(no subject)
Apr. 5th, 2015 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sathorI was raised Christian, so the mythology of course is prominent in my mind - there's a lot more "actual" literature in the bible than many other mythologies, too. That being said, while watching the classic Ten Commandments (part of it - I watched it a lot as a child) a line of thought came to mind.
I: Moses, even as a Prince to be crowned Pharaoh (before he knew of his own heritage), had much sympathy for the Jewish slaves.
II: The Egyptians represent a major part of the middle-east, and possibly are a large cultural precursor to the Islam branch of Judaism (and that's what I consider Christianity, too - a branch of Judaism)
III: Even though Ramses wanted the throne, he wasn't going to have it. The actions of Moses post finding out his heritage are primarily what causes him to lose his basically guaranteed inheritance of the throne.
So, considering these points, what if Moses had instead become Pharaoh, and hid his heritage until he had taken the throne?
He could have freed the slaves by decree - leading to a society that celebrated religious tolerance. The Jews would not have had to wander in the desert, and would have still had their cultural and spiritual practices.
Instead, the end result is the genocide of the Canaanites, and eventually, a war between Judaism/Christianity/Islam.
Moses could have peaceably freed the slaves, had he simply waited quietly for his opportunity. Instead, the curses of Yahweh ravage Egypt, his home, and presumably killing/harming countless innocent Egyptians.
Understandably, it could very well be that Moses wasn't even a real person, and the story is just a piece of mythology - but it's an interesting line of thought to me, at any rate.
I: Moses, even as a Prince to be crowned Pharaoh (before he knew of his own heritage), had much sympathy for the Jewish slaves.
II: The Egyptians represent a major part of the middle-east, and possibly are a large cultural precursor to the Islam branch of Judaism (and that's what I consider Christianity, too - a branch of Judaism)
III: Even though Ramses wanted the throne, he wasn't going to have it. The actions of Moses post finding out his heritage are primarily what causes him to lose his basically guaranteed inheritance of the throne.
So, considering these points, what if Moses had instead become Pharaoh, and hid his heritage until he had taken the throne?
He could have freed the slaves by decree - leading to a society that celebrated religious tolerance. The Jews would not have had to wander in the desert, and would have still had their cultural and spiritual practices.
Instead, the end result is the genocide of the Canaanites, and eventually, a war between Judaism/Christianity/Islam.
Moses could have peaceably freed the slaves, had he simply waited quietly for his opportunity. Instead, the curses of Yahweh ravage Egypt, his home, and presumably killing/harming countless innocent Egyptians.
Understandably, it could very well be that Moses wasn't even a real person, and the story is just a piece of mythology - but it's an interesting line of thought to me, at any rate.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-04-06 08:09 am (UTC)Moses is a major prophet in Islam, but the Egyptians are certainly not a cultural precursor to Islam in any sense. In fact, their many idols of many deities are about the most sinful, offensive thing imaginable to Jews and Muslims, whose One And Only God directly commands them to make no graven images. Note that the time of Moses (if he existed at all) was somewhere between 1592 and 1271 BC - Cleopatra, the last divine Queen of Egypt, died in 30 BC - and Mohammed was born in 570 AD, in Saudi Arabia. The Muslim Conquest of Egypt didn't begin until 639 AD.
Nobody knows who the Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus was supposed to be. There's only one mention of Israel in all the surviving records of ancient Egypt. There doesn't seem to have been any genocide of the Canaanites, though there are accounts which mention "the bandit Joshua." "Most scholars today accept that the majority of the conquest narratives in the book of Joshua are devoid of historical reality."
Even if there is some truth behind the fictional story of the Exodus, I'm not sure the Pharaoh (whoever he was) could have just freed the Hebrews by decree. Freed them to do what, steal or starve? Their lands had been conquered; they didn't own any property to support themselves on, and the Egyptians certainly were not going to go "Oh, sorry", give everything back, and just move away. 'Slavery' was their jobs, and according to the Book of Exodus, they weren't all that happy about leaving them to go wander the desert as nomad raiders - remember the part where they complain about having left "the flesh-pots (AKA 'stew') of Egypt"?
They probably didn't even want to leave. According to the earliest Egyptian account that might be about them, some foreigners were driven out of the country after being blamed for causing a plague. That much rings true, at least.