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b-hebrew - Re[2]: Nomadic Scribes?

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  • From: Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re[2]: Nomadic Scribes?
  • Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 22:13 -0500 (EST)



Ian asked:

>If an Israelite called Moses
>was indeed brought up at the Egyptian court, he would very likely have
>learned to write on papyrus.

What evidence have you got to support such a conjecture?

From "New Bible Dictionary" article "Moses" by KA Kitchen: "In due
course princes were given a tutor, usually a high official at court or
a retired military officer close to the king (H. Brunner,
Altagyptische Erziehung, 1957, pp.32,33); Moses doubtless fared
similarly. Egyptian education included reading and writing of the
hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts..., the copying of texts (especially
classical literature), instruction in letter-writing and other
administrative accomplishments... On Egyptian education, see the work
of Brunner mentioned above for full sources."

Moses' Semitic background was no bar to his progress, for (from the
same article) "Semites and other Asiatics could be found at every level
of Egyptian society in the New Kingdom... some reached positions of
high influence and responsibility in the state and its
administration... Under the Ramesside kings Asiatics were still more
prominent. Thus one of King Merenptah's trusted cupbearers was the
Syrian Ben-'Ozen of Sur-Bashan..."

Kitchen concludes: "once the veracity of Ex. ii. 10a,11 is granted,
that Moses did have a court upbringing (which the Egyptian background
makes natural and typical), then the assumption becomes obligatory that
Moses was subjected to the kind of intellectual training referred to
above in Egyptian scripts, literature, and administrative methods..."

Thus Kitchen argues that the premise "Moses was brought up at the
Egyptian court" implies the conclusion "Moses was literate". I know
you don't accept the premise, so why do you try to fault the
argument also?

By the way, why should any Pharaoh's body be missing? I guess you
think that Exodus claims that he was drowned in the Red Sea, but the
text certainly does not say that unambiguously, only that the army
which he sent to follow the Israelites perished. I would guess
(without consulting commentaries) that "Pharaoh" in 14:10 is a figure
of speech for "Pharaoh's army" and that the actual king (in the
scenario envisaged by the author of Exodus), after mustering his
troops (14:6,7), stayed safely in his capital city, mourning for his
first-born son.

Ian also wrote:

There is nothing to suggest the means of maintaining records in pre-exilic
Palestine.

Well, if you don't accept even as suggestive evidence the physical
survival on papyrus (which you did not dispute) of one of those
records (see my separate posting), what evidence would you accept?

Peter




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