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60 The Dynasty of the Oppression

The Dynasty of the

Oppression

Some say the Is ra el ites la bored in Egypt dur ing the 6th Dy nasty; while
oth ers claim the dy nasty of the op pres sion was the 19th. Still oth ers
pro claim the 18th to be the one -- or the pe riod of the Hyksos rul ers of
Egypt! By turning to the Bi ble and ex am in ing the works of early his to -
ri ans, the dy nasty of the op pres sion be comes very ap par ent to those
who are seek ing the TRUTH with an open mind!

John D. Keyser

I n the works of Flavius Josephus (1st-cen tury A.D. Jew ish his to rian) we read the fol low ing:

Now it hap pened that the Egyp tians grew del i cate and lazy, as to pains tak ing; and gave
them selves up to other plea sures, and in par tic u lar to the love of gain. They also be came
VERY ILL AFFECTED TOWARDS THE HEBREWS, as touched with envy at their pros -
per ity; for when they saw how the na tion of the Is ra el ites flour ished, and were be come em i -
nent al ready in plenty of wealth, which they had ac quired by their vir tue and nat u ral love of
la bour, they thought their in crease was to their own det ri ment; and hav ing, in length of time,
for got ten the ben e fits they had re ceived from Jo seph, PARTICULARLY THE CROWN
BEING NOW COME INTO ANOTHER FAMILY, they be came very abu sive to the Is ra el -
ites, and con trived many ways of af flict ing them; FOR THEY ENJOINED THEM TO CUT
A GREAT NUMBER OF CHANNELS [CANALS] FOR THE RIVER [NILE], AND TO
BUILD WALLS FOR THEIR CITIES AND RAMPARTS, THAT THEY MIGHT
RESTRAIN THE RIVER, AND HINDER ITS WATERS FROM STAGNATING, UPON
ITS RUNNING OVER ITS OWN BANKS: THEY SET THEM ALSO TO BUILD
PYRAMIDS, and by all this wore them out; and forced them to learn all sorts of me chan i cal
arts, and to ac cus tom them selves to hard la bour. And FOUR HUNDRED YEARS did they
spend un der these af flic tions.... (An tiq uities of the Jews, chap.IX, sec tion 1).

Within this pas sage from Josephus lie sev eral CLUES that will help us to de ter mine the dy -
nasty of the op pres sion of the Is ra el ites.

The Change of Rulership

Josephus men tions that one of the rea sons the Egyp tians started to mis treat the Is ra el ites
was be cause “THE CROWN [HAD]...NOW COME INTO ANOTHER FAMILY.” Does Egyp tian
his tory re veal a time when the crown of Egypt passed into the hands of a to tally un re lated fam ily?
In deed it does!

The Berean Voice