of the Egyptian priests. Their independence of each other is excluded, since, in reference to these particular circumstances, these two nations stand alone in all antiquity. The thought of an inverted order of things is, in addition to the general reasons already given, impossible, since the priesthood in Egypt, according to expressions in the Pentateuch itself, had already long existed when that of the Israelites was instituted, the material of the clothing is peculiarly Egyptian, and the garment of byssus, even in the time of Joseph, appears as the most common Egyptian clothing' Thus, we have an important result in favour of the Pentateuch. Such a reference to Egyptian customs can only be supposed, if the priesthood was instituted in the circumstances given in the Pentateuch; and modern views of the origin of the Israelitish priesthood must appear as entirely untenable, since in the time to which this is referred, so close a connection did not exist between the Israelites and Egyptians, as to render it possible for the former to borrow from the latter. URIM AND THUMMIM. The Egyptian reference in the Urim and Thummim, is especially distinct and incontrovertible. Of them it is said: "And you shall put in the breast-plate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, (the light and the truth); and they shall be on Aaron's heart when he goeth in before the Lord: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually," Exod. xxviii. 30. According to Aelian, the high priest among the Egyptians, as superior judge, wore around his neck an image of Sapphire, which was called truth. Diodorus 3 also confirms this fact. According to him, the chief judge (also according to Diodorus the office of judge belonging to the priests,) wore around his neck an image of costly stones, suspended upon a gold chain, which was named truth. 2 'Gen. xli. 42. 2 Var. Hist. L. 14. c. 34: Αἰγύπτιοί φασι παρ ̓ Ἑρμοῦ τὰ νόμιμα ἐκμουσων ῆναι δικασταὶ δὲ τὸ ἀρχαῖον παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις οἱ ἱερεῖς ἦσαν· ἦν δὲ τούτων ἄρχων ὁ πρεσβύτατος καὶ ἐδίκαζεν ἅπαντας. Εδει δὲ αὐτὸν εἶναι δικαιότατον ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἀφειδέστατον· εἶχε δὲ καὶ ἄγαλμα περὶ τὸν αὐχένα ἐκ σαπφείρου λίθου καὶ ἐκαλεῖτο τὸ ἄγαλμα ἀλήθεια. 3 B. 31. c. 75. 4 See Wesseling on this passage. After both of two contending parties have laid open their case, the high priest must touch one of them with the image of truth. The same author,' in describing an Egyptian wall-picture, shows us in the midst of the judges, the chief judge, "who wears suspended from his neck the truth with closed eyes." By this it is shown that the chief judge must see only the truth. These declarations of the ancients have received confirmation from the new discoveries in Egypt. In proof of the statement of Diodorus, Rosellini 2 says: "Among the monuments of the tombs, representations of persons are found who filled the office of chief judge, and who wore the common little image of the goddess Thmei suspended from the neck. Wilkinson 3 gives, from the Theban monuments, an engraving of the goddess who was honoured under the double character of truth and justice, and was represented with closed eyes. That a connection here exists between Egyptian and Israelitish antiquity,* even the Seventy probably perceived, since in Exodus JB. 1. c. 48. • II. 3. p. 500. › II. p. 27. The general similarity of the sacerdotal institutions among the ancient Egyptians and the Israelites, is very noticeable. The ceremony of investiture to office of the priests, among the Israelites, is described in Ex. xxvii. 5-7, "Thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breast-plate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod: and thou shalt put the mitre upon his head and put the holy crown upon the mitre. Then shalt thou take the anointing oil and pour it upon his head." The priest is anointed with oil after he has put on his entire dress. "The Egyptians " also, "represent the anointing of their priests and kings after they were attired in their full robes, with the cap and crown upon their head. Some of the sculptures introduce a priest pouring oil over the monarch, in the presence of Thoth, Hor-Hat, Ombte, or Nilus; which may be considered a representation of the ceremony, before the statues of those gods. The functionary who officiated was the high-priest of the king. He was clad in a leopard-skin, and was the same who attended on all occasions which required him to assist, or assume the duties of the monarch in the temple. This leopard-skin dress was worn by the high-priests on all the most important solemnities, and the king himself adopted it when engaged in the same duties."-Wilkinson, Man. and Cus., 2d Ser., Vol. II. p. 280. Both the Egyptians and Israelites were purified with water before they assumed the sacerdotal robes. (Ex. xl. 12—15.) They were divided into different orders, among both nations, and the offering of incense was limited to priests of the highest rank. Priests were the judges, also, among the Israelites and Egyptians. Wilkinson says, Vol. I. p. 282: 1 xxviii. 30, they translated Urim and Thummim, by revelation and truth, δήλωσις καὶ ἀλήθεια. This relation also forced itself the ancient theologians. Braun, for example, supeven upon poses that the Egyptians probably borrowed this symbol from the Israelites. " But recently Bähr 2 has denied that there is any connection between the two. The agreement, he asserts, depends on no other ground than the acknowledged false translation of Thummim by the Seventy, as meaning truth. But this acknowledged false translation," since the word means perfectness or blamelessness in the moral sense, is proved on closer examination to be as completely correct, as the explanation given by Bähr is on the other hand false.3 "Besides their religious duties, the priests fulfilled the important offices of judges and legislators, as well as councillors of the monarch; and the laws, as among many other nations of the East, forming part of the sacred books, could only be administered by them." So in Duet. xvii. 8,—“If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates; then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; and thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment.”—of the similarity of Urim and Thummim to the Egyptian symbol, Wilkinson, (Vol. II. 2d Ser. p. 28,) after speaking of the badge of the judge among the Egyptians, says: A similar emblem was used by the high-priests of the Jews; and it is a remarkable fact, that the word Thummim is not only translated truth,' but, being a plural or dual word, corresponds to the Egyptian notion of the two Truths,' or the double capacity of this goddess. According to some, the Urim and Thummim signify, 'lights and perfections,' or 'light and truth,'-which last present a striking analogy to the two figures of Rê and Thmei, in the breast-plate worn by the Egyptians. And though the resemblance of the Urim and the Uræus (or basilisk,) the symbol of majesty, suggested by Lord Prudhoe, is very remarkable, I am disposed to think the 'lights,' Aorim or Urim, more nearly related to the sun, which is seated in the breast-plate with the figure of Truth.” 3 De Vestitu, p. 598. According to him, (see S. 165,) the word D, Thom, must mean completeness, and Den, Thummim, in connection with DN, Urim, is a subordinate, accessory idea, both together meaning perfect illumination. The supposition of such a hendyadis, besides that it is in itself very harsh, and confirmed by no entirely analogous example, is excluded by Deut. Besides, remarks Bähr, there is nothing more incongruous than the significance of the Urim and Thummim when compared with that badge of the judge, which evidently points to impartiality as his first duty. But the moral significance which later Greek writers, according to their custom, give the symbol, is not certainly the first and most important one. That symbol has first and principally a promissory significance. It refers to the special aid of the goddess of truth and justice, which the high priest and chief judge enjoyed. On the other hand, the promissory significance does not exclude the moral one in the Israelitish symbol. Upon the promise follows of itself rather the admonition. How intimately both are connected, is shown by Deut. xxxiii. 8, 9, which the Urim and Thummim given to the tribe of Levi is considered as a pledge that God will guide him in the decisions given in his name, and then it is said: "who says unto his father and to his mother, I saw thee not, and his brother he recognises not, and his children he does not know," words which in a striking manner remind one of the Egyptian image of the goddess of justice with closed eyes, and of the statues of the judges at Thebes mentioned in Plutarch,' without hands with their president at their head, having his eyes directed to the ground. in How any one could even suppose that a denial of the affinity of these Egyptian and Israelitish symbols is of any importance in the vindication of the truth, can hardly be conceived. Through the outward similarity the internal difference is more clearly exhibited. As among the Egyptians the author of truth appears to be a mere personified abstraction, an image of their own fancy which can never have a true and perfect power over its own pro xxxiii. 8, where d'en, Thummim, stands first: "Thy Thummim and thy Urim belong to thy holy one.' The Urim (the plur. is the plur. majest., compare Beiträge Th. 2. S. 258,) therefore, refers to divine illumination, the Thummim to the perfect rectitude of the decision given by him, and integrity and truth are the designations of the same thing, considered from a different point of view. The circumstance that DN is used unaccompanied by Thummim, is very easily explained also by the moral element comprehended in the latter. Light has right and truth as its necessary concomitants, so that the Urim comprehends the Thummim in itself. 1 De Isid. et Os. See Wilk. II. 28. ducer, on the contrary, among the Israelites he is the only, the living, the one God manifest among his own people. It is an important difference, that among the Egyptians the symbol appears to have referred merely to judging in its narrower sense, while the Urim and Thummim was a symbol of the judicial office in a broader sense, promising generally to the high priest divine assistance in difficult and important decisions, especially such as have reference to the weal and woe of the whole people.1 THE CHERUBIM AND THE SPHINXES. The affinity of the Cherubim with the Egyptian Sphinxes is more doubtful, yet it is so only just so long as we consider the thing merely by itself, and leave out of the account the numerous other points of contact between the Pentateuch and Egypt. If these are taken into view, the similarity is sufficient to warrant here also such an alliance. THE FIGURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SPHINXES. We begin with some remarks upon the figure and significance of the Egyptian sphinxes. As respects the figure, it was the current belief, in all antiquity, that the sphinx was composed of the lion and a young female; and recently Bähr 2 has argued, on this supposition, against the affinity of the cherub with the sphinxes. This opinion has also been yet more confirmed by the scholars of the French expedition, who, while indeed Herodotus 3 speaks of the man-sphinx, assert that all the sphinxes with human heads, which they saw, except one near the pyramids, had the head of a female. This is also in accordance with Aelian. On the contrary, the latest investigations of Egyptian antiquity, have come to the result, that the Egyptian sphinxes are never female, like those of the Greeks, but always have the head of a man and the body of a lion. Wilkinson 5 asserts this very confidently; as Dr Hengstenberg assumes through this discussion, that the wearing of the Urim and Thummim was little more than symbolical; but most English commentators believe that they afforded some miraculous aid in coming to a right decision. Th. 1. S. 358. 4 See Descr. t. 2. p. 575. 3 B. 2. c. 175. 23. T. |