A comment on our:
http://westerncivilisationamaic.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/lost-cultural-foundations-west.html?showComment=1376512072430
It is interesting that Imhotep should be associated with Joseph, for without realizing the association, I had already tentatively identified Ptah with Jacob. The Greeks recognized the Egyptian god Ptah as their "Hephaestus," he had a permanent limp as a result of contending with the chief god, Zeus (Genesis 32:24-32).
The name "Egypt" is supposed to be a Greek corruption (Aegyptus) of the phrase "Het-Ka-Ptah," or "House of the Spirit of Ptah." I have assumed that the name "Aegypt" (usually the "us" at the end of a Greek name is perfunctory) is based upon the name "Jacob." Perhaps there is some kind of consistancy between these two explainations of the origin of the name of Egypt, if Jacob is to be identified with Ptah.
The image of Ptah is a mummified man (Jacob was mummified. See Genesis 50:2), wearing what modern egyptologists havd called a 'Punt' beard (this term was developed for the beard because it resembles the style of beard that Puntites, whom the Egyptians regarded as their ancestors, also wore.). In Velikovsky's theory Punt is identified as Palestine.
Ptah is the main god of the city of Memphis, where the "Theology of Memphis" shows a remarkable affinity to the theogony of Genesis. The Greeks make Epaphus (Apis, the "calf god") the son of Io (whom I suppose to be a female personification of the nation of Israel, the "Jew" see; http://www.academia.edu/4065204/The_Hebrew_Origins_of_Argolian_Mythology ) to be the husband of Memphis (Apollod. ii. 1. § 4.). Therefore a deification of Jacob, as the "God of Jacob," would put Ptah, in regards to his city of Memphis, in the place of the Christian God in regards to his city Jerusalem. See how, in ancient Egypt, the "Bride" of the "calf of god" is Memphis; While we now-a-days have Jerusalem as the "Bride" of the "Lamb of God." (Revelations 21:9-10).
Thus I am not surprised to find that Imhotep was known as the "Son of Ptah," (Miriam Lichtheim, "Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings," p.106), just as Joseph was the son of Jacob.
-John R. Salverda
Hi, John
I, too, have heard of a possible connection between Jacob and Ptah - perhaps from you.
You raise some very interesting points here.
Jacob must have been someone great in the eyes of the Egyptians, because he actually blessed pharaoh (Genesis 47):
7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed [a] Pharaoh, 8 Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.” 10 Then Jacob blessed[b] Pharaoh and went out from his presence.
The only thing I cannot really see clearly is how the name 'Egypt' could arise from 'Jacob', though it is vaguely alike, (Y)egypt. Yacov.
Regards
Damien.
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