This proposition would not now be generally accepted by Egyptologists, therefore adequate proofs of its accuracy must be presented and all objections satisfactorily answered.

I. All admit that a foreign people called the Aperiu (Apuru, Aperu, Apuriu) are mentioned in various hieroglyphic texts, and that these Aperu are found engaged in constructing buildings for Ramses II. at the very time and in the same localities in which, according to the Bible account, the Hebrews were at work.

M. Chabas pointed out thirty years ago that the hieroglyphic group Aperi-u was the "correct transcription" of the Hebrew name "the Hebrews," to which it "corresponded exactly" letter for letter-since “b” was often transcribed "bp" or "p" by the Egyptians-with the exception of the final plural, "which the Egyptians never imitated."* Although this identification has recently been disputed on the ground that the only accurate transcription of the name would be with a "b" or "bp," the following observations will show why we continue to accept it.

1. It is admitted by all that the Egyptians had no letter corresponding in sound to the Hebrew Beth (our "b"), so they could not have expressed it more nearly than "bp."

2. A slight inaccuracy in the Egyptian use of the name ought not to surprise us. No nation has ever been particularly scrupulous about its orthography or pronunciation when it referred to its slaves. Even our Southern brethren did not always spell the ethnical name of their colored laborers with lexicographic accuracy.

3. But the Egyptian scribes were noted for their carelessness in spelling Semitic names. In the hieroglyphics even the name of the Semitic King of Egypt, Sesaq (Eng., “Shishak ;" LXX, “Zovoakiμ"), oscillates between "Sesenk" and "Sesek." So the Egyptian records, it would seem, when compared with the cuneiform tablets recently excavated, show an equally careless spelling of the name of Tii, the Asiatic wife of Amenophis III. Similar variations occur in spelling the names of the native Egyption rulers on the monuments-e.g., Mena, Menes; Betan, Neter-bau; Chufu, Chufuf; Ra-men-ka-u, Men-ka-u-ra; Kaka, Ranefer-ar-ka, etc.‡ If the scribes were not sure of the orthography even of the name of the Pharaoh and his family, it would be unreasonable to expect scientific inerrancy when they incidentally mentioned the makers of brick and drawers of water. Such inaccuracies of spelling are common in all ancient and even in modern literature. In an Anglo-Saxon poem of the thirteenth century I have found Moses reproduced as "Moesen;" the Land of Goshen as "land gersen ;" and, what is more to the point, the Hebrews appear under the various disguises of "Folc. ebru," "Ebru," "Ebrius,' 99 66 Ebruis," Ebris," and "Ebrisse !''§

99 66

"Melanges Egyptologiques," Paris, 1862.

+ Lepsius, "XXII. Royal Dynasty," London, 1858.

Wiedemann, "Agyptische Geschichte," Gotha, 1884-88.

Unique Ms., Cambridge. Published by Richard Morris, London, 1865.

4. The softening of the harsh "Hebrew" into the milder "Aperu" is following precisely the analogy of the language. Thus the Hebrew Migdol becomes in Egyptian "Makthel;" Megiddo, "Maketha;" Horeb, "Horep," etc. Every philologist is acquainted with this tendency.

5. This identity of the names becomes conclusive, when we remember that the masters of a slave people would write their name as they commonly spoke it-not as the slaves themselves wrote it.

Mr. F. J. Bliss has lately given a striking instance of how the inhabitants of Ma'lula commonly pronounce the Arabic "b" like "p," and adds: "This difference is observed to-day in the Oriental pronunciation of the classic Syriac."* Thus, Mecca was once "Bekka," and Pompey's pillar is yet" Bombey's pillar" to the Semitic donkey boys of Alexandria. That the Egyptians would have pronounced Hebrew in a softened form no one can doubt. That greatest of living Egyptian scholars, P. LePage Renouf, has recently shown (without indicating its bearing upon the topic before us) that in Egypt, as in South Germany, "the popular ear was not able to discern between 'd' and 't,' or 'b' and 'p;' so that the Egyptians would have said, 'Got pless you!' for our rough 'God bless you!'"† It is easy to see, therefore, how they would pronounce the Semitic name "Hebrew," and that they would almost infallibly write it as they themselves pronounced it.

All of the above considerations, taken in connection with the irrationality of supposing that two foreign peoples-one called Abperi-u (which all admit to be the exact hieroglyphic transcription of "the Hebrews") and the other called Aperi-u-would be found among the laborers at Ramses and Pithom in the Mosaic age.

II. The references to the Hebrews in the papyri are not inconsistent with the Bible record.

This is the chief difficulty, and the one which has led the representative Egyptologists to refuse assent to the identification of the Aperu with the Hebrews. It is said that the appearance of this term in the inscriptions long before the Exodus, and again at a period which must necessarily have been long after the Exodus, settles the question that this Aperi-u was not the word by which they spoke of the Hebrews.

One would think, however, that the scientific method would compel the acceptance of so satisfactory an identification, even if thereby one were forced to revise his theory of the date of the Exodus, or of the position of Israel after the Exodus. But a careful examination of the facts does not seem to even render this a necessity.

1. This designation is never met with but once previous to the Ramesside epoch, and that is in a single sentence found on the back of a papyrus of Thothmes' day, and reads, "Let the Aperi-u ride out." But there is no inconsistency here. Does any one deny that the Israelites were at that time in Egypt? Does not the Bible distinctly affirm that even Joseph was *Pal. Exp. Fund, April, 1890.

*Soc. Bib. Arch., vol. xi.

called by the Egyptians "the Hebrew"! That these earliest-mentioned Aperi-u are indicated as youths," and not as "servants" or "foreignwould simply show that at that era the Oppression had not begun, or had not become universal.

ers,

2. Two official documents mentioning the Aperi-u have been preserved from the days of Ramses II. Both of these indicate the Aperi-u as a foreign people, and speak of them as "dragging stones" for Pharaoh Ramses for building purposes to the city of Ramses and elsewhere. All this is in striking correspondence with the biblical statement of the Hebrews' work (Ex. i. 11).

3. The most objectionable references, however, are those which are admitted by all to be later than the time of the Exodus. One occurs in an inscription of Ramses III., in which he speaks of his gifts to the Temple of On: "I purified An. . . . I built its temple, which was gone to decay, . . . provided with men like sand. . . . The officers, children, chiefs, Aperi-u, and men who are in detention in that place, 2093. Total heads, 12,363."* Even later, in the third year of Ramses IV., an inscription was made at the quarries of Hammamat, in which, among the workmen mentioned, are "800 Aperi-u."

M. Chabas explained these references by saying that either these were Hebrews who had been employed in the south of the empire, and therefore had not been able to answer to the call of Moses; or else they were a troop of the discontented Israelites, who had not only lusted after the onions and garlic of Egypt, but had actually deserted and returned to their former labors.t

Dr. Kellogg calls especial attention to the fact that these Aperi-u, mentioned later than the Ramesside epoch, are not indicated simply as foreigners, but in the one instance as "prisoners' and in the other as "bowmen." He draws the conclusion that the conquerors of Palestine were a military people by this time, and that the Hebrew captives, naturally enough, were sent back to their old employments by their old masters.

4. It is objected by those who do not sanction the explanations attempt-' ed above that the name Aperi-u is connected with the Egyptian root aper, “to provide," and that the word itself is therefore only a common name, designating a 'class of laborers. According to the view of the present writer this would not militate against the identification of the Hebrews and Aperi-u. It is really not inadmissible to suppose that a play on words was made in this case, such puns being as common in Egypt as in the days when Christus was changed into the less honorable Chrestus; or in those later times when the good Abbot gave the three young Angles a heavenly citizenship by calling them Angels; or in our day, when a whole class of workmen are nicknamed " Paddys," and Mr. Ingersoll appears occasionally under the sobriquet of "Mr. Injure-soul."

* Fac-simile, "Great Harris Papyrus," London, 1876.

"Abraham, Joseph and Moses in Egypt," Rev. Alfred H. Kellogg, D.D., N. Y., 1887.

5. A better explanation is at hand, however—an explanation which it is surprising has not been previously offered.

No one claims that the name Aperi-u occurs prior to the appearance of the Hebrews in Egypt. The difficulty only arises in explaining the occurrence of this word in later times, when it seems to have had a general application, and to be used in the sense of laborers," as, for example, in the text, "The Aperi-u of the Anu"-the Anu being, as is supposed, a Nubian people, or, as others think, a geographical designation. But what could be more natural than that the name originally given to the vast multitude of Egyptian slaves because of their race should finally be given to all other slaves, irrespective of their nationality?

It is unquestionably true that in some parts of the South the term "Nigger" has been used to designate all the despised classes of society, whatever their color or nationality.

There are various classical instances of national or ethnical names sinking into dishonorable appellatives. Take a perfect parallel. Originally the term Slav was a national title meaning "the people" or "the glorious;" but because of the servitude of the nation (precisely as in the case of the Hebrews, if our view is correct) the "Slav" became the "Slave," and the national title became degraded until it could be indifferently applied to workmen of any race.

III. There is a striking parallel between the references of the Egyptian records to the Hebrews and their references to the Hyksos.

The Hyksos probably entered Egypt in as inconspicuous and inoffensive a way as did the Hebrews several centuries later. They multiplied rapidly, however, and presently seized the reins of government and held the supreme sovereignty of Egypt for perhaps five hundred years. What do the monuments have to say of these centuries of disaster? Nothing!

That these shepherds were builders and sculptors is only known by a few broken sphinxes and splintered statues. That they ever built themselves temples is only known by the few words which their later occupants have failed to dig from the walls after they had pitched out the hated foreigner from his sacred abodes. That they had dominion for this half millennium is only monumentally proved by a triumphant record of Ramses the Great, stating that he was celebrating the anniversary of their expulsion. Not a single Hyksos papyrus, tablet, tomb, or mummy has ever been discovered. What was the national name of this powerful people? No one can answer. It has not been preserved. When the Egyp tian records were compelled to mention them they described them either vaguely or abusively. They were the "Asiatic shepherds" or the " nomads of the East," or even the "impure people" or "the pestilence." name Hyksos is a Semitic word either meaning "the chiefs of the shep

The

The converse of this process sometimes takes place, e.g., the word thane (theyn) was a title of nobility in England certainly as early as the ninth century, and yet as late as Aelfric's time it still continued to be used in the old sense of servant ("Homilies-The Assumption of St. John").

herds," and is connected with the root "to pillage," or else it is a term of contempt, meaning "bound with chains.

In later times, as M Naville long ago pointed out, this name became synonymous with pleb." The parallel is suggestive. The Hebrew shepherds were of the same race and came from the same fatherland as the Hyksos shepherds. They received the same hatred. They received the same hatred. Their memorials and history were allowed to fall into the same oblivion. The one was accused in Manetho's history of leprosy, the other was called in the hieroglyphic texts"the plague;" the one was described as "the polluted people,” the other was called impure; while the name of each people is seen to have been degraded into a common term for the laborers of any race.

SERMONIC SECTION.