The Shepherd Kings of Egypt
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THE EISENLOHR COLLECTIQN IN EGYPTOLOGY AND ASSYRIOLOGY PRESENTED TO CORNEI,!, UNIVERSITY BY ^« Abraham X902 7f:t../lj.9:.s:.j. ^pil/M^.. 3947 Cornell University Library BS569 .C18 Shepherd kings of Egypt. 3 1924 029 279 119 olin Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924029279119 THE SHEPHERD KINGS OE EGYPT. BY THE REV. JOHN CAMPBELL, M.A. Professor of Chwch History, <&c., Presbyterian College, MonVreol. [Prom the " Canadian JournaV'l TH£ SHEPHERD KXNGS OF EGYPT. BY JOHN CAMPBELL, M.A., Professatiof (JhurcJi History, Ac, Presbyteriam College, Montreal. li—INTKODUCTION. I have given : the atove title to this article, not because I propose- to confine myself to the individuals or families for whom the name of' Shepherd Kings has-been reserved, but because the Asshurites, whose history I intend to trace; include the Hyksos and the ancient stocks with which they are most closely connected. In my last paper on "the Horites" I directed = attention to a Shethite line, which appeared in the annals of Egypt, Arabia and India as inimical to the descendants of- Seir. This line I there stated to be that of Assh^r, the father of Tekoa. Further researches in connection with the family of Asshur have led me to the discovery of certain errors of identification of which I was guilty in the article on the Horites; and notably that of the Persian Gilshah with Alvan, the son of' Shobal. Much confusion must also necessarily exist in the con- nections of- Jahath, the son of"Alvan, and Ahuzam, the son of Asshur different as these names may at first^sight- appear. The magnitude of the task of i tracing even a single antsient' line through the varioug histories and mythologies of the world, in which its members appear under many disguises and strangely entangled, must be my excuse should similar errors of judgment be found in the present article. The families of Asshur are given in 1 Chron. iv. 5, 6, 7, and are mentioned nowhere else in the Bibl^. Asshur himself is spoken of, however, in the second chapter of the same book at the twenty-fourth verse, where he is represented as a. posthumous child of Hezron, the grandson of Jtidah, by his wife Abiah.i By other wivesj Hezron, we read, was the father of Jerahmeel, Ram and Chelubai, and of Segub. In no other part ' of -Sfcripture is Asshur alluded to, and no other genealogy of -the sons of Jizdah, except that which gives the descent of David from Ram, thfe falther of Amminadab, brings us down farther than the mention of the Hezronites. The short story of his birth and descent is plain and circumstantial. It is not difficult to believe that such a son might have been born to Hezron, and have been the head of a Tekoite family, although his name and those of his children never again occur in the annals of the Jews. But how (1 Chron. ii. 24,) did Hezron, who (Genesis xlvi.l2,) went down with his brethren into Egypt, and (1 Chron. ii. 21,) married a daughter of Machir, the grandson of Joseph, there, come to die in Caleb Ephratah, which was situated in Palestine 1 The question at once arises, " Is this the same Hezron ?" I think not. I would even question that the father of Asshur bore the name of Hezron, and see in this verse a corruption of the text, of which there are, unhappily, too many in the books of Chronicles. I am compelled, indeed, to regard the appearance of the grandson of Judah in connection with the father of Tekoa as an instance of Rabbinical interpolation or tampering with the original of the genealogies here recorded. Hezron, the son of Pharez, cannot have been in any sense the father of Asshur, although he may have entered upon the domain which was once the possession of this ancient hero. I need not apologize for finding Gentile names in the early chapters of the first book of Chronicles. Lord Arthur Heryey has already found that the Kenezitea of chapter iv. 13 are not Israelites, and Professor Plumptre has expressed himself in a similar way even in regard to Temeni, one of the sons of Asshur, whom he connects with the Edomites. There is,, as I have shewn in my last paper, mention made of professedly Gentile families in different parts of the second and fourth chapters, and the whole argument of that paper has been deemed conclusive for the non-Gentile character of the majority of the genealogies of both of these. The Jerahmeelites, called descen- dants of a son of Hezron, I have proved to be distinct as a people, not only from the Hezronites, but from the tribe of Judah itself. Turning to the genealogies of Caleb or Chelubai, which is certainly not a Jewish name, we find such Midianite appellations as Rekem and Zur (1 Chron. ii. 43, 45; comp. !N"umbers xxxi. 8). Among them also we find Maon, a name applied to no Israelite in any part of the Bible, but designating (Judges x. 12, 2 Chron. xxvi. 7,) an inimical tribe allied with Sidonians and Amalekites, Philistines and Arabians. In 1 Chron. iv. 41, the word erroneously rendered "habi- tations " in our English version is clearly the name of this tribe, as many writers have indicated. It ia true that we have (Ezra ii. 50, IKTehem. vii. 52,) Meunim and Mehunim, which are the same word, Isut the peoples so named are of tlie Nethinims, who were no Israel- ites but Gibeonites and other so-called Canaanites admitted to the temple service in the days of Solomon. A glance at the families of the Nethinims is in itself instructive in connection with the subject of the non-Israelite character of the genealogies of the first book of Chronicles. Besides the Mehunims we find the children of Keaiah (Ezra ii. 47) and the children of Paseah (ii. 49) answering to similar names in 1 Chron. iv. 2, 12 ; while others are apparently* later forms of old names mentioned in the same genealogies ; and some, as Sisera, necessarily recall ancient enemies of the Israelites. If it be true that the lines of Jerahmeel and Chelubai are Gentile, it is not at all unlikely that the family of Asshur will be found to follow the same rule. This presumption is rendered still more probable by the fact that the family of Asshur is mentioned shortly after the Horite line of Shobal ; that it immediately follows the families of Etam, whose name gives us the' Egyptian Athom; and immediately precedes that of Coz, the Choos of Eusebius, whose son Ouenephes or Anubis is the Anub of 1 Chron. iv. 8, and with whom is connected the shep- herd king Archies, the Acharchel of the same verse. I need hardly say that in the last mentioned family we also find Bacchus, (Enopion Mid Hercules of the Greek mythology. A divine purpose gave to the sacred writers these important Gentile genealogies, and a human hand was permitted by an all-wise Providence to connect them at a certain period of Israelitish history with the genealogies of the twelve tribes. In 1 Chron. ii. 24, Abiah is given^ as the name of the mother of Asshur. In the fourth chapter of the same book and at the fifth " verse we read : And Asshur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, ? Helah and Naarab. And Naarah bare him Ahuzam, and Hepher, and Temeni, and Haahashtari. These were the sons of Naarah. And the sons of Helah were Zereth, and Jezoar, and Ethnan," The two former of these names, giving to the Hebrew chQth the power of ch and to ayin that of g^ would be Ashchur, Achuzam, Achashtari, Tekoag, Nagarah, Tzereth, Tzochar, Chelah. I may 'mention that the Kri of the Book of Chronicles replaces the yoA which gives the initial letter of Jezoar, or, as it should be, Jezohar, by a vow?, which is the conjunction amd^ so that Zohar or Tzochar is the correct rendering of the Hebrew. In the Septuagint version we meet with important " variations. Thus in 1 Chron. ii. 24 we read : And after the death of Ezron Caleb went to Ephratah ; and the wife of Ezron was Abia; and she bare to him Asqho, the father of Thekoe."^ Tn the fcwirth chapter at the fifth verse also we reads: "And to Asour, the father of Thekoe, were two wives, Aoda. and", Thoada. And Aoda bore to hiin Ochaia, and.Ephal, and Thaiman, and Aasther; all these were the sons of Aoda. And the sons of Thoada, Sereth, and Saar, and Esthanam," Gesenius looks upon the word Ajshchur as identical with, Shachar, to become black, with,a prosthetic aleph. I;fc is certainly strange that the black Asshurites should be in such verbal, opposition to the white Horites. Tekoa, the region. of which, he is called the father, is not Eaentioned in, the earlier books of the Bible, but the name occurs in 2 Samuel, adv. 4, and in later books, as well as in the .first book of- Maccabee^ It lies a few. miles south of Bethlehem on the borders of; the desert. We need not be surprised to ; find a great name, that of Ashchur, connected.with a comparatively small place,, since Shobal, whom we have .recognized as a chief, di-vinity among, many peoples, is spoken of .