Parsha Va-era - December 28, 2013

Parsha: Va-era

Tevet 25/ December 28 

By: Fred Korr 

Rabbi Joseph Herman Hertz (1872 – 1946) held the position of Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1913 until his death in 1946. He was an avid reader, especially of newly developing archeological finds in Egypt and Israel. In his translation and commentaries on all of Tanach, he often cites non-Jewish philosophers or archeologists, whose analyses affirm the text and thoughts of Jewish commentators throughout the ages. One such commentator is Melvin Grove Kyle, DD, LLD, (1858 - 1933) a protestant Doctor of Divinity who was also an expert archeologist in the areas of Egypt and the Holy Land. Dr Kyle lectured in Biblical Archeology at Xenia Seminary, Pittsburgh, Ohio from 1908-1915. He was fluent in Egyptian hieroglyphics, Cuneiform and Aramaic.

We are now reading the Torah Book of Shemos, wherein the Jewish slavery and ultimately redemption from Egypt are recounted. The leader of Egypt bears the appellation “Pharaoh”. But what exactly does the word “Pharaoh” mean?

I recently had the good fortune to acquire a copy of Dr Kyle’s 1920 book “Moses and the Monuments - Light from Archeology on Pentateuchal Times”. On page 128, Professor Kyle very nicely gives the etymology of “Pharaoh”, which I would like to share.

The book printed in 1920, refers to the name of the Government of Turkey as the “Sublime Port”, a term originating during the period of the Byzantine Empire. It was carried forth after World War I, when French was still the language of international diplomacy and nomenclature.

To quote from page 128 of the book cited:

“In the language of diplomats, the Turkish government is known by the French appellation “Sublime Porte”, which means simply “The High Gate”, a magniloquent figure of speech for the palace, and so for the government whose seat is there. A like, but more extended development of the word Pharaoh is traceable in the history of Egypt as it comes to us from widely separated sources."

"The Egyptian word for house is per, and for great is aa. Every house was per, a palace or temple or other great house was per-aa. The language of adulation easily appropriated this  expression as a name for the residence of the king, which became thus very easily, distinctively  Peraa, or as it has come to us through the Greek, “Pharaoh”. In the early history of Egyptian  royalty, the word had no other meaning than simply palace, but in time, just as among the  Turks, the “High Gate” became the government, so among the Egyptians, Peraa, “The Great  House”, became not only the government whose seat was in the house, but the King, “Pharaoh” who, as a despot, was the government."