Jewish priests, in making a history for their a history for their race, have given us but a shadow of truth here and there; it is almost wholly mythical. The author of "The Religion of Israel," speaking on this subject, says:

'The history of the religion of Israel must start from the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt. Formerly it was usual to take a much earlier starting-point, and to begin with a religious discussion of the religious ideas of the Patriarchs. And this was perfectly right, so long as the accounts of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were considered historical. But now that a strict investigation has shown us that all these stories are entirely unhistorical, of course we have to begin the history later on."1

The author of "The Spirit History of Man," says:

"The Hebrews came out of Egypt and settled among the Canaanites. They need not be traced beyond the Exodus. That is their historical beginning. It was very easy to cover up this remote event by the recital of mythical traditions, and to prefix to it an account of their origin in which the gods (Patriarchs), should figure as their ancestors."

Professor Goldzhier says:

"The residence of the Hebrews in Egypt, and their exodus thence under the guidance and training of an enthusiast for the freedom of his tribe, form a series of strictly historical facts, which find confirmation even in the documents of ancient Egypt (which we have just shown). But the traditional narratives of these events (were) elaborated by the Hebrew people."s

Count de Volney also observes that:

"What Exodus says of their (the Israelites) servitude under the king of Heliopolis, and of the oppression of their hosts, the Egyptians, is extremely probable. It is here their history begins. All that precedes is nothing but

In speaking of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, Dr. Knappert says:

"According to the tradition preserved in Genesis, it was the promotion of Jacob's son, Joseph, to be viceroy of Egypt, that brought about the migration of the sons of Israel from Canaan to Goshen. The story goes that this Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers, and after many changes of fortune received the viceregal office at Pharaoh's hands through his skill in interpreting dreams. Famine drives his brothers-and afterwards his father-to him, and the Egyptian prince gives them the land of Goshen to live in.

They shaved their heads, and every three days shaved their whole bodies. They bathed two or three times a day, often in the night also. They wore garments of white linen, decming it more cleanly than cloth made from the hair of animals. If they had occasion to wear a woolen cloth or mantle, they put it off before entering a temple; so scrupulous were they that nothing impure should come into the presence of the gods." (Prog. Relig. Ideas, i. 168.)

It is by imagining all this that the

"Thinking it better to be clean than handsome, the (Egyptian) priests shave their whole body every third day, that neither lice nor any other impurity may be found upon them when engaged in the service of the gods." (Herodotus: book ii. ch. 37.)

1 The Religion of Israel, p. 27.

Dunlap: Spirit Hist. of Man, p. 266.
Hebrew Mythology, p. 23.

• Researches in Ancient History, p. 149.

legend tries to account for the fact that Israel passed some time in Egypt. But we must look for the real explanation in a migration of certain tribes which could not establish or maintain themselves in Canaan, and were forced to move further on.

"We find a passage in Flavius Josephus, from which it appears that in Egypt, too, a recollection survived of the sojourn of some foreign tribes in the north-eastern district of the country. For this writer gives us two fragments out of a lost work by Manetho, a priest, who lived about 250 B. C. In one of these we have a statement that pretty nearly agrees with the Israelitish tradition about a sojourn in Goshen, But the Israelites were looked down on by the Egyp tians as foreigners, and they are represented as lepers and unclean. Moses himself is mentioned by name, and we are told that he was a priest and joined himself to these lepers and gave them laws."

To return now to the story of the Red Sea being divided to let Moses and his followers pass through—of which we have already seen one counterpart in the legend related of Bacchus and his army passing through the same sea dry-shod-there is another similar story concerning Alexander the Great.

The histories of Alexander relate that the Pamphylian Sea was divided to let him and his army pass through. Josephus, after speaking of the Red Sea being divided for the passage of the Israelites, says:

"For the sake of those who accompanied Alexander, king of Macedonia, who yet lived comparatively but a little while ago, the Pamphylian Sea retired and offered them a passage through itself, when they had no other way to go. and this is confessed to be true by all who have written about the actions of Alexander."

He seems to consider both legends of the same authority, quoting the latter to substantiate the former.

"Callisthenes, who himself accompanied Alexander in the expedition," "wrote, how the Pamphylian Sea did not only open a passage for Alexander, but, rising and elevating its waters, did pay him homage as its king."

It is related in Egyptian mythology that Isis was at one time on a journey with the eldest child of the king of Byblos, when coming to the river Phædrus, which was in a "rough air," and wishing to

1 The Religion of Israel, pp. 31, 32.

2 Jewish Antiq. bk. ii. ch. xvi.

• Ibid. note.

"It was said that the waters of the Pamphylian Sea miraculously opened a passage for the army of Alexander the Great. Admiral Beaufort, however, tells us that, though there are no tides in this part of the Mediterranean, considerable depression of the sea is caused

by long-continued north winds; and Alexander, taking advantage of such a moment, may have dashed on without impediment;' and we accept the explanation as a matter of course. But the waters of the Red Sea are said to have miracu. lously opened a passage for the children of Israel; and we insist on the literal truth of this story, and reject natural explanations as monstrous." (Matthew Arnold.)

cross, she commanded the stream to be dried up. This being done. she crossed without trouble.'

There is a Ilindoo fable to the effect that when the infant Crishna was being sought by the reigning tyrant of Madura (King Kansa) his foster-father took him and departed out of the country. Coming to the river Yumna, and wishing to cross, it was divided for them by the Lord, and they passed through.

The story is related by Thomas Maurice, in his "History of Hindostan," who has taken it from the Bhagavat Povraun. It is as follows:

"Yasodha took the child Crishna, and carried him off (from where he was born), but, coming to the river Yumna, directly opposite to Gokul, Crishna's father perceiving the current to be very strong, it being in the midst of the rainy season, and not knowing which way to pass it, Crishna commanded the water to give way on both sides to his father, who accordingly passed dry-footed, across the river. "3

This incident is illustrated in Plate 58 of Moore's "Hindu Pantheon."

There is another Hindoo legend, recorded in the Rig Veda, and quoted by Viscount Amberly, from whose work we take it,' to the effect that an Indian sage called Visvimati, having arrived at a river which he wished to cross, that holy man said to it: "Listen to the Bard who has come to you from afar with wagon and chariot. Sink down, become fordable, and reach not up to our chariot axles." The river answers: "I will bow down to thee like a woman with full breast (suckling her child), as a maid to a man, will I throw myself open to thee."

This is accordingly done, and the sage passes through.

We have also an Indian legend which relates that a courtesan named Bindumati, turned back the streams of the river Ganges.‘

We see then, that the idea of seas and rivers being divided for the purpose of letting some chosen one of God pass through, is an old one peculiar to other peoples beside the Hebrews, and the probability is that many nations had legends of this kind.

That Pharaoh and his host should have been drowned in the Red Sea, and the fact not mentioned by any historian, is simply impossible, especially when they have, as we have seen, noticed the fact of the Israelites being driven out of Egypt. Dr. Inman, speaking of this, says:

1 See Prichard's Egyptian Mytho. p. 60. See ch. xviii.

Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 312.

Analysis Relig. Belief, p. 552.

See Hardy: Buddhist Legends, p. 140.
In a cave discovered at Deir-el-Bahar:

"We seek in vain amongst the Egyptian hieroglyphs for scenes which recall such cruelties as those we read of in the Hebrew records; and in the writings which have hitherto been translated, we find nothing resembling the wholesale destructions described and applauded by the Jewish historians, as perpetrated by their own people."

That Pharaoh should have pursued a tribe of diseased slaves, whom he had driven out of his country, is altogether improbable. In the words of Dr. Knappert, we may conclude, by saying that: "This story, which was not written until more than five hundred years after the exodus itself, can lay no claim to be considered historical.”

(Aug., 1881), near Thebes, in Egypt, was found thirty-nine mummies of royal and priestly personages. Among these was King Ramses II., the third king of the Nineteenth Dynasty, and the veritable Pharoah of the Jewish captivity. It is very strange that he should be here, among a number of other kings, if he had been lost in the Red Sea. The mummy is wrapped in rose

colored and yellow linen of a texture finer than
the finest Indian muslin, upon which lotus
flowers are strewn. It is in a perfect state of
perservation. (See a Cairo [Aug. 8th] letter to
the London Times.)

1 Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 58.
The Religion of Israel, p. 41.

CHAPTER VII.

RECEIVING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

THE receiving of the Ten Commandments by Moses, from the Lord, is recorded in the following manner:

"In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai, and there Israel camped before the Mount.

"And it came to pass on the third day that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the Mount, and the voice of the tempest exceedingly loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.

'And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole Mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the tempest sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.

"And the Lord came down upon the Mount, and called Moses up to the top of the Mount, and Moses went up.""

The Lord there communed with him, and "he gave unto Moses.... two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God."

When Moses came down from off the Mount, he found the children of Israel dancing around a golden calf, which his brother Aaron had made, and, as his "anger waxed hot," he cast the tables of stone on the ground, and broke them.' Moses again saw the Lord on the Mount, however, and received two more tables of stone.' When he came down this time from off Mount Sinai, "the skin of his face did shine.”

1 Exodus xix.

2 Exodus xxxi. 18.

Exodus xxii. 19.
Exodus xxxiv.

Ibid.

It was a common belief among ancient Pagan nations that the gods appeared and conversed with men. As an illustration we may cite the following, related by Herodotus, the Grecian historian, who, in speaking of Egypt and the Egyptians, says: "There is a large city

called Chemmis, situated in the Thebaic district, near Neapolis, in which is a quadrangular temple dedicated to (the god) Perseus, son of (the Virgin) Danae; palm-trees grow round it, and the portico is of stone, very spacious, and over it are placed two large stone statues. In this inclosure is a temple, and in it is placed a statue of Perseus. The Chemmitæ (or inhabitants of Chemmis), affirm that Perseus has frequently appeared to them on earth,and frequently within the temple." (Herodotus, bk. ii. ch. 91.)