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Nir Cohen:
The taboo against Egyptians breaking bread with
foreigners (Genesis 43: 32), and the taboo against shepherds (Genesis 46: 34),
were likely closely related, and probably only applied during the 18th
Dynasty. The 18th Dynasty had finally managed to liberate
On a more general level, we know from the Amarna Letters
that having a meal with foreigners meant that one was in alliance with those
foreigners: “Meals sealed alliances
and were shared only by allies and friends.” Wm. Moran at p. 250, note 6 to Amarna
Letter EA 162. In that Amarna
Letter, Pharaoh Akhenaten reams out Aziru of Amurru for having a meal with
Akhenaten’s enemy, the Hurrian princeling of Qadesh on the Orontes: “You are at peace with the ruler of
Qid$a. The two of you take food and
strong drink together. And it is
true. Why do you act so? Why are you at peace with a ruler with
whom the king is fighting?” Amarna
Letter EA 162: 22-29. For a more
benign instance of this same general phenomenon that meals sealed alliances, see
Amarna Letter EA 161: 22. Thus it
would be taboo for an Egyptian to dine with foreigners unless
On the other hand, by the time we get to the Amarna Age
(near the end of the 18th Dynasty), it was possible for a Semite from
"With the immense influx of slaves, merchants and
foreigners of more elevated status as the 18th Dynasty progressed,
To the best of my knowledge, the o-n-l-y time when both shepherds from Canaan were taboo in Egypt, a-n-d a descendant of shepherds from Canaan could nevertheless become Pharaoh's top vizier (such as Joseph Biblically and Aper-el historically), was the Amarna Age.
Jim Stinehart |
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