Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament [Paperback]

John D. Currid (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1997

An enlightening guide to Egyptian influences on Israelite history. Includes illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John D. Currid is associate professor of Old Testament and chair of the biblical studies division at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. He earned his Ph.D. degree in archaeology from the prestigious Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Baker Academic (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801021375
• ISBN-13: 978-0801021374
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JOHN D. CURRID is the Carl McMurray Professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the author of several books and Old Testament commentaries. A PhD graduate in Syro-Palestinian archaeology (University of Chicago), he has extensive archaeological field experience from projects throughout Israel and Tunisia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Larger Than Most People Visualize, April 5, 2004

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Virgil Brown (White Oak, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament (Paperback)

In the Foreword to John Currid's book, the eminent Kenneth Kitchen writes that the "whole subject of the interrelations of ancient Egypt and the Old Testament is very much larger than most people realize" and in this book Currid has selected a series of themes. I would agree that this is a most apt description.

Currid divides his 13 chapters between an introduction and various portions of the Old Testament. There are six chapters on the relationships between the Pentateuch and Egypt, two on the historical books, one on wisdom literature, and two on prophecy. Currid is widely read on Egyptology and this comes across in his writing. In his chapter called "The Egyptian Setting of the Serpent Confrontation," Currid shows the breadth and depth of his studies in Egyptology. Numerous Egyptian sources are cited showing the meaning of the serpent in ancient Egypt. Then Currid adds the battle of the biblical writers. Aaron's throwing the rod-snake before Pharaoh was an assault on the latter's authority since the serpent was a symbol of Pharaoh's. The reader might want to have a look at the story in Exodus again for the full impact of this.

Currid treats the biblical figures as historical figures. Moses or Aaron did this or that, etc. Currid does the same with Potiphar where he concludes that what can be known about Potiphar is "not much." Potiphar's name does not tell us much about the station and function of a person by that name though probably he was not a eunuch. Moreover the name itself "seems to be an anomaly" if the Joseph story occurred in the second millennium; "the name itself is primarily confined to the 1st millennium."

One would do well to read Currid's book for what Kitchen said: because the interrelations between Egypt and the Old Testament is much larger than most people think. On that basis Currid's book is thought-provoking reading from cover to cover.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Hebrew Bible is very deeply rooted in Ancient Egypt, June 11, 2004

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Didaskalex "Eusebius Alexandrinus" (Kellia on Calvary, Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament (Paperback)

"The whole subject of the interrelation of ancient Egypt and the Old Testament is very much larger than most people realize, be they lay or scholars!" K. Kitchen

Curried valued credentials:
If you are new to the subject, how would you support your expectations? The author, John Currid got his Ph.D. degree from the Oriental Institute, at the University of Chicago, one of the finest, a Pioneer to the Past, established by the eminent Egyptologist James H. Breasted. Prof. Edwin Yamauchi, a towering expert, and author of 'Persia and the Bible', described the book as; "An excellent study of the Egyptian background of certain parts of the Old Testament. The author has read widely and commented judiciously on a number of very interesting topics." While K. Kitchen, attests that; "Currid's well documented book is a breath of fresh air and represents a valuable contribution." I may add that John Currid has shown scholarly prudence, in referring to the Septuagint, the Alexandrian Koine translation of the Hebrew Bible.

Book's Thesis:
Kitchen's Forward, and Currid own Preface should be examined carefully before reading and after finishing its discourse. In five parts, Currid writes a plan, elaborates on his defense of the Old debated case for the Egyptian Origins of OT, as follows
1. Egypt and the Bible / ancient Near east Cosmologies.
2. Pentateuch Egyptian Element.
3. Egypt / Israel in the Historical Books
4. Parallels of Egyptian Wisdom
5. Prophecy in Egypt and Israel.
This book represents the depth of American scholarship in comparison to the broad and versatile style treatment of such subjects as represented by: Moses, The Egyptian, which Jan Assmann, of Heidelberg University wrote in California, same year. Assmann puts it forward; "The aim of a mnemohistorical study is not to ascertain the possible truth of traditions such as the traditions about Moses but to study these traditions as phenomena of collective memory. Memories may be false, distorted, invented, or implanted." Moses the Egyptian, Jan Assmann

Conscience and Revelation:
Currid does not intend to support the historicity of the Hebrew Bible but just to explain why it is logical. The most important issue here is what shocked his own pioneer James Breasted; "When that experience began, it was a dark day for my inherited respect for the theological dogma of 'revelation.' I had more disquieting experience before me, when as a young Orientalist I found that the Egyptians had possessed a standard of morals far superior to that of the Decalogue over a thousand years before the Decalogue was written." Revelation should be directly proportional to the tuned perception of the receiving side to interpret the All Knowing Lord's thought line.

Egyptian Wisdom Parallels:
Job, written some fifteen hundred years before a similar book among the Hebrew wisdom, reminds OT scholars of the Hieratic papyrus in the Berlin Museum: 'A dispute over Suicide', that dates from the middle kingdom (Ca 1900 BC).
The use of dialogue to treat a philosophical and religious problem is followed by the author of the book of Job in his presentation of the problem of suffering more than fifteen hundred years later." (Documents from Old Testament Times, W. Thomas, Editor)
Here I find Currid's treatment of the Egyptian parallels in Psalms and Proverbs is much short of Breasted's original and thorough treatment, apart from 'Proverbs 22 and Amenemope.' My NRSV Harper Collins study Bible, W. Meeks Editor, indicate in the foot comments: "Proverbs 22.17-24.22 this section departs from the proverb collections of 10.1-22.16, as it makes a free adaptation from the popular Egyptian wisdom text; The instruction of Amenemope."

Interrelation Reconstructed:
The greatest early Bible commentators and exegesis were from the two great Churches in the East, Alexandria and Antioch, both of Jewish ancestry, who did not find anything illogical in the Biblical derivations. The Hebrews lived in Egypt for four centuries, acquiring their culture, folklore and traditions. They were led out from their alleged slavery by an Egyptian or assumed Egyptian, in education, wisdom, and 'Akhenaton' monotheistic belief system. What is more logical than Moses asking the Israelites, bitten by the fiery serpents to the Egyptian Symbol of pharmaceutical healing, that many pharmacies depict as their logo today?
It is not but logical to have these narration, given Egypt dominated the thought theater for the two thousand years. Mostly all native rulers were educated in memphis and Heliopolis. The Kingdom of Israel and Judah, among all others in the fertile Crescent, were planets in the ancient Egyptian 'Solar' system.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars valuable contribution to Old Testament/Egyptian studies, January 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament (Paperback)

Coming from a family fascinated by ancient Egypt (my brother, Dr. Hoyt Hobbs, has written numerous books on Egypt, several published by Fielding/Morrow), I found John Currid's treatment an outstanding, well-documented, readable book. For me, Currid's book provided a stimulation and informative study of how the world of ancient Egypt illuminates the pages of the Old Testament. A must read for those of us interested in Egypt and the Old Testament.