252 DR. E. W. G. MASTERMAX, ON RECENT DISCOVERIES 



Canaan, and the reason why every trace and symbol of their religion 

 was ordered to be exterminated. Dr. Masterman clearly shows us 

 that the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth was not merely that of the 

 heavenly bodies, but also that of the phallus and yoni, just as 

 certainly as was that of ancient Mexico and Peru. 



All this tends to show the immense superiority of the religion of 

 Israel over that of Babylon, and that of the nations of Canaan 

 which they displaced, and furnishes a valid reason for the apparent 

 severity of the commands for their utter extirpation, together with 

 every symbol of their degrading worship. 



Mr. Martin L. Eouse. — In this admirable paper we have the- 

 very clearest proofs that the Canaanites, as the Bible would lead us 

 to suppose, were a numerous race, well acquainted with many arts 

 of civilisation, when the Israelites invaded their land, and that they 

 had, as the Bible specifically states, powerfully fortified cities ; but 

 that, as Holy Writ again declares, their morality and humanity were- 

 at the lowest ebb, their worship itself being full of licentiousness 

 and murderous cruelty. 



I would further ask whether the fact that the numerous 

 " plaques " on which Ashtaroth is portrayed at Gezer are con- 

 stantly found broken in twain does not point to a time when a 

 God-fearing Israelite leader suppressed idolatry there 1 



As regards the length of the chronology before the Exodus, its 

 figures are mainly based upon the supposition that the Hyksos 

 kings held an undisputed sway in Egypt for five hundred years. 

 But, as w^e know from the account of his royal ancestry given by 

 Captain Aahmes in the reign of his namesake King Aahmes L, who 

 overthrew the Hyksos, the so-called XVIIth dynasty reigned 

 concurrently with them as more or less vassal kings : while the 

 average of thirty-three years that Brugsch gives to the reigns tijat 

 followed and to those said to have preceded the Hyksos, is proved 

 in the following ones, and so may be inferred in the preceding, to 

 be far too long ; for the same Captain Aahmes records that he was 

 a naval commander at the beginning of his namesake's reign, and 

 yet mentions casually that he outlived that king and the two kings 

 next after him. 



Again I believe that the capture of Gezer by the Khabiri was one 

 and the same thing with its capture by the Israelites, or, in other 

 words, that the Khaljiri of the Tell Amarna tablets are the Hebrews. 



