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pharaohmore about pharaoh

pharaoh


  4  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Pharaoh  \Pha"raoh\,  n.  [Heb.  par[=o]h;  of  Egyptian  origin:  cf 
  L.  pharao,  Gr  ?.  Cf  {Faro}.] 
  1.  A  title  by  which  the  sovereigns  of  ancient  Egypt  were 
  designated. 
 
  2.  See  {Faro}. 
 
  {Pharaoh's  chicken}  (Zo["o]l.),  the  gier-eagle,  or  Egyptian 
  vulture;  --  so  called  because  often  sculpured  on  Egyptian 
  monuments.  It  is  nearly  white  in  color. 
 
  {Pharaoh's  rat}  (Zo["o]l.),  the  common  ichneumon. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  Pharaoh 
  n  :  the  title  of  the  ancient  Egyptian  kings  [syn:  {Pharaoh}] 
 
  From  Easton's  1897  Bible  Dictionary  [easton]: 
 
  Pharaoh 
  the  official  title  borne  by  the  Egyptian  kings  down  to  the  time 
  when  that  country  was  conquered  by  the  Greeks.  (See  {EGYPT}.)  The  name  is  a  compound,  as  some  think,  of  the  words 
  Ra  the  sun"  or  "sun-god,"  and  the  article  phe,  "the," 
  prefixed;  hence  phera,  "the  sun,"  or  "the  sun-god."  But  others 
  perhaps  more  correctly,  think  the  name  derived  from  Perao  "the 
  great  house"  =  his  majesty  =  in  Turkish,  "the  Sublime  Porte." 
 
  (1.)  The  Pharaoh  who  was  on  the  throne  when  Abram  went  down 
  into  Egypt  (Gen.  12:10-20)  was  probably  one  of  the  Hyksos,  or 
  "shepherd  kings."  The  Egyptians  called  the  nomad  tribes  of  Syria 
  Shasu,  "plunderers,"  their  king  or  chief  Hyk,  and  hence  the  name 
  of  those  invaders  who  conquered  the  native  kings  and  established 
  a  strong  government,  with  Zoan  or  Tanis  as  their  capital.  They 
  were  of  Semitic  origin,  and  of  kindred  blood  accordingly  with 
  Abram.  They  were  probably  driven  forward  by  the  pressure  of  the 
  Hittites.  The  name  they  bear  on  the  monuments  is  "Mentiu." 
 
  (2.)  The  Pharaoh  of  Joseph's  days  (Gen.  41)  was  probably 
  Apopi,  or  Apopis  the  last  of  the  Hyksos  kings.  To  the  old 
  native  Egyptians,  who  were  an  African  race,  shepherds  were  "an 
  abomination;"  but  to  the  Hyksos  kings  these  Asiatic  shepherds 
  who  now  appeared  with  Jacob  at  their  head  were  congenial,  and 
  being  akin  to  their  own  race,  had  a  warm  welcome  (Gen.  47:5,  6). 
  Some  argue  that  Joseph  came  to  Egypt  in  the  reign  of  Thothmes 
  III.,  long  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos,  and  that  his 
  influence  is  to  be  seen  in  the  rise  and  progress  of  the 
  religious  revolution  in  the  direction  of  monotheism  which 
  characterized  the  middle  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty.  The  wife  of 
  Amenophis  III.,  of  that  dynasty,  was  a  Semite.  Is  this  singular 
  fact  to  be  explained  from  the  presence  of  some  of  Joseph's 
  kindred  at  the  Egyptian  court?  Pharaoh  said  to  Joseph,  "Thy 
  father  and  thy  brethren  are  come  unto  thee:  the  land  of  Egypt  is 
  before  thee;  in  the  best  of  the  land  make  thy  father  and 
  brethren  to  dwell"  (Gen.  47:5,  6). 
 
  (3.)  The  "new  king  who  knew  not  Joseph"  (Ex.  1:8-22)  has  been 
  generally  supposed  to  have  been  Aahmes  I.,  or  Amosis  as  he  is 
  called  by  Josephus  Recent  discoveries,  however,  have  led  to  the 
  conclusion  that  Seti  was  the  "new  king." 
 
  For  about  seventy  years  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt  were  under  the 
  powerful  protection  of  Joseph.  After  his  death  their  condition 
  was  probably  very  slowly  and  gradually  changed.  The  invaders, 
  the  Hyksos,  who  for  some  five  centuries  had  been  masters  of 
  Egypt,  were  driven  out  and  the  old  dynasty  restored.  The 
  Israelites  now  began  to  be  looked  down  upon  They  began  to  be 
  afflicted  and  tyrannized  over  In  process  of  time  a  change 
  appears  to  have  taken  place  in  the  government  of  Egypt.  A  new 
  dynasty,  the  Nineteenth,  as  it  is  called  came  into  power  under 
  Seti  I.,  who  was  its  founder.  He  associated  with  him  in  his 
  government  his  son,  Rameses  II.,  when  he  was  yet  young,  probably 
  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age. 
 
  Note,  Professor  Maspero  keeper  of  the  museum  of  Bulak,  near 
  Cairo,  had  his  attention  in  1870  directed  to  the  fact  that 
  scarabs,  i.e.,  stone  and  metal  imitations  of  the  beetle  (symbols 
  of  immortality),  originally  worn  as  amulets  by  royal  personages, 
  which  were  evidently  genuine  relics  of  the  time  of  the  ancient 
  Pharaohs,  were  being  sold  at  Thebes  and  different  places  along 
  the  Nile.  This  led  him  to  suspect  that  some  hitherto 
  undiscovered  burial-place  of  the  Pharaohs  had  been  opened,  and 
  that  these  and  other  relics,  now  secretly  sold,  were  a  part  of 
  the  treasure  found  there  For  a  long  time  he  failed,  with  all 
  his  ingenuity,  to  find  the  source  of  these  rare  treasures.  At 
  length  one  of  those  in  the  secret  volunteered  to  give 
  information  regarding  this  burial-place.  The  result  was  that  a 
  party  was  conducted  in  1881  to  Dier  el-Bahari,  near  Thebes,  when 
  the  wonderful  discovery  was  made  of  thirty-six  mummies  of  kings, 
  queens,  princes,  and  high  priests  hidden  away  in  a  cavern 
  prepared  for  them  where  they  had  lain  undisturbed  for  thirty 
  centuries.  "The  temple  of  Deir  el-Bahari  stands  in  the  middle  of 
  a  natural  amphitheatre  of  cliffs,  which  is  only  one  of  a  number 
  of  smaller  amphitheatres  into  which  the  limestone  mountains  of 
  the  tombs  are  broken  up  In  the  wall  of  rock  separating  this 
  basin  from  the  one  next  to  it  some  ancient  Egyptian  engineers 
  had  constructed  the  hiding-place,  whose  secret  had  been  kept  for 
  nearly  three  thousand  years."  The  exploring  party  being  guided 
  to  the  place  found  behind  a  great  rock  a  shaft  6  feet  square 
  and  about  40  feet  deep,  sunk  into  the  limestone.  At  the  bottom 
  of  this  a  passage  led  westward  for  25  feet,  and  then  turned 
  sharply  northward  into  the  very  heart  of  the  mountain,  where  in 
  a  chamber  23  feet  by  13,  and  6  feet  in  height,  they  came  upon 
  the  wonderful  treasures  of  antiquity.  The  mummies  were  all 
  carefully  secured  and  brought  down  to  Bulak,  where  they  were 
  deposited  in  the  royal  museum,  which  has  now  been  removed  to 
  Ghizeh 
 
  Among  the  most  notable  of  the  ancient  kings  of  Egypt  thus 
  discovered  were  Thothmes  III.,  Seti  I.,  and  Rameses  II  Thothmes 
  III.  was  the  most  distinguished  monarch  of  the  brilliant 
  Eighteenth  Dynasty.  When  this  mummy  was  unwound  "once  more 
  after  an  interval  of  thirty-six  centuries,  human  eyes  gazed  on 
  the  features  of  the  man  who  had  conquered  Syria  and  Cyprus  and 
  Ethiopia,  and  had  raised  Egypt  to  the  highest  pinnacle  of  her 
  power.  The  spectacle,  however,  was  of  brief  duration.  The 
  remains  proved  to  be  in  so  fragile  a  state  that  there  was  only 
  time  to  take  a  hasty  photograph,  and  then  the  features  crumbled 
  to  pieces  and  vanished  like  an  apparition,  and  so  passed  away 
  from  human  view  for  ever."  "It  seems  strange  that  though  the 
  body  of  this  man,"  who  overran  Palestine  with  his  armies  two 
  hundred  years  before  the  birth  of  Moses,  "mouldered  to  dust,  the 
  flowers  with  which  it  had  been  wreathed  were  so  wonderfully 
  preserved  that  even  their  colour  could  be  distinguished" 
  (Manning's  Land  of  the  Pharaohs). 
 
  Seti  I.  (his  throne  name  Merenptah),  the  father  of  Rameses 
  II.,  was  a  great  and  successful  warrior,  also  a  great  builder. 
  The  mummy  of  this  Pharaoh,  when  unrolled,  brought  to  view  "the 
  most  beautiful  mummy  head  ever  seen  within  the  walls  of  the 
  museum.  The  sculptors  of  Thebes  and  Abydos  did  not  flatter  this 
  Pharaoh  when  they  gave  him  that  delicate,  sweet,  and  smiling 
  profile  which  is  the  admiration  of  travellers.  After  a  lapse  of 
  thirty-two  centuries,  the  mummy  retains  the  same  expression 
  which  characterized  the  features  of  the  living  man.  Most 
  remarkable  of  all  when  compared  with  the  mummy  of  Rameses  II., 
  is  the  striking  resemblance  between  the  father  and  the  son.  Seti 
  I.  is  as  it  were  the  idealized  type  of  Rameses  II  He  must 
  have  died  at  an  advanced  age.  The  head  is  shaven,  the  eyebrows 
  are  white,  the  condition  of  the  body  points  to  considerably  more 
  than  threescore  years  of  life,  thus  confirming  the  opinions  of 
  the  learned,  who  have  attributed  a  long  reign  to  this  king." 
 
  (4.)  Rameses  II.,  the  son  of  Seti  I.,  is  probably  the  Pharaoh 
  of  the  Oppression.  During  his  forty  years'  residence  at  the 
  court  of  Egypt,  Moses  must  have  known  this  ruler  well  During 
  his  sojourn  in  Midian,  however,  Rameses  died,  after  a  reign  of 
  sixty-seven  years,  and  his  body  embalmed  and  laid  in  the  royal 
  sepulchre  in  the  Valley  of  the  Tombs  of  Kings  beside  that  of  his 
  father.  Like  the  other  mummies  found  hidden  in  the  cave  of  Deir 
  el-Bahari,  it  had  been  for  some  reason  removed  from  its  original 
  tomb,  and  probably  carried  from  place  to  place  till  finally 
  deposited  in  the  cave  where  it  was  so  recently  discovered. 
 
  In  1886,  the  mummy  of  this  king,  the  "great  Rameses,"  the 
  Sesostris"  of  the  Greeks,  was  unwound,  and  showed  the  body  of 
  what  must  have  been  a  robust  old  man.  The  features  revealed  to 
  view  are  thus  described  by  Maspero:  "The  head  is  long  and  small 
  in  proportion  to  the  body.  The  top  of  the  skull  is  quite  bare. 
  On  the  temple  there  are  a  few  sparse  hairs,  but  at  the  poll  the 
  hair  is  quite  thick,  forming  smooth,  straight  locks  about  two 
  inches  in  length.  White  at  the  time  of  death,  they  have  been 
  dyed  a  light  yellow  by  the  spices  used  in  embalmment.  The 
  forehead  is  low  and  narrow;  the  brow-ridge  prominent;  the 
  eye-brows  are  thick  and  white;  the  eyes  are  small  and  close 
  together;  the  nose  is  long,  thin,  arched  like  the  noses  of  the 
  Bourbons;  the  temples  are  sunk;  the  cheek-bones  very  prominent; 
  the  ears  round,  standing  far  out  from  the  head,  and  pierced, 
  like  those  of  a  woman,  for  the  wearing  of  earrings;  the  jaw-bone 
  is  massive  and  strong;  the  chin  very  prominent;  the  mouth  small 
  but  thick-lipped;  the  teeth  worn  and  very  brittle,  but  white  and 
  well  preserved.  The  moustache  and  beard  are  thin.  They  seem  to 
  have  been  kept  shaven  during  life,  but  were  probably  allowed  to 
  grow  during  the  king's  last  illness,  or  they  may  have  grown 
  after  death.  The  hairs  are  white,  like  those  of  the  head  and 
  eyebrows,  but  are  harsh  and  bristly,  and  a  tenth  of  an  inch  in 
  length.  The  skin  is  of  an  earthy-brown,  streaked  with  black. 
  Finally,  it  may  be  said  the  face  of  the  mummy  gives  a  fair  idea 
  of  the  face  of  the  living  king.  The  expression  is 
  unintellectual  perhaps  slightly  animal;  but  even  under  the 
  somewhat  grotesque  disguise  of  mummification  there  is  plainly  to 
  be  seen  an  air  of  sovereign  majesty,  of  resolve,  and  of  pride." 
 
  Both  on  his  father's  and  his  mother's  side  it  has  been  pretty 
  clearly  shown  that  Rameses  had  Chaldean  or  Mesopotamian  blood  in 
  his  veins  to  such  a  degree  that  he  might  be  called  an  Assyrian. 
  This  fact  is  thought  to  throw  light  on  Isa.  52:4. 
 
  (5.)  The  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus  was  probably  Menephtah  I.,  the 
  fourteenth  and  eldest  surviving  son  of  Rameses  II  He  resided  at 
  Zoan,  where  he  had  the  various  interviews  with  Moses  and  Aaron 
  recorded  in  the  book  of  Exodus.  His  mummy  was  not  among  those 
  found  at  Deir  el-Bahari.  It  is  still  a  question,  however, 
  whether  Seti  II  or  his  father  Menephtah  was  the  Pharaoh  of  the 
  Exodus.  Some  think  the  balance  of  evidence  to  be  in  favour  of 
  the  former,  whose  reign  it  is  known  began  peacefully,  but  came 
  to  a  sudden  and  disastrous  end  The  "Harris  papyrus,"  found  at 
  Medinet-Abou  in  Upper  Egypt  in  1856,  a  state  document  written  by 
  Rameses  III.,  the  second  king  of  the  Twentieth  Dynasty,  gives  at 
  length  an  account  of  a  great  exodus  from  Egypt,  followed  by 
  wide-spread  confusion  and  anarchy.  This  there  is  great  reason 
  to  believe,  was  the  Hebrew  exodus,  with  which  the  Nineteenth 
  Dynasty  of  the  Pharaohs  came  to  an  end  This  period  of  anarchy 
  was  brought  to  a  close  by  Setnekht  the  founder  of  the  Twentieth 
  Dynasty. 
 
  "In  the  spring  of  1896,  Professor  Flinders  Petrie  discovered, 
  among  the  ruins  of  the  temple  of  Menephtah  at  Thebes,  a  large 
  granite  stela,  on  which  is  engraved  a  hymn  of  victory 
  commemorating  the  defeat  of  Libyan  invaders  who  had  overrun  the 
  Delta.  At  the  end  other  victories  of  Menephtah  are  glanced  at 
  and  it  is  said  that  'the  Israelites  (I-s-y-r-a-e-l-u)  are 
  minished  (?)  so  that  they  have  no  seed.'  Menephtah  was  son  and 
  successor  of  Rameses  II.,  the  builder  of  Pithom,  and  Egyptian 
  scholars  have  long  seen  in  him  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus.  The 
  Exodus  is  also  placed  in  his  reign  by  the  Egyptian  legend  of  the 
  event  preserved  by  the  historian  Manetho  In  the  inscription  the 
  name  of  the  Israelites  has  no  determinative  of  'country'  or 
  'district'  attached  to  it  as  is  the  case  with  all  the  other 
  names  (Canaan,  Ashkelon,  Gezer,  Khar  or  Southern  Palestine, 
  etc.)  mentioned  along  with  it  and  it  would  therefore  appear 
  that  at  the  time  the  hymn  was  composed,  the  Israelites  had 
  already  been  lost  to  the  sight  of  the  Egyptians  in  the  desert. 
  At  all  events  they  must  have  had  as  yet  no  fixed  home  or 
  district  of  their  own  We  may  therefore  see  in  the  reference  to 
  them  the  Pharaoh's  version  of  the  Exodus,  the  disasters  which 
  befell  the  Egyptians  being  naturally  passed  over  in  silence,  and 
  only  the  destruction  of  the  'men  children'  of  the  Israelites 
  being  recorded.  The  statement  of  the  Egyptian  poet  is  a 
  remarkable  parallel  to  Ex  1:10-22." 
 
  (6.)  The  Pharaoh  of  1  Kings  11:18-22. 
 
  (7.)  So  king  of  Egypt  (2  Kings  17:4). 
 
  (8.)  The  Pharaoh  of  1  Chr.  4:18. 
 
  (9.)  Pharaoh,  whose  daughter  Solomon  married  (1  Kings  3:1; 
  7:8). 
 
  (10.)  Pharaoh,  in  whom  Hezekiah  put  his  trust  in  his  war 
  against  Sennacherib  (2  Kings  18:21). 
 
  (11.)  The  Pharaoh  by  whom  Josiah  was  defeated  and  slain  at 
  Megiddo  (2  Chr.  35:20-24;  2  Kings  23:29,  30).  (See  {NECHO}.) 
 
  (12.)  Pharaoh-hophra,  who  in  vain  sought  to  relieve  Jerusalem 
  when  it  was  besieged  by  Nebuchadnezzar  (q.v.),  2  Kings  25:1-4; 
  comp.  Jer.  37:5-8;  Ezek.  17:11-13.  (See  {ZEDEKIAH}.) 
 
 
  From  Hitchcock's  Bible  Names  Dictionary  (late  1800's)  [hitchcock]: 
 
  Pharaoh,  that  disperses;  that  spoils 
 




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