I think most of that is just pure dumb luck.
Maybe sometimes some goddess or spirit or ancestor puts a thumb on the scales or guides a certain event, but that's more of an exception.
Mostly, the world is complex, and messy, and unfair, and s#1t happens
I actually love wandering into forests at night. I did it as a 12 year old on a dare, and then kept doing it because I liked it so much.
I felt a weird mix of high alert and total relaxation... after a while I started bringing a sleeping bag and slept under a tree.
My reasoning was that any...
Yes. Egyptologist Jan Assmann called it "kulturelles Gedächtnis" -cultural memory.
Only that the Exodus story has two faces. To the Jews, the story of leaving Egypt and having one single god was positive: freedom an salvation. To the Egyptians, it was negative: foreign invasion by the Hyksos...
The evidence of Semitic people in Egypt is pretty solid. Archaeological finds of material culture in the Eastern Delta. Lists of prisoners taken in a pharao's campaign. Depictions of Semitic workers in tomb scenes. Several written accounts of the Hyksos (Kamose stela, biography of Ahmose son of...
That's an interesting take, actually. but too old, I think. There are much closer fits in the Bronze age... so why date the narrative back by tens of thousands of years when you have excellent sources for the narrative just centuries earlier?
I think that yes, deities intervene. And when they do, it's a very personal thing - in my life at least.
I have had few, but important, instances in my life that I interprete as divine intervention.
One of them felt like a random touch of good will (getting healed in the temple of Dendera)...
Oh, and I just noticed that we have another mismatch in the timeline... if the Israelites escape Egypt at the end of the reign of Amenhotep III and then start taking over their promised land according to the Amarna letters, your god has miraculously shrunken their 40 year desert wanderings to...
OK so I checked the file and it didn#t explode in my face.
@Mrpp you raise an interesting interpretation of the Amarna letters, but they don't quite match what I've seen before (my most recent sources being Aidan Dodson's "Amarna Sunrise" and Dominic Perry's History of Egyot podcasts) - I will...
I was referring to a specific Christian page I linked (Fake News In Biblical Archaeology)
- these specific people are, by their own report, Christians who are trying to point out historical reliability of the bible:
Uuhm no? That was not my intention. I was trying to show that the report of...
Those chariot wheels?
https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2018/10/11/fake-news-in-biblical-archaeology/
Even Christian-biased scholars don't support those...
I am reluctant to open an unknown file, no offense.
By "interesting finds", are you speaking of Avaris? The expulsion of the Hyksos? The Expansion of Amenophis I into the Levante? Or is this about archaeology in Israel?
I studied Egyptology, the Biography of Ahmose, son of Ibana, was one of...
The "two truths" in Egyptian tradition are different, though. It refers to a pair of Goddesses, likely a form of Isis&Nephtys. I have not come across any Egyptian text that would interprete the "double truths" in a philosophical way.
In Egypt, Ma'at was absolutely central, but to translate that...
They somehow manage to be weird and majestic at the same time. They are kind of gross when hopping around on the ground or putting their head into the intestines of a corpse, but super majestic when sitting or flying.
I admire their way of life...just soaring in updrafts for hours on end...
My tradition would not call it fidelity or honor.
It's all Ma'at: truth/justice/structure
People were expected to speak truth and conduct themselves according to justice and law. This includes upholding contracts and respecting other people's rights and property.
However, the Egyptian texts...
Discipline! I guess that would give me the opportunity to pull out the virtue again I thought of first. It's discipline in the sense of keeping calm and not getting upset easily:
grw - "gheroo" - Silence
Ancient Egyptian instructions favor the virtue of "the silent one": a person who does not...
Being lazy sounds negative... But having time to play and chill and have hobbies is a good thing.
Consider - 50 hours per week would be 7 hours per day. If you add 7-8 hours sleep, that's still 9 hours leisure time per day.
Compare that to modern people... 40 hour job+ travel time+ household...