| This study looks at the River Nile as it was understood in ancient Egypt and the Hebrew Bible. The Nile serves as the focal point through which a comparative examination is made of selected Egyptian and biblical texts, the various interpretations of them, and the underlying ideologies, implicit or explicit, that inform their composition. This examination is accomplished in two separate stages: (1) a survey of the Egyptian evidence, including a translation of selected texts from Egypt relative to the Nile and its inundation (chapters 2 and 3); and (2) a survey of the relevant passages from the Hebrew Bible (chapter 4).;In the first stage, special attention is devoted to the inundation as a physical phenomenon and its personification, Hapy, as well as to the role of the king as maintainer of cosmic order via the annual flood. Analysis of the biblical texts places emphasis on the ways in which the biblical writers describe the Nile and its waters in terms of existing biblical traditions (especially the Chaoskampf theme), and the literary function of the river as the symbol, through simile or metaphor, for Egypt at large.;When viewed against the Egyptian evidence, it is concluded that, while the biblical writers possessed only a limited knowledge of the Nile and its inundation, this knowledge nevertheless is transformed in often dramatic ways in order to portray Egypt and its king in terms familiar to the biblical audience. Moreover, such knowledge constitutes an important independent witness to what the inhabitants of ancient Palestine knew of the Nile and Egypt. |
