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IN SEARCH OF THE FIRST PROPHET.

/ Topic >  4. On Entertaining the Pharaoh /
/ Forum >  TheologyOnLine - General Theology /
/ Newsgroup > alt.bible.prophecy / 19Jan2002 /

 Prior to the New Kingdom period, Egypt did not have prophets as such; but she did have wise men and sages who occasionally preformed actions later recognized as prophesy. Along with predictions of future events, these activities were also associated with writing. Thus one early proto-prophet was the nameless scribe who wrote about a man named Nefer-Rohu, who was a "lector-priest" (literally, 'he who carries the ritual'). Now this position involves initiation into the sacred writings such that one emerges not merely as a qualified priest, but as a seer and magician also. In other words, prophesy is a very specific activity of the talented 'wise-man', and not the preoccupation of a unique and specialized class of professionals called prophets. Therefore prophesy, like writing and literature, initially developed within the temples, among the scribes and priests.
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 Now Nefer-Rohu, we should note, was not a real historical man, but rather a fictional character within a story written by a scribe of the New Kingdom period (approx 18th Dynasty; after the middle of the 16th century BCE). The story is set in the distant past, however, in the reign of pharaoh Snefru  (IV Dynasty). Thus it so happened one day that the good king summoned his "official council of the Residence City", and asked them to send him a 'wise son' or 'competent brother' or a "friend of yours who has performed a good deed, one who may say to me a few fine words or choice speeches, at the hearing of which my majesty may be entertained" (ANET 444-446).
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 The entertainer who they choose to send to the king is Nefer-Rohu; who proceeds to describe the descent of the Old Kingdom into chaos and anarchy: “This land is so damaged that there is no one who is concerned with it, no one who speaks, no eye that weeps. How is this land? The sun disc is covered over. It will not shine so that people may see. No one can live when clouds cover over the sun. Then everybody is deaf for lack of it.” He eventually goes on to foretell how the two kingdoms are reunited by Amenophis I (XII Dynasty): “Rejoice ye people of his time! The son of a man will make his name forever and ever.”
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 We may suppose that Snefru was suitably entertained, since Nefer-Rohu's impressive tale of troubles and woes ends on a positive note with the triumph of justice and virtue over deceit and wrong-doing: “And justice will come into its place, while wrongdoing is driven out. Rejoice, he who may behold this, and who may be in the service of the king! The learned man will pour out water for me, when he sees what I have spoken come to pass.”
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 From all of this we can see that the qualities and characteristics that mark a man as a prophet are already emerging about three centuries before the time of Moses and the Exodus. Here the proto-prophet first appears as a writer, orator, and/or entertainer in the service of the king. Yet he is also a social commentator, an interpreter (of signs, dreams, and current events), and even (and perhaps even above all) a tradition-breaker. This latter peculiarity is manifested in the fact that Nefer-Rohu does not recognize the divinity of these so-called “great men”, but refers to even one of the greatest pharaohs as simply the “son of a man”.
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 These characteristics of the prophecy-speaker, even at a time when there were as yet no prophets as such (Nefer-Rohu is a high-ranking priest), are important to acknowledge because it is just these qualities (and not fortune-telling) that tend to persist among the prophets throughout the centuries, and which mark them out as a unique class of dedicated and professional servants. Thus we see that prophetic literature (ie. in 'The Prophesy of Nefer-Rohu' we have one of the earliest examples of prophetic literature), prophetic concerns, and prophetic attitudes and dispositions actually preceded the emergence of the prophet as a distinct historical individual. Nefer-Rohu cannot be the first prophet, but he (and others like him) do give us some idea of what to look for in the centuries to come ...
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      - the one who looks under every rock – ttextman ;>
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P.S. Egypt, O Egypt; most ancient of Egypt! ... Hai! Is there
anyone alive today who can truly say they understand it?
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/ Topic >  5. The Invasion & Its Aftermath /
/ Forum >  TheologyOnLine - General Theology /
/ Newsgroup > alt.bible.prophecy / 21Jan2002 /
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 As we slowly crawl our way toward Moses, that great prophet-prince of Egypt, and his epic struggle with Pharaoh (the Exodus is often dated to c.1280BCE), we notice that during the period leading up to (and into) the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BCE) Egypt's fortunes as a nation rise and fall just like those of all the other nations: “After Amosis drove out the Hyksos and established the Eighteenth Dynasty, the Egyptian kings dedicated themselves to preventing the Hyksos disaster from ever happening again. The period of Hyksos domination was a chaotic and shameful time for the Egyptians, and they were determined never to see a foreign king lording it over Egypt ever again. These were warrior-kings, great generals who did not stand apart from their people in divine aloofness. They were active administrators who built up fortifications all along the Egyptian border and actively seized territories outside of Egypt, such as Palestine and Syria. These kings subjugated foreign lands and exacted high taxes, making Egypt wealthy and powerful again. They didn't tolerate foreigners, who were treated relatively badly. Among those foreigners or sojourners were the Hebrews (Egyptian ‘apiru’ = ’foreigner’), whose national identity was formed in their epic migration from Egypt in the thirteenth century BC” (Richard Hooker).
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 And as Egypt grew and developed her culture, technology, and various systems, other peoples around the Mediterranean Basin and the Fertile Crescent were also growing and developing. Those that expanded their nation into empires were those which had an edge over other nations and the older rival empire. 4X: The Assyrians had their edge in sheer brutality; but a very highly disciplined brutality based on a considered foreign policy. The Hittites built their empire upon their new and superior weapons of iron. The Persians had wisdom and a more ‘civilized’ religion, as well as military might. Alexander's armies had a brilliant commander, as well as the will to accomplish the impossible.
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 Each new civilization arises out of the blood and ashes of the previous empire. Each empire has its day of glory, and then fades way, a victim of its own success, now unable to maintain that original passion and creativity that built upon the resources at hand, and building better than others were able to force their way forward and make their mark on the world; before the next young and hungry nation finds its own new edge that gleams with the promise of worldly power and glory.
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 The net result of these centuries-long conflicts between rival kings, cultures, gods, and soldiers is to force a generalized development in civilization through the expansion and dissemination of better and more highly rationalized systems. A good example of how this works is the Roman Empire, whose edge over the competition was its practical genius for taking the best from other nations, and ignoring the rest. Combining the advanced rationalism of the Greeks with their own talent for fighting and war and administration, and just plain getting things done, made them the most successful empire by far in the ancient world.
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 Now there was a time when the People of the Nile did not really care much for the world beyond Egypt's borders, but all that changed when the eternal kingdom fell to the rule of foreign invaders. After the Middle Kingdom period ended (1786 BCE) bands of mixed nomads moved into Egyptian territory from 'Asia' (ie. Palestine and Syria). They “gradually spread throughout the Nile Delta, and they seized control of Egypt about 1670 B.C. During the fighting, the immigrants used horse-drawn chariots, improved bows, and other tools of war unknown to the native Egyptians. The immigrants' leaders, called the Hyksos kings, ruled Egypt for about 100 years” (Lesko). Needless to say, these events did not sit well with the People of the Nile:
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 “The desert has spread throughout the land; the nomes [ie. districts] are destroyed; barbarians from outside have come to Egypt and really there are no People [ie. Egyptians] anywhere. A man of character goes into mourning because of what has happened in the land ... Foreigners have become people everywhere ... The land is full of gangs; a man goes to work with a shield... Crime is everywhere, there are no men like there used to be... Hearts are violent, storm sweeps the land, there's blood everywhere and no shortage of dead ... What shall we do? What can we do? There is no good man anywhere... The hotheaded man says ‘If I knew where God was, I'd serve him.’ ... If only this were the end of man, no more conceiving, no more births! Then the land would cease to shout and tumult would be no more! Woe is me for the grief of this time! ... The wise says ‘yes’, the fool says ‘no’, and the ignorant is satisfied ... Authority, knowledge and truth are with us, but we only make turmoil, and nobody listens to what anybody says.” -- from 'The Admonitions of Ipu-wer'
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 And after the invaders were removed from throne and country, the new warrior-Pharaohs set the nation on the road to empire, such that expansion and advancement went hand in hand. “These warrior kings built mighty statues to their greatness and adorned their tombs with lavish wealth. The greatest of these warrior-kings was Tuthmosis III, a brilliant and fierce general” (Richard Hooker). As Pharaoh's rule spread out from Egypt, the riches and wealth of the conquered nations flowed back to Egypt; with much of it going into the temple treasuries. And then came the fourteenth century, which would prove to be a major turning point in the spiritual development of humankind.
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- one who marks the rise and fall of empires – textman ;>
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P.S. Yes, there IS a point to all this; and yes, we ARE getting somewhere!
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Goto Chapter Six

textman

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