44 REV. JOHN URQDHART, ON THE BEARING OF RECENT 



writer must have been an eye-witness of the scenes and of the 

 incidents which he has described.* 



Similar impressions have had to be recorded by the archaeolo- 

 gists who, through their discoveries, have been able to recall 

 the times, the peoples, and the events, to which the Genesis- 

 history refers. Ebers, in a highly significant passage in the 

 preface to his famous book, says : " I bring by constraint, and 

 nevertheless with goodwill, many a welcome matter to tho.^e 

 who would close the door upon the free criticism of the Holy 

 Scriptures ; for I bear to them the information that especially the 

 entire history of Joseph even in its details must be accepted as 

 corresponding throughout to the genuine condition of affairs in 

 ancient Egypt."! The above was published in 1868, and was 

 among the first of those surprises which generally arrest for a 

 moment or two the hand of iconoclastic criticism. Subsequent 

 investigations have not modified the verdict of Ebers, sweeping 

 though it is. The inscription on the tomb of Baba at El Kab, 

 described by Brugsch, confirmed the Scripture accoimt of a 

 much-disputed incident — the seven years' famine. The monu- 

 ment belongs to the very times of Joseph; and Baba, detailing 

 his services to the city which he governed, says : " I was watch- 

 ful at the time of sowing. And now when a famine arose, 

 lasting many years, I issued out corn to the city each year of 

 famine." There was, therefore, in Joseph's time a prolonged 

 famine, during which corn was supplied Irom the public 

 granaries to the Egyptian cities. It will be remembered also 

 that the Scripture tells us that Joseph entirely altered the 

 system of land tenure in Egypt. One fact which has the closest 

 bearing upon this statement is that, previous to the time of the 

 Hyksos (the dynasty which Joseph served), the land is possessed 

 by the nobles and their retainers, while at the close of that 

 dynasty the land is found to be in the possession of the Crown. 

 In other matters the progress of discovery has poured still 

 fuller light on the Joseph-history. It was difficult to under- 

 stand, for example, how the performance by Joseph of his 

 duties as steward of Potiphar's house should have taken him 

 into its private apartments. The discovery of the city of 

 Amenophis IV., the heretic King, at Tel-el-Amarna furnished 



* A later expedition sent out by The Palc.'^ttiir. Exploratmi Fund to 

 explore tlie region between the Sinaitic Mountains and Southern Palestine 

 has added much additional evidence to the history of the Exodus ; see 

 Hull, Mount Seir, Sinai and WcMerii Pida^Uiie (1884). 



t Aegypten U7id die Biirher Mot^ex^ S. xii. 



