386 Mr. B. S. Poole on Bibical Cities of Egypt. [Mai-cli 12, 



the eminent explorer has found the starting-point of the route of the 

 Exodus. 



It is important to observe that the religion of Goshen, as shown 

 by a very important monument of Nectanebo, the last native Pharaoh, 

 which is consistent with much earlier indications, yet far fuller in 

 its extent, has no relation whatever to the Hebrew religion. The 

 monument mentioned, a monolithic shrine, will be published in 

 Mr. Naville's ' Memoir on Goshen,* the fourth annual volume of the 

 Egypt Exploration Fund. 



Mr. Naville's work was carried on by Mr. Petrie, and since by 

 Mr. Griffith, at the site of Zoan, probably the capital of Joseph's 

 Pharaoh. Amid a multitude of interesting discoveries made in this 

 field, where, and in the adjacent country, the work is now being carried 

 on, the most curious as bearing on the present subject was the discovery 

 by Mr. Petrie, of the almost regal power of the viziers of the age of 

 Joseph, one of whom put his name on a sphinx, a class of monument 

 representing the king as a type of the sun, and elsewhere strictly 

 limited to royal inscriptions. 



Very curious light had been thrown on the obscure two centuries 

 and a half, roughly, between the death of Joseph and the birth of 

 Moses, when the Hebrews were subjugated rather than oppressed. 

 Mr. Groff, a young Egyptologist of Paris, had recently identified two 

 names of cities and tribes conquered by Thothmes III. B.C. cir. 1550, 

 at the battle of Megiddo, fought against a great Canaanite and Syrian 

 confederacy. These names are Jaakeb-el and Jeshep-el, which he 

 held to be Jacob and Joseph in full form, as Nathaniel for Nathan.* 

 If so, the Hebrews during this obscure period were engaged in border 

 wars and even in military service abroad. This is consonant with 

 the story of the death of Ephraim^s sons in a border foray (1 Chron. 

 vii. 20, 21), and the fact that the Israelites marched out of Egypt in 

 battle array (Exod. xiii. 18). 



Such were the consequences of historical criticism aided by dis- 

 covery. They showed the essential antiquity of the part of Genesis 

 and Exodus relating to the Hebrews in Egypt, and entitled the Egypt 

 Exploration Fund to the sympathy of all lovers of research for the 

 sake of truth. 



[R. S. P.] 



♦ See ' Kev. Egyptologique,' 1885, p. 95. 



