08. The Use of Iron in Egypt.

The Use of Iron in Egypt.

One further difficulty: according to Genesis 4:22, Tubal-cain was the father of all forgers of brass and iron. Against the working of iron so early, it might be argued, that among the ancient Egyptians, all implements in common use, weapons, household-furniture, instruments, were made of copper hardened by an alloy of tin. But, on the other hand, Wilkinson^[92] remarks: “The constant employment of bronze arms and implements is not a sufficient argument against their knowledge of iron, since we find the Greeks and Romans made the same things of bronze long after the period when iron was universally known.” From the great proficiency in metallurgy in Egypt, it cannot be supposed, that the art of working iron was unknown. The extensive use of brass (it is not to be overlooked that also in our passage brass occupies the first place) must be first on account of the greater ease of procuring and working it. The same author^[93] says, that it is scarcely supposable, that without tempered iron the hieroglyphics could have been cut deep into hard granite and basaltic rocks. But there is a yet stronger argument for the use of iron in ancient Egypt from Herodotus,^[94] who, after relating how great an expense the support of the laborers on the Pyramids of Cheops occasioned, remarks: “How immense, therefore, must have been the sum which was expended on the iron with which they worked,” unquestionably implying that the Egyptians, even in this early age, made use of iron as they did in his own time. Upon the sculptures in Thebes, Wilkinson^[95] also found battle-axes, which, if we may judge from their color, were of steel. By these remarks, the other passages^[96] of the Pentateuch, in which iron implements are mentioned, are vindicated at the same time with those which have been noticed.

[92]Vol. III. 245. Compare also 246.

[93] Vol. I. p. 60.

[94] Book 2. 124.

[95] Vol. I. p. 324. Compare, concerning other probable indications of the existence of iron on the sculptures of the early Pharaohs, Vol. III. p. 247 (241-55); and concerning the use of iron generally in ancient Egypt, Rosellini, II. 2. p. 301 seq.

[96]Numbers 35:16,Deuteronomy 3:11;Deuteronomy 4:10;Deuteronomy 27:5. The problem of our negative part is solved.^[97] We have, we hope, conclusively proved, that Egyptian antiquity furnishes no evidence against the Books of Moses. By this, much is already gained. Were the Pentateuch really, what according to the views of modern criticism it must be, such evidence would necessarily appear against it, since the events narrated, so many of them, transpired on Egyptian ground. The negative part, therefore, acquires no inconsiderable positive importance. It now belongs to us, in the positive part, to inquire what evidence Egyptian antiquity furnishes in favor of the Books of Moses.

[97] We have reserved the consideration of some objections which might seem appropriate here, for the positive portion of our work, because, in the cases referred to, the positive element predominated over the negative.