THE ROUTE OP THE EXODUS. 13 



borders of Egypt, but I should like to describe how the 

 scriptural narrative of the Exodus seems to me to be ex- 

 plained in the light of the late discoveries in Egypt. 



I shall recall only in a few words what concerns the 

 arrival of the Israelites in Egypt. Most Egyptologists have 

 adopted as correct the statement for which we are indebted 

 to the Byzantine chronographer Syncellus, who says that it 

 was under the king Apophis, in Egyptian Apepi, that Joseph 

 attained the high dignity which is described in Scripture. 

 Apepi is known to us as one of the last, perhaps even the 

 very last, Hyksos king. The Hyksos were foreign invaders, 

 and, in all probability, Mesopotamians, who had been driven 

 out of their country by great events which took place in 

 the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates. They were 

 a mixed race ; the mass of the population seems to have 

 been Semitic, while their rulers, judging from the type of 

 their faces, such as they are seen on the monuments of 

 Tanis and Bubastis, were of Turanian origin. Undoubtedly 

 their invasion had been marked, as is related by Manetho. 

 by destruction, plunder, and violence, as is usual in Eastern 

 wars ; but the Hyksos had soon yielded to the influence of 

 the more cultivated race over which they reigned. The 

 conquered had by degrees overcome the conquerors, who 

 had adopted the customs, the language, the writing, the 

 civilization of the Egyptians ; all except the religion. For, 

 notwithstanding several centuries of dominion, the religion 

 still raised between the Hyksos and their subjects an in- 

 superable barrier. " They reigned ignoring Ra," meaning 

 in hostility against the Sun-god. Such is the way in which 

 a native queen describes their rule two centuries after the 

 first rebellion agaiost them. 



It is probable that the fact of the Hyksos kings being Meso- 

 potamians, contributed to dispose them favourably towards 

 the Hebrews who had the same origin. It is well known 

 that for Abraham and his family, and especially Jacob, 

 Mesopotamia, Aram Naharaim, was above all their country,* 

 whereas they considered themselves as strangers in Canaan. 

 " An Aramean ready to perish, or, wandering, was my father," 

 says the author of Deuteronomy, t The tradition lasted down 

 to the time of Josephus. This Jewish writer relates the 

 events of Genesis in a narrative which is parallel to that 

 of Scripture, and which is based on the Holy text. When 



* Genesis xxiv., 4, 11, etc. 

 [ t xx vi., 5, margin of the Eevised Bible. 



