Ancient Near Eastern Index – Parashat Vaera/0

Ancient Near Eastern Index – Parashat Vaera

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Overview

Knowledge of the history, law, cultic practices and realia of the Ancient Near East can often shed much light on Tanakh. This index contains a list of links to articles which touch on the connections between Tanakh and ancient cultures.

Egyptian Slavery

• See Exploring Exodus (New York, 1996): 21-25 by Dr. Nahum Sarna for analysis  of the nature of Egyptian slavery. He points to several Egyptian texts which might shed light on the hardships experienced by agricultural workers and brick builders in ancient Egypt. He characterizes Egyptian servitude as “state slavery, the organized imposition of forced labor upon the male population for long and indefinite terms of service under degrading and brutal conditions” without compensation or civil rights, whose lot might have often been worse than that of household salves.  [See also Nature of the Bondage for differing views of the nature of the Egyptian oppression among Biblical commentators.¹] 
• See Brick by Brick, by David A. Falk, for a brief analysis of the purpose and type of building that the Israelites likely performed in Egypt and the behavior of the taskmasters.
• See The Global Egyptian Museum’s entry on Mud Bricks for a brief description of the type of bricks the Israelites are described as producing in Shemot 5.
• See Bricks Without Straw? By Charles F. Nims, for a description of ancient brick-making techniques and an exploration (and rejection) of claims of having identified archaeological evidence of bricks made without straw that attest to the narrative in Shemot 5. He notes that Paroh's command that straw will not be given to the nation does not mean that they made bricks without this component, but that now they had to collect straw on their own.

The Plagues and Egyptian Deities

Both Shemot 12:12 and Bemidbar 33:4 explicitly state that the Plague of the Firstborn executed a "judgment against the [Egyptian] gods". Both Midrashim and scholars have suggested that the other plagues as well might have targeted what were believed to be Egyptian deities.

Primary Sources

• See Shemot Rabbah, Tanchuma, and Midrash Aggadah (Buber) that the Nile was viewed as a deity and was thus struck first with the plague of blood.

Articles

• See Z. Zevit, "Three Ways to Look at the Ten Plagues: Were They Natural Disasters, a Demonstration of the Impotence of the Egyptian Gods, or an Undoing of Creation?" BR 6 (1990): 16-23, 42 who notes many correlations between the plagues and the Egyptian pantheon.  For example, Heqet, the Egyptian goddess of childbirth (depicted as a frog), might have been mocked through the Plague of צְפַרְדֵּעַ‎. The Plague of דֶּבֶר might have been directed at Hathor or Apis, both represented as bovines, while the Plagues of Hail and Locust could have been targeting a number of gods: Seth, the storm god, Isis, the goddess who grinds and spins flax, or Min, the protector of crops. Finally, Darkness was an attack on the sun gods, such as Amon-Re, or Horus.
• See “And Upon All the Gods Of Egypt I Will Execute Judgment”: The Egyptian Deity in the Ten Plagues, by Ira Friedman, for analysis of the meaning and symbolism of the ten plagues against the context of Egyptian religious beliefs.

The Wonders and Egyptian Legends

Dr. Nahum Sarna, in Exploring Exodus (New York, 1996): 66-70, identifies connections between the miracles performed by Moshe and Aharon and parallels in Ancient Near Eastern legend, including the following: 

• The sign of the staff turning into a crocodile can be more fully understood against the context of the Egyptian legend of Khufu, narrated in brief here as Story 2 on the Westcar Papyrus. 
• The Sumerian legend of Inanna and Su-Kale-Tuda, narrated in brief here, tells of a plague of water being turned to blood. 
• The Egyptian text The Prophecies of Neferti describes wild animals overrunning the land as a symbol of destruction and chaos.

¹ The majority of sources maintain that the Israelites were slaves to the State and assume that the Israelites were singled out for oppression and forced to perform back-breaking labor under extremely harsh conditions. R. Yosef Bekhor Shor, in contrast, suggests that the lot of the Israelites was neither particularly unique, nor as oppressive as is often imagined. They were forced to labor for the king for weeks at a time, but were given leave to return home when their shifts were over. Finally, Ramban and others view the enslavement as including both a labor tax to the State and bondage to individual Egyptians.