Egyptian Influence in Israelite Stories and Religious Traditions
Egypt deserves special attention because it is one of the most important settings in the Old Testament. Egypt is not only the place from which Israel escapes in the book of Exodus. It also appears in the stories of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Solomon, Jeremiah and many later biblical figures. For the biblical writers, Egypt was both familiar and powerful. It represented wealth, learning, military strength, royal authority and ancient religious tradition. At the same time, it could represent oppression, foreign control and the temptation to rely on human power rather than God. This makes Egyptian influence a complicated subject. The Old Testament contains Egyptian names, loanwords, imagery and cultural settings. But this does not mean that every biblical story set in Egypt was copied from Egyptian texts. In many cases, the writers may have used Egyptian ideas, objects and symbols while changing their meaning to fit Israel’s own understanding of God. Moses and Egyptian Memory T...