20S 



MISS A. M. HODGKIN ON 



cal test " — in other words, the test of " conteniporaneous evi- 

 dence."" "Wherever archaeology- has been able to test the 

 negative conclusions of criticism, they have dissolved like a 

 bubble in the air."* 



The Witness of Egypt. 



Fresh to-day, as when they left the hand of the painter, the 

 frescoes on the ancient tombs of Egypt give us a complete 

 picture of the life in that far off time. The vividness of the 

 colouring is a true reflection of the fascination that the stories 

 of Joseph and of Moses had for us as little children. The whole 

 atmosphere of Egypt was real and living to us. ^Ye could not 

 have pi:: it into words, but we .felt we were in a different land 

 from Canaan. Pharaoh's bakemeats, his cup, the great river, the 

 rushes, the frogs, the locusts, the seven kine — fat-fleshed and 

 w^ell-favoured — the brick-making, the treasure cities, the gran- 

 aries — all these made up the Egypt of our childhood "s imagina- 

 tion, and they are there true to life as revealed in the monuments 

 and the frescoes of the past. There is hardly a sentence in the 

 Bible account which we do not find reflected in some form 

 through modern discovery. They answer to each other as the 

 wax impression answers to the engraving on a seal. 



The value of this sense of atmosphere, or imagery, in its 

 witness to the truth of the Bible, is well brought out by Dr. 

 Kyle. Imagery suppHes flesh and blood and the breath of life 

 to the picture, and something more — it supplies that vrhich in 

 a person we call the countenance. And when we find the 

 imagery of a book correct, it goes a long way to commend its 

 trustworthiness by giving it a good countenance. 



How could a writer living hundreds of years later, in a 

 country many miles away, have drawn a picture so accurate in 

 its minutest details? The account could only have been written 

 by one who had hved amidst the scenes described. Moreover, 

 the presence of a number of Egyptian words in the Pentateuch, 

 without any explanation of their meaning, is evidence that those 

 for whom it was written could understand Egyptian. The word 

 " abrek " correctly translated " bow the knee " in the Bible, 

 was long a puzzle to scholars as they assumed it to be a Hebrew 

 word, and it seemed to bear no relation to Hebrew. But it is 

 an Egyptian word, and therefore was familiar enough to the 

 Israelites. It remains in the living speech of Egypt to-day; 

 when the Arab wishes his camel to kneel he says, " abrok ! 



The fact that the throne of Egypt was occupied by an alien 

 and Semitic race — the Hyksos. or Shepherd Kings — is not men- 



* Prof. Sayce, " Monument Facts," pp. 60, 14, 11, 25. 



