by
Damien
F. Mackey
Genesis 32:4:
“So
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak”.
Wrestling
with a young man was also a feature of the ancient Egyptian Heb-Sed festival,
as is apparent from the case of pharaoh Zoser, builder of the Step Pyramid,
which I have held to be a ‘material icon’ of Jacob’s dream of a Stairway to
Heaven.
Celebrating
the rejuvenation of the king's powers every 30 years, the heb-sed
festival was a demonstration of a king's strength and prowess. During the
festival the king ran around a heb-sed court performing feats of
strength to demonstrate his ability to continue to rule Egypt. In doing so he
experienced rebirth, maintaining his position as a god on Earth.
The
heb-sed court of King Zoser at Saqqara is a long rectangular open court
where the king performed the heb-sed ritual, part of which was to
wrestle with a young man in order to prove he was strong enough to continue
ruling Egypt. A limestone relief in a chamber under the Step Pyramid shows King
Zoser during his heb-sed festival running between the markers representing
Upper and Lower Egypt. On the east and west sides of the open courtyard are
several symbolic chapels—the interiors were filled with rubble—and only the
platforms in front of the chapel were used. Statues of the king and the gods
were placed in niches along the wall, and the platforms may have been used for
ceremonies during the festival. ….
[End
of quote]
Zoser’s vizier,
Imhotep, is thought by many to have been Jacob’s son, Joseph.
Joseph, of course, knew the future and accurately interpreted the pharaoh’s dream (Genesis 41):
Part Two: Jacob
and Joseph
“Patterns
of evidence” is presently being touted as a most useful methodology – and
rightly so.
The era
of the substantial Third Dynasty pharaoh,
Zoser (c. 2670 BC, conventional dating) has been favoured by some revisionists
- myself included - as being the most likely time for Jacob and Joseph in
Egypt, with Zoser’s vizier, Imhotep, thereby accepted as Joseph.
That
would necessitate a lowering of pharaoh Zoser on the time scale by about a
millennium.
Among
the “patterns of evidence” for this scenario are the highly important reference
to a seven-year famine; the Step Pyramid, reminding one of Jacob’s dream of a
Stairway to Heaven; and, as I noted recently in:
with
reference to Genesis 32:4, Jacob’s wrestling with the man (angel): “wrestling with a young man was also a
feature of the ancient Egyptian Heb-Sed festival, as is apparent from the case
of pharaoh Zoser”.
http://www.arabworldbooks.com/egyptomania/sameh_arab_sed_heb.htm
“One of the more remarkable signs of the Heb Sed can be found at
the Djoser (3rd Dynasty) Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara, where remnants of the
Heb Sed court were found, as well as an inscription on a false doorway inside
the pyramid”.
A further potential “pattern of evidence” is the testimony of the Papyrus Chester Beatty IV
(British Museum ESA 10684) that Imhotep, among others, could tell the future
with certainty (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/literature/authorspchb.html):
Is there another like Imhotep?
….
Those who knew how to foretell the future,
What came from their mouths took place ….
Joseph, of course, knew the future and accurately interpreted the pharaoh’s dream (Genesis 41):
38 And Pharaoh said to his servants,
“Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?”[c]
39 Then Pharaoh said to
Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise
as you are. 40 You
shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command.[d]
Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” 41 And Pharaoh said to Joseph,
“See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet
ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and clothed him in garments of
fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. 43 And he made him ride in his second chariot. And
they called out before him, “Bow the knee!”[e]
Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. 44 Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh,
and without your consent no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of
Egypt.”
Included in Papyrus Chester Beatty IV is Ptahhotep, a legendary
seer, who, like Joseph, lived to be 110 years old (Genesis 50:26): “So Joseph died at the age of
a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in
Egypt”.
Some of
what follows has been suggested to me by John R. Salverda. See also his:
The Hebrew Origins of Argolian Mythology
Interestingly,
the wise Imhotep was said to have the son of Ptah. The Greeks recognized the Egyptian god Ptah as their
“Hephaestus,” who had a permanent limp as a result of contending with the chief
god, Zeus (cf. Genesis 32:24-32).
The image of Ptah is a mummified
man (Jacob was mummified. See Genesis 50:2), wearing what modern Egyptologists
have called a ‘Punt’ beard (this term was developed for the beard because it resembles
the style of beard that Puntites, whom the Egyptians regarded as their
ancestors, also wore). In Dr. I. Velikovsky’s theory, Punt is identified as
Palestine. (It may better relate to Phoenicia).
Ptah is the main god of the city of
Memphis, where the “Theology of Memphis” shows a remarkable affinity to the
theogony of Genesis.
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