Egyptian view of Exodus
Many Egyptians during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, most notably Greco-Egyptian writers such as Manetho, Apion, and Chaeremon of Alexandria, didn't like how the Egyptians were portrayed in the Book of Exodus and responded by equating the god Yahweh with Set, the Egyptian god of chaos, destruction, and foreigners.
They actually tried to provide arguments for why Yahweh was Set other than “we don't like being villainized." Some of these arguments include
>They claimed the plagues in Exodus resembled calamities traditionally inflicted by Set.
>They compared Yahweh challenging the authority of the Egyptian Pharaoh in Exodus to Set, who in Egyptian mythology is an adversary god associated with chaos and the overturning of the established hierarchy (e.g. in his conflict with Osiris and Horus).
>They claimed Yahweh had linguistic and symbolic links to Set. The name Yahweh to them sounded similar to the Egyptian word for donkey (eio), an animal traditionally associated with Set. The Jewish proscription against eating pork was also linked to the pig being a totemic animal of Set.
Oh, and they also claimed Moses was actually Osarseph, a supposed renegade priest who led an army of lepers and other “unclean” people against a pharaoh named Amenophis (likely a hellenization of either Ahmose or Amenhotep). According to Manetho, Osarseph drove the pharaoh out of Egypt while aligned with the Hyksos (a Canaanite people who ruled over Egypt as its 15th dynasty and were expelled in the 16th century BC) and committed “sacrileges against the gods” before the pharaoh eventually returned and expelled them. Towards the end of Mantho’s account on all this, he claimed that Osarseph changed his name to Moses after being expelled…
TL;DR they basically argued that Exodus was a distorted account of the Hyksos being overthrown and expelled from Egypt and that the Hyksos were aided by Set who was actually Yahweh.
They actually tried to provide arguments for why Yahweh was Set other than “we don't like being villainized." Some of these arguments include
>They claimed the plagues in Exodus resembled calamities traditionally inflicted by Set.
>They compared Yahweh challenging the authority of the Egyptian Pharaoh in Exodus to Set, who in Egyptian mythology is an adversary god associated with chaos and the overturning of the established hierarchy (e.g. in his conflict with Osiris and Horus).
>They claimed Yahweh had linguistic and symbolic links to Set. The name Yahweh to them sounded similar to the Egyptian word for donkey (eio), an animal traditionally associated with Set. The Jewish proscription against eating pork was also linked to the pig being a totemic animal of Set.
Oh, and they also claimed Moses was actually Osarseph, a supposed renegade priest who led an army of lepers and other “unclean” people against a pharaoh named Amenophis (likely a hellenization of either Ahmose or Amenhotep). According to Manetho, Osarseph drove the pharaoh out of Egypt while aligned with the Hyksos (a Canaanite people who ruled over Egypt as its 15th dynasty and were expelled in the 16th century BC) and committed “sacrileges against the gods” before the pharaoh eventually returned and expelled them. Towards the end of Mantho’s account on all this, he claimed that Osarseph changed his name to Moses after being expelled…
TL;DR they basically argued that Exodus was a distorted account of the Hyksos being overthrown and expelled from Egypt and that the Hyksos were aided by Set who was actually Yahweh.