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  • From: "Banyai Michael" <banyai AT t-online.de>
  • To: b-hebrew
  • Subject: Re: I am becoming what I am becoming
  • Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 4:17:44


S. Landers wrote:

> Egyptian Xeper [Kheper], similar to Hebrew/Aramaic HWH/HYH
> means, "to be, to become, or the thing which has come into being."
> (Wallis Budge.) Of the god with that name, it is written "xeperu kua em
> xeperu en xepera xeper em sep tepi": "I am the one who came into being
> as Khepri. When I came into being, being itself came into being."
> (Joseph Kaster's translation). There is this play on the verb
> xeper/kheper in many Egyptian writings, especially the Pyramid Texts.

Not to forget the close religious relationship between Heliopolis and
Jerusalem.
All begins with the tradition about Josephs marriage with the daughter of
the
high priest of Heliopolis. If this should a genuine story or not is
secondary to
us.
We have Khepre bugs in Judaea, and according to Helck the equation of
Egyptian
Re, during the Ramesside period, with the semitic deus otiosus, El.
There is the friendly tone of the (post eventu) prophecy of Isaiah
19,18-19:
"On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the
language of Ca´naan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these
will
be called the City of the Sun (Ir Heres=Heliopolis). On that day there will
be
an altar to the LORD in the center of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the
LORD
at its border.".
The events, he speaks of, we may associate with the temple asylum of an
Israelite refugee group in Heliopolis during the reign of Bokhoris
(Josephus, Against Apion).

Now, why couldn´t Yahweh be a direct translation of the known Heliopolitan
formula, instead to suppose it just followed without any purpose its
pattern?

Best regards,

Bányai Michael





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