Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 62:246 (Apr 1905)
Article: New Light From Egypt On The Sacrifices
Author: Melvin Grove Kyle

BSac 62:246 (April 1905) p. 323

New Light From Egypt On The Sacrifices

Rev. Melvin Grove Kyle

I.

MARKS of Egyptian influence upon the early history of Israel, upon her civil and religious institutions, and upon the literature of the Pentateuch have been recognized until quite recent times by all classes of Bible students. Excepting for the moment those later critics and commentators that have favored the late date of the Pentateuch, the whole body of modern comment and criticism and biblical encyclopedia may be cited in support of this statement. Speaking more particularly, Semitic and Egyptian specialists have been fond of tracing correspondences and resemblances between Israel and Egypt in evidence of Egyptian influence upon Israel, and Israelite influence upon Egypt. Among Egyptologists, Chabas, De Rougé, Brugsch, Renouf, Naville, Lieblein, and Sayce, among Old Testament specialists, Hävernick, Hengstenberg, Delitzsch, and Oehler, and many others of both classes of scholars, have traced these correspondences with great care. If some of these, of rationalizing tendencies, have sought in Egypt the sources of Israel’s most sacred institutions, on the other hand, most have recognized a limit to the sphere of influence and correspondences in the social and civil life, in the customs and language of the people, and in the externalities of the religious life,—the architecture, art, vestments and material, and the universal and necessary actions in worship, especially

BSac 62:246 (April 1905) p. 324

in sacrifice; while the origin of the meaning of Israel’s religious institutions, their typical character, and the significance of the ceremonial is wholly assigned to Divine revelation.

Latterly the theory of the late date of the Pentateuch, espoused by many, and thrust forward with great earnestness, has attracted much attention, and around about it the discussion of Israel’s institutions has raged. Those accepting this theory have, by the very necessities of the case, been forced to belittle or ignore any apparent Egyptian influence in the Pentateuch, or account for it by indirect or secondary causes; and the necessity of meeting new opponents on new ground has somewhat turned all others away from the consideration of such influences, until the growing importance of Archaeology in critical discussion has again brought them forward. And they have been urged with such force and persistence that at last, in self-defense, some efforts have been made by the evolutionary school of historical critics to claim the new and rising science of Biblical Archaeology in support of their cause. A most notable instance is Dr. Driver’s essay in “Authority and Archaeology,” which most accurately indicates the attitude in most recent literature of the radical s...