Gold 26kg
Silver 13.6kg
Mixed precious metals 55.2kg
(There are also hundreds of gold and silver bars, and pitchers of precious metals, where weights are not specified.)
We are now looking at weights that are a fraction of those given in modern translations of the Copper Scroll, but they are at least plausible values, quite consistent with the amounts of gold and silver in circulation for the period. For example, if we look again at the Harris Papyrus it gives the total gold holdings accumulated over a thirty-one-year period by Egypt (by far the most wealthy country in the ancient Middle East), as 387kg. The downside is that the value of our treasure has diminished somewhat! However, we are still talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in real terms.
So what can we make of all these calculations? The logical conclusion is that the weighing and numbering systems used in the Copper Scroll are based on ancient Egyptian systems.
When I applied this conclusion to calculations of precious metals and locations described in the Copper Scroll, they started to point in the direction the treasure hunt should begin to take and, perhaps, the location of where much of the treasure can be found.
A SECOND OPINION
I sought a second opinion on the ancient Egyptian numbering and weighing systems from Dr Rosalie David, Keeper of Egyptology at The Manchester Museum. She confirmed that, although the type of numbering system used in the Copper Scroll might have persisted in Egyptian temple writing for some time after the Greek conquest of Egypt (in 330 BCE), its use ‘was always specific to Egypt and it was not in use outside Egypt, except in the period of Egypt’s campaigns in Canaan from 1400 to 1100 BCE’.19
According to Dr David, the use of the ancient Egyptian system for weighing metals ‘died out around 500 BCE and had previously always been specific to Egypt’.
Dr David’s views raised yet more questions for me. Why would a document, ostensibly written by a devout, unorthodox Jewish community living near the Dead Sea in Judaea around the time of Jesus, have so many Egyptian characteristics? And why would the writing material, numbering system and system of weights used be typical of Egyptian usage from a period at least 1,000 years earlier?
A first answer would seem to be that, although the Copper Scroll may have been copied in the first century BCE, some of its contents originated from a period perhaps as many as 1,200 or 1,300 years earlier.
As my researches continued, I became convinced that this conjecture was right, and that at least part of the Copper Scroll was not originally written by the Qumran-Essenes, but was copied by them from something much more ancient: something written in Egyptian, something written perhaps as early as 1300 BCE.
As far as I know, no-one has tried to trace a direct connection between the ancient Egyptians of the thirteenth and twelfth centuries BCE and the Qumran-Essenes of the second and first centuries BCE. The Copper Scroll was undoubtedly a document of enormous importance to the Qumran-Essenes, considering the trouble and expense they must have incurred to produce it.20 If its contents do have a connection to Egypt, that connection would have to have been extremely noteworthy to the Qumran-Essenes…and might be a key to other secrets.
If the pre-1000 BCE Egyptian period had left its technological mark on the Copper Scroll, why not other influences? What cultural or religious parallels could there be between this period and that existing in Judaea around the time of Jesus and, more specifically, with the practices of the Qumran-Essenes as authors of the Copper Scroll?
The next step, therefore, in my journey of detection was to examine what other relevant connections there might be between Egypt and Israel. To do that I needed to focus on Ancient Egypt and to see how its culture and religion might have interacted with early Judaism.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE HEBREW TRIBES AND EGYPT
Having established that the Copper Scroll had so many key connections with Egypt, I began to wonder why this relatively isolated community of abstemious, devout Jews living at Qumran might possibly have come to have this scroll in their possession. What conceivable links might they have had to ancient Egypt? Indeed, could there be any connection between the treasures the Qumran-Essenes were writing about in the Copper Scroll and Egypt? The Qumran-Essenes had always been thought to have come from pure Hebrew stock,1 but even this assumption had to be called into question.
I started looking back at the connections between the Hebrew tribes and the adjacent land of Egypt and was surprised to discover the sheer extent of interaction between the two peoples. (It may be helpful to look back at Figure 1, the relational map of the Middle East).
From as early as 3000 BCE, right up to 1200 BCE, Egypt had maintained an armed presence in Canaan, often using it as a stepping stone to further conquests to the east. Trade routes along the Mediterranean coast were well established and commercial interaction brought people and goods to the northern parts of Egypt. The Hebrews, as a semi-nomadic tribe with herds to feed, were drawn to Egypt, particularly at times of drought and famine. Egypt was, after all, a country whose advanced irrigation systems and grain storage facilities put them in a better position to deal with natural disasters than any other country in the Middle East.
All the major characters of the Bible, from Abraham and Sarah to Jesus and Mary, had strong links to Egypt. Jacob, Joseph, Joseph’s brothers, the founders of the twelve tribes of Israel, as well as Moses, Aaron and Miriam, Joshua, Jeremiah and Baruch, all lived for long periods in Egypt and were influenced by its culture and religions.
When we look at the Biblical references to Egypt, it is quite apparent that the authors are unable to avoid frequent and detailed references to Egypt. In fact, as they are chronicled, it can be seen that both the Old and the New Testaments have an ongoing ‘hate–love’ relationship with Egypt.2 Throughout the Bible, Egypt is a place for the Hebrews to flee to, a place of sanctuary – for Abraham, Jacob, Jeroboam, Jeremiah and Baruch, Onias IV and Jesus. Or it is a place to flee from, in the case of Moses and the Exodus. The following few verses from Isaiah illustrate the enmity and reverence exhibited in the Bible towards Egypt:
And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt; every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself; because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined against it. In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts: one shall be called the city of destruction. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord…
Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hand, and Israel mine inheritance.’
Isaiah 19: 17–19, 25 (my italics)
In delving into the histories of these Biblical characters, from both Biblical and historical sources, I continually asked myself how their stories and supposed motivations might give a clue to the provenance and location of the treasures of the Copper Scroll. I was looking for any characters in the Old Testament who might have had access to enormous amounts of wealth. Here is a summary of my findings from the Biblical accounts. (More detail can be found in the notes.)
ABRAHAM
Abraham was the first of the Hebrew Patriarchs (Fathers) and the generally accepted founder of monotheism (the belief in one God to the exclusion of all others). Leaving the city of Ur in Chaldea (southern Babylonia), he travelled to Canaan and visited Egypt with his wife Sarah around 1500 BCE. Although he was a tribal chief, his wealth was mainly in livestock – but he did come away from Egypt ‘rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold’.3
So Abraham is a possible candidate, with access to modest amounts of ancient treasure.
JACOB
The third of the Hebrew Patriarchs and the father of Joseph, Jacob returned from Canaan to his uncle’s home in Haran, in Mesopotamia (northern Syria), to find a wife, coming away with two – Leah and Rachel. Together with them (and their two handmaide
ns) he fathered twelve sons and one daughter. Later in his life he took the name ‘Israel’. He was encouraged to come to Egypt with all his family, by Joseph, and settled in the most favourable part of the land.
Jacob became a highly respected friend of Pharaoh, who gave him a state funeral on his death. His wealth could well have gone to his two favourite grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph.
JOSEPH
The great-grandson of Abraham, and eleventh son of Jacob, Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt.4 His reputation as an interpreter of dreams came to the attention of Pharaoh, who had been suffering strange dreams about seven lean cows devouring seven fat ones, and seven full ears of corn being devoured by seven thin ears of corn. Joseph, relating God’s words, told Pharaoh that the dreams meant there would be seven good years of harvest in Egypt, followed by seven bad years, and that measures should be taken to store the seventh-year produce. So impressed with Joseph was Pharaoh, a Pharaoh that I identify as Amenhotep IV, that he appointed him Vizier – the second most powerful figure in the land.
As Joseph kept his privileged position for at least fourteen years, he could well have become one of the richest men in Egypt, especially as Pharaoh Amenhotep IV is known to have been prone to lavish collars of gold on those he favoured.
Here, clearly, was the first Biblical character to have access to enormous amounts of wealth and treasure.
THE LEADERS OF THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL
The leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel were the sons of both Jacob and Joseph, who eventually founded the twelve regions of Canaan that formed the Hebrew Kingdom of Israel. They all lived in Egypt for a prolonged period of time, and their descendants finally left with Moses when he led the Hebrews out of Egypt to the Promised Land.
MOSES
The central figure of the Old Testament, being the architect of the Hebrew religion, Moses was born in Egypt, around 1250 BCE, as were his supposed brother Aaron and sister Miriam. After being abandoned in a reed basket in the River Nile as a baby, Moses was brought up by an Egyptian Princess until, as an adult, he took on the cause of the Hebrew slaves. Moses obtained the release of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and began the process of welding them into one nation, with one monotheistic religion, giving them the Ten Commandments, or laws, to live by.
Moses the Egyptian?
Detailed analyses of the Torah (the Hebrew Bible) and other texts, such as the Talmud (commentaries on Jewish law and customs) and Midrash (interpretations of Hebrew scriptures – see Glossary), led me to the conclusion that Moses was not only born and raised as an Egyptian, but was, in fact, a Prince of Egypt – a son of the Royal House of Pharaohs. This is not a conclusion that any religious writer would openly care to admit, but it has been suggested by others, and much earlier in history.5
It would have been anathema for the early Hebrew compilers of the Old Testament to have had to acknowledge that their most important leader and law-giver was not an Hebrew. Nevertheless, controversy has continued through the ages, in Christian and Jewish theology and, to a lesser extent, in Muslim theology. Debate was particularly lively in the so-called ‘period of enlightenment’ in Germany, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The idea that Moses was an Egyptian, and that his teachings on monotheism had close Egyptian affinities, is, therefore, not particularly new. It was a theme of both Popper-Linkeus,6 in 1899, and Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, writing in 1931.7 New studies, especially those coming from the work on the Dead Sea Scrolls over the last few years, and my own research, have dramatically added to the available evidence, warranting a reassessment of the idea.8
Moses was, according to the Old Testament, discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter floating in an ark made of bulrushes in a river. He had been abandoned by a Levi family*10 fearing Pharaoh’s decree of death to newborn Hebrews. Unusually the names of his father and mother are not given when Moses is first mentioned in the Bible. Only later on, in Exodus 6:20, do we learn that Moses’ father was named Amram and that his mother, Jochebed, was his father’s aunt. Moses was apparently wet-nursed by a Hebrew, but then brought up from early childhood as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter in the Egyptian Court. Under these circumstances it would have been inevitable that he absorbed Egyptian customs and learning and spoke the language. Of his youth we know little, but we are told that at some stage in his early maturity he apparently rebelled and was forced to flee the Court.
A description of the upbringing of Moses must have presented considerable problems for the chroniclers of the Old Testament. The nature of the story that describes his upbringing has fairy-tale qualities and, it would seem, would only have been required if Moses was born an Egyptian from a non-Semitic stock. Not only had it to be shown that he was born an Hebrew, but there needed to be a plausible explanation as to why he grew up and spent most of his early life in the Court of Pharaoh – living the life of a Prince of Egypt. This was not an easy problem to overcome, and called for all the ingenuity of the writers’ imaginations. What to do? Simple: create a story linking Moses to the ancestry of the Hebrews.
Rather than dream up an original story, the writers cast around for a suitable myth or fable of the times that might suit the bill. There was the ancient Mesopotamian myth of Sargon, dating back to 2800 BCE:
I am Sargon, the mighty king, king of Agade…my mother, the Vestal, conceived me. Secretly she bore me. She laid me in a basket of sedge, closed the opening with pitch and lowered me into the river. The stream did not drown me, but carried me to Akki, the drawer of water…as his own son he brought me up…When I was a gardener Ishtar fell in love with me. I became king and for forty-five years I ruled as king.9
However, the Egyptian story of the birth of Horus fits the bill more closely. This myth relates how the baby Horus was placed in a reed boat by his mother, Isis and concealed in the Delta marshland to save him from his enemy Seth.10 A neat little story, easily transformed to allow Moses to be born an Hebrew but live as an Egyptian.
There was another reason why the latter story was to be preferred. A fundamental difference existed between Sumerian and Mesopotamian – as distinct from Egyptian – mythology. The former tended towards long plots involving complicated relationships, whereas Egyptian myths were shorter stories that were integrated into and formed part of the living language. As such they were more malleable and could be changed and updated, like words and ideas in any living language, without any self-conscious reproach.11
This divergence from Mesopotamian mythology made Egyptian mythology much more adaptable and attractive to another culture, or religion.12 This is another reason why adoption of ideas from Egyptian mythology into Hebrew thinking was easier than those of Sumeria and Mesopotamia, apart from the ready availability of those ideas.
Whilst religious tradition and a number of historians testify to the upbringing and education of Moses, their versions, not surprisingly, differ in detail. Nevertheless the general thread is that he received his formative education from priests – either Egyptian or Midianite.*11 Manetho, a third century BCE Egyptian author, and High Priest at Heliopolis, reports that Moses discharged priestly functions in the temple of Heliopolis.13
Manetho goes on to relate that Moses’ original name was Osarsiph, and that he was named after Osiris, a patron god of Heliopolis. Justin Martyr, an early Church Father, refers to the education of Moses in the following passage:
Moses also is depicted as a very ancient and venerable leader of the Jews by such writers of Athenian history as Hellanicus, Philochoros, Castor, Thallus and Alexander Polyhistor, as well as by the learned Jewish historians Philo and Josephus…
These writers, who do not belong to our religion [Christianity], affirmed that their information was gathered from Egyptian priests, among whom Moses was born and educated; in fact, he was given a very thorough Egyptian education, since he was adopted son of a king’s daughter.14
To quote Paul Goodman, ‘the historical M
oses who was to become the leader and teacher of the Children of Israel, appears to have been brought up as an Egyptian and to have taken little interest or share in the servitude of his people’.15
Some historians find difficulty in locating a ‘real’ individual Moses in the ancient texts. Others find more than one Moses with a different emphasis in their concepts of God. Textual research, primarily by scholars such as Julius Wellhausen,16 is based on the name applied to God in different sections of the Pentateuch.*12 The analyses demonstrate that there are at least four or five dominant authors behind the writings of the five books of Moses. This can be explained by relating the Mosaic period authors, or later authors, to influences from differing regional sources. This multi-author conclusion is strengthened by the different Biblical versions of where Moses fled to when he first left Egypt, and by conflicts in the names given for his father-in-law, who is variously Jethro, Reuel, Raguel or Hobab.17
The interesting (and at least consistent) thing is that Moses is said to have married into a priestly family, when he married ‘Zipporah’, and to have dwelt with the Midianites for some period. However, I find it unlikely that a wandering tribe of Bedouin, such as the Midianites, had priests with a highly developed religious philosophy from which Moses could learn anything useful. Moreover, the god that the Midianites worshiped was the idolatrous Baal. Nor does it seem in character for a ‘Prince of Egypt’, someone brought up in the luxuries of Court as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, to serve voluntarily as a shepherd for his father-in-law. Especially as amongst the Bedouin it is still the custom for the women to tend the flocks.18
In fact, in Numbers 31 the Bible relates how Moses later exacted an incredibly cruel vengeance on the Midianite tribe of his putative father-inlaw. He instructed 12,000 armed men to go against the Midianites and ‘they slew all the males’, and all five kings of Midian, and all the male children, and all the women who were not virgins, and distributed all their captured goods and livestock amongst the twelve tribes of Israel. Hardly the way to treat the tribe of one’s wife!
The Mystery of the Copper Scroll of Qumran Page 6