Moses is clearly the central hero of the Book of Exodus. He is portrayed as the leader of the Children of Israel in their struggle for liberation from slavery and as their guide into the Promised Land. We are told that he had an older brother, Aaron, who was second-in-command of the operation. Since the Exodus story is based on an event in Egyptian history, Moses' brother Aaron presumably is an historical character.
The Hebrew Bible contains enough hints to allow us to determine whom the scribes were masking in the character they called Aaron. The Aaron who acts as the person second-in-command in the Exodus, historically, was General Horemheb, a son-in-law of the Divine Father Ay and, later, a pharaoh of Egypt.
A major discovery concerning three names inscribed in Horemheb's cartouche - those of the three Biblical characters Aaron, Miriam, his sister, and Hor, Miriam's son, confirm that Aaron was indeed Pharaoh Horemheb.
Part of this discovery was that the name of Horus, the falcon god, the bird of light, was of Greek rather than Egyptian origin. According to Pierre Grandet, the true Egyptian pronunciation of Horus is "Hor": "Several intermediary examples are known of the name of Aten, where Horus' name (Hor) is written phonetically, thus avoiding writing it by means of the picture of a falcon."1
According to Claude Vandersleyen, Horus (Hor) was Horemheb's proper name. "His will to pursue concrete reforms reveals itself in his name - Horus (Hor): In effective plans (Hornung, 1971, 49, 50)."2
So, Horus is pronounced Hor, like Aaron's nephew in the Bible, and like Aaron himself (A-Horon). These various phonetic coincidences are not due to chance, because the scribes provided other elements that unveil Aaron's true identity. Aaron's sister was named Miriam.3 The name of Miriam also figures in Horemheb's cartouche in the form of the hieroglyph Meri-Amun (beloved of Amun). Miriam is a contraction, according to strict Biblical and Egyptian traditions, marking Horemheb's affiliation with Amun. As with Abraham, whom the Bible scribes composed from Ab-Rah-Amun, Father of Rah's and Amun's people (Exodus 17:4-5), Miriam is the contraction of Meri-Amun. Miriam, the mother of the people, the metaphor for Isis.
The right side of Pharaoh Horemheb's cartouche (shown below) contains by itself the names "Aaron," "Miriam," and "Hor," associated with the theme of the festival that is none other than the festival of the Golden Calf.
Horemheb's cartouche. (Left) Sacred are Re's transformations (Right) Horus is celebrating, beloved of Amun.
The phonetic writing of the right-hand side of the cartouche is pronounced Hor-on-m-heb. The sense of the name Horemheb, in Egyptian Hor-n-m-heb, recalls the Biblical story of the Golden Calf. The crown (N) is the symbol of gold, and Horemheb's coronation name is "Golden Horus, the powerful bull."
In the Bible, the god Hor is hidden under various names: Nahor and Haran (Abraham's brothers), Naharim, Horeb, Horma, etc. According to Rashi,4 Hor would be Miriam's son. He appears briefly in the Bible, disappearing after the episode of the Golden Calf. The relationship "Aaron, brother of Miriam who is the mother of Hor" is illustrated by an effigy in Horemheb's tomb: Pharaoh is placed between Isis and Hor (Horus). Isis, "the sister of Horemheb," is the mother of Hor.5
Horemheb and Horus, son of Isis (Tomb of Horemheb).
According to the Book of Exodus Aaron bore the responsibility of tax collection and of combating corruption. During the reigns of Akhenaten and Tutankhamun, the Divine Father Ay placed Horemheb in charge of overseeing the fiscal administration of Egypt. Claude Vandersleyen describes this: "By Horemheb's decree, it is known that corruption prevailed among the tax collectors and the judges. Horemheb emphasizes that he traveled all over the country to know it to its depths. Akhenaten, himself, doubtlessly did not travel about. So it is reasonable to expect that he neglected the general management of his nation."6
We see Aaron in the same role in the Bible. "Adon-Ay said to Aaron, 'Behold! Here I have given thee the keeping of the contributions which have been made to me, all the holy goods of the Children of Israel. I have given them to thee and to thy sons, as assigned to thee for all time to come'" (Numbers 18:8).
Vizier Ay entrusted his general and tax collector with the responsibility of escorting the Yahuds out of Egypt and into the provinces. Horemheb had a fellow officer who shared the responsibility, a general by the name of Harnesses.
With the historical Egyptian drama in mind, let us look at the way the scribes of the Bible relate the story.
When the Children of Israel arrived in the desert, they became disgruntled with conditions and with the leadership. Some of their revolts were more open than others. But, the going was not easy for either the people or for their leaders, Moses and Aaron.
The first revolt of the people driven out of Egypt was against Moses. They reproached him for having led them into the desert without hope of return. The Children of Israel had been participants in a great miracle - the parting of the Red Sea or Sea of Reeds. The revolt took place despite that miracle. The awesome parting of the waters did not seem to have much impressed the exiles. They were more concerned with their discomfort:
The entire community of the Children of Israel began to murmur against Moses and against Aaron in the desert. And the Children of Israel said to them: "We wish we had died by the hand of Adon-Ay in the land of Egypt, seated by the meat kettles and eating bread to the full. Because you have brought us out into this desert to kill all the people by starvation." (Aramaic Bible, Exodus 16:2)
This incipient revolt was solved by the miraculous appearance of food. Manna fell on them from heaven, and game birds appeared on the desert along with other meat. But, all was not well yet in the wilderness.
In the next chapter in the Book of Exodus (17:3), a new revolt was brewing: "The people were there, thirsty, and they murmured against Moses and said, 'Why hast thou brought us out of Egypt to die of thirst, me, my children, and my herds?"'
Moses caused water to flow from a rock and the complaints stopped.
In the Aramaic version of the Bible, in Numbers 21:5, the people have a new complaint, which they direct to Moses: "And the people complained to Adon-Ay and to Moses, 'Why did you drag us out of Egypt to cause us to die in the desert? Because here there is no bread, no water, and we are tired of this miserable food.' So Adon-Ay sent out fiery serpents who bit the people, and a multitude perished."
The snakes who attacked the complaining Children of Israel put a finishing touch to the revolt about the terrible food and living conditions. Yet, there were more revolts in store. There were problems concerning the leadership. People were complaining that Moses had become too dictatorial. The person who spearheaded this revolt over Moses' leadership was Korah.
The episode of the revolt of Korah (Numbers 16:1), of the tribe of Levi (Yahuds), reveals the spirit of rebellion that grew progressively among the priests and the nobility during the sojourn in the desert. The Yahuds reproached Moses for wanting to keep power without sharing it. Their words are angry, ironic, and inflammatory:
We do not want to come up [to the land of Canaan]. Is it such a small matter that you have caused us to come up from a country which flows with milk and honey [Egypt] to kill us in the desert, and that you still want to make yourself prince over us, completely? This land into which you have led us really is scarcely one flowing with milk and honey, and has not given us a heritage of fields and vineyards. Do you want to put out the eyes of these men? We do not want to come up! (Hebrew Bible, Numbers 16:12-14)
These people were no longer in favor of going to a promised land. They wanted to return home to Egypt. The people then reproached Moses and Aaron mightily: "The next day, the Children of Israel began to murmur against Moses and Aaron, saying, 'You are the ones who have caused the people of Adon-Ay to die'" (Aramaic Bible, Numbers 16:41).
Moses quelled the revolt by ordering a massacre of 250 of Korah's priests. "And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, they and their households, as well as all the people who were part of Korah's group, and all their belongings. And they went down alive to Sheol [Hell], they and all that they owned, so that they disappeared from the midst of the congregation" (Numbers 16:32).
Tomb of Sety I. The wells of Hell where the damned descend.
Following the execution of the priests of Korah, the exiles suffered a terrible chastisement: "Those who died from the plague mounted up to 14,700 plus those who died because of Korah [the 250 priests]. When Aaron finally returned to Moses, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the plague had ceased" (Numbers 16:49-50).
The scribes here let us know that Aaron had been on the side of Korah's rebels. It was Aaron who finally put an end to the revolt. Since he ended the troubles he must have been part of the dissident group. There was a leadership crisis in the Exodus. The question was whether Moses or Aaron would be in charge of the people. However, both Moses and Aaron realized that open conflict would be counterproductive. A compromise had to be reached between the two brothers (generals). They shared power until the exiles reached Mount Sinai. It was there that events took a new turn, with the matter of the Golden Calf.
After the many complaints and rebellions of the people, the group arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai. The events that occurred at that point in the story are among the most dramatic in the Bible - the receiving of the Ten Commandments and the worship of the Golden Calf.
The episode of the Golden Calf is a critical point in the battle for leadership of the people of the Exodus. When Moses was gone from the people for forty days, having gone up Mount Sinai, Aaron constructed a golden calf for the people to worship. When Moses returned, he was enraged. The relationship between the two brother leaders had reached critical mass.
At this dramatic point in the Bible story, let us consider the historical situation it was reflecting.
The Divine Father Ay was the actual ruler of Egypt. King Tutankhamun had died aged 18. There was no direct blood-line leading to a new pharaoh for the Eighteenth Dynasty. The Divine Father, Vizier Ay, assumed the crown. Before becoming pharaoh, he had sent generals Horemheb and Ramesses north to lead the monotheists to the province of Canaan. While the deportees were languishing in Moab, waiting for the Egyptian army to liberate Canaan for them, Pharaoh Ay died.
Again, there was no lineal descendant of Ahmose, the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty. It was unclear who would become pharaoh of Egypt.
Ramose, a powerful vizier, was a possible claimant for the throne. Horemheb, who had control of the army, returned to Thebes to claim the throne for himself. He was as successful a politician as a general and bureaucrat and easily edged out the competition for the crown, and became pharaoh of Egypt. As such, he was intermediary between the people and Amun. Horemheb had now become both pharaoh and priest.
Now, back to the Bible story, in which Moses and Aaron are still in contention for leadership of the people.
At the foot of Mount Sinai, we are told that Moses went away, up the mountain. "Moses went inside the cloud and went up the mountain. And Moses remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights" (Exodus 24:18).
Does this verse refer to the mourning period for an important person? Remember, Pharaoh Ay, a person who was of great importance to the leaders of the Exodus, had just died. Forty days is the time period required to embalm a person in the Egyptian manner, as revealed earlier in Genesis: "Forty days elapsed. For it takes that many days for a person to be embalmed. The Egyptians cried [for Jacob] for seventy days" (Genesis 50:3). Moses would have been absent to fulfill his religious obligations for the death of Pharaoh Ay.
The Bible tells us that during Moses' absence, Aaron collected gold from the people and cast it into an idol, a golden calf: "Aaron told the people, 'Remove the earrings from your wives, from your sons and daughters, and bring them to me'" (Exodus 32:2).
He [Aaron] took it [the gold] from their hands, formed a cast, and made a metal calf. And they said, "Here are thy gods, O Israel, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt. "Aaron saw it [the golden calf] and set an altar before it. And Aaron proclaimed, "Tomorrow there shall be a feast for Ay [Adon-Ay]." They arose early the next day and presented burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. The people sat to eat and drink, and then arose to carouse. (Aramaic Bible, Exodus 32:4-6)
Aaron here is showing his sympathy for the return to the gods of Egypt. He is displaying his agreement with the Yahuds who wish to return to Egypt. Aaron's commitment is not to carrying monotheism into the promised land, but to reverting to the worship of Amun and allowing the people to return to Egypt. The people celebrate Aaron's leadership and readily worship the Golden Calf and engage in a feast in honor of Amun, Aten, Ay, and the Elohim, pharaohs of Egypt, as we shall now see.
According to Christian Jacq's translation, the Pyramid Texts attest that the Golden Calf symbolizes the birth of Pharaoh merged with the sun-Re. It is the ancient Egyptians themselves that give us the secret of the great enigma of the Golden Calf.
The king's mother is the celestial cow who rises towards the heavens and who does not leave him behind on earth. Pharaoh joins himself to her, the great wild cow in the heavens. She suckles him and does not leave him without strength. After having conceived him and placed him on earth, she places him within her wing that she may cause him to cross over a lake and a canal. And it is in the form of a Golden Calf that Re is born in the heavens.7
Thus, the Golden Calf symbolizes the birth and coronation of a new pharaoh.
Aaron is celebrating - Horemheb is celebrating. The celebration symbolizes the return of the Yahud people to the freedom of the previous cult, the return to Amun, materialized in the feast of the Golden Calf.
The episode of the Golden Calf is a representation of the attempt of Horemheb, who had just become the new pharaoh of Egypt, to finally resolve the Amarnian crisis. He granted amnesty to those who had gone out of Egypt by allowing them to worship the ancient gods. In contrast, Ramesses' commitment was to settle the land of Canaan with the monotheists.
When Moses returned from his forty days' sojourn, he was mightily displeased at the turn matters had taken. Surprised by the coronation of Horemheb (Aaron), Moses attacked the people directly. He ordered a bloodbath.
Moses addressed the Levites (the army of the priests): "He said to them, 'Thus spoke Adon-Ay, God of Israel. "Let each man strap on his sword, go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and let each one slay his brother, his friend, relative......(Aramaic Bible, Exodus 32:27).
Three thousand were killed.
The return of Moses from Sinai provoked a conflict that menaced Aaron's power. The two brothers arrived at a compromise, condemning and chastising the innocent people. The three thousand who were killed satisfied Moses, and Aaron backed down in order to keep the peace.
Now, let us look at what history tells us about this period.
At the beginning of his reign Horemheb continued the policy of his father-inlaw, Ay, re-establishing the old gods in the whole land. Horemheb had numerous golden statues sculpted all over Egypt,8 and reintegrated into their respective temples, as well as many altars.
Although crowned more than ten years after the exodus from Akhet-Aten, Horemheb was angry at the departure of the priests and sages of Egypt. The Stela of the Return indicates that the land needed priests. The new pharaoh did not want to deprive himself of the intellectual elite. He had to give the deported clergy a chance to reintegrate into their fatherland and participate in the process of restoration.
The refusal of General Ramesses to let the people return to Egypt shows his radical determination to repopulate Canaan, in accord with the mission entrusted to him by Pharaoh Ay. So Ramesses had the ability to oppose Horemheb without being sanctioned. A civil war seemed imminent. A compromise was reached between Ramesses and Horemheb after a series of massacres. Horemheb understood that the Yahud priests, with their ancient traditions, represented a potential vital resource for Egypt. However, the only possibility left, then, for the new pharaoh was to recruit future priests from the families of the class of nobles.
Horemheb's retreat from his previous position could explain his consequent hostile behavior towards the memory of his father-in-law Ay because of the dismissal of the priests. He usurped his name on some statues. He did the same on monuments and stelae (for example the Stela of the Restoration) engraved in Tutankhamun's name. On the list of the names of the pharaohs of Egypt he banished the name of the Amarnian kings (Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun, and Ay), making it appear that he himself was the true son of Amenhotep III.
Horemheb's action created a novel situation for Egypt - the problem of Akhet-Aten and monotheism being sent towards the desert of Moab, near Canaan. Upper and Lower Egypt returned to the old traditional
Amunian gods. However, in the wilderness the Yahuds and the erev-rav (the common people) were committed to the monotheistic cult that was held responsible for Egypt's decline. They deified Ay as the "symbol of the name" of the One God in place of Aten. Horemheb took care to annihilate the Atenian cult, and tried hard to neutralize every form of the cult of the Divine Father Ay in the two lands.
Horemheb had been promoted to governor of the kingdom by Tutankhamun (under Ay's aegis); he was depicted in the vestments of High Priest, carrying the vase of the oil of unction. He received the golden necklaces, the shawl or sacred vestment, as well as another vase of holy oil. The priests acclaimed him and prostrated themselves before him.
In like manner the Bible depicts Aaron as high priest of the Children of Israel:
Aaron said all the words that Adon-Ay had addressed to Moses, and he worked marvels before the eyes of the people. And the people had faith in him. They understood that Adon-Ay remembered the Children of Israel, that he had taken consideration of their misery, and they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. (Exodus 4:30-32)
The status of High Priest attributed to Aaron allows us to understand why Moses never punishes him in the Bible story. The description of Aaron's sacred vestments and his priestly function place him above Moses in any hierarchy.
Horemheb was Ay's interpreter and scribe. He was also a man committed to reconciliation and desirous of bringing back the Yahud priests to Egypt.
The policy of extreme centralization in Akhet-Aten, associated with the abandonment of traditional values, had caused dysfunction, anarchy, and corruption at all levels of the administration. The desire to re-establish order was an urgent necessity at Akhenaten's death. The Divine Father Ay, an effective politician and precursor of the return of the ancient religion, was the person who inspired the reform. Horemheb usurped his paternity, as he did on most of the monuments and stelae. He saw himself as the champion of the return of Amun, mercilessly eliminating the memory of his adversaries, mainly Ay, venerated and then detested. Claude Vandersleyen9 recognized in Horemheb the author of the malfeasances perpetrated in Ay's name in the Temple of Karnak:
From Horemheb's attitude when he succeeded Ay, it can be deduced that those four years [of Ay's reign] were not lacking in tension. The temple raised at Karnak by Ay in memory of the young dead king [Tutankhamun] bore both their names. Tutankhamun's was respected everywhere, whereas Ay's names were most often destroyed and the surface prepared to receive a new inscription (Schaden 1984, 46—48, Eaton-Krauss, 1988, 4-5, 10-11). Only Horemheb or Ramesses could have ordered these mutilations since these blocks were finally buried in the second pylon needed for the building.
Afterwards, Horemheb and Ramesses usurped some monuments and statues that were attributed to Tutankhamun. At the foot of the tenth pylon of the hypostyle room of the Temple of Karnak, there is a stela decreeing the return of order in the land, like the edict of restoration of the Stela of Tutankhamun. Nicolas Grimal believes Horemheb is at the heart of the reform:
He [Horemheb] put judges and regional tribunals in place, and reintroduced local religious authorities. The juridical power was divided between Upper and Lower Egypt, between the vizier of Thebes and the vizier of Memphis. The duality of the country is found again in the army where the military units were recast and dispersed into two military districts, one in the north, the other in the south. I°
Another vizier, Ramesses, had charge of the eastern territories (Canaan and Moab), applying Pharaoh's laws and organizing the settlement of displaced populations. The vizier who administered these provinces was quite separate from Upper and Lower Egypt, but powerful enough to accede naturally to the throne after Horemheb's death.
Notes
1. See J. Samson, Mrna, City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Aris & Phillips, 1978, pp.101-3.
2. Claude Vandersleyen, Egypt and the Valley of the Nile, Vol. 2. Nouvelle Clio, 1995, p. 488.
3. Cf. Exodus 15:20; Numbers 12:1, 20:1, 26:59.
4. Exodus 17:6, 17:12
5. Alberto Siliotti, The Valley of the Kings. Grund, 1996, p. 47.
6. Claude Vandersleyen, Egypt and the Valley of the Nile, p. 436.
7. Christian Jacq, La tradition primordiale de l'Ancienne Egypte selon les texts des Pyramides. Grasset and Fasquelle, 1998, p. 264.
8. For the gold statues and their altars, cf. Cyril Aldred, Akhenaten, King of Egypt. Le Seuil, 1997, p. 288.
9. Claude Vandersleyen, Egypt and the Valley of the Nile, p. 483.
10. Nicolas Grimal, Histoire de l'Ancienne Egypte. Fayard, 1988, p. 297.
World History
