1. when Egypt was under the sway of the Hyksos/Amalekites foreign rulers Israel, too, had many skirmishes and war actions against tribes associated with the Amalekites.
   
2. the Philistines were not natives of Palestinian origin but immigrants from the Greek isles.
   
3. when Egypt had its hiatus under the 18th Dynasty kings, Israel also was at its economic peak under the early kings.
   
4. when Egypt was ruled by mostly weaker Libyan kings, in time Assyrian influence reached to its border causing difficult times for Palestine and 22nd Dynasty rulers.
   
5. when Egypt had a powerful, expansionist pharaoh and Babylon had Nebuchadnezzar, these rulers contended for supremacy and Judah was caught in the middle.
   
6. when Egypt became subject to the Persians, Judah also was subdued in its political achievements.
   
7. when in Judah a theocracy led by priests began to rule, in Egypt too priest-kings came to prominence.
   
8. when weak Persian kings ruled, in Egypt native kings were able to assert themselves for short periods and Judah had its own government.
   
9. when Si Amon displays Greek influences in his tomb paintings it means that he really lived during that period of time.

The History of Judah showing parallels with Egyptian history - Ezra and Nehemia worked together for a while to build the walls of Jerusalem, then Ezra passes from the scene. Sometime later Nehemia had to return to Persia for reasons unknown. 12 years later in about 425 BC he returned to Jerusalem. Nehemia was appalled by the conditions he found there. Some of the reforms he and Ezra had initiated had been reversed entirely [Nehemia 13]. During these same times in Egypt we have priest-princes revolting against the Persians, then later complying.

Events of about 363 BC - The high priest John murders his brother Jesus inside the Temple of Jerusalem. We are told by Josephus that Jesus had been a friend to the Persian general Bagoses [50] who had promised to procure him the High Priesthood. "In confidence of this support, Jesus quarreled with John in the temple, and so provoked his brother, that in his anger his brother slew him. Now it was a horrible thing for John, when he was high priest, to perpetrate so great a crime, and so much the more horrible, that there was so cruel and impious a thing done, neither by the Greeks nor Barbarians (Persians)." [70]

Bagoses punished the Jews by entering the temple in order to desecrate it for 7 years after that, apparently meaning until to the death of Jesus the high priest, whose more exact period we don't have at the moment.

In the following years we have the rebellion of Inaros/Ramses XI as already explained under the topic of the 21st Dynasty, a period representing a weakening of Persian influence in Judah and Egypt during which the priestly class prospered and governed the land in both countries.

Events of 338 BC - Then in 338 BC the eunuch and royal confidant Bogoaz poisoned Artaxerxes III and he died thus ushering in the demise of the Persian Empire. This he did in order to make it possible for his son to become king. But after a while, observing his spirit of independence in the young king, Bogoaz poisoned him too, this way almost bringing the Achaemenid Dynasty to an end.

But there was still a distant relative of the last king whom Bogoaz located and placed on the throne as Darius III in 336 BC. Darius was not ignorant of the character of Bogoaz and in order to secure his own life, poisoned the man who made him king. However the three years of his reign were insufficient to consolidate the empire, establish his own authority, and bring the satraps to obedience. The empire was in dire trouble. Its citadel of strength had always been the Great King. The string of palace assassinations had caused a fatal blow to the coherence of the political structure.

This less then 10 year period is counted as the 31st Dynasty of Egypt, Artaxerxes III and Darius III being its pharaohs.

The epic of Alexander's war against Darius III, with the famous battles at Granicus in 334 BC and at Issus only one year later, is well known and there is nothing that we need to add or change in this reconstruction of the history. The famous mosaic of Alexander the Great within sight of Darius III is an eloquent witness to the period here discussed. At this time the prince-priest Menkheperre, son of Peinuzem, will soon greet the august visitor to the temple of the oracle of Amon, and we do well to remember that according to conventional history Menkheperre lived in the 11th century BC but we find that the Stela of the Banished parallels the accounts of other later, ancient authors precisely as we expected.

The Itinerary of Alexander the Great

1. Philip, father of Alexander the Great murdered by Pausanias, son of Cerastes, at Egae, 336 BC.
   
2. With about 30,000 personal Alexander crosses the Hellespont and marches over Lydia, Ionia, Caria & Pamphyllia to reach Granicus, 334 BC.
   
3. Darius III. meets Alexander at Issus, Cilicia, 333 BC. This battle was immortalized in the famous mosaic showing the two kings.
   
4. Alexander takes Damascus & Sidon.
   
5. Siege of Tyre, lasts for 7 months.
   
6. Sanballat renounces Darius III. and comes on the side of Alexander. He asks Alexander to let him build a sanctuary on Mt. Gerizzim to divide the Jewish nation and thus weaken them. This fact shows that at this time the similar actions of Jeroboam had not been forgotten.
   
7. Sanballat dies right after the siege of Gaza.
   
8. Alexander besieges Gaza and its garrison, the residence of Babemeses, governor of Gaza for two months.
   
9. Alexander goes to Jerusalem, meets Jaddua and the Jews in procession, reads book of Daniel and becomes a friend of the Jews.
   

Once for all Alexander determined to prevent this mistaken attitude. He therefore himself married Statira, the daughter of the Persian king. At the same time he made 80 of his chief officers marry 80 daughters of Persians of highest rank. At the splendid ceremony was this way typified the union of the two peoples as the 80 brides entered the great hall were the bridegrooms were feasting. Alexander rose and led Statira to a throne; each groom followed his example; each divided a loaf of bread and ate it with his lady, and drank with her a glass of wine. This way they pledged to live together forever.

The reason Alexander became a friend to the Jews was what was written in the book of Daniel about him. Before that the High Priest was much in fear of the imminent arrival of the armies of Alexander. Judah had suffered much under the Babylonians and Persians and now there was still another conqueror at the door. But in Daniel Alexander read the words of prophecy which Daniel had penned some 200 years before under the guidance of the angel of the Lord. Here Alexander learned about the sequence of the empires, from Babylon as the head of gold also represented as a lion, and with Medo-Persia, as the chest of silver, also represented as a bear and a ram, and with Greece as the girdle of brass, also represented as a leopard and goat.

"... and a he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn [Alexander] between his eyes."
"The ram which you saw having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Greece: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king." Daniel 8:5, 20,21; the first king was Alexander.

The battles between the Greeks and the Persians are said to have been exceedingly fierce. Some of the scenes recorded in history vividly bring to mind the figure used in the prophecy - a ram standing before the River Granicus in Phrygia, and the goat running toward him in "the fury of his power". The goat came from the west on the face of the earth and "touched not the ground". The same charcteristic of speed is indicated by the four wings of the leopard representing the same nation. [Daniel 7:6] Alexander next attacked and routed Darius at the passes of Issus in Cilicia, and afterwards defeated him on the plains of Arbela in Syria. [300] That such animal comparisons were familiar in those days can be seen from a 6 centimeter long pale-green faience animal figure featuring goat horns, a lions face and a Persian mustache from the Myers collection and attributed to the Persian period. [320] On the evening before this last battle, Darius sent 10 of his chief relatives to negotiate for peace. When they had presented their conditions to Alexander, he is said to have replied: "Heaven cannot support two suns, nor the earth two masters." [330]

In the Fall of -332 Alexander crossed the desert and came to Egypt. The Persian satrap, who could not depend on the loyalty of the people of Egypt, offered no resistance. The population received Alexander jubilantly.

"The Egyptian people hailed him with joy as their deliverer from the Persian yoke." [350] He sacrificed a bull to Apis and brought royal offerings. This implies that he was crowned king of Egypt where "the Pharaoh was regarded as the incarnation of the greatest god." [358]

He arranged athletic and literary contests and took care also that the old customs of Egypt and its religious services be held in honor just like he did in Judah.

During Alexander's stay in Egypt a large group of captured rebels were brought to him from the islands of the Mediterranean, and he banished the rebels of Chios - Appolonides and his followers - to Yeb in southern Egypt.

On his way to the oasis first he went some distance south, then he proceeded to the western mouth of the Delta and had surveyors plan the layout of the future Alexandria. From there he visited the oracle of Amon in the Siwa Oasis, some 270 miles south west. After his arrival there he was pronounced a son of Amon, the Greek Zeus, and the incarnation of the god himself. A part of the account of this story is found in the Maunier stela. Returning from Siwa, he organized the administration of Egypt and then, pressed by military considerations, left Egypt in the early spring of 331 BC in order to avoid a possible Persian problem since he had rejected a peace offer by Darius III.

A number of ancient authors describe the visit of Alexander to the Siwa oasis. Most of them used the record of Callisthenes, who accompanied Alexander on many marches and liked to boast that Alexander was famous not for what he did but for what Callisthenes wrote about him. Ptolemaeus and Aristobulus and other contemporaries of Alexander - their records do not exist anymore - as well as Cleitarchus, a resident of Alexandria, who collected material from eyewitnesses of the exploits of Alexander, served as sources for the Greek and Roman authors of the following centuries who wrote about Alexander in Egypt. [Among them are Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, III; Diodorus and Plutarch]

Even today the remains of the only known shrine to Alexander in Egypt can be seen in Bahariya's (Zeszes) Valley of the Golden Mummies. [370]

The Maunier Stela also known as the Stela of the Banished.

This stela is one of the best known of the so-called 21st Dynasty. It is in a poor condition making it very difficult to read. Its text has to do with the oracle of Amon and the affairs of the oasis and was written by the High Priest of Amon, Menkheperre, son of Peinuzem. We recall that Peinuzem was one of the priest-princes who re-wrapped the royal mummies.

The victorious visitor who had expelled the enemies of Egypt was received with rejoicing according to the stela. Because of that he was regarded as divine - a victorious god. He was honored, given presents and confirmed in his office.

A part of the stela we need to discuss says:

"... the majesty of this august god, lord of gods, Amon-Re, king of gods, appeared (in procession), came to the great halls of the house of Amon, and rested before the [inclosure wall] of Amon. The High Priest of Amon-Re, king of gods, commander in chief of the army, Menkheperre, triumphant, went to him and praised him exceedingly, exceedingly, many times, and he founded [for him] his offering, even [every] good thing."

Modern scholars assume that there are two actors in the story: the high priest and his god-oracle. These scholars wonder about the procedure: "It appears as if he had long been absent from Thebes, and needed to secure the recognition of the god; it is by no means the condition of a resident head of the priesthood." [385]

"His majesty" who arrived in the south as a victor is clearly not Menkheperre because he is referred to in the same text as one whom his majesty confirmed in the office of high priest.

After the high priest of Amon had praised his divine visitor "exceedingly," and brought offerings "for him," he started to interrogate the oracle.

"Then the High Priest of Amon, Menkheperre, triumphant, recounted to him, saying: "O my good lord, (when) there is a matter, shall one recount it -- ?" Then the great god nodded exceedingly, exceedingly."

The priest asked about

"... the matter of these servants, against who thou art wroth, who are in the oasis, whither they are banished. Then the great god nodded exceedingly, while this commander of the army, with his hands uplifted was praising his lord, as a father talks with his own son."

The end of the last sentence is not unexpected. A priest would speak to the god Amon as a son to a father, but not as a father to a son. Nevertheless, the text of the stela says that the priest spoke to the god as a father speaks to a son. The baffled translator of the text remarked:

"The inversion of the members of the comparison is in the original." [400]

By repeating and developing his question, the priest succeeded in obtaining the answer that the exiles who were in the oasis should be removed, and in the future no exiles should be banished there. Apparently their presence caused problems for the locals. It was obviously important to the priest to make sure that this oracle of the god was made known and observed. He said: O my good lord, as for any writing which any -- makes, in order to bring it, let it be said --." Then the great god nodded exceedingly. Then he went again to the great god, saying: "O my good lord, thou shalt make a great decree in thy name, that no people of the land shall be [banished] to the distant region of the oasis, nor --- from this day on." Then the great god nodded exceedingly. He spake again, saying: "Thou shalt say that it shall be made into a decree upon a stela --- in thy [-perhaps cities-], abiding and fixed forever."

Making decrees and writing them on steles was the prerogative of kings.

The second question put by the priest to the oracle of Amon refers in some way to murderers, whether they should be punished by execution.

"Then the High Priest of Amon, Menkheperre, triumphant, went to the great god, saying: `As for any person, of whom they shall report before thee, saying, `A slayer of living people [--] (is he);' thou shalt destroy him, thou shalt slay him.' Then the great god nodded exceedingly, exceedingly."

The combination of words in the question referred by the high priest to the oracle of Amon, concerning the "slayer of living", appeared strange, and its meaning was asserted to be obscure; it caused difficulty to its first (Brugsch) and later (Breasted) translators.

Before the last question and the answer of the oracle to it, the text contains a sentence that appears unrelated to the context:

"while I was in the womb, when thou didst form (me) in the egg..." as if to the god was attributed the physical creation of the divine lord while in a womb.

The stela also contains a request for benediction or for a prophecy of good fortune and benevolence on the part of the gods:

"Grant that I may spend a happy life..." "... as a follower of thy ka."

But Brugsch translated it as:

"Will all achievement be my portion?" [450]

The request is granted and the oracle announces:

"... There is purity and health wherever thou tarriest...." The entire account on the stela is regarded as cryptic. "The remarkable errand" of the priest "is intentionally narrated in such veiled language that it is impossible to determine exactly what its nature was." [490]

But we shall find out that the text is quite clear once put into the correct historical background.

The following circumstances must not be overlooked:

1. the text discloses the fact that the priest asked that a decree based upon the answer of the oracle should be placed in the cities of Egypt.
   
2. and the existing Maunier stela found at Luxor testifies that this was done.
   
3. For that reason the oracle need not necessarily have been that of the Amon of the place where the stela was discovered.
   
4. The preoccupation with an oasis makes it apparent that the stela deals with the oracle of Amon of the oasis.

But the best way to learn more is to follow Alexander on his famous journey to the oracle of Amon.

1. Alexander came from the north in victory and as a liberator from the Persian enemies. He arranged festivals in the cities of Egypt and was joyfully acclaimed by the youth of the country.
   
2. He acknowledged and confirmed the civil and religious officials of Egypt in that he ".. permitted the district governors to govern their own districts as had been their way all along." [500]
   
3. From Memphis, going up the Nile, Alexander penetrated the interior of Egypt. [510]
   
4. Next "he sailed downstream towards the sea" and marked out the ground plan for the city of Alexandria himself. [515]
   
5. While there he directed the surveyors of the land, who measured the site and "ordered those in charge of the work to proceed with it, while he himself set out for the temple of Amon." [520]
   
6. He made his journey to the oasis in the rainy season, for we are told that a rainfall helped him in the desert.

There was a castle in the middle of the Siwa Oasis surrounded by a triple wall. Quintus Rufius wrote about it:

"The first rampart encloses the ancient palace of their kings; within the second are lodged the prince's wives, children, and concubines - here, likewise, is the oracle of the god; in the outward circle of bastions were posted the royal armed attendants and bodyguards." [525]

Here we learn that the high priest of the oracle in the oasis claimed royal titles. Herodotus (II, 32) tells us that a king (Etearchus) ruled in the oasis of "the shrine of Ammon." From this we should gather that when we find hieroglyphics, cartouches and so on from this period they do not always represent kings as we think of kings, but often represent princes, officials, governors or mayors of towns. In the case of the Siwa Oases it had its own king like ruler in Menkheperre during Persian times because it was far removed from the Egypt of the Nile.

Diodorus wrote about the local army:

"Within the third wall were the lodgings of the archers and darters, and guard-houses of those who attend as guards upon the prince when he walks abroad." [540]

From these descriptions we see that the priest of the oracle of Amon in the oasis was a prince who had an army of his own, which fact explains the titles used in the stele: prince, priest, commander of the army.

When Alexander and his guard arrived at the outer wall surrounding the castle, the chief priest came out and saluted the king. In the language of Plutarch:

"When Alexander had passed through the desert and was come to the place of the oracle, the prophet of Amon gave him salutation from the god as from a father." [540]

Strabo, who cited Callisthenes, wrote:

"The priest permitted the king alone to pass into the temple in his usual dress, but the rest changed their clothes; ... all heard the oracles from outside except Alexander, but he inside." 550]

The flattery with which the priest addressed Alexander on meeting him before the wall is mentioned by several authors: so Curtius Rufus speaks of "concerted adulation" accorded by the priest to Alexander. The stela says:

"... the majesty of this august god, lord of gods, Amon-Re, king of gods, appeared (in procession), came to the great halls of the house of Amon, and rested before the [enclosure wall] of Amon. The High Priest of Amon-Re, king of gods, commander in chief of the army, Menkheperre, triumphant, went to him and praised him exceedingly, exceedingly, many times, and he founded [for him] his offering, even [every] good thing."

The offering is also mentioned by Plutarch:

"Alexander made splendid offerings to the god."

All the authors who described this visit told about the way the priest addressed Alexander.

Diodorus wrote:

"When Alexander was introduced by the priests into the temple, and saw the god, one of the old prophets addressed himself to him, and said: `God save thee, my son, and this title take along with thee from the god himself.'"

Alexander answered:

"Your son I will ever be called."

Now we see that the words on the stela about the priest "praising his lord, as a father talks with his own son," are not an "inversion of a comparison" at all.

Curtius Rufus wrote:

"As the king was approaching, the senior priest saluted him "son", affirming, "that his father, Jupiter [Amon], bestowed that title."

This application of the term "son" to Alexander by the priest of Amon which is stressed by Diodorus, Plutarch, and Curtius Rufus is important because of its singularity and because it makes clear and verifies the otherwise absurd sentence of the stele.

The way in which this oracle answered questions was also very peculiar. On the stele it is repeatedly said:

"The great god nodded exceedingly, exceedingly."

Diodorus said the same of the oracle of Amon visited by Alexander:

"The god by a nod of his head directs them."

Strabo too mentioned this peculiarity:

"The oracular responses were not, as at Delphi and among the Branchidae, given in words, but mostly by nods and tokens, as in Homer, `Cronion spoke and nodded assent with his dark brows,' the prophet having assumed the role of Zeus; however, the fellow expressly told the king that he, Alexander, was the son of Zeus."

Here is a further reason why the pagan priest spoke to his idol and to Alexander in similar fashion, calling both of them god Amon: Alexander was proclaimed an incarnation of the god Amon (Zeus) himself. Moreover, he was assured of being a physical son of Amon. The words on the stela telling the divine victor that Amon formed him in the egg gain in meaning.

Alexander "not only suffered himself to be called Jupiter's son, but required it." "When fortune has induced men to confide entirely in herself, she commonly makes them more avaricious of glory than able to sustain it." [610] [Curtius Rufus, `The History...', IV, VII]

We learn from this how Egyptian priests had become acquainted with Hebrew beliefs probably from the time of Solomon, Senmut, in Egypt and later, the Jews at Elephantine, and used their divinely ordained priestly services to mimic their own pagan services accordingly. The world would get their ideas of human afterlife and would base their ideas of man's immortality and transport it into apostate Christian doctrines which tenaciously cling to nearly all Catholic and Protestant congregations.