And you last comment is exactly what we are discussing Byrd. I am not being cheeky, but I believe the Great Pyramid predates all of your commentary on
what and who Egypt was. A date I find accurate would be 8800 BC. Scholars abound that 2500 BC would be accurate. Thats the discussion we are having,
is it not??
I'm so sorry... I kind of lumped your arguments into the same pile as LostInSpace. Ooops!
However....
I don't think you can support an 8800 BC date for the pyramid using the bible. Your source is Isaiah, and if you recall, Isaiah starts out clearly
framing who he is and when he's talking:
1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings
of Judah
This is somewhere about 800 BC, as we all agree.
Now... your verse:
19:1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his
presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
Not "Did come." "SHALL come." It hadn't happened as of 800 BC.
19:17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of
the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.
Note: future tense. Judah hasn't been a military threat to Egypt either before 800 BC or after (Judah. Not Israel.)
Chapter 19 continues with the parallel structure:
19:19 In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD
Again, future tense. When will it come? According to Isaiah, the altar and pillar will be erected when 5 cities in Egypt speak Caananite (they never
did, by the way) and when various calamaties and civil wars afflict Egypt. Further:
19:23 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the
Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians
This announces a unified state or group of states: Egypt, Assyria, and Israel (which hasn't happened yet.)
Assyria didn't exist until 2000 BC, some 1500 years after Egypt was united from Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. So in addition to the future tense
usage that indicates that as of the time of Isaiah it hadn't happened, there is also the issue that there was no Assyria in 8800 BC nor was there an
Upper and Lower Egypt. Or Egypt.
The verse is, however, perfectly consistant with a prophet yelling doom and gloom in the 800 BC era -- a time that is fun for historians to
contemplate but one that must have been agnonizing to live through.
The Assyrians were under the command of Ashurbanipal and his sons and successors, and there was an aggressive war of expansion. Almost all of the
Middle East, except Judah, was chomped up by them and forced into their empire. Egypt gets Assyrian princes as rulers until Psamanik overthrows them
in about 625 BC.
Just for fun, here's a link to a map of the Assyrian empire during this time. Ashurbanipal was such a busy dude!
en.wikipedia.org...:Map_of_Assyria.png
So niether the Bible nor the historical records support an 8800 BC date for the Great Pyramid (which is the YOUNGEST one on that plateau... he wanted
it larger than the others to tower over them in the afterlife.)
I'd toss one other bit into the basket, here: the oldest reliable references we have about the Great Pyramid (not the others, just the last one)
comes from the Roman writer Herodotus in about 400 BC. He is the one who is the source of the "that pyramid took 20 years to build" estimate -- and
that Cheops directed it.
[edit on 23-4-2006 by Byrd]