Take the story of the Jewish people and their time in Egypt, for example. We all know the Exodus story from the Torah, but what did the Egyptians themselves say about it?
That's where a fascinating, albeit controversial, figure named Manetho comes in. Manetho was an Egyptian priest and historian who lived in the 3rd century BCE. He wrote a history of Egypt in Greek, drawing, as he claimed, from sacred Egyptian records. And it's his account that the historian Josephus cites in his work, Against Apion, when tackling anti-Jewish claims.
Josephus quotes Manetho's version of events, and it’s… well, it’s quite different from the one we're used to. According to Manetho, Egypt was invaded by mysterious people from the East – "men of ignoble birth," as he puts it – during the reign of a king named Timaus. These invaders, known as the Hyksos, easily conquered the land, destroyed cities and temples, and enslaved the population. They even set up their own king, Salatis, in Memphis and fortified a city called Avaris.
Now, the name "Hyksos" is interesting. Manetho explains that Hyc meant "king" in the sacred dialect, and Sos meant "shepherd" in the ordinary dialect, thus "Shepherd Kings." However, he also mentions an alternative interpretation: that Hyc, with aspiration, meant "shepherds" in Egyptian, implying "Captive Shepherds." Manetho himself finds this second interpretation more probable.
These Hyksos, Manetho says, ruled Egypt for 511 years! Eventually, the kings of Thebes led an uprising and drove them out. But here's where it gets really interesting. Manetho claims that these expelled Hyksos, a massive group of 240,000 people, journeyed through the wilderness to Syria, fearing the Assyrians. And what did they do there? They built a city called Jerusalem.
Yes, according to Manetho, the founders of Jerusalem were none other than these expelled Hyksos, around 37 years before Abraham supposedly left Haran. He even says that these "Shepherds" were also called "Captives" in their sacred books, which he sees as aligning with the fact that the ancient Israelites were shepherds. He alludes to the story of Joseph telling the King of Egypt that he was a captive, referencing what we know as the Book of Genesis (Genesis 46:32, 34; 47:3, 4). Although, as Josephus himself notes, Joseph never actually calls himself a "captive" before the king in our version of Genesis.
So, what are we to make of all this? It's important to remember that Manetho's account is just one version of events, and a version, frankly, that's often seen as hostile to the Jewish people. It's crucial to read it critically and compare it with other sources, including the Torah itself.
Many scholars believe that Manetho's account is a distorted and negative retelling of the Israelite Exodus. The Hyksos, in this view, were a foreign dynasty that ruled Lower Egypt for a time, and the Exodus story became conflated and twisted in Egyptian memory.
What's truly compelling here is how history can be molded and reinterpreted to serve different agendas. Manetho's version paints the ancestors of the Jewish people as invaders and destroyers, a stark contrast to the Torah's narrative of enslavement and liberation.
It reminds us that history is never just a simple recounting of facts. It's a complex tapestry woven from different perspectives, biases, and agendas. And it's up to us to unravel those threads and try to understand the full picture, or as full as we can possibly make it. What do you think? How does Manetho's account challenge or change your understanding of the Exodus story?
14. I shall begin with the writings of the Egyptians; not indeed of those that have written in the Egyptian language, which it is impossible for me to do. But Manetho was a man who was by birth an Egyptian, yet had he made himself master of the Greek learning, as is very evident; for he wrote the history of his own country in the Greek tongue, by translating it, as he saith himself, out of their sacred records; he also finds great fault with Herodotus for his ignorance and false relations of Egyptian affairs. Now this Manetho, in the second book of his Egyptian History, writes concerning us in the following manner. I will set down his very words, as if I were to bring the very man himself into a court for a witness: "There was a king of ours whose name was
Timaus. Under him it came to pass, I know not how, that God was averse to us, and there came, after a surprising manner, men of ignoble birth out of the eastern parts, and had boldness enough to make an expedition into our country, and with ease subdued it by force, yet without our hazarding a battle with them. So when they had gotten those that governed us under their power, they afterwards burnt down our cities, and demolished the temples of the gods, and used all the inhabitants after a most barbarous manner; nay, some they slew, and led their children and their wives into slavery. At length they made one of themselves king, whose name was Salatis; he also lived at Memphis, and made both the upper and lower regions pay tribute, and left garrisons in places that were the most proper for them. He chiefly aimed to secure the eastern parts, as fore-seeing that the Assyrians, who had then the greatest power, would be desirous of that kingdom, and invade them; and as he found in the Saite Nomos, [Sethroite,] a city very proper for this purpose, and which lay upon the Bubastic channel, but with regard to a certain theologic notion was called Avaris, this he rebuilt, and made very strong by the walls he built about it, and by a most numerous garrison of two hundred and forty thousand armed men whom he put into it to keep it. Thither Salatis came in summer time, partly to gather his corn, and pay his soldiers their wages, and partly to exercise his armed men, and thereby to terrify foreigners. When this man had reigned thirteen years, after him reigned another, whose name was Beon, for forty-four years; after him reigned another, called Apachnas, thirty-six years and seven months; after him Apophis reigned sixty-one years, and then Janins fifty years and one month; after all these reigned Assis forty-nine years and two months. And these six were the first rulers among them, who were all along making war with the Egyptians, and were very desirous gradually to destroy them to the very roots. This whole nation was styled Hycsos, that is, Shepherd-kings: for the first syllable Hyc, according to the sacred dialect, denotes a king, as is Sos a shepherd; but this according to the ordinary dialect; and of these is compounded Hycsos: but some say that these people were Arabians." Now in another copy it is said that this word does not denote Kings, but, on the contrary, denotes Captive Shepherds, and this on account of the particle Hyc; for that Hyc, with the aspiration, in the Egyptian tongue again denotes Shepherds, and that expressly also; and this to me seems the more probable opinion, and more agreeable to ancient history. [But
Manetho goes on]: "These people, whom we have before named kings, and called shepherds also, and their descendants," as he says, "kept possession of Egypt five hundred and eleven years." After these, he says, "That the kings of Thebais and the other parts of Egypt made an insurrection against the shepherds, and that there a terrible and long war was made between them." He says further, "That under a king, whose name was Alisphragmuthosis, the shepherds were subdued by him, and were indeed driven out of other parts of Egypt, but were shut up in a place that contained ten thousand acres; this place was named Avaris." Manetho says, "That the shepherds built a wall round all this place, which was a large and a strong wall, and this in order to keep all their possessions and their prey within a place of strength, but that Thummosis the son of Alisphragmuthosis made an attempt to take them by force and by siege, with four hundred and eighty thousand men to lie rotund about them, but that, upon his despair of taking the place by that siege, they came to a composition with them, that they should leave Egypt, and go, without any harm to be done to them, whithersoever they would; and that, after this composition was made, they went away with their whole families and effects, not fewer in number than two hundred and forty thousand, and took their journey from Egypt, through the wilderness, for Syria; but that as they were in fear of the Assyrians, who had then the dominion over Asia, they built a city in that country which is now called Judea, and that large enough to contain this great number of men, and called it Jerusalem." [9] Now Manetho, in another book of his, says, "That this nation, thus called Shepherds, were also called Captives, in their sacred books." And this account of his is the truth; for feeding of sheep was the employment of our forefathers in the most ancient ages
[10] and as they led such a wandering life in feeding sheep, they were called Shepherds. Nor was it without reason that they were called
Captives by the Egyptians, since one of our ancestors, Joseph, told the king of Egypt that he was a captive, and afterward sent for his brethren into Egypt by the king's permission. But as for these matters, I shall make a more exact inquiry about them elsewhere. [11]
