14 EDOUARD NAVILLE ON 



he reaches the point of the arrival of Jacob into Egypt, like 

 Genesis also he interrupts his narrative in order to introduce 

 the description of the family of the patriarch; but before 

 beginning it he gives the following curious reason for quoting 

 all the names : " I thought it necessary to record those 

 names, in order to inform those who do not suspect it, that 

 we are Mesopotamians and not Egyptians." * 



It is easy to notice in the narrative of Scripture that there 

 is a difference between the king and his subjects. The native 

 Egyptians could not look favourably on the establishment of 

 strangers who belonged to the race whose rule they hated. 

 " Every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians." I 

 believe that this passage must not be understood as referring 

 to all shepherds in general. We must remember that in the 

 Egyptian inscriptions the most usual name of the Hyksos is 

 the shepherds or the nomads of Asia, and it is natural that the 

 Egyptians should have felt towards the Hebrews the same 

 antipathy as towards their rulers who had the same origin as 

 the Hel >rews, and who were hostile to the Egyptian gods. 

 This is the origin of the ill will, the 8vaico\ia, which according 

 to Josephus existed between the Egyptians and the Hebrew 

 immigrants. 



The Israelites were settled in the land of Goshen. The 

 excavations which I made in 1885 at Saft el Henneh, six 

 miles East of Zagazig, have enabled me to determine the 

 exact site of the land of Goshen, at least of the territory 

 which was originally assigned as residence to the family of 

 Jacob ; for we must admit that when the people increased in 

 number, they extended beyond the limits of the land which 

 had been allotted to them at the beginning. They spread in 

 the south towards Heliopolis, in the north towards Tanis, and 

 in the east in the direction of the Red Sea. I shall here 

 briefly sum up the information which we derive from the 

 hieroglyphical inscriptions and the ancient authors, apart 

 from Scripture, in reference to the land of Goshen. t 



The word Goshen, 7UJH, has been translated by the Sep- 



tuagint Teaev '/4pa/3ia<?, Gescn of Arabia. The name Arabia 

 must be interpreted here as meaning the nome or province of 

 Arabia mentioned by the geographer Ptolemy, and by Pliny, 

 and the capital of which was called by the Greeks Phacusa. 

 Let us go back not to the time when the Septuagint made 

 their translation, viz., under Ptolemy Philadelphos, when great 



* Josephus, " Ant. Jud.," II., 177, ed. Niese. 

 t See " Goshen," p. 14-20. 



