Ancient egyptians jews?

[rockett1]

Could anybody help me Im looking for the answer to this question = "were either the ruling classes or the slaves used to build the pyramids followers of judaism?" Any help would be appreciated

[bananabrain]

i don't believe there is anyone who says that the people who ran the place were jewish (although moses was of course brought up as a prince) - but it does say in the Torah that we built pithom and rameses, store-cities for pharaoh. plus in "the mummy" when the little weaselly guy is trying to avoid getting killed, he starts praying in hebrew and imhotep says "aha! the language of the slaves!" - that made me chuckle. there are also some people who say that judaism is basically an offshoot of akhenaten's monotheism - but we don't agree with that; besides, the dates are wrong.

b'shalom

bananabrain

[dauer]

Rockett,

It really depends on whether you're looking for attempts at objective research on the matter, or attempts by those who are following religious ahistory to back up the religious claims of their belief systems. Both are widely available.

Dauer

[flowperson]

The only objective information that I've run across on this subject is that there was a functioning Jewish temple on Elephantine Island near the present day city of Aswan, Egypt which is located at the first cataract of the Nile River. Archaeological examinations have determined that it was established in about 580 bce., functioned for about 150 years, and was built and serviced by a contingent of Hebrew military personnel, along with Levites I assume.

The information I found stated that there did not appear to be any sacrifices made at this temple. Elephantine Island has, for 4,000 years, been considered to be the gateway between Egypt and Nubia (Sudan). Local legends also point to the Island as the home of Yebu or Yabu ( the great elephant) who was considered to be the supreme ruler of the ancients in this place at the founding times of civilization in the area.

The other functioning temple was upriver quite a ways at the 18th nome of the Nile and was in operation for a few decades towards the beginning of the 2nd century bce. There were sacrifices performed there also, and it has been determined that it was probably established to serve a community of wealthy Jewish merchants who lived in that area. Not as much has been learned about this temple site as has been discovered about the older site.

flow....

[Francis king]

well, I was watching the discovery channel yesterday, and they said that in the early days the pyramids were made by skilled craftsmen, and not slaves... just thought I'd mention it...

[arthra]

I heard that the Hyksos Pharoahs were more closely related to the Hebrews and welcomed them when there was famine in the Holy Land... As many settled there...then the Hyksos were succeeded by a more Egyptian dynasty and oppression of the Hebrews began.

But there's an interesting article at

Hyksos - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But the area around the pyramids was recently found to have a well layed out and organized city of workers and artisans. Maybe we have the movie version "The Ten Commandments" ingrained in our minds when thinking about it.

- Art

[aburaees]

Originally Posted by Francis king

well, I was watching the discovery channel yesterday, and they said that in the early days the pyramids were made by skilled craftsmen, and not slaves... just thought I'd mention it...

Well, 400+ years of slavery is going to produce some pretty skilled craftsmen.