Pictures of the Israelites? - 22 September 2010 |
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It is commonly supposed that there is no extrabiblical evidence to support the description of Israelite life in Egypt before the exodus. Not so, as Kenneth. A. Kitchen, The Reliability of the Old Testament (2003) has recently demonstrated.
Here’s one example. It’s taken from the tomb chapel of Vizier Rekhmire, which dates from about 1450 BC and is located in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes. (A Vizier was a senior Egyptian administrative official, who reported directly to the Pharaoh.) It depicts many of his achievements during his career, which apparently included enlisting foreign slaves to make bricks.
The accompanying inscription explicitly identifies the slaves as Nubian and Syro-Palestinian in origin. Hence the variation in skin and hair colour, I guess.
Anyway, see how many of the following details you can spot:
- Dark-skinned and light-skinned slaves
- Slaves breaking up clay with some kind of tool
- Slaves making bricks in moulds
- A slave measuring bricks
- Egyptian taskmasters with sticks
- Baskets of wet clay being carried around
- Wet clay being poured out
- Bricks drying in the sun
- Hardened bricks being carried away
Here’s the full image:
And here’s a close-up:
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog