The Book of Wisdom and the Dead Sea Scrolls: an overview

Abstract

Without going back to the time of the Patriarchs, for which there are no historical sources concerning a presence of the Israelites in Egypt, the geographical proximity of Canaan on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the unavoidable corridor of the fertile Crescent must inevitably have played a part in their shared history. Dwelling place of the Semitic clans during long periods of drought, hunger or forced migrations, Egypt is pictured in the Bible and the apocryphal literature as the land of slavery at the service of Pharaoh, out of which the Lord has led his people with a strong hand. These attractions and repulsions are in fact reciprocal, according to the Egyptian data.1 However, during the Judaean-Israelite monarchy, Egypt was mostly the initiator of uprisings and coalitions of kingdoms of the region against the Assyrian power.2 Therefore it is not surprising that, for security reasons, refugees fled their country and installed themselves in Egypt, all the more since Judaean mercenaries fought in the army of Psammetichus against the Ethiopians.3 Passages of the Books of the Prophets and of 2 Kings 20-23 in particular speak of the establishment of military contingents in Egypt, probably already during the reign of Manasseh and Psammetichus I, which would well explain the building of the Judaean temple in Elephantine in Upper Egypt before the deuteronomic reform.4 Whatever the explanation for the latter, a Judaean presence there is attested towards 600 BC. The dethroned king Jehoahaz dies in Egypt, and several missions of the military and prophets are known through texts, Jer 26:20ff., and the ostracon III of Lachish. The prophet Jeremiah, carried away to Egypt after the murder of Gedaliah, continues among his fellow patriots the mission led under the last kings of Jerusalem (Jer 4144). Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Ezek 29-32) predict the destruction of Egypt and