NOT THE BIBLE, BUT EGYPT.
By Dr. Eduard Glaser
(Dr. Eduard Glaser in the “Beilage” of the Allgemeine Zeitung, Munich. No. 213) ONE of the perplexing problems of Egyptian chronology has been the date of the opening of the era generally known as the “Middle Kingdom,” which included the famous eighteenth dynasty, and covered the period which runs parallel with the beginnings of the Israelitish people, especially the times of the patriarchs. As Egyptian research had all along maintained that this period antedated the events described in the chapter in Genesis referring to these times, a conflict has been supposed to exist between Egyptian and Biblical chronology. The new papyrus find shows that the trouble all along has been an incorrect computation on the part of the Egyptologists with reference to this historic period. Professor Meyer has maintained that it began in 2130 B. C., Brugsch in 2466, Petrie in 2778, and Unger in 3315, so that the difference between the highest and the lowest was about twelve hundred years; yet not one could be brought into agreement with the Biblical records. The new papyrus shows that the beginning of this period is to be placed between 1996 and 1993 B. C., and its close between 1783 and 1780, or fully one hundred and fifty years later than even the low computation of Meyer puts it; and a space of less than fifty years now exists between the current Biblical chronology and that of the Egyptologists, where formerly there was a difference of centuries, and a reconciliation seemed impossible. The near approach of the two chronological systems has been caused entirely by the discovery of errors in Egyptian calculations, and not in the Biblical.