Josephus
In his
Against Apion, the first-century AD historian
Josephus debates the synchronism between the Biblical account of
the Exodus of the
Israelites from Egypt and two Exodus-like events that the Egyptian historian
Manetho (ca. 300 BC) apparently mentions. It is difficult to distinguish between what Manetho himself recounted, and how Josephus or
Apion interpreted him. Josephus identifies the Israelite Exodus with the first exodus mentioned by Manetho, when some 480,000 Hyksos "shepherd kings" (also referred to as just 'shepherds', as 'kings' and as 'captive shepherds' in his discussion of Manetho) left Egypt for Jerusalem.
[16] The mention of "Hyksos" identifies this first exodus with the Hyksos period (16th century BC).
Josephus provides the earliest recorded instance of the much repeated false etymology of the term
Hyksos, as a Hellenised form of the Egyptian phrase
Hekw Shasu, meaning "Shepherd Kings". Scholars have only recently shown that the term derives from
heqa-khase, a phrase meaning "rulers of foreign lands".
[17]
Apion identifies a second exodus mentioned by Manetho when a renegade Egyptian priest called
Osarseph led 80,000 "
lepers" to rebel against Egypt. Then, Apion additionally conflates these with the Biblical
Exodus, and contrary to Manetho, even alleges that this heretic priest changed his name to
Moses.
[18] Many scholars
[19][20] do not interpret
lepers and
leprous priests as literally referring to a disease, but rather to a strange and unwelcome new belief system.
