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Papyrus Anastasi VI

BM 10245

About this book

From an administrative communication recording the movement of pastoralist tribes during the reign of Merneptah. Lines 54-56: We have finished passing the tribes (mhwt) of the Shasu of Edom through the Fortress of Merneptah-Hotephirma,⁠ L.P.H. in Theku, to the pools of Pithom, of Merneptah-Hotephirma in Theku, in order to sustain them and their herds in the domain of Pharaoh, L.P.H., the good Sun of every land.

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Compare Papyrus Anastasi VI and Exodus 3:1

Ancient Near East, Egyptian · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

An Egyptian letter from the late thirteenth century BCE records shepherds from Edom bringing their flocks into Egyptian pasture. In Exodus 3 Moses is tending his father-in-law’s sheep in that same wilderness when God appears in the burning bush.

Passages

Papyrus Anastasi VI

Ancient Near East, Egyptian · BM 10245
From an administrative communication recording the movement of pastoralist tribes during the reign of Merneptah. Lines 54-56: We have finished passing the tribes (mhwt) of the Shasu of Edom through the Fortress of Merneptah-Hotephirma, L.P.H. in Theku, to the pools of Pithom, of Merneptah-Hotephirma in Theku, in order to sustain them and their herds in the domain of Pharaoh, L.P.H., the good Sun of every land.
1213–1203 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Papyrus Anastasi VI

Exodus 3:1

Hebrew Bible
1 Now Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. 2 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from within a bush. He looked, and the bush was ablaze with fire, but it was not being consumed! 3 So Moses thought, “I will turn aside to see this amazing sight. Why does the bush not burn up?”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

References

... The best place to begin is with the Egyptian evidence for the Shasu, the essential category in question. First of all, the name itself defines for New Kingdom Egyptian scribes and administrators a category roughly translated as “nomad,” an Egyptian term with a degree of semantic imprecision similar to its English counterpart. These were people identifiable above all by their mobility, associated with life in tents and with flocks. ... Two of these later literary papyri describe the Shasu with some detail, not from direct knowledge and individual names, but still usefully. Papyrus Anastasi VI (Giveon Document 37; Merneptah, 1213-1203) 54-56: We have finished passing the tribes (mhwt) of the Shasu of Edom through the Fortress of Merneptah-Hotephirma, L.P.H. in Theku, to the pools of Pithom, of Merneptah-Hotephirma in Theku, in order to sustain them and their herds in the domain of Pharaoh, L.P.H. the good Sun of every land. ...
Daniel E. Fleming, Yahweh Before Israel: Glimpses of History in a Divine Name (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 46.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Papyrus Anastasi VI and Exodus 3:1

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