Note 640 — Chapter IX

Büdinger ("Akad. d. Wissenschaft zu Wien," Sitzung vom, 15 October, 1873) regards Moses and Aaron as of Egyptian origin, as Egyptian priests, and finds the tribe of Levi in the leprous Egyptians who went out with the Hebrews. Lauth ("Moses der Hebraeer," and "Zeitsch. d. d. M. G." 1871, s. 135 ff) inclines to recognise Moses in the mohar, sotem (scribe) and messu of the papyrus Anastasi I., who would thus have been one of the Egyptian scholars, and employed by Ramses II. in matters of state and war. This view is opposed by Pleyte ("Zeitschr. f. aeg. Sprache," 1869, s. 30, 100 ff.); he reads the name Ptah-messu. Lauth, at the same time, refuses to derive the name Osarsiph from Osiris; he considers it to be Semitic, and explains it as a-sar-suph, i. e. "rush-basket."