 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Osarseph/ˈoʊzərˌsɛf/ orOsarsiph/ˈoʊzərˌsɪf/ (Koine Greek:Ὀσαρσίφ) is a legendary figure ofAncient Egypt who has been equated withMoses. According to 1st century ADJewish historianJosephus, the story of Osarseph was recounted by thePtolemaic Egyptian historianManetho in hisAegyptiaca (first half of the 3rd century BC); Manetho's work islost, but Josephus relates extensively from what he claims areepitomes of the original.
According to Josephus, the story depicts Osarseph as a renegade Egyptian priest who leads an army oflepers and other "unclean" people against apharaoh namedAmenophis, orAmenhotep in theEgyptian language, who was the son ofRamses and the father of another Ramses, and whose original name was Sethos (Seti).[1] The pharaoh is driven out of the country and the leper-army, in alliance with theHyksos (whose story is also told by Manetho) ravage Egypt, committing many sacrileges against the gods, before Amenophis returns and expels them. Towards the end of the story Osarseph changes his name toMoses.[2]
Much debated is the question of what, if any, historical reality might lie behind the Osarseph story. An influential study byEgyptologistJan Assmann has suggested that no single historical incident or person lies behind the legend, and that it represents instead a conflation of several historical traumas, notably the religious reforms ofAkhenaten (Amenhotep IV).[3]
The story of Osarseph is known from two long quotations from theAegyptiaca, a history of Egypt by the Egyptian historian Manetho, in Josephus'sAgainst Apion.[4][5] The first is Manetho's account of the expulsion of theHyksos (the name is given by Manetho) and their settlement inJudea, where they found the city ofJerusalem. Josephus then draws the conclusion that Manetho's Hyksos were the Israelites of theExodus, although Manetho himself makes no such connection.[6]
The second story is of Osarseph, set some two hundred years later. According to Josephus, Manetho described Osarseph as a tyrannical high priest ofOsiris atHeliopolis. Pharaoh Amenophis had a desire to see the gods, but in order to do so he first had to cleanse Egypt of lepers and other polluted people, setting 80,000 of them to work in the stone quarries, and then confining them toAvaris, the former Hyksos capital in the Eastern Delta. There, Osarseph became their leader and ordered them to abandon worship of the gods and eat the meat of the holy animals. The Osarsephites then invited the Hyksos back into Egypt, and together with their new allies drove Amenophis and his son Ramses into exile inNubia and instituted a 13-year reign of religious oppression: towns and temples were devastated, the images of the godsdestroyed, and sanctuaries turned into kitchens where sacred animals were roasted over fires. Eventually, Amenophis and Rameses returned to expel the lepers and the Hyksos, and restore the old Egyptian religion. Towards the end of the story, Manetho reports Osarseph took the name "Moses".[7]
Three interpretations have been proposed for the story: the first, as a memory of theAmarna period; the second, as a memory of the Hyksos; and the third, as anti-Jewish propaganda. Each explanation has evidence to support it: the name of the pharaoh, Amenophis, and the religious character of the conflict fit the Amarna reform of Egyptian religion; the name ofAvaris and possibly the name Osarseph fit the Hyksos period, and the overall plot is an apparent inversion of the Jewish story ofthe Exodus which now casts the Israelites in a bad light. No one theory, however, can explain all the elements. An influential proposition by EgyptologistJan Assmann[8] suggests that the story has no single origin but rather combines numerous historical experiences, notably the Amarna and Hyksos periods, into afolk memory.[9]
An alternative theory identifies Osarseph with the historical figure ofChancellor Bay, a prominent Syrian officer who rose to power during the reign of PharaohSeti II and later attempted to usurp the throne, only to be arrested and executed by order of PharaohSiptah. However, such identification is usually rejected by scholars.[10]
Israel Knohl recently proposed to identify Osarseph withIrsu, aShasu who, according toPapyrus Harris I and the Elephantine Stele, took power in Egypt with the support of "Asiatics" (people from theLevant) after the death of QueenTwosret; after coming to power, Irsu and his supporters disrupted Egyptian rituals, "treating the gods like the people" and halting offerings to the Egyptian deities. They were eventually defeated and expelled by the new PharaohSetnakhte and, while fleeing, they abandoned large quantities of gold and silver they had stolen from the temples.[11]
It is possible that the Osarseph story, or at least the point at which Osarseph changes his name to Moses, is an alteration to Manetho's original history made in the 1st century BC when anti-Jewish sentiment was running high in Egypt, since without this Manetho's history has no mention of the Jews at all. If the story is an original part of Manetho's history of Egypt, the question arises of where he could have heard it, as the GreekSeptuagint translation of the HebrewTorah (i.e.,the Exodus narrative) had not been made when he was writing. It is possible that he had an oral (Jewish) informant, or possibly an otherwise unknown pre-Septuagint translation.[12] In accordance with this, Manetho, indeed, stated that Amenophis was the son of Ramses and the father of Ramses, whose original name was Sethos (Seti).[13]
