Osarsiph and the Exodus

Here’s an interesting passage I came across in doing some research today. In Against Apion 1.26, Flavius Josephus provides the following (very) lengthy quotation from the Egyptian priest Manetho, who writes of an incident that some of suggested reflects the Egyptian version of the Exodus story. I hadn’t read this before, and it’s an interesting tale.

Since the Weebly block quote function puts everything in italics, I’m going to present it as a chunk of text so it’s easier to read. I pick up the story from William Whiston’s translation right after the pharaoh Amenophis orders all of the lepers of Egypt to work in the quarries.

After those that were sent to work in the quarries had continued in that miserable state for a long while, the king was desired that he would set apart the city Avaris, which was then left desolate of the shepherds, for their habitation and protection; which desire he granted them. Now this city, according to the ancient theology, was Typho's city. But when these men were gotten into it, and found the place fit for a revolt, they appointed themselves a ruler out of the priests of Heliopolis, whose name was Osarsiph, and they took their oaths that they would be obedient to him in all things. He then, in the first place, made this law for them, That they should neither worship the Egyptian gods, nor should abstain from any one of those sacred animals which they have in the highest esteem, but kill and destroy them all; that they should join themselves to nobody but to those that were of this confederacy. When he had made such laws as these, and many more such as were mainly opposite to the customs of the Egyptians, he gave order that they should use the multitude of the hands they had in building walls about their City, and make themselves ready for a war with king Amenophis, while he did himself take into his friendship the other priests, and those that were polluted with them, and sent ambassadors to those shepherds who had been driven out of the land by Tefilmosis to the city called Jerusalem; whereby he informed them of his own affairs, and of the state of those others that had been treated after such an ignominious manner, and desired that they would come with one consent to his assistance in this war against Egypt. He also promised that he would, in the first place, bring them back to their ancient city and country Avaris, and provide a plentiful maintenance for their multitude; that he would protect them and fight for them as occasion should require, and would easily reduce the country under their dominion. These shepherds were all very glad of this message, and came away with alacrity all together, being in number two hundred thousand men; and in a little time they came to Avaris. And now Amenophis the king of Egypt, upon his being informed of their invasion, was in great confusion, as calling to mind what Amenophis, the son of Papis, had foretold him; and, in the first place, he assembled the multitude of the Egyptians, and took counsel with their leaders, and sent for their sacred animals to him, especially for those that were principally worshipped in their temples, and gave a particular charge to the priests distinctly, that they should hide the images of their gods with the utmost care he also sent his son Sethos, who was also named Ramesses, from his father Rhampses, being but five years old, to a friend of his. He then passed on with the rest of the Egyptians, being three hundred thousand of the most warlike of them, against the enemy, who met them. Yet did he not join battle with them; but thinking that would be to fight against the gods, he returned back and came to Memphis, where he took Apis and the other sacred animals which he had sent for to him, and presently marched into Ethiopia, together with his whole army and multitude of Egyptians; for the king of Ethiopia was under an obligation to him, on which account he received him, and took care of all the multitude that was with him, while the country supplied all that was necessary for the food of the men. He also allotted cities and villages for this exile, that was to be from its beginning during those fatally determined thirteen years. Moreover, he pitched a camp for his Ethiopian army, as a guard to king Amenophis, upon the borders of Egypt. And this was the state of things in Ethiopia. But for the people of Jerusalem, when they came down together with the polluted Egyptians, they treated the men in such a barbarous manner, that those who saw how they subdued the forementioned country, and the horrid wickedness they were guilty of, thought it a most dreadful thing; for they did not only set the cities and villages on fire but were not satisfied till they had been guilty of sacrilege, and destroyed the images of the gods, and used them in roasting those sacred animals that used to be worshipped, and forced the priests and prophets to be the executioners and murderers of those animals, and then ejected them naked out of the country. It was also reported that the priest, who ordained their polity and their laws, was by birth of Heliopolis, and his name Osarsiph, from Osyris, who was the god of Heliopolis; but that when he was gone over to these people, his name was changed, and he was called Moses.

The text as given presents several possible interpretations, all of which have their supporters. Because the pharaoh’s name is a Amenophis (i.e. Amenhotep), which was what Akhenaten was called before he introduced worship of the Aten, some have argued that this is a jumbled account of the Amarna period, as filtered through the damnatio memoriae that followed his chaotic reign. (Josephus considered Amenophis to be fictional.) The references to Avaris, the Hyksos capital, suggest a relationship to that period. But the story overall reads as a highly negative take on the Jewish Exodus narrative, particularly the final reference (sometimes thought to be an interpolation) to the name of Moses. Many have therefore suggested that the tale was originally written as anti-Jewish propaganda.

According to Egyptologist Jan Assmann, the story is not a specific recollection of any one historical incident but rather a conflation of many. Writing in Moses the Egyptian (1998), Assmann argued that Manetho had to have written before the Egyptians had contact with the Hebrew Bible and was therefore recording an oral tradition current among the Egyptians. Assmann believes that the oral tradition combined elements of Akhenaten, the Hysksos period, and oral accounts of Jewish Exodus beliefs. Assmann, however, believes that the idea of Moses and monotheism originate in Akhenaten’s reforms—and is publishing this year a new book called From Akhenaten to Moses to outline his evolving view of the origins of monotheism.

This is beyond my scope for this piece, but it’s interesting to look at this strange passage from Josephus and the fragments of memory embedded in it. And then we can remember that Frank Joseph, the former head of the American Nazi Party, used this material in Opening the Ark of the Covenant (2007) as evidence that the Jews were really “leprous Asiatics” who stole their culture—and treasure—from Egypt.