Egypt, History & the Bible

by Ron Wyatt

(First published in newsletter # 7 in 1994)

God has intervened into the affairs of mankind many times. The original King James Bible faithfully records these events. And it is always exciting to discover archaeological remains that increase our understanding of these historical events. It is a tragic fact that many "secular" records have been found that totally confirm history as presented in the Bible but portions of these have been intentionally destroyed or hidden by "scholars" (evolutionists\atheists) who take it upon themselves to "manage" archaeological evidence to suit their own deceptive purposes. The Turin Papyrus, which was prepared in the late 18th dynasty and included lists of all the kings of every dynasty of ancient Egypt through the 18th, was found in a temple excavation during the 19th century. The King of Sardinia carefully preserved it and entrusted it to some "scholars" at Turin for translation. It arrived in perfect condition but the "scholars" destroyed or hid most of it because they realized that it proved the "long dynastic" history of Egypt to be untrue. To "explain" the "changed condition" of the papyrus, they accused the king of Sardinia of sending it "unwrapped". The Palermo Stone contained a similar list, and while many "scholars" quote from "missing parts" of the stone, "unapproved researchers" can only have access to a few fragments. It is obvious that the stone was "broken" recently as all inner edges of the fragments show recent fracture conditions.

A leading "archaeologist" on the board of B.A.R. once said to me in the presence of Mary Nell, " Your problem, Ron, is that you excavate a location to see what is there; you should decide what you want to be there first and then make it turn out that way". Mary Nell had refused to believe me when I told her that this is what archaeologists do. She was shocked to hear it "from the horse's mouth".

Those of you who like to "dig" through history books might wish to read ARCHAIC EGYPT by W.B. Emery--Penguin Books Reprint 1984. This author is one of the rare few who admit how truly limited our knowledge of ancient Egypt is: "Unfortunately, our knowledge of the archaic hieroglyphs is so limited that reliable translation of these invaluable texts is at present beyond our power and we can only pick out odd words and groups which give us only the vaguest interpretations." (p. 59.) Yet, in the majority of books, translations and conclusions are never stated as being theory; they are stated as firm fact.

Egypt in Prophecy

The Bible gives us panoramic views of ancient cities and kingdoms through prophecies that extend from the time that the prophecy is being written until the end of time. One such prophecy sequence is in the nineteenth chapter of Isaiah. This prophecy is about the land of Egypt. We recommend that you read this chapter after asking the Father to give you the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, asking in the name and Blood of Jesus Christ. We will look at the verses that we can find secular historical references to and archaeological remains from.

The first such text is the fourth verse of this chapter: I

SA 19:4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.  

During the 7th century A.D., Egypt was conquered by Mahomet and his followers. Seldom has so cruel a person appeared upon the stage of history as Mahomet. He ordered the brutal death of all those who refused to accept his new god, Allah, and to accept him (Mahomet) as this god's only prophet. The result was that he killed the honest and truthful persons and spared the liars and dishonest persons.

The following verses reflect the loss of the clever use and development of water management systems that had for centuries produced great agricultural wealth along with the production of dried fish for marketing and the production of Egyptian papyrus that was used throughout the ancient world. 

ISA 19:5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. 6 And they shall turn the rivers far away;... 7 The paper reeds by the brooks,...and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither,... and be no more. 8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. 9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.10 And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.  

For all practical purposes, Egypt then reverted back to a pastoral way of life and became a base nation.

History tells us that after the downfall of the Moslem powers, Egypt became the vassel of several world powers, such as France and Britain. It then fell under the influence of the Soviet Union and participated in several futile and destructive wars against Israel, but they would not be successful: 

ISA 19:17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.  

The "land of Judah" "terrorized it [Egypt]" and would have conquered and occupied it except for the intervention of the U.N. in 1967-73.

ISA 19:18 In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction. This verse reflects the fact that Arabic, which is closely akin to Hebrew and is related to the ancient Canaanite language, became the dominant language of Egypt and its five major cities of the country. The city of Memphis, which had been the capital of Egypt from the 1st Dynasty, didn't survive when the Moslem conquerer, `Amr ibn el `Asi founded a new capital, El-Fustat, on the east bank of the Nile at the south end of present-day Cairo. The Moslems pillaged the Giza-Sakkara plateau and stripped away the marble and polished limestone from the pyramids and temples and used it in building their own mosques and palaces.

The nineteenth verse is the most significant in relationship to the present time and to the amazing archaeological revelations the Lord is providing us as proof of the reliability of His word. 

ISA 19:19 In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.  

Let's discuss the "altar" here mentioned. First of all, the term "altar" does not have to signify something upon which sacrifices are offered: 

JOS 22:26 Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice: 27 But that it may be a witness between us, and you, and our generations after us, ...28 Therefore said we, that it shall be, when they should so say to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say again, Behold the pattern of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between us and you.  

An altar can be a monument of some type.

Today, there is a "stepped pyramid" at Sakkara. This is the remains of a very impressive complex built by the order of Djoser, a pharaoh of the third dynasty of Egypt, designed and built under the supervision of IM-hotep. The "steps" were constructed of stone, which were then filled in with mud brick. Then, the entire outer surface of the pyramid was finished off with a wind and water-proof layer of polished limestone, giving it the familiar "pyramid" shape instead of its present "stepped" shape. (See color photo)

But when the Moslems came, they continued a practice they were well known for- they stripped this pyramid of its outer covering of smooth limestone and used it in building their mosques and other buildings, leaving the mud-brick filler exposed. Because mud-brick is extremely vulnerable to long-term wind and weather, this filler in time disintegrated and was dug through and tossed aside while pillagers searched for treasure. None was found, and the remains of these mud bricks were hauled away in the 19th and 20th centuries when this area was excavated. There are historical references to farmers hauling these mud brick away for use as fertilizer. See SAQQARA: The Royal cemetery of Memphis by Jean-Philippe Lauer, pub. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, pp 75. This left the "stepped" appearance that we now see- the shape of an altar similar to the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, except- without steps. 

Joseph was obviously very close to God and acted under Divine influence when he constructed this monument. Djoser may have ordered its construction to honor himself, but regardless of his motivation, in God's time it became evident as the monument it was- "an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt", marking the location of the grain storage pits in the land in which God provided a safe haven for Israel to grow and develop into a great nation.

But where was the "pillar at the border thereof"? King Solomon erected inscribed pillars on each side of the Red Sea crossing site, and built a shrine at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Arabia. This was done in the 10th century B.C. We found them in 1978-84. The pillar on the Egyptian side of the crossing site had fallen into the water when we found it in 1978 (during the time Israel had control of the Sinai). We showed this to the Israeli military and they erected it in concrete very near where it was found, which would be exactly "at the border thereof" of the land of Egypt, for the Sinai soon reverted back to Egypt.

Plywood in Ancient Egypt

In the earlier mentioned book, "Saqqaa", on the bottom of page 99 is a statement about the knowledge and use of laminated "plywood" in very early Egypt: 

"...within the remains of a coffin whose sides were made of six thin superimposed layers of wood with the grain alternating as in modern ply wood." 

As you know the deck boards of Noah's ark were made of laminated (ply) wood, based on the fact the we have an actual specimen. The use of the same material by the early Egyptians proves that this knowledge was available in the early years of ancient Egypt, passed along though Noah's offspring as they began to settle throughout the world. It would probably stagger the imagination if we knew how much technology was lost by man after the flood.