The daily gazette., 1874-12-29
An Interesting discovery.

Biblical students will be interested
to learn the striking results OF investi-
cations made by Henry Brugsch .Bey
on the subject of the Exodus. This
gentleman is Vice-Presidcnt of the
free schools at Carlo, and is one the
most learned and careful of Egyptolo
gists. He has spent a long time in
studying ancient records and in ex-
amining the country, in order to test
the Bible account. According to the
record given by Moses, that leader,
having obtained per mission from the
Pharaoh to take the children of Israel
into the desertto offer sacrifice to the
Almighty, conducted them out of
Raamses, and thence by several short
journeys to the sea. The effort of
Brugsch -Bey has been to find the city
of Raamses, to trace the journey, and
|tb discover point where the passage
could have been made without suppos-
ing an absolute miracle.
In the museum of Liege letter was
found, in which the writer reports that
he has observed an order to distribute
grain to the Hebrews employed upon
the stene, for the great fortress of the
city of Raamses," Other documents
show that city was built by Raamses
III A poet has written an enthusiastic
culogy upon the city, and on the re-
verse of this writing is an account rem
ldered by the masons, appointed to see
that the Eprion (Hebrews) make every
day, under the supervision of brutal
soldicry, the number Of bricks requir-
ed of them. Raamses is now certainly
recognized in the gigantic ruins of the
ancient Tanis, called Zan by the
Egyptians and Zoan by the Hebrews.
This explains, by the way, two verses
in the seventy eighth Psalm:
"Maryelous things did He in sight OF their
fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field Of
H aS ane He ae bs %aers
to stand rs an heap.
The city of Raamses, then, was
situated upon the frantic branch OF
the Nile, then very large stream, and
was the key to the passage between
Egypt and Asia. 1t was near the for
tress of Migdol where the 1sraclites
made halt, and is not far from anoth'
cr district of which the Capital
Pithone, was one of the "trasure cities
built by the Hebrews, according to
the book of Exodus. These severa
districts, as also Goshen. which, the
Pharaoh of the time gave to Jacob, were
inhabited, not by Egyptians, but by
the Khalon, mixed race which r'iiec
over the Phnnicians and the Bedouin'
lof Arabia, and which even now oc
cupies the borders of Lake Menzaleh
1.-THE journey of the Hebrews from
Raamses to Migdol is exactly the fol
: lowed, according to apapyrus In tn
British Museum, by man charged wl'l
the duty of pursuing and recovering
1.-TWO slaves who had escaped from tn
Q service OF some great lord of the EgyI
r tians. These slaves also tried TO reacl
? the desert, fieeting from Raamses I
= Succoth, thence to Khatom (the Ethan
of the Scriptures), and to Migdol. i
2 Moses took this route and did not en-
ter at once into the and of the Philis
] tines, it was because Raamses ii. ha'
with that people treaty, the text o
Which, engraved upon a monument
vet exists at Thebes BY this treat.
Raamses and the Prince OF the khe
items, the most powerful OF the ruler
in the land of Canaan, mutually boun'
themselves to return all persons escaI
ed from the service of the other, int
their own territory. In consequenc
of this knowledge of this treaty, Nose
r led the people of Israel more to tn
north, and crossed not the Red Sea
but at the lower coasts of the Meditel
ranean, the lake anciently called Sill
bonis.
The high tide which overlook tn
Troops of Pharaoh Meneptah, son 9
lPharaoh .Raamses IL, in whose regi
tho exodus took place,is common OF
. currenoe in these parts. Both Strab
and Diodorus Siculus cite facts whic
go to show that in the regions calle
tthe gulfs,n sudden swcllings OF th
= water are observed, and at such tim
: King Artaxerxes, who was leading @
expedition against Egypt, lost hs
whole army by drowning. The az
n count of the journey of the Hebrew
under Moses, is entirely consiste1
with these facts and this theory. The
followed the wilderness of Shut
which is situated between the Med
terrancan and the Gulf of Suez. TT
bitter waters of Marah are the bracl
ish waters of the Suez lakes. Elm
whcre they made halt, is to-day CO
= lied Elm Mussa. 1t was only aft
! they had crossed the isthmus, thi
y they turned and came to the wilderne
of Sinai.
BY comparison of the Bible wit
ancient documents and geographic
facts, Brugsch-Bey had been enable
} to offer reasonable, simple, and pos
tive explanation of an event whic
biblical commentators have for mol
than eighteen centuries badly compr
hended and wrongly interpreted. +
does not reject the theory of DiviI
Intervention for the relief of the chi
dren of Israel, but he does show whei
and how certain natural phenomena
might have come to their relief ,espet
ally if Moses had happened to kno
the curious freak at the point whe
4. he crossed.
l L.. L