by
Damien F. Mackey
“….
The king gives Sinuhe a sarcophagus of gold and lapis lazuli as a housewarming
gift.
The
gift of a coffin by the king was considered a great honor and a sign of
respect.
In
the Autobiography of Weni from
the Old Kingdom, Weni records that the king had given him
a
white sarcophagus and “never before had the like been done in this Upper
Egypt.” …”.
Courtney Dotson
This quote, full of revisionist significance as I believe, is one
that I had already presented in my article on an Egyptianised Moses:
Moses a Judge in Egypt
For indeed (Exodus 11:3): “... Moses was considered a
very great
man in the land of Egypt, respected by Pharaoh’s
officials and the Egyptian people alike”.
And again (Act 7:22): “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action”.
What may we glean from Courtney Dotson’s statement above?
Well, if Sinuhe was a literary
Moses in Egypt, then that name may be the key to the name “Moses”,
which is Moshe (מֹשֶׁ֗ה)
in Hebrew.
The name “Sinuhe” does not immediately remind one of the name “Moshe”,
though.
However, as I noted in my Introduction
to the above article, the Tale of Sinuhe
(however garbled it may have become over time), must have been based upon the
Exodus story of Moses:
Professor Immanuel Anati has recognized this
Egyptian story, the famous Tale of Sinuhe, as having “a common
matrix” [Mountain of God, p. 158] with the Exodus account of
Moses’ flight from pharaoh to the land of Midian. This is absolutely crucial
for a true revision of ancient history – which should then fit the biblical
history – because it pinpoints a famous biblical incident to a very specific
era of Egyptian history: namely, the end (perhaps by assassination) of the
reign of pharaoh Amenemes I, founder of the Twelfth dynasty, and the early
reign of Sesostris I.
And herein we also pick up that crucial chronological detail, that
Sinuhe-Moses had fled to Midian (when he was “forty”, according to Acts 7:23),
during the reign of pharaoh Sesostris I of Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty, after the
death of pharaoh Amenemes I, who, in turn, was, I am convinced, the oppressive
“new king” of Exodus 1:8, reigning when Moses was born. See e.g. my article:
Twelfth Dynasty oppressed Israel
In this same article I had, based upon some striking parallels
between Amenemes I and Teti - and following Dr. Donovan Courville in his notion
(though not details) that the so-called Old and Middle Kingdoms of Egypt may
have been concurrent - identified Teti of supposedly the Sixth Dynasty (Old
Kingdom) with Amenemes I of supposedly the Twelfth Dynasty (Middle Kingdom).
This now enabled me for a ‘double-grab’ at Moses, as both an old and
a Middle Kingdom notable.
Hence my connecting (quote above) of the genius Weni with the
semi-mythical Sinuhe.
The early Sixth Dynasty, whose successive kings Teti and Pepi (=
Merenre?) the high official Weni is known to have served - as General, Chief
Judge and Vizier - were now to be merged with the early Twelfth Dynasty kings,
Amenemes I and Sesostris I.
Sinuhe is hugely important in all of this.
The Tale of Sinuhe became
ever more famous down through the centuries of Egyptian history and was
popular, we are told with Senenmut (Senmut), the great Steward of the
Eighteenth Dynasty’s female ruler, Hatshepsut. That is not surprising if
scholars are right in identifying Sinuhe with Moses, and I, in identifying
Senenmut with Moses’ great fellow Israelite, King Solomon.
Seeking the roots of the name, “Moses”
“When
the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son.
She
named him Moses, saying, ‘I drew him out of the water’.”
Exodus 2:10
The famous Tale of Sinuhe, copied
and re-copied, must have become distorted and inaccurate over time. For
example, Sinuhe’s warm reception by pharaoh Sesostris I upon his return from exile
does not square at all with the fact that the oppressive old guard individuals in
Egypt whom Moses had known were no longer alive upon his return (Exodus 4:19): “Now the LORD
had said to Moses in Midian, ‘Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill
you are dead’.”
Whilst the name, Weni, appears (at least to me) to be some kind of
nickname, of which the Egyptians and Israelites were rather fond, but having no
discernible relation to the name Moses, the name Sinuhe seemed to hold somewhat
more promise.
As I have pointed out on previous occasions, Petrie regarded the
first element of the name Sinuhe, or Sanehat, the Sa, as the Egyptian word for “son”:
|
sȝ, sȝt (G39) —(en:Gardiner's Sign List)
And I would take the nu element
to indicate “water”
|
n (N35) —(en:Gardiner's Sign List)
Egyptian hieroglyph: Water ripple: phonogram n.
The last part of the name, he,
or hat (= Hathor), is simply the
standard theophoric element that was added to Egyptian names.
In light of this, the name “Sinuhe” might reflect the name “Moses”
as a ‘son of the water’, or ‘born (drawn) from the water’: that is, A water baby.
Moses
originally had an Egyptian name that sounded almost exactly like a Hebrew name.
The
pun involved in the name is elaborate and crosses languages. Names like
Tutmose, Ramose, Amenmose are well attested from Egypt. The addition of -mose
makes it "born of Amen," "child of Tut," or "shaped by
Ra." Obviously, these are names of piety, showing
the child's attachment to the patron god. The final "s" on Moses
(Hebrew Moshe) comes from Greek which does not allow masculine names to end
with a vowel (Yeshua becomes Jesus, Moshe becomes Moses. You will also note
that the Hebrew "sh" in both became the Greek "s" as koine
Greek does not have the "sh" sound).
An
oddity is that the Hebrew name is active (Moshe) instead of passive (Mashuy).
One might expect that his being drawn out would result in his name meaning
"one who is drawn out" instead of "one who draws out."
However, this is a wordplay, not a precise description. The exegete should not
try to be more precise than the original author or speaker intends to be.
It
would be unlikely (but not impossible) that the princess would know the
language of the slaves. However, everything she has already said has been
recorded in Hebrew.
Most
likely, her words were in Egyptian and translated into Hebrew (some might argue
that she said little beyond the name and the rest of the phrase was placed in
her mouth by later writers, but this seems unlikely).
Having
found the child in the Nile, the source of life for Egypt, the princess could
easily have seen the child as given by divine providence. It is possible that
she gave him a longer name (perhaps Ramose after the sun god or Hapimose after
the god of the Nile).
Translating
the princess' words allowed for a sophisticated pun. The name brought to mind
his later works and the translation was rather free (as it often was in those
days). Perhaps she said in Egyptian, "I will call his name 'Mose', for he
was born from the water." The the Hebrew pun is natural and requires
only a small modification to her words when translating: "I will call his
name 'Moses,' for I drew him out of the water."
Where
the Egyptian means "born," it sounds very like the Hebrew "drawn
out." "The one who draws out" is how Moses has always been
remembered (Isa
63:11). The princess drew him from the river to give him physical life. He
drew the Israelites out of Egypt through the water and gave them spiritual
life.
He
was born with a great destiny, and even his name and circumstances of his
naming showed that.
[End
of quote]
Further connecting Sinuhe and Weni-Mentuhotep
A likely further Twelfth Dynasty link is general
Nysumontu, described, like Weni, as a “genius”, and perhaps combining Sinuhe
elements, Ni-su, or Su-ni, with Mentuhotep (through Montu).
Margaret Bunson mentions Nysumontu in connection
with pharaoh Amenemes (Amenemhet) I in Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (p. 26):
Amenemhet) I proved an efficient administrator and
militarily astute ruler. He established his new capital between the boundaries
of Upper and Lower Egypt in order to have increased control of the Delta. He also erected the Wall of the Prince, a series of forts
that safeguarded Egypt’s eastern and western borders. He founded Semna fort in Nubia and routed the
Bedouins on the Sinai peninsula,
using the genius of General Nysumontu.
We know that Weni had battled a Bedouin people known as the “Sand-dwellers” at least five times.
And Dr. Breasted mentions in relation to the inscriptions of
Sesostris I, who was Sinuhe’s pharaoh, a “General Mentuhotep”.
“On the Sinai front, General Nysumontu reported a victory over the
Bedouins in the 24th year of Amenemhat’s reign – this would have safeguarded
the turquoise mining operations at El-Kadim in Sinai. At the same time,
diplomatic relations were resumed with Byblos and the Aegean world”.
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