reply to post by Zerbst
“Of the many accounts told over hundreds of years from various individuals, not one mention of Pyramids anywhere?”
The Sphinx and the Great Pyramid are easily the most recognizable landmarks in Egypt, the Great Pyramid being the only one of the original Seven
Wonders of the World to have survived. But today we are told they are not found in the Bible?
Presently there are nine different routes for the Exodus and Red Sea crossing. With each route placing the encampments of Israel in different
locations. Is something wrong? Yes: they started from the wrong location! They have Israel on the east side of the Nile Delta, but Artapanus (second
century B.C.), Philo (20 B.C. - 50 A.D.), Josephus (first century A.D.), Eusebius (263–339 A.D.), and John of Nikiu (seventh century A.D.) all have
Moses or the children of Israel on the west side of the Nile, with the confrontation between Moses and the king of Egypt at Memphis, again west side
of the Nile.
The Exodus route has some 40 plus encampments on it (Numbers 33
, usually only one identification for each is given, but the sea crossing is marked
with four sites, Baal-zephon, Migdol, Pi-hahirot and the sea itself, with Israel encamped between them. It would seem God wanted to mark this site
well and yet today we have a lot of question marks as to these four place names, and because each of the nine routes for the Exodus have a different
sea crossing, they also have these place names in different locations!
I am saying that “Pi-hahiroth” (pronounced “pē hah•khē•roth’”, Strong's Concordance with
Hebrew Lexicon. The “pē hah” is Hebrew and the last part is believed to be Egyptian), is the ancient site of Khereha, also spelled Kher-ahau
(vowels are conjecture; this name is similar to the name Cairo and located just south of it). And “the sea” is a flooded delta (7th plague),
“Baal-zephon” is the Sphinx and “Migdol” is the Great Pyramid.
The name Migdol is found seven times in the Bible and Strong’s #4024, has it as “Migdol =
tower”. It is translated “tower” three times in the Old Testament; the other four times it is left untranslated and simply given as
“Migdol”, as it is found in the Exodus account (Exodus 14:2 and Numbers 33:7). Some believe Migdol could have been a fort, but the Bible told us
Israel was avoiding war! The ancient Egyptian name for a pyramid was “Mir”; it was the Greeks who first started calling them “pyramids”,
hundreds of years after the time of the Exodus. So the Hebrew Bible is not going to use the Greek name to describe them. For the Jews it was Migdol, a
tower, they were simply calling it by what it looked like to them, as we would say the Eiffel Tower. Pliny the elder (Roman author, first century
A.D.), when talking about the pyramids of Egypt, said the same, on the “Libyan side, are the towers [Latin = Turres] known as the Pyramids.”
Baal-zephon, Strong’s #1168 gives for “Baal” = Lord, and #6828 “zephon” = north, or “Lord of the north”. Baal-zephon was the god of the
Assyrians and Phoenicians, and was worshiped in Canaan. The children of Israel were familiar with Baalzephon from their time in Canaan before they
came to Egypt, and one would expect Israel to use a name they were familiar with. Just as the Egyptian god Amun was called by the Greeks, Zeus and by
the Romans, Jupiter, so the Sphinx was called Baalzephon by the Jews.
The name Baal-zephon is given three times in the Bible and all three are at the sea crossing.
Josephus did not say that Baal-zephon was a city, but only called it a “place.” “[O]n the third day they came to a place called
Beelzephon....” The book Legends of the Jews said it was place with both an Idol and a temple “…. the great sanctuary of Baal-zephon was
situated” Jewish sources say that Baalzephon was an idol, “before the idol Zephon,” (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Exodus 14
, “idol of Zephon,”
(Targum Onkelos, Exodus 14
. The Sphinx and its temple are located next to each other.
Jewish sources make an interesting comment about this idol. “Of set purpose God had left Baalzephon uninjured, alone of all the Egyptian idols. He
wanted the Egyptian people to think that this idol was possessed of exceeding might, which it exercised to prevent the Israelites from journeying
on.” (The Legends of the Jews, III, Pharaoh Pursues the Hebrews, also Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Exodus XIV). The Bible declares that on the night of
the Passover, besides smiting all the firstborn, God “executes judgment” on all the gods of Egypt. But as quoted above, the reason Baal-zephon was
still standing was to give Pharaoh a false hope in this idol. The Sphinx would be the only possibility for Baal-zephon, for all believe it was
standing when the children of Israel left Egypt! What other idol could it have been? These Jewish sources just quoted said Baal-zephon was the only
one left. It was and is still there; we are left with very few possibilities to pick from. It could not have been some carry-around idol that was set
back up, but of necessity it would have to have been very large, for it was used as a landmark for a nation.
The Uraeus, or cobra, was the symbol of lower or northern Egypt (Please keep in mind the geography of Egypt. “Lower” Egypt is in the north, and
“upper” Egypt is in the south! The Nile flows from south to the north, the opposite of the Mississippi river.) Pharaohs wore both the vulture and
the cobra on their headdress to show they were the rulers of the two lands, or Upper and Lower Egypt. On the upper forehead of the Sphinx is clearly
seen the Uraeus or cobra and it is made from the stone of the Sphinx itself, not something added on later. A two-foot limestone piece of the
Sphinx’s cobra is now in the British Museum #1204. Since the Sphinx only had the cobra (Uraeus), as a permanent part of it, and therefore was a
symbol of northern Egypt, it was a clear sign to all the Egyptians that the Great Sphinx was “Lord of the north”, and to the Hebrews, this was
Baal-zephon!
For more on this see =
www.sinai-horeb.com...
As to the Bible being only symbolic and not to be interpreted literally, as a couple of the post wrote; once we leave the normal meaning of words,
there is no end to the possible interpretations, it only depends on how big of an imagination one has. Christ and the Apostles always interpreted the
Old Testament literally. Archaeologists will cherish any papyrus they find in the sand of Egypt, and they interpret these literally, but rarely do
they question the religious beliefs of its Egyptian author, who would have worshiped a multitude of gods, half of which were animals!
