Rela;cmn.—Herodotus states that the Egyptians had three orders of gods—the first, second, and third—whereof the first was the most ancient. Num, Nu, or Kneph, was one of the most import ant of the gods, corresponding to the ' soul ' of the universe, to whom was ascribed the creation of gods, men, and the natural world. He is repre sented as a man with the head of a ram and curved horns. The chief god of Thebes was Amen, or Amen Ra, or Amen Re Khem, also worshipped in the great oasis, and sometimes portrayed un der the form of Kneph. He was the Jupiter Ammon of the classics. The goddess Mid, or ' the mother,' is the companion of Amen, and is repre sented as a female wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, and the vulture head-dress of a queen. Khem was the god by whom the produc tiveness of nature was symbolised. His name re minds us of the patriarch Ham. The Greeks identified him with Pan, and called Chemmis, a city in the Thebals, where be was worshipped, Panopolis. He is accompanied by a tree or a flower on the sculptures, which may have been, as supposed by Mr. Poole, the asherah or sacred grove spoken of in the Bible. Ptah was the god of Memphis, and worshipped there under the form of a pigmy or child ; but as his temples have been de stroyed little is known of his worship.* The god dess Neit or .Areith is often associated with Ptah. She was the patron deity of Says in the Delta ; and the Greeks say that Cecrops, leading a colony from thence to Athens, introduced her worship into Greece, where she was called Athene. This name may be derived from the Egyptian, if we suppose the latter to have been sometimes called Thenei, with the article prefixed like the name of Thebes. She is represented as a female with the crown of Lower Egypt on her head. Re, or the sun, was worshipped at Heliopolis. His common figure is that of a man with a hawk's head, on which is placed the solar disk and the royal asp. Thoth was the god of science and letters, and was worshipped at•Hermopolis Magna. His usual form is that of a man with the head of an ibis surmounted by a crescent. Bast was called Bubastis by the Greeks, who identified her with Artemis. She is represented as a lion or cat•headed female with the globe of the sun on her head. There is a similar goddess called Pasht. Ater was the daughter of Ra, and corre sponded to the Aphrodite of the Greeks; the town of Tentyra or Denderah was under her protection. Siiu represented solar or physical light, and or Thma (Thernis) moral light, truth, or jus tice. Sebak was a son of Ra. He has a croco dile's head. Osiris is the most remarkable per sonage in the Egyptian Pantheon. His form is that of a mummied figure holding the crook and flail, and wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, generally with an ostrich feather on each side. He was regarded as the personification of moral good. He is related to have been on earth instructing mankind in useful arts, to have been slain by his adversary Typhon (Set or Seth), by whom he was cut in pieces ; to have been bewailed by his wife and sister Isis ; to have been embalmed ; to have risen again, and to have become the judge of the dead, among whom the righteous were called by his name, and received his form :—a wonderful fore feeling of the Gospel narrative, and most likely symbolising the strife between good and evil. Isis was the sister and spouse of Osiris, worshipped at Abydus, and the island of Philx. Horus was their son. Apep, Apophis of the Greeks, an enor mous serpent, was the only representative of moral evil. The worship of animals is said to have been introduced by the second king of the second dy nasty, when the bull Apis at Memphis, and Mnevis at Heliopolis, and the Mendesian goat, were called gods. The cat was sacred to Pasht, the ibis to Thoth, the crocodile to Sebak, the scaraboeus to Ptah and a solar god Atum. In their worship of the gods, sacrifices of animals, fruit, and vegetables were used, as well as libations of wine and incense. No decided instance of a human sacrifice has been found. A future life and the immortality of the soul were taught by the priests. After death a man was brought before Osiris : his heart weighed against the feather of truth. He was questioned by 42 assessors as to whether he had committed 42 sins about which they inquired. If guiltless he took the form of Osiris, apparently after long series of transformations and many ordeals, and entered into bliss, dwelling among the gods in perpetual day on the banks of the celestial Nile. If guilty he was often changed into the form of some base animal, and consigned to a fiery place of punishment and perpetual night. From this abstract it may be seen that the Egyptian religion is to be referred to various sources. There is a trace of some primaeval
revelation in it. There is a strong Sabwan element, and it is remarkable that the verb to adore is ex pressed by the symbol of a man in a posture of worship with a star. There is also much of cosmic religion or nature worship in its higher and lower forms apparent in it. It is, however, to be ob served, that this subject is not yet understood as we may hope to understand it.
The Exodus.—With respect to the much vexed question as to the date of the Exodus, it will per haps be advisable to mention the various opinions which have been held. Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. i. 42, supposes Joseph to have ar rived in Egypt during the t2th dynasty, in the reign of Osirtasen or Sesertesen I. The new king who knew not Joseph' he takes to be Ames, or Amosis, the first of the t8th dynasty, and finally believes the Exodus to have occurred under Thothmes III. He thinks the change of dynasty under Ames the Diospolite very likely to have been accompanied by that enmity and oppression which are attributed to the king who knew not Joseph,' The Israelites, on their first arrival, may have ob tained a grant of land from the Egyptians, on con dition of certain services being performed by them and their descendants. As long as the Memphite dynasty lasted this compact would be respected, but when the Thebans came to the throne it would not improbably be broken, while the service would be 'still required, and would rapidly be changed into bondage. Sir G. Wilkinson places the Exod us in the fourth year of Thothmes III., whom he supposes to have survived the destruction of his army in the Red Sea, on the ground of there being, as he perhaps somewhat rashly observes, no au thority in the writings of Moses for believing that Pharaoh was himself drowned. The next view is that of the present Duke of Northumberland, also given in the 1st vol. of Anc. Egyptians, p, 77 ; he supposes the new king who knew not Joseph' to have been Rameses I., and that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was Meneptah, Ptahmen, or Ptah menoph, son of Rameses II., the last king of the 18th dynasty ; cogent reasons are advanced in support of this view, which are accepted by Bun sen and Lepsius, and may be seen as above. The third opinion is that of Mr. Stuart Poole, who believes that Joseph's Pharaoh was Assa, or Assis, the fifth king of the 15th dynasty of Shepherds, and that the Exodus occurred under later Shepherds. He con siders it more likely that a race of foreign kings than one of pure Egyptians should have been the patrons of the Israelites in the time of Joseph. He thus places the Exodus as high as 1652 B.C. See his argument in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. Such are the various theories on this disputed and per haps unascertainable point. We believe that the preponderance of evidence is now considered to be in favour of the latest date for the Exodus, or about 130o B.C. The French Egyptologer, M. Chabas, has recently found a name, apparently of foreign captives, employed by the Egyptians in building and quarrying under the 19th and later dynasties. This name he reads A perui, and shews that it may reason ably correspond with the Hebrews, but this people is found as late as Ranieses IV., probably B.C. cir. 1200, certainly after 1300, and this neces sitates the supposition that if the Hebrews are meant, some must have been left at the Exodus or some of the mixed multitude.' In this case the earlier occurrence under the 19th dynasty proves nothing.
It is hoped that the following chronological summary of names and events will be found use ful :— The principal prophecies relating to Egypt are as follows :—Is. xix. ; Jer. xliii. 8-t3, xliv. 3o, xlvi. ; Ezek. xxix.–xxxii., inclusive. In the course of what has been said several allusions have been made to portions of these prophecies—we cannot pretend to investigate them all, but it may be ob served that the main reference in them seems to be to the period extending from the times of Nebu chadnezzar to those of the Persians, though it is not easy to elucidate them to any great extent from the history furnished by the monuments. Nebu chadnezzar appears to have invaded Egypt during the reign of Apries, and Sir G. Wilkinson thinks that the story of Amasis' rebellion was invented or used to conceal the fact that Pharaoh-Hophra was deposed by the Babylonians. It is not improbable that Amasis came to the throne by their interven tion. The 4o years' desolation of Egypt, Ezek. xxix. to, is a point of great difficulty, and for the illustration or interpretation of this, as well as we must be content to wait. Mr. Poole thinks it may refer to the condition of the country under Inaros.