Biblical Hebrew Forum

[RGmyrken AT aol.com]

Dear Joe Baker,

   I can't really evaluate your Setnakht suggestion, but I don't believe that 
there is a suggestion of impropriety in Manetho's statement about Or, "This 
king, he states, conceived a desire to behold the gods, as Or, one of his 
predecessors on the throne, had done."  To see the gods seems a worthy, even 
blessed state, and purifying the land of pollutions, as advised by Amenophis 
son of 
Paapis (described as having "wisdom and knowledge of the future") also seems 
a 
positive.  The troubles with the gods apparently began when he put priests 
(including Osarseph a priest of Osiris) to work in the quarries.  Osarseph 
then 
became an enemy of Egypt, revived the banished cult of Seth-Typhon, etc.  At 
least that's my reading of the passage.

Best regards,
Russell Gmirkin

> Russell - The main thrust of my post was to argue that Manetho placed  
> the "tale" of the expulsion of Osarsiph and his Asiatic allies in the  
> reign of Setnakht and that an "official" account of this incident is  
> told in an inscription of Setnakht. Maybe your idea of the anti-Seti  
> background of Manetho's source is one way of explaining why the name  
> Amenophis came to replace that of Setnakht.
> 
> I am not bound to my Or = Oros = Akhenaten suggestion. I have no  
> objections if you wish to see him as Horus. Now I know that Manetho  
> included Orus amongst his first pre-dynasty dynasty of gods (at least  
> in Eusebius' version). But for me, Manetho's reference to a  
> "predecessor" implies a more recent king - and not a more distant  
> ancient god/demigod. It's just seems convenient that the only Oros   
> that appears in Manetho's dynasty list from 1 to 19 holds the position  
> where one would expect to see Akhenaten - and I would point out that  
> Marianne once observed (but now does not hold to it) that Waenre, one  
> of Akhenaten's most prominent name (places were named after it and his  
> family used it to refer to him in their epithets) could have been  
> pronounce like Ware. Also this Or wanted to do something that was  
> regarded as religiously inappropriate - one aspect that every later  
> Egyptian would see in Akhenaten. Rather difficult to see how, if this  
> Or was one of Manetho's ancient god-kings, he would have a desire to  
> see the gods when he and his parents and family were all gods.
> 
>