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Ancient Egypt: History, Culture, and the Bible
1.
Introduction: The Egyptian Cultural Construct
What was ancient Egypt? This introductory class
will explore the Egyptian way of organizing space
and time within the Nile River valley environment
and identify the primary values of the culture
which arose there at the dawn of its history. The
actions, decisions, and values set the stage for
the events to unfold in the succeeding millennia.
2.
Pharaoh, the Smiter Who Ascends the Stairway to
Heaven: The Egyptian Old Kingdom
The Old Kingdom marked the golden age of Egyptian
dominance within the Nile River valley and the
universe as the Egyptians knew it. The pyramids
remained the tallest human-built structures until
the Eiffel Tower over 4000 years later. Even as
the Egyptians were constructing the culture that
continues to dazzle people, it had to face its
first moment of truth when that world became undone.
3.
Restoration and Renewal in a Changing World: The
Egyptian Middle Kingdom
In the second millennium BCE, the ancient Egyptians
faced a situation which they had not previously
known in over 1000 of history: the presence of
a viable alternative. The Semites in what would
become the land of Canaan were beginning to develop
their own culture partially in the shadow of Egypt
and partially independent of it. As the first millennium
of Egyptian existence was dominated by Egypt in
isolation, this millennium would be one on continual
contact with both the Semites and the Nubians as
the Egyptians increasingly were unable to live
apart from its neighbors.
4.
The World Turned Topsy-Turvy: Foreigners Rule the
Land
The first foreigners to rule Egypt were the Hyksos,
a people from the land of Canaan who sojourned
few in number into the Delta where they became
a mighty people remembered by the Egyptians for
centuries to come. With the arrival of the Hyksos
in the land of Egypt, the Egyptian sense of identity
and place in the cosmos undergoes an agonizing
reappraisal as it struggles to right a world that
has turned upside down only to discover that time
had become linear, not cyclical, and Humpty could
not be put back together.
5.
Once More into the Breach: The Smiting Pharaoh
of New Kingdom Egypt
The second half of the second millennium BCE was
the golden age of Egyptian imperialism in the ancient
Near East. Never before and never again would the
Egyptian empire attain the size and power that
it did during this period. Although perhaps best
known for the boy king Tut(ankamun) and the strange
king Akhnaton, it was a time of great military
achievements, huge numbers of slaves, and a dramatic
showdown at Megiddo, First Armageddon, that would
define Egyptian-Semitic relations for centuries
to come.
6. The Amarna Age: The “World’s
First Individual”
American
Egyptologist James Henry Breasted acclaimed Pharaoh
Amenhotep IV who became Akhnaton as the world’s
first individual in history. This characterization
better reflects the American cultural values of
its originator than the historical individual and
serves as a reminder of how the past becomes a
reflection of the present. Shortly afterwards Sigmund
Freud posited that the man Moses was linked to
this period of Egyptian experimentation. In the
meantime, the fates of the land of Canaan and the
Nile River valley became even more intertwined.
7.
The Ramses Age: Ego, Excess, and Exodus
The 13th century BCE was the century of Ramses
II, the best known Pharaoh in Hollywood and to
the movie-going world. The true history of the
era involves more than two-dimensional clichés
even though that is actually how pharaohs often
portrayed themselves. The geopolitical context
at this time was one fraught with danger and reveals
Ramses as better able to proclaim an Egyptian cosmos
through his monuments and writings than to attain
it in the real world.
8.
Little Ramses: The Son and the Appearance of Israel
During the reign of Merneptah, the son of Ramses
who succeeded his 91 year old father, Israel appears
in the Egyptian historical record for the first
and only time. The existence of Israel should not
be examined in isolation or in a vacuum divorced
from the geopolitical situation which now confronted
Egyptian. Egypt now had had centuries of close
contact with Semites in the land of Canaan and
these historical memories shaped the perception
of the new situation now being created with the
appearance of Israel.
9. Sing a Song: Ramses III and the End of an
Era
With 12th century BCE Ramses III, the Egyptian
era of imperialism comes to an effective end. New
peoples including Israelites and the Philistines
now carve out their own place in what was once
the Egyptian sphere of influence. The achievements
of Thutmose III at Megiddo in the 15th century
are reversed. Egypt was beginning a downward path
that during the first millennium BCE would see
one people after another rule Egypt, but for now
this middle-age king sought to hold onto a faded
glory that soon was to become a tourist site.
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