DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.548#0047
44
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
In our document, the slave-people are desig-
nated Armau, which is not a national denomi-
nation, but an Egyptian word that means confe-
derates, or rather, literally, sworn-in together,—
"oi o-vvui/ioo-iMvoi." This is already strong enough
to shew the connection of our slave-people with
the Moses party in Manetho's story.
The next point of resemblance is stronger still.
Of course Moses would teach his people and his
converts the faith of his fathers, and make them
offer sacrifices, and keep the feasts of the Lord,
according to the customs of his fathers. In Ex-
odus xii., 2, the Lord's address to Moses at the
season of the Feast of First Fruits, is "This
month is your beginning of months; it is to you
the first of the months of the year." Of old,
this festival was kept on the day of the new
moon following the Spring equinox, and that
also was the very festival the Hebrews wanted
to keep in the year of the Exodus, for which
Pharaoh so obstinately refused to grant leave of
absence.*
Now, in perfect conformity with the above, we
learn from our papyrus that at the time Seti II.
reigned in Egypt, the party of slave-people (whom
we otherwise recognize by their name, as above,
as the party under the religious guidance of Moses)
wanted to celebrate a festival they called " the be-
ginning of months," which was kept in the spring
* This subject is fully developed in my two consecutive
papers "On the historical origin of the Passover," in the Jour-
nal of Sacred Literatwre for October 1854, and January 1855.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
In our document, the slave-people are desig-
nated Armau, which is not a national denomi-
nation, but an Egyptian word that means confe-
derates, or rather, literally, sworn-in together,—
"oi o-vvui/ioo-iMvoi." This is already strong enough
to shew the connection of our slave-people with
the Moses party in Manetho's story.
The next point of resemblance is stronger still.
Of course Moses would teach his people and his
converts the faith of his fathers, and make them
offer sacrifices, and keep the feasts of the Lord,
according to the customs of his fathers. In Ex-
odus xii., 2, the Lord's address to Moses at the
season of the Feast of First Fruits, is "This
month is your beginning of months; it is to you
the first of the months of the year." Of old,
this festival was kept on the day of the new
moon following the Spring equinox, and that
also was the very festival the Hebrews wanted
to keep in the year of the Exodus, for which
Pharaoh so obstinately refused to grant leave of
absence.*
Now, in perfect conformity with the above, we
learn from our papyrus that at the time Seti II.
reigned in Egypt, the party of slave-people (whom
we otherwise recognize by their name, as above,
as the party under the religious guidance of Moses)
wanted to celebrate a festival they called " the be-
ginning of months," which was kept in the spring
* This subject is fully developed in my two consecutive
papers "On the historical origin of the Passover," in the Jour-
nal of Sacred Literatwre for October 1854, and January 1855.