Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 34:135 (Jul 1877)
Article: Notes On Egyptology
Author: Joseph P. Thompson

BSac 34:135 (July 1877) p. 537

Notes On Egyptology

Joseph P. Thompson

Dr. Brugsch’s History of Egypt under the Pharaohs1 will hardly prove what the Germans style an “epoch-making” book; but it certainly does mark an epoch in the science of Egyptology—the transformation of scattered individual monuments and dismembered inscriptions into a consecutive chronological history of the Egyptian empire. Thirty years ago Bunsen made his bold attempt to determine “Egypt’s place in Universal History.” The materials were not then ready for such an undertaking, and hence Bunsen’s was too much a work of speculation to serve as a permanent basis of history. Yet Bunsen had the true notion of what was to be learned in Egypt, and through Egypt for the history of mankind, and though his methods were faulty and his results incomplete, his principles were unquestionably sound. He grasped the conception that the monuments of Egypt were true records of her chronology; that by means of the monuments it would be possible to restore the chronology embodied in the dynasties of Manetho; and that this chronology would furnish a sure foundation for Egyptian history. And he declared his confidence in this system of investigation in

BSac 34:135 (July 1877) p. 538

these prophetic words: “We are convinced that it may and will be the lot of our age to disentangle the clue of Egyptian chronology by the light of hieroglyphical science and the aid of modern historical research, even after the loss of so many invaluable records of the old world; and thus to fasten the thread of universal chronology round the apex of those indestructible pyramids, which are no longer closed and mysterious.” 2 This prophecy is in part fulfilled in Brugsch-Bey’s history, which is based directly upon the monuments, and is built up around a frame of chronology for which the monuments furnish materials vastly more abundant than were known in Bunsen’s time. Indeed, since Dr. Brugsch published the first part of his Monumental History of Egypt3 in 1859, researches, discoveries, interpretations, have so increased these materials that in this first German edition the author has been obliged to recast the whole work, and to modify opinions and conclusions then put forth with confidence.

With the candor of the scholar, Dr. Brugsch supplements the deficiencies and corrects the mistakes of his earlier attempt; but even the experience of twenty years does not seem to have taught him the caution which is as necessary to the historical critic as to the scientific investigator. His fancy is too ready to supply some coveted information; his enthusiasm...