Hebrew teachings. Oh, well, truth is often dependent on one's point of view, I suppose.

Sarah

[Majeston]

No, Sarah,

As usual you are incorrect.  Truth is not dependent on point of view;  truth is truth.  What is more apparent is that you still continue to attempt to overplay the importance of the Hebrew teachings including all the lies and distortions contained and especially when confronted with real truth and proper perspective. 

The Urantia papers contain very much about the true history and development of the Hebrew people and their teachings as well as the sources;  truths and errors.  Even a fool can see that if they are not blinded by prejewdice;  misplaced loyalties and confusion.  You just don't seem to be able to "get it",  no matter how much you read or study.  You have made very little progress in the past couple of years.  You are not on a search for truth.  You are on a search for mediocrity and revenge.

The Jews as a people are a full 2 epochal revelations behind revealed truth.  They are a stubborn unyeilding;  spiritually unprogressive people.  I know, from intimate experience,  I am a Jew.

But,  fear not,  there are many of us,  working diligently,  to bring the Jews into the 21st and 22nd centuries through the mechanism of real spiritual truth;  and the more progressive,  intelligent,  reasonable Jews have found that truth.

On the other hand,  you are determined to remain an impediment to the spiritual progress of your people and are complicit in perpetuating ignorance and error with your childish antics and myopic vision.  At some point in time you will have to answer for and compensate for your actions in light of the gift you have been shown and subsequently abused.

And all of this false hope led to such a degree of racial disappointment and frustration that the leaders of the Jews were so confused they failed to recognize and accept the mission and ministry of a divine Son of Paradise when he presently came to them in the likeness of mortal flesh -- incarnated as the Son of Man.

http://urantiabook.org/newbook/ub/ppr097_8.html#P097_8_2

[Sarah]

Correction,

You were a Jew, now you are lost.  Do you think that G-d really cares what fashion your beliefs may take, whether you believe in Judaism, Chrisitianity, Hinduism or the Urantia Book? 

Hardly.  G-d cares whether you strive honestly to be a good person, that you treat others with respect and consideration, and that you lead a good life. I don't know you personally, but I would say on those last few counts, you are the one who quite fails miserably. You haven't shown a lot of spiritual growth around me, over the years, you have shown a lot of meanness.

No matter what religion we are, our deity wants us to feel the words of religious teachings, not simply know the words.  You err in that you know the words, and yet haven't the slightest consideration for what they actually mean.

The one thing you should have taken from Judaism is that one's personal ethics are important, they define who we are. That lesson is, of course, entirely lost upon you.  Go ahead and keep with your current beliefs, though.  Unlike you, I don't need everyone else to believe in the same manner that I do in order for me to consider their spiritual journeys successful.

Sarah