Ancient Egypt

 was a civilization located along the Lower Nile, reaching from the Nile Delta in the north to as far south as Jebel Barkal at the time of its greatest extension (15th century BC). It lasted for three millennia, from circa 3200 BC to 343 BC, ending when Artaxerxes III conquered Egypt. As a civilization based on irrigation it is the quintessential example of an "hydraulic empire."

Egypt was a transcontinental nation located mostly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula lying in Asia.

Details of mummy of the pharaoh
Ramesses II. Date: 1912
Location: Cairo Museum.

There are several words used in the bible that refer to Egypt, 2 are Hebrew/Aramaic and 2 are Greek.

Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament)
Strongs #	Hebrew	Transliteration	Pronunciation	English
H4714	מִצְרַיִם dual for מָצוֹר	Mitsrayim	mits·rah'·yim	Egypt, Egyptian, Mizraim, Egyptians
H4713	מִצְרִי	Mitsriy	mits·rē'	Egyptian, Egyptian, Egypt, Egyptian women

Greek (New Testament)
Strongs #	Greek	Transliteration	Pronunciation	English
G125	Αἴγυπτος	Aigyptos	ī'-güp-tos	Egypt
G124	Αἰγύπτιος	Aigyptios	ī-gü'p-tē-os	Egyptian, Egyptians

Biblical references containing "Egypt"

The Oxyrhynchus papyri are the most numerous group of the earliest copies of the New Testament. They are surviving portions of codices (books) written in Greek language uncial (capital) letters on papyrus (see also Greek alphabet). The first of these were excavated by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt in Oxyrhynchus Egypt, over the turn of the 20th century. Of the 118 registered New Testament papyri, 44 (37%) are from Oxyrhynchus. The earliest are dated to the middle of the second century, so were copied within a century of the writing of the original New Testament documents.

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Graham Hancock: Quest for the Lost Civilization

Mount Sinai

11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. –Exodus 19:11 ESV

Mount Sinai (Hebrew: סיני Ciynay, "thorny") has an Etymology of uncertain derivation , also known as "Gebel Musa" or "Jabal Musa" by the Bedouins, is the name of a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, or rather a mountainous region in the Arabian peninsula between the two gulfs of the of the Red Sea (the Heroöpolitan and the Ælanite). It is 2,629 m meters high. The mountain known as Sinia is near a protruding lower bluff known as the Ras Sasafeh (Sufsafeh), and rises almost perpendicularly from the plain, the tallest peak on the Sinai peninsula.

The Biblical Mount Sinai is an ambiguously located mountain at which the Hebrew bible states that the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God. In certain biblical passages these events are described as having transpired at Mount Horeb, but though there is a small body of opinion that Sinai and Horeb were different locations, they are generally considered to have been different names for the same place.

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Aaron

Aaron (אַהֲרֹן, a word meaning "bearer of martyrs" in Hebrew (perhaps also, or instead, related to the Egyptian "Aha Rw," "Warrior Lion"), was one of two brothers who play a unique part in the history of the Hebrew people. He was the elder son (and second child) of Amram and Jochebed of the tribe of Levi; Moses, the other son, being three years younger, and Miriam, their sister, several years older. Aaron was the great-grandson of Levi and represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest. While Moses was receiving his education at the Egyptian court and during his exile among the Midianites, Aaron and his sister remained with their kinsmen in the eastern border-land of Egypt.

Here he gained a name for eloquent and persuasive speech; so that when the time came for the demand upon Pharaoh to release Israel from captivity, Aaron became his brother’s Nabi, (in this case "spokesman" sometimes also referred to as a prophet), to his own people and, after their unwillingness to hear, to Pharaoh himself.

Moses' brother and born into the Tribe of Levi, first mentioned in the bible in Exodus 4:14. Spoke on behalf of Moses in front of Pharaoh when trying to persuade him to let the Israelites go free from Egypt. Became the first of the Levite priests and the first high priest of Israel. He died while Israel was still on the exodus (deuteronomy 10:4).

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includes Arnold Schoenberg: "Moses Und Aron" Music from Act Two. Scene Three: The Golden Calf and the Altar

Moses

According to the Hebrew Bible, Moses (Hebrew: משה Mosheh "to draw out, pull out") led the Israelites out of Egypt, and received the Torah of Judaism from God on Mount Sinai. The Torah contains the life story of Moses and his people until his death at the age of 120 years, according to some calculations in the year 2488, or 1272 BC. Consequently, "may you live to 120" has become a common blessing among Jews.

Moses's greatest legacy was probably expounding the doctrine of monotheism, which was not widely accepted at the time, codifying it in Jewish religion with the 1st Commandment, and punishing polytheists. He is revered as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The birth of Moses occurred at a time when the current Egyptian monarch had commanded that all male children born to Hebrew captives should be killed by drowning in the Nile River.

²² And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive. –Exodus 1:22

1. Exodus 1:22 Samaritan, Septuagint, Targum; Hebrew lacks to the Hebrews

The Torah leaves the identity of this Pharaoh unstated, but he is widely believed to be Ramses II; other, earlier pharaohs have also been suggested including a Hyksos pharaoh or one shortly after the Hyksos had been expelled.

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Nile

The Great Bend of
the Nilein Sudan, looking
north across the Sahara
Desert towards Northern
Sudan and Southern Egypt.
Courtesy NASA.

The Nile (Hebrew: יאור y@`or, Arabic: النيل an-nīl) of Egyptian origin, meaning river, stream, canal, Nile, Nile-canal. The Nile is one of the two longest rivers on Earth.

After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile –Gen. 41:1

In Greek, the word "Nile" ('nIl) comes from the word Neilos (Νειλος), a Greek name for the Nile River. Another Greek name for the Nile was Aigyptos (Αιγυπτος), which itself is the source of the name "Egypt."

1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD, "Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs. 3 The Nile shall swarm with frogs that shall come up into your house and into your bedroom and on your bed and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. Exodus 8:1-3

Among the Hebrews יאור (A River) signified:

a ditch, canal, channel. Is. 33:21, where it is the fosse of a fortified city ; Sept. SmqvI. So of the canals of the Nile.

• 22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live." –Exodus 1:22
  
  
• 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. Exodus 2:3
• 
  
• 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.–Exodus 7:15
• 
  
• 5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream. 6 And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, "How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?" 7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished.–Dan 12:5-7
  

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Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant (ארון ברית in Hebrew: 'arown bĕriyth) called more fully, The "Ark of The Testimony," wherein rested the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. The Ark was built at the command of God, in accord with Moses's prophetic vision on Mount Sinai:

¹⁰ "They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. ¹¹ You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. ¹² You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. ¹³ You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. ¹⁵ The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. ¹⁶ And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you —Exodus 25:9-10


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Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai (Hebrew: סיני Ciynay, "thorny") has an Etymology of uncertain derivation ^[], also known as "Gebel Musa" or "Jabal Musa" by the Bedouins, is the name of a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula. It is 2,629 m metres high and is located in a mountain range in the southern part of the peninsula. It is near a protruding lower bluff known as the Ras Sasafeh (Sufsafeh), and rises almost perpendicularly from the plain, the tallest peak on the Sinai peninsula.

The Biblical Mount Sinai is an ambiguously located mountain at which the Hebrew Bible states that the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God. In certain biblical passages these events are described as having transpired at Horeb, but though there is a small body of opinion that Sinai and Horeb were different locations, they are generally considered to have been different names for the same place.

Judaism teaches that as soon as the Jewish people received the Bible at Mt. Sinai, they would be hated by the rest of the world for having been the ones to receive divine word (a state of affairs presented as a pun: Sinai as Seen-ah, which means hatred). The area was reached by the Hebrews in the third month after the Exodus. Here they remained encamped for about a year. The last twenty-two chapters of Exodus, together with the whole of Leviticus and Numbers ch. 1-11, contain a record of all the transactions which occurred while they were at Mount Sinai.

From Rephidim (Hebrew רפידים Rĕphiydiym), "rests" or "stays" or "resting places", a station of Israel in the wilderness between Egypt and Sinai (Ex. 17:8-13) the Israelites journeyed to "the desert of Sinai," and encamped there "before the mountain."In the Bible, Mt. Sinai is also called Mt. Horeb and the "Mount of God".

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Moses

According to the Hebrew Bible, Moses (Hebrew: משה Mosheh "to draw out, pull out") led the Israelites out of Egypt, and received the Torah of Judaism from God on Mount Sinai. The Torah contains the life story of Moses and his people until his death at the age of 120 years, according to some calculations in the year 2488, or 1272 BC. Consequently, "may you live to 120" has become a common blessing among Jews.

Moses's greatest legacy was probably expounding the doctrine of monotheism, which was not widely accepted at the time, codifying it in Jewish religion with the 1st Commandment, and punishing polytheists. He is revered as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The birth of Moses occurred at a time when the current Egyptian monarch had commanded that all male children born to Hebrew[1] captives should be killed by drowning in the Nile River.

22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive. Exodus 1:22

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Exodus

The (Greek: "departure") book of Exodus is the second book of the Torah (the Pentateuch Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy;) and also the Tanakh (the Hebrew bible), and Christian old testament. The major events of the book concern the exodus, a departure of Hebrew slaves from Egypt, through the wilderness, under the leadership of Moses to the Mountain of God (Mount Sinai). Jews call the book by its first words ve-eleh shemoth (i.e., "and these are the names") or simply "shemoth" שמות. The septuagint designates the second book of the Pentateuch as "exodus", meaning "departure" or "out-going".

The Latin translation adopted the name, which thence passed into other languages. As a result of the theme of the first half of the book, the term "an exodus" has come to mean a departure of a great number of people.

The book is generally broken into six sections:

1. The account of the growth of the Israelites into a peoples, their enslavement in Egypt, and eventual escape (Chapters 1-12);
2. The journey from Egypt to Mount Sinai (Chapters 13-18);
3. The formation of a covenant between Yahweh and the people, and its associated laws (Chapters 19-24);
4. Intricate instructions for the construction of a tabernacle, priestly robes, and other ritual objects (Chapters 25-31);
5. The episode of the golden calf, and the regiving of the law (Chapters 32-34);
6. The construction of the tabernacle, priestly robes, and other ritual objects (Chapters 35-40).

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Judaism

Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, with around 14 million followers (as of 2005). It is one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths and one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today. The values and history of the Jewish people are a major part of the foundation of other Abrahamic religions such as Samaritanism, Christianity, and Islam.

Judaism has seldom, if ever, been monolithic in practice, and has not had any centralized authority or binding dogma. Despite this, Judaism in all its variations has remained tightly bound to a number of religious principles. the most important of which is the belief in a single, omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent, transcendent God, who created the universe and continues to be involved in its governance.

According to Jewish thought, the God who created the world established a covenant with the Jewish people, and revealed his laws and commandments to them in the form of the Torah. The practice of Judaism is devoted to the study and observance of these laws and commandments, as they are interpreted according to the Tanakh, Halakha, responsa and rabbinic literature.

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The Serpent

Serpent is a word of Latin origin (serpens, serpentis) which is ultimately derived from the Sanskrit term serp, that is normally substituted for "snake" in a specifically mythic or religious context, in order to distinguish such creatures from the field of biology.

Hebrew Bible

In the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) of Judaism, the speaking Serpent (nachash) in the Garden of Eden brought forbidden knowledge, but was not identified with Satan in the Book of Genesis. Nor is there any indication there in Genesis that the Serpent was a deity in his own right, aside from the fact that the Pentateuch is not teeming with talking animals.

¹"Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God has made," (Genesis 3:1)

Moses lifts up the brass snake, curing the Isrealites from Snake Bites. Hezekiah called the snake Nehushtan though he was cursed for his role in the Garden, this was not the end of the Serpent, who continued to be venerated in the folk religion of Judah and was tolerated by official religion until the in time of king Hezekiah. The Book of Numbers provides an origin for an archaic bronze serpent associated with Moses, with the following narrative:

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Moses

According to the Hebrew Bible, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, and received the Torah of Judaism from God on Mount Sinai. The Torah contains the life story of Moses and his people until his death at the age of 120 years, according to some calculations in the year 2488, or 1272 BC. Consequently, "may you live to 120" has become a common blessing among Jews.

Moses's greatest legacy was probably expounding the doctrine of monotheism, which was not widely accepted at the time, codifying it in Jewish religion with the 1st Commandment, and punishing polytheists. He is revered as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The birth of Moses
The birth of Moses occurred at a time when the current Egyptian monarch had commanded that all male children born to Hebrew captives should be killed by drowning in the Nile River.

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