The Hebrew text of Exodus is peppered with 26 different Egyptian loanwords occurring over 330 times. A loanword is a word borrowed from one language and adopted into another, usually keeping its original sound and meaning. Egyptian loanwords from Moses’ era comprise nearly 2% of the Exodus vocabulary, a far higher concentration than anywhere else in the Bible. These aren’t casual imports; they’re straight from Moses’ own quill:
ye’or יאור, “Nile” (Exo 2:3), from Egyptian itrw, the river god. The usual “river” in Hebrew is nahar.
hartummim חרטמים, “magicians” (Exo 7:11), from Egyptian hry-hbt, cultural ritual experts.
shisha שיש, “alabaster” (Exo 27:9), from Egyptian šs, luxury stone.
taba’at טבעת, “ring” (Exo 28:11). from Egyptian db3t, pre-dating its feminine ending drop.
Even the name Moses itself משה, “Moses,” is from the Egyptian msy, born of, as seen in royal names such as Thutmose.
By the time JEPD was supposed to be writing up the Torah, these Egyptian terms had disappeared from common use, and even more telling, there are no Persian loanwords in the text, as one would expect to see from a late authorship. (Esther, for example, is loaded with Persian loanwords.) There is just pure Late Bronze Age Nile. This linguistic fingerprint is an eyewitness to the book’s authorship, sealed by the Holy Spirit.
For further reading:
Egyptian Loanwords as Evidence of the Authenticity of the Exodus – Benjamin J. Noonan
Top Ten Discoveries Related to Moses and the Exodus – Associates for Biblical Research
Leave a Reply