The Israelites built cities in shapes. The pyramids were built by foreign workers from Asia
By Panina Galpaz-Feller, Haaretz, 28/3/04
In the Passover Haggadahs, next to the inscriptions "And they built cities of danger to Pharaoh and Ramses" (Exodus 11:14) or "And they made their lives bitter in hard servitude in clay and bricks" (Exodus XNUMX:XNUMX), illustrations of a pyramid and beside it the Israelites laboring in labor often appear.
According to the biblical description, the Israelites built dangerous cities: cities in shapes, warehouses, silos. Joseph ben Mattathieu (100-37 AD), in his book "The Antiquity of the Jews", associates the construction of the pyramids with the Israelites. In the description of slavery, he writes: "And they exhausted the strength of the members of our race in the building of the pyramids, until they became experts in various arts and skilled in labor" (Book Two, pp. 204-203). But the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, starting with the third dynasty (2700-2600 BC), was much earlier than the estimated period of slavery of the Israelites in Egypt (13th century BC). Why, then, did Josephus attribute the construction of the pyramids to the Israelites?
The pyramid is a triangular burial structure. The Greek word "pyramid" probably originates from the Egyptian language, and was used to indicate the height of the structure; The term was copied by the Greeks to refer to the entire structure. The pyramids were found on the west bank of the Nile, where, according to Egyptian belief, the kingdom of the dead resided. According to the Greek historian Herodotus (484-425 BC), the construction of the pyramid of Khufu lasted about twenty years, and the construction cost amounted to 1,500 pieces of silver. The Khufu pyramid is the largest pyramid of all and was considered, from its construction in the middle of the third millennium BC until the middle of the XNUMXth century, to be the tallest structure ever built by man.
The pyramid is the oldest of the "Seven Wonders of the World" and is the only wonder that has survived almost intact. The interior of the pyramid, the corridors, rooms and chimneys, are an architectural miracle. Even today it is hard not to admire the pyramids. However, this is not enough to include them in the description of the slavery of the Israelites.
The biblical description of the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt contains elements that recall the description of the construction of the Tower of Babel: "Let us make brick and burn it for fire, and let them make the brick stone, and they have the clay for clay, and they said, 'Let us build us a city and a tower with its top in the sky'" (Genesis 4:3-XNUMX). It is the description of making bricks with clay and material that probably created in Josephus the identity between the pyramids in Egypt, whose top is "almost" in the sky, and the work of the Hebrews.
And perhaps Joseph's apologetic tendency was behind his description. His choice of the pyramids and his accommodation for the work of the Hebrews intensified the feeling of suffering and torture that were the lot of the people, and at the same time glorified the work of the Hebrews and their contribution to human culture. Yosef ben Matatiyo was probably also nourished by the wall paintings in the tomb of the vizier Rahmirah in Thebes (15th century BC), which depict the making of bricks by Asian foreigners. The dark-skinned workers build a sloped embankment, reminiscent of the side of a pyramid. Another photo shows workers bringing mortar and piling it into a pile. The clay was prepared with the help of water, which was taken from a pool visible nearby. Another worker is seen taking material from the pile to make bricks. Prominent among the workers are supervisors (reminiscent of policemen and police officers), who supervise the execution of the work.
We will not be able to verify what were the reasons that influenced Joseph's arguments. Today it is known with certainty that foreign workers, including Asians, were employed in the construction of public buildings in Egypt and it is possible that among them were also the Israelites. But the Israelites certainly did not build the pyramids.
Joseph's mistake did not go away. In the search for decorations for the verses of the Passover Haggadah, especially those referring to hard work in Egypt, since the Middle Ages the decorators used paintings depicting the Israelites building buildings in the shadow of the pyramids. Haggadah readers over the years have made such a link themselves. Sometimes it is difficult to learn from the illustration if the Israelites built the pyramids, or if the pyramids are only used as a background for forced labor.
Dr. Galfaz-Feller is a lecturer in the Bible and Ancient Near Eastern cultures at the Shechter Institute for Jewish Studies
Courtesy of Walla
2 תגובות
First check the scientific timeline that is not damaged and then draw conclusions
B. The claims that "certainly" it was not the Israelites who built the pyramids, a city of slaves they found near the pyramids who lived at a high level. Eat meat, take good care of them, and if so, it is not the people of Israel.
But in the Torah it appears that the people of Israel complained in the desert, we remembered the watermelons and onions we ate in Egypt.
When we sat on the pot of meat... you see that even though they were enslaved they had good conditions and there is no proof from this...
Thanks!!!
The Israelites lived in the Judean Mountains, or perhaps east of the Jordan, and Egypt ruled the coastal plain. Apparently, the meaning of the story that passed from word of mouth for about 500 years until it was written down was that the Israelites descended from the mountain to the coastal plain, that is, from a broken area to an area under the administrative control of the Egyptians. The story went through many embellishments until it was brought to the scriptures.