Shepherds part 7

We are on paragraph seven of Randy Alcorn's article Shepherd's Status. Here he states, "Egyptians considered sheep worthless for food and sacrifice. Egyptian art forms and historical records portray shepherds negatively. Neighboring Arabs—their enemy—were shepherds, and Egyptian hatred climaxed when shepherd kings seized Lower Egypt."  As usual, he gives no sources.

 I did a Google search of "shepherds in Egyptian art" and saw a few depictions of actual Egyptian shepherds. I saw no negative depictions of shepherds. I did a search of "sheep in egyptian art" and hit a jackpot, including a photo of a ram mummy. The caption under the photo explains the role of sheep in ancient egypt. There are multiple paintings and relief carvings depicting sheep in agricultural settings. I also found that there was a ram headed god named Khnum. There are also sheep headed sphinxes. The shepherd's crook was an Egyptian symbol of kingly authority and is found in many depictions of pharoahs. I can find no negative depictions of shepherds.

Jewish historians in the article "Sacrificing a Lamb in Egypt" suggest that the Egyptians held sheep sacred to the god Khnum. Therefore, they might have not have been happy with the Israelite's practice of sacrificing rams. The article seems biased in favor of the historicity of Moses and the Exodus but it brings up some interesting points. 

The Wikipedia article on "Ancient Egyptian Cuisine" includes mutton as a meat food for Egyptians. It give the Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt as a source. Unfortunately, you have to pay to access the encyclopedia online. Other articles say the Egyptians ate mutton, but I couldn't find some that provide sources. 

Here are some more articles of interest:
Ancient Egyptian Bestiary:Sheep
The Sheep in Ancient Egypt (Sources not given, but some interesting pictures)

About the shepherd kings that Mr. alcorn refers to, they were the Hyksos, referred to as shepherd kings by Josephus. Josephus associated them with the Israelites and the Exodus. If you read the article thoroughly, you can see that the origin of the Hyksos and their occupation of parts of Egypt are somewhat shrouded in mystery. The term "shepherd kings" comes from Josephus and was a mistranslation on his part. The actual meaning of hyksos appears to have been "foreign kings." There doesn't seem to be any other reason to identify them as shepherds. 


Mr. Alcorn's statement above appears to fall apart when we take closer look at actual Egyptian Art and history. He has taken the Biblical account of Genesis as fact, without doing the research to see if it lines up with what can be known through historical evidence.

To be continued.