The Relationship Between the Jews and Ancient Egyptians

One of the mysteries of history (which has significant relevance for the Lost Story of Humanity, the Ancestral Tradition Hypothesis, and the Theory of a Lost Civilization) is the relationship between the Jews and the Ancient Egyptians.

The Bible tells the famous story of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt at the will of Moses, who led his people out of Egypt across the Red Sea and into the Levant and Mesopotamia. As the story goes, he parted the Red Sea with his magic (however, more likely, they simply walked around the northern end of the Red Sea along what is called the Sinai Peninsula.) One of the great synchronicities of history is that this is most likely the same route that our ancient ancestors took when homo sapiens left Africa permanently.

The main issue with this Biblical narrative, is that we have no idea when it happened.

Establishing The Timeline (Amidst The Errors of Biblical Chronology)

First, there are many who doubt that the Jews were ever enslaved in Egypt. Yes, we have a long-term Jewish presence in Egypt — except we know that they were not slaves. At least not at the time around when Biblical chronology suggests the Moses story took place.

Biblical scholars generally date the era of Moses somewhere around 1200 BCE according to Biblical chronology. However, there are major issues with this. The most important being that there is no evidence for this date. It just happens to roughly fit into Biblical chronology, which has major issues in and of itself.

This time period is in New Kingdom Egypt (preceded by the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom periods) during which time we know some Jews lived in Egypt. The problem is that the Jews had been there for centuries, were integrated into Egyptian culture, and practiced Egyptian Religion. Specifically, they were known as The Followers of Set, who was one of the gods of Egypt, the counterpart of Isis and Osiris.

They were not slaves. They had their own merchant quarter in the city (like Chinatown) many of whom were incredible wealthy. So wealthy in fact that their people ruled Egypt as kings for a time, known as the Hyksos Kings. All the evidence that we have simply doesn’t suggest the right conditions that required an Exodus.

This is a major unresolved issue in establishing what is true within Biblical history (and what is not) along with the greater history of Egypt and the region itself. There are not that many clear paths towards a solution available. However, my instinct is that we might have to look back further.

The Linguistic Relationship Between The Jews and Ancient Egyptians

So, in order to start the investigation here into this specific topic, I want to draw your attention to one specific fact: the relationship between the Jews and Ancient Egyptians language.

The Hebrew language spoken by the descendants of Abraham is a Semitic language. Other Semitic languages includes Phoenician and Canaanite, which can be considered as siblings of Hebrew. However, all three of these are the descendants of the Akkadian language, which was spoken by the Akkadians, who built the worlds first cities along with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Minoans.

The Akkadians practiced Sumerian Religion (which can probably be more accurately called Sumero-Akkadian Religion) and theirs was the language of Babylon and the Babylonian Empire after Sumer and the Akkadian Empire fell. Abraham was an Akkadian man, and he would have practiced Sumerian Religion, which is why the traditions of the Bible — the core traditions of the Hebrew Bible specifically — are found first in Sumerian Religion.

What I want to draw your attention to specifically is that Semitic languages, such as Akkadian, are of the Afro-Asiatic language family of which Old Egyptian is also a member. In the same way that German, English, French, Gaelic, Hindi, Vedic Sanskrit, Greek, Iranian, and Persian are all of the Indo-European language family. Akkadian, Hebrew, Canaanite, and Egyptian are all of the same family.

Considering The Afro-Asiatic Language Timeline

What is important to consider here, is the fact that Akkadian — the oldest known Semitic language on record — and the ancient Egyptian language were both documented by about 3000 BCE. What this means is that these languages had already diverged from one another in the centuries of millennia before, which also tells us that the connection between the Semites and Egyptians was before 3000 BCE.

This is important because the Hebrew tradition clearly recalls their people being in Egypt, but specifically as slaves. We known they were there around 1500 BCE around the New Kingdom period, when Biblical scholars often suggest the Moses story to have taken place. But the problem is that archaeology doesn’t support the enslaved Hebrew scenario at this time.

But could it have happened earlier?

The fact that resonates very strongly with me is that Semitic and Egyptian languages being of the Afro-Asiatic language family tells that they were once a single people. In this case, not necessarily ethnically homogenous (which is more accurate among Indo-European speakers) but possibly for the same reason that African Americans speak English — slavery. The fate of an enslaved race.

The fact the languages of the Jews and Egyptian are both Afro-Asiatic languages is important, and tells us that at one time, the people lived together, in the same region, in some unknown dynamic. This is a definitive fact.

Another fact is that this had to have taken place before about 3000 BCE because at this time we already have a distinct Ancient Egyptian and Akkadian presence in their respective homelands for this period. Therefore the only place that we can look is backwards in time.

This leads me to the question:

Could the Jewish Exodus story have actually taken place between the Dawn of History and the End of the Last Ice Age (3000—9700 BCE, respectively)? Or could it have happened at some point even earlier, perhaps during the Last Ice Age?

The Exodus: An Ice Age Memory?

First, there really is no distinct evidence for this. Not to my knowledge. Nor am I truly suggesting it took place so far back with any certainty. What I am saying with certainty is that the connection between the Semitic and Egyptian languages is definitely earlier than 3000 BCE. Which means that if there is any truth to the Biblical Exodus story, it is likely that it took place before this date as well.