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			{{short description\|Legendary figure of Ancient Egypt who has been equated with Moses}}
	'''Osarseph''' is a semi-mythical figure in the history of ] who has been equated with ]. His story is recounted by the ] historian ], in his book '']''. Josephus quotes from the now-lost writings of the ] Egyptian historian ] (writing in the third or fourth century BC).
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			'''Osarseph''' {{IPAc-en\|ˈ\|oʊ\|z\|ər\|ˌ\|s\|ɛ\|f}} or '''Osarsiph''' {{IPAc-en\|ˈ\|oʊ\|z\|ər\|ˌ\|s\|ɪ\|f}} ({{langx\|grc-x-koine\|Ὀσαρσίφ}}) is a legendary figure of ] who has been equated with ]. His story was recounted by the ] historian ] in his ''Aegyptiaca'' (first half of the 3rd century BC); Manetho's work is lost, but the 1st century AD ] historian ] quotes extensively from it.

			The story depicts Osarseph as a renegade Egyptian priest who leads an army of lepers and other unclean people against a pharaoh named ], who was the son of Ramses and the father of Ramses, whose original name was Sethos (Seti).<ref>''Against Apion'' 1:26</ref> The pharaoh is driven out of the country and the leper-army, in alliance with the ] (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 to ].<ref>{{cite book\|last=Safrai\|first=Shmuel\|authorlink=Shmuel Safrai\|title=The Jewish People in the First Century: Historical Geography, Political History, Social, Cultural and Religious Life and Institutions\|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DPzZTN74jAcC&pg=PA1113\|year=1974\|publisher=Uitgeverij Van Gorcum\|isbn=978-90-232-1436-6\|page=1113}}</ref>
	According to Josephus, Manetho described Osarseph as a tyrannical high priest who rose to power during the reign of Pharaoh ]. He was part of the priesthood of ] at ], and is supposed to have built up a following amongst "diseased" people, possibly ]s. Amenhotep had a dream which he interpreted as divine advice to expel Osarseph and his diseased followers from the nation. He exiled them into ] where they organised a rebellion in alliance with the Canaanite population. The Osarsephites then invaded Egypt, driving Amenhotep and his son ], "also known as ]", into exile.

			Much debated is the question of what, if any, historical reality might lie behind the Osarseph story. An influential study by ] ] 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 of ] (Amenophis IV).<ref>{{cite book\|last=Assmann\|first=Jan\|authorlink=Jan Assmann\|title=The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs\|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XEMadfTi_U4C&pg=PA227\|year=2003\|publisher=Harvard University Press\|isbn=978-0-674-01211-0\|page=227}}</ref>
	Osarseph and his leper followers are said to have instituted a 13-year reign of religious oppression before Amenhotep and Ramesses/Sethos eventually returned to oust the usurpers, expel them from the nation, and restore the old Egyptian religion.

			==Story==
	Manetho apparently states that these events are the real history behind the biblical story of Moses and the ], an argument that Josephus rejects as absurd. Many modern scholars interpret it as an early example of ] (especially the claim that Jews are descendants of exiled lepers). It is typically explained as a conflation of the story of ]'s 12-year monotheistic regime with that of Moses as narrated in the Bible. Akhenaton (apparently called ] in Manetho's king-list) was the successor of ], but did not usurp power from his father. However, there seems to have been a co-regency period, which may have included two centres of power, one in the traditional capital of ] and one in Akhenaten's new capital at ]. Nevertheless, after his death Akhenaten's monotheistic regime was replaced by supporters of the old religion, leading to a new dynasty headed by rulers called Ramesses and ] (Sethos). The story also seems to incorporate aspects of the Canaanite ] invasion of Egypt.
			The story of Osarseph is known from two long quotations from the ''Aegyptiaca'', a history of Egypt by the Egyptian historian Manetho, in Josephus's '']''.<ref></ref><ref></ref> The first is Manetho's account of the expulsion of the ] (the name is given by Manetho) and their settlement in ], where they found the city of ]. Josephus then draws the conclusion that Manetho's Hyksos were the Jews of the Exodus, although Manetho himself makes no such connection.<ref></ref>

			The second, set some two hundred years later, tells the story of Osarseph. According to Josephus, Manetho described Osarseph as a tyrannical high priest of ] at ]. 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 to ], the former Hyksos capital in the Eastern Delta. There Osarseph became their leader and ordered them to give up the 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 in ] and instituted a 13-year reign of religious oppression: towns and temples were devastated, the images of the gods destroyed, the sanctuaries turned into kitchens and the sacred animals roasted over fires, until 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 that Osarseph took the name "Moses".<ref></ref>
	Others identify Osarseph as ], to which his name is very similar, a situation in which Joseph's interpretations of the dreams of the pharaoh are identified as the dreams of Amenhotep III. These are not mutually exclusive interpretations; it is possible that Osarseph is both Joseph (interpreter of dreams and friend to the pharaoh) under Amenhotep III, and Moses (a monotheist, leading the rebellion) under Akhenaten. The identification of Osarseph is, for obvious reasons, highly controversial. If he existed at this time he would be a contemporary of ] (if not the same person), who has also been equated with Joseph.

			==Interpretations==
	It is also possible that Osarseph is to be identified with ], or ], a powerful courtier during the interregnal period between the ] and ].
			Three interpretations have been proposed for the story: the first, as a memory of the ] 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 of ] and possibly the name Osarseph fit the Hyksos period, and the overall plot is an apparent inversion of the Jewish story of ] casting the Jews in a bad light. No one theory, however, can explain all the elements. An influential proposition by Egyptologist ]<ref></ref> suggests that the story has no single origin but rather combines numerous historical experiences, notably the Amarna and Hyksos periods, into a folk memory.<ref></ref>

			An alternative theory identifies Osarseph with the historical figure of ], a prominent Syrian officer who rose to power during the reign of Pharaoh ] and later attempted to usurp the throne, only to be arrested and executed by order of Pharaoh ]. However, such identification is usually rejected by scholars.<ref></ref>
	Whether Manetho had access to any authentic records of the Amarna era, or to an actual expulsion of lepers, is not known. However his account is not unique. ] also claims that the Jews originated as a diseased people expelled from Egypt.

			] recently proposed to identify Osarseph with ], a ] who, according to ] and the Elephantine Stele, took power in Egypt with the support of "Asiatics" (people from the ]) after the death of Queen ]; 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 Pharaoh ] and, while fleeing, they abandoned large quantities of gold and silver they had stolen from the temples.<ref>{{Cite web\|title=Exodus: The History Behind the Story - TheTorah.com\|url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/exodus-the-history-behind-the-story\|access-date=2021-07-01\|website=www.thetorah.com}}</ref>

			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 Greek ] translation of the Hebrew ] (i.e., ] 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.<ref></ref> 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).<ref>''Against Apion'' 1:26</ref>
	==External links==
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			==See also==
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			*'']''
			*'']'' by ]

			==References==
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Latest revision as of 18:32, 21 December 2024

Legendary figure of Ancient Egypt who has been equated with Moses

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Osarseph /ˈoʊzərˌsɛf/ or Osarsiph /ˈoʊzərˌsɪf/ (Koinē Greek: Ὀσαρσίφ) is a legendary figure of Ancient Egypt who has been equated with Moses. His story was recounted by the Ptolemaic Egyptian historian Manetho in his Aegyptiaca (first half of the 3rd century BC); Manetho's work is lost, but the 1st century AD Jewish historian Josephus quotes extensively from it.

The story depicts Osarseph as a renegade Egyptian priest who leads an army of lepers and other unclean people against a pharaoh named Amenophis, who was the son of Ramses and the father of Ramses, whose original name was Sethos (Seti). The pharaoh is driven out of the country and the leper-army, in alliance with the Hyksos (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 to Moses.

Much debated is the question of what, if any, historical reality might lie behind the Osarseph story. An influential study by Egyptologist Jan 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 of Akhenaten (Amenophis IV).

Story

The story of Osarseph is known from two long quotations from the Aegyptiaca, a history of Egypt by the Egyptian historian Manetho, in Josephus's Against Apion. The first is Manetho's account of the expulsion of the Hyksos (the name is given by Manetho) and their settlement in Judea, where they found the city of Jerusalem. Josephus then draws the conclusion that Manetho's Hyksos were the Jews of the Exodus, although Manetho himself makes no such connection.

The second, set some two hundred years later, tells the story of Osarseph. According to Josephus, Manetho described Osarseph as a tyrannical high priest of Osiris at Heliopolis. 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 to Avaris, the former Hyksos capital in the Eastern Delta. There Osarseph became their leader and ordered them to give up the 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 in Nubia and instituted a 13-year reign of religious oppression: towns and temples were devastated, the images of the gods destroyed, the sanctuaries turned into kitchens and the sacred animals roasted over fires, until 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 that Osarseph took the name "Moses".

Interpretations

Three interpretations have been proposed for the story: the first, as a memory of the Amarna 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 of Avaris and possibly the name Osarseph fit the Hyksos period, and the overall plot is an apparent inversion of the Jewish story of the Exodus casting the Jews in a bad light. No one theory, however, can explain all the elements. An influential proposition by Egyptologist Jan Assmann suggests that the story has no single origin but rather combines numerous historical experiences, notably the Amarna and Hyksos periods, into a folk memory.

An alternative theory identifies Osarseph with the historical figure of Chancellor Bay, a prominent Syrian officer who rose to power during the reign of Pharaoh Seti II and later attempted to usurp the throne, only to be arrested and executed by order of Pharaoh Siptah. However, such identification is usually rejected by scholars.

Israel Knohl recently proposed to identify Osarseph with Irsu, a Shasu who, according to Papyrus Harris I and the Elephantine Stele, took power in Egypt with the support of "Asiatics" (people from the Levant) after the death of Queen Twosret; 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 Pharaoh Setnakhte and, while fleeing, they abandoned large quantities of gold and silver they had stolen from the temples.

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 Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Torah (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. 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).

References

Categories:

Latest revision as of 18:32, 21 December 2024

Story

Interpretations

See also

References