MYSTERIOUS WORLD: Spring 2008: Artifacts: The Exodus Revelation I: Part 1: Moses

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PART 1: MOSES | PART 2: THE EXODUS

OSES my servant, the mighty right hand and outstretched arm of the LORD! Few greater than Moses have ever graced the pages of any document, whether holy writ, tradition, or fanciful tale, nor have many names engendered as much respect or admiration. Revered by the three great monotheistic traditions, and respected by countless others around the world for thousands of years Moses, both the name and the man, still remains somewhat of a mystery.

Voices
Vangelis
One of Vangelis' lesser-known works, Voices offers a variety of genres in one long, dreamlike revelation that has to be experienced fully before understanding that it is in fact one of his best.
Voices
Echoes
Come to Me
P.S.
Ask the Mountains
Prelude
Messages
(Listen to All)

The story of Moses' mysterious birth, life and death has been carefully recorded in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua, and his writings continue to this day in the form of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It is also believed that he may have authored some of the Psalms, and some believe that he may have also authored, or at least transcribed, the Book of Job, but that is a story for another time.

The mystery of Moses begins with his very name. Moses started his life on the run, being hunted down as a mere babe by Pharaoh Seti I,¹ that old dragon of ancient Egypt, because the priestly oracles of pharaoh had prophesied that a great one would arise from among the Hebrews and destroy Egypt. But Moses was rescued from certain death by his mother, Jochebed of the tribe of Levi, who set him in an ark-like reed basket sealed with bitumen, and then set it upon the Nile, leaving it up to God to determine his fate. There Moses was found by the daughter of Pharaoh (believed by Josephus to have been named Thermutis or Bithiah), who then took him as her own child, as she was, apparently childless and unable to bear children. It was then that he was given the mysterious name of "Moses".

Moses the Name

"The Finding of Moses", by Edwin Long, depicting the finding of Moses in the reeds of the Nile by the daughter of Pharaoh. The famed Jewish scholar Josephus believed that her name was Thermutis, but the Bible is silent on the issue, perhaps because it was theophoric in nature — i.e., it may have contained one or more names of Egyptian deities. Other sources have her name as "Bithiah", which means "daughter of God" in honor of her having saved Moses from the water.

Not only has the dating of Moses' birth been a matter of scholarly debate, theories ranging throughout the New Kingdom period of Egyptian history (ca. 1570-1070 b.c.), even the very meaning of the name Moses has been subjected to scrutiny. Some believe his actual Hebrew name, "Moshe" (pronounced "mo-sh�h") was derived from the Hebrew word mashah, "to draw out", recalling that he had been drawn out of the water by Pharaoh's daughter. This name was later Hellenized into the name we know best today, "Moses", just as the name of the noted Nazarene "Joshua" was later Hellenized to the more commonly known name of "Jesus".

Others, including the famed Jewish historian Josephus, believe that the name "Moses" was derived from the Egyptian words mo, "water" and uses, "to save, rescue". Another possibility was that his name was formed from the Egyptian words mo, "water" and sa, "son", which would mean that Moses literally meant "son of water". And though these are all very good explanations, perhaps the best translation is based upon the fact that the word moses in Egyptian meant "son of" or "born of". This word was commonly used in the names of pharaohs, such as Pharaoh Thutmose III (regnal years 1479 BC to 1425 BC), whose name thut moses literally means "son of Thoth", the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom. Similarly, the name of Pharaoh Rameses I (regnal years 1292-1290 b.c.), the probable pharaoh behind The Slaughter of the Innocents (and of Rameses II (regnal years 1279-1212 b.c.), the pharaoh of the Exodus), breaks down to ra moses, "son of Ra", the ancient Egyptian god of the sun and chief god of the Egyptian pantheon (at least during that period of Egyptian history). This is perhaps the best translation as, since the name of the God of Moses was not known by pharaoh's daughter, the absence of a theophoric "god name" before the name "Moses" (Ra-, Thoth-, Hapi-, etc.) would make sense. If so, "Moses" could mean literally, "son of the unknown God", or perhaps more accurately, "son of the God who has no name". The latter is probably the best, as not only did Bithiah not know the name of the God of the beautiful child whom she had saved from the Nile, but God Himself said that He had no name in Exodus 3:14, calling Himself simply, "I AM". This literally means that God has no name as we understand the concept, at least not one that can be spoken or understood by mortal flesh. As such, in context, the simplified name "Moses" was the perfect choice.²

A photograph of a Jewish rabbi ca. 1937. He is wearing his tallit (prayer shawl) and has applied the tefillin, two leather boxes which contain short quotes from the Hebrew Scriptures. One box with a long leather ribbon is placed on the left arm and pointed toward the region of the heart. Seven turns of the ribbon bring it to the hand. There, three rotations form the Hebrew letter shin, the first letter of the Hebrew word "Shema" ("Hear", as in "Hear O Israel", the first three words of a very important theological statement made by Moses in Deuteronomy 6:4). The second box is placed on the forehead, with its two ribbons falling to the right and left of the breast. Though the tefillin would not be officially ordained until after the Exodus (Exodus 13:9-10), this man would likely have fit right into Israelite society during their captivity in Egypt. Image from Wabash College Cultures & Traditions: "Roman Vishniac's Slides".

Even though Moses was saved from being murdered by the Egyptian priests, whose oracles had predicted the coming of a great one from among the Hebrews who would destroy Egypt, he refused all the wet nurses of the Egyptians, taking only the breast of his mother whom his sister, Miriam had suggested as an alternative. Not knowing that this strange Hebrew woman, Jochebed of the tribe of Levi, was actually Moses' true mother, and amazed by Moses' godlike form and proportions, the Egyptians decided to keep and raise Moses as one of their own. As a result, during his early life, Moses was very likely introduced into the basic teachings and traditions of the Levites, though the amount and duration of his interaction with his Levitical brethren is unknown.

Who Were the Levites The Levites were the descendants of Levi, the third son of Jacob through Leah. During the Exodus period the LORD gave the Levites the special honor of being raised up to be priests over all Israel, their primary role being to manage the ark and its tabernacle (Deut. 10:8) and all the accompanying rituals (Numbers 8), serving as an intermediary between the tabernacle and the other 11 tribes, "that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel" (Numbers 1:50-53). After the successful conquest of Canaan, the Levites were given their own special cities throughout Israel that were scattered throughout the other 11 tribes, from where they would serve as priests to the whole nation (Numbers 8; 35; cf. also Genesis 49:5-7). And though their primary function was to serve as priestly intermediaries between the LORD and Israel, the Levites also served the important function of being a sort of socio-economic/political bonding agent for the nation. By maintaining common rules and standards based upon the tabernacle (later Temple) standard, the Levites functioned in society to keep all the tribes united, the very name Levi meaning "united" (Gen. 29:34).

And though all the healthy, male descendants of Levi were qualified to be priests, only the special priestly line of Aaron, the brother of Moses, was allowed to minister to the tabernacle — the central shrine of ancient Israel. This duty included managing the Ark of the Covenant and the rest of the tabernacle furniture and furnishings, all the accompanying ritual ware, the special priestly garments, and all of the rituals of the tabernacle that the Aaronite priests had to keep precisely, "lest ye die" (Leviticus 10; Numbers 18). And though the creation of the tabernacle, the ark and all that went with it would not take place until the time of the Exodus, during their time in Egypt the Levites, like Moses, may well have had access to the teachings of the Egyptians, which included not only reading, writing, and all the liberal arts, but also their "magical" arts, particularly what we would call today the "sciences".

Though the Egyptian priests, as we have seen, were suspicious that Moses was the one whom their prophecies had foretold would be raised up by the gods as a staff of striking to smite Egypt, because of the love of Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, and Moses' superb, almost godlike beauty, the priests relented and raised Moses as one of their own, giving him the greatest education and training available anywhere in the world at that time. "And Moses became learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds" (Acts 7:22). Most commentators tend to avoid this side of Moses, but the fact remains that, as the adopted son of the daughter of Pharaoh, Moses would have had access to all of the ancient wisdom and knowledge of the Egyptians — greater even than most priests, who were the keepers and interpreters of the ancient knowledge and traditions. This was because, as a member of the royal house, the per-aa, (lit., "great house", from which was later derived the term "pharaoh"), he would have had access to the traditions of all of the priesthoods of Egypt — those of the gods Ra, Amun, Ptah, Osiris, Hathor, and every other priestly tradition. This was because Egyptian religion was not monolithic in character, but actually a polyglot of separate traditions based upon the worship of many different gods whose temples each held sway over the numerous provinces, or "nomes" of Egypt, political divisions similar in function to states in the United States, except that each state also had its own unique religious worldview.

The famous statue of Pharaoh Khafre, where the falcon-god Horus can be seen protecting him from all harm. Khafre's exact regnal years are unknown, but are estimated to have been some time during the 25th century b.c. Khafre is believed by mainstream archaeology to be the builder of the second pyramid of Giza, the so-called "Pyramid of Khafre".

The only truly unifying religious, social, economic and political force in the country was the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh was believed to be the incarnation of the god Horus, the all-powerful deity of the Egyptian pantheon whom the Egyptians believed, in primeval times, had conquered and taken kingship over all of the rest of the gods of Egypt. Thus, as the incarnation of Horus, the Pharaoh was considered to be the ruler over all the gods and, by extension, their priesthoods, and all the territories that each priesthood controlled, making him both the absolute religious and the absolute political head of the nation. As a result, unlike the priests, whose knowledge usually was limited to the teachings and traditions of their particular temples, all those who dwelt within the pharaonic household were given privileges and access to knowledge from the priesthoods of all the gods of Egypt — as many as 42, by some estimates, and possibly more. And considering the ancient legacy of these priesthoods, and the multiplicity of the deities of Egypt, that knowledge must have been both substantial and of a superlative quality relative to that of other nations of the ancient world.

It is reasonable to assert, then, that Moses had been perfectly positioned by God to accumulate and consolidate the enormous amounts of ancient wisdom and knowledge that the Egyptians had accumulated and maintained for thousands of years. That almost unlimited access, along with the humility and fear of God that would have been inculcated into Moses via his Levitical upbringing, would have given Moses the unique ability to choose the good, and reject the evil, making him the perfect arbiter to sift through the thousands of years of accumulated knowledge of the Egyptians and choose which to keep, and which to discard.

But what was this knowledge? Based upon these statements about his education in "all the wisdom of the Egyptians", various commentators throughout history have attempted to write an occult history of Moses, though none have managed to completely capture the complex mind and experiences of this enigmatic figure. Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, in his From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, posits that "Moses was a skilled performer of magical rituals and was deeply learned in the knowledge of the accompanying spells, incantations, and magical formulas of every description... [Moreover] the miracles which he wrought ... suggest that he was not only a priest, but a magician of the highest order and perhaps even a Ker Heb [Egyptian High Priest]."³ The Egyptian high priest Manetho, known best for his compilation of the ancient pharaonic kings list that has served as one of our primary guides to ancient Egyptian chronology, believed that "Moses, a son of the tribe of Levi, educated in Egypt and initiated at Heliopolis, became a High Priest of the Brotherhood under the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV [Akhenaten]. He was elected by the Hebrews as their chief and he adapted to the ideas of his people the science and philosophy which he had obtained in the Egyptian mysteries."⁴

Though these positions probably contain at least fragments of truth, the final answer can be found in the old aphorism (based upon Matthew 7:16), "You can tell a tree from its fruits." If Moses had learned all of the occult spells, incantations, and magical formulas of the ancient Egyptians, he certainly would have used them, but he did not. On the contrary, he was extraordinarily meek and humble, hardly the attitude of a powerful magician bent on imposing his will upon others (Exodus 4:10-13; Numbers 12:3). Moreover, it is clear from the "magician's tricks" shown by the LORD to Moses on Mt. Sinai that Moses was either not familiar with them, or was surprised to see them actually happen, as he became afraid and ran away when the LORD first turned Moses' staff into a "serpent", and then made his hand "leprous" (Exodus 4:1-8). If he did know the tricks, he would not have been surprised or impressed by them, just as the wizards of pharaoh were not only not surprised, but were able to duplicate the sticks-to-snakes feat (Exodus 7:8-12). Or, it may be that his surprise at seeing the stick actually turn into a snake indicated that he knew that the "magic" of the Egyptians was indeed trickery — illusions or sleights of hand — unlike the true miracles that the LORD had wrought before him. The latter idea is supported by the fact that even though the wizards of pharaoh were able to duplicate the sticks to snakes feat, the fact that the LORD's single serpent "devoured" the many serpents of the wizards indicates that their serpents were indeed just the result of trickery, whereas the LORD's serpent was real, the result of a true miracle — and thus infinitely more powerful. What remains to be seen, however, is how Moses turned his staff into a "serpent", and how it was able to "devour" all of the staves of the wizards of pharaoh. Was it "magic", "the power of God", or what we would understand today as "science"?

Thoth, Scribe of the gods � 1988 Jenny Carrington. Thoth was the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom, and was the one who gave mankind the knowledge of mathematics, writing, astronomy, and many other skills, including those that we would today consider to be scientific and technological in nature. Moses has been frequently associated with Thoth largely because many of his technological creations (the ark, the tabernacle, the brazen serpent, etc.) that are seen by many to have been significant scientific achievements, the true nature of which we are only now just beginning to understand. Note the measuring ruler in Thoth's right hand, and the plumb line hanging from his belt. Image from Art Works by Jenny Carrington.

So if Moses was not a "magician", a Ker Heb familiar with the "dark arts" and spells and such, what did he learn from the Egyptian priesthoods? Many believe that he learned not "magic" but those arts that are better known to us today as "science". Science, to the ignorant and superstitious, would appear to be magic, but to those who have had their eyes opened through education, science is just a means of explaining how the world works, an understanding of which would indeed make one "mighty in words and deeds", particularly in a world where belief in magic and superstition was the rule. Graham Hancock explains in his seminal work, The Sign and the Seal: The Search for the Ark of the Covenant, "Moses ... was frequently compared to [the Egyptian god of wisdom] Thoth (indeed, in the second century BC an entire work was filled with such comparisons by the Judaeo-Greek philosopher Artapanus, who credited the prophet with a range of remarkable and clearly 'scientific' inventions)." And no less than the famed founder of modern physics, Sir Isaac Newton believed that "Moses understood that matter consisted of atoms, and that these atoms were hard, solid and immutable."⁵

In retrospect, though modern commentators see redactors such as Artapanus as having invented legends in their zeal to promote interest in Jewish thought and literature throughout the world of their time, and freemasonic types such as Isaac Newton attempting to equate Moses with occult icons such as Thoth and Hermes, though most of their speculations are heretical at best, there may have been kernel of truth in their assumptions concerning the advanced scientific achievements of Moses and the Israelites. However, as we shall see, it may be more accurate to say that Moses may not have actually invented advanced technology, but rediscovered ancient technology from the most ancient times of mankind's history. It may well be that many, most or even all of the miraculous events of the Exodus were achieved through the application of an ancient, and sacred, science unique to the descendants of Seth, who had faithfully carried on the traditions of the secret knowledge given by God to the righteous line of Seth in ancient times. This sacred science is not the corrupt "sacred geometry" of the freemasons, however, but a technology set in opposition to that of the line of the serpent, a technology designed to counteract the power of evil with good. This battle, which has been raging since the beginning of time, was enjoined again during the time of the Exodus, and will soon be enjoined again in our time as lines are being drawn for the second to the last battle to decide whether the seed of the woman or the seed of the serpent will rule the universe. And in studying the supernatural — or perhaps "sacred scientific" — events of the Exodus, we may gain special insight into the events that will recur in the end times that will mirror those of the Exodus, except that this time they will take place on a global scale.

PART 1: MOSES | PART 2: THE EXODUS

Notes
¹ Though the exact dating of the Exodus is not clear, for the purposes of this essay we will be taking what is known as the "late date" as the time of the Exodus, which would place it around 1212 b.c., give or take a few years. This is based upon numerous assumptions too elaborate to get into here, but in this scenario Pharaoh Rameses I (regnal years 1292-1290 b.c.), was probably the pharaoh behind The Slaughter of the Innocents (Exodus 1:15-22), and Rameses II (regnal years 1279-1212 b.c.) was the pharaoh of the Exodus. This conclusion is supported by the fact that Moses was around 80 years old when he led the children of Israel out of Egypt, and there were approximately 80 years between the beginning of the reign of Rameses I, when the infant Moses was nearly killed by Rameses I's killing of the firstborn, and the end of the reign of Rameses II, when Moses led Israel out of Egypt. Rameses I was the first pharaoh of Egypt's nineteenth dynasty, and was not of royal blood, but had, like Pharaoh Horemheb before him, risen in the ranks of the army, serving as vizier to Horemheb and helping him to quell the chaos that had ensued after the precipitous decline of the eighteenth dynasty (caused by the "monotheistic heresy" of Pharaoh Akenaten's worship of the Aten). Horemheb had had no male heir, so he had anointed Rameses I as his successor, essentially raising a commoner (like himself) to the level of royalty. As such Rameses I was probably much less forgiving than his predecessors might have been about a foreign presence in the land such as the Hebrews, who since the time of Joseph (who lived ca. 1900 b.c., probably sometime during Egypt's 12th Dynasty) had "increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them" (Exodus 1:7). In context, the description of pharaoh's treatment of the Israelites in Exodus 1-2 sounds much like the actions of a new king faced with a potentially disastrous situation. Needing to prove himself, and seeing the potential danger of such a large foreign presence in one of the richest provinces of Egypt, Rameses I acted like any other clueless, brutal military dictator would do — enslave the foreigners, and then systematically murder them starting with the firstborn males. The fact that Rameses I reigned for less than two years indicates that he probably was cursed by God for his actions against Israel, much like the fate of Herod, who died horribly after his massacre of the innocents in his attempt to kill the newborn King Jesus as described in Matthew 2. See Wikipedia's handy timeline to see a complete overview of the regnal years of all of the New Kingdom monarchs.

² Echoing the revelation of God as "I AM" in Exodus 3:14, and Paul's later concept of the "unknown god" in Acts 17:23. This is remarkably similar in concept to the Egyptian god Amun, who was also thought of as a deity associated with the ram, who created the universe and who was seen as being transcendant and external to the universe, as well as being hidden, a concept reinforced by the fact that the meaning of the name "Amun", means "the hidden one". Amun was also known as "Amen", which may have been the origin of the word "amen" in Hebrew language and religion. Amen was a dominant deity throughout Egyptian history, indicating possibly that much of the theology behind Amen was inspired by Joseph and later Hebrew thinkers until the time of the Exodus. Some scholars think that Joseph actually may have been Pharaoh Amenemhat IV, or more likely, Mentuhotep, the vizier of Pharaoh Sesostris I. He may also have been Pharaoh Mentuhotep IV, the last king of the 11th Dynasty. Mentuhotep IV was an obscure king who, like Joseph, was associated with a seven-year period, though according to the biblical record, Joseph never rose above the rank of vizier — the chief of pharaoh's advisers and the second man in Egypt. These possibilities also assume the early date for the Egyptian sojourn (and the Exodus), which posits that the Israelites lived in Egypt from around 1900 b.c.-1500 b.c., +/- 50 years or so. See http://christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a016.html for an informative analysis of this question.

³ Illuminations, "Moses and the Egyptian Priesthood" (Illuminations: http://www.mystae.com).

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ God's revelation of Himself as I AM has enormous theological implications. Not only does that mean that he has no name, as we understand it, or even that his name cannot be pronounced by mere mortals, but the implication of this boldest of statements in context is that not only is God the greatest name under heaven, but that He is indeed the only thing that truly exists, the material world being illusory by comparison. The "realness" of the universe is only truly real while one is within the universe within a fleshly body that is subject to its rules. However, from the perspective of a higher order of being such as God, a "spirit", the universe would be seen as virtual in nature, a transitory thing that is highly unstable and inevitably illusory in nature by comparison to God, who is constant, unchanging, and existed before the universe was even created. As such, by naming Himself I AM, God is essentially saying, I am the only being that exists — all else is illusion. Cf. Ecclesiastes 1:1)

⁷ Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, "Various Map Proposals for the The Route of the Exodus" (Bible Origins: http://www.bibleorigins.net).

⁸ Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, "Various Site Proposals for the Location of Biblical Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb" (Bible Origins: http://www.bibleorigins.net).

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ The name Serabit al-Kadim may come from the Hebrew sarav (samech-raysh-vet), "rebel, rebellion" and qadeymah, "beginning, origin, earliest times", and/or qaydemah, "east" - as in East of Eden? It may also be that this place was the place of Israel's murmurings in Exodus 17:5, when Moses struck the rocks and water came forth, afterwards naming the rocks Massah ("temptations") and Meribah ("striving"). Together the two mean "wrestling with temptation", which might be a good name for Serabit al-Kadim, which appears to be a large pair of breasts, like the twin Paps of Anu in Ireland or the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. The nearby Hathor temple probably was built in their shadow for that reason, Hathor being a fertility goddess, so Moses' renaming of the twin-peaked mountain in this way would be appropriate, as Israel had not yet completely left behind their love of the ways of Egypt. Also, the original Egyptian name probably was pornographic in nature, and therefore unusable. Another answer is that Kadim is based upon the Hebrew word ketem (caph-tav-mem) which means "hidden gold". This is probably the true root word, giving the meaning, "hidden gold of the rebels". And though sarav might be the root of the word Serabit, a better word would be tsarephat (tsade-raysh-phey-tav) - literally, "workshop for refining gold". Along with el-katam, "the hidden gold", together the most likely meaning of Serabit al-Kadim is "The Refinery of the Hidden Gold."

¹¹ Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, "The Route of the Exodus" (Bible Origins: http://www.bibleorigins.net).

¹² Lawrence Lo, "Proto-Sinaitic" (AncientScripts.com: http://www.ancientscripts.com).

¹³ The University of Western Australia Linguistics Dept., "Introduction to Semitic Languages: Chapter 2: Semitic Writing Systems" (The University of Western Australia: http://www.linguistics.uwa.edu.au).

¹⁴ Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, "Has Archaeology "Found" Moses' Shattered Ten Commandments on Tables of Stone?" (Bible Origins: http://www.bibleorigins.net).

¹⁵ Dale R. Broadhurst, "The Origins of Hathor" (Bible Origins: http://sidneyrigdon.com/DRB/BEGIN/begin.htm).

¹⁶ The term "hero" may have actually been derived from the word "horus". The rise of the Horus King, and others like him, may be linked to the rise of the Rephaim giants after the Flood, and may also be linked to the mysterious Nimrod of the Bible.

¹⁷ Caroline Seawright, "Hathor, Goddess of Love, Music, Beauty ......" (Tour Egypt: http://touregypt.net).

¹⁸ Broadhurst, "The Origins of Hathor".

¹⁹ Stephanie Cass, "Hathor" (Encyclopedia Mythica: http://www.pantheon.org).

²⁰ Jimmy Dunn, "The Temple and Mines at Serabit el-Khadim In the Sinai" (Tour Egypt: http://www.touregypt.net).

²¹ Wikipedia, "Serabit el-Khadim" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org).

²² Gary McKay, "The Mines of the Pharoahs - Serabit El-Khadim, Sinai, Egypt" (Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh: http://www.arcl.ed.ac.uk/).

²³ Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, "The Hathor Temple at Serabit el Khadim in the Southern Sinai" (Bible Origins: http://www.bibleorigins.net).

²⁴ Katheryn A. Bard, Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Routledge, 1999), 524.

²⁵ Gardner, Laurence, Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark (Great Britain: Element Books, 2003), 4-9, excerpted.

²⁶ William Flinders Petrie, "Researches in Sinai: Chapter VII, History and Purpose of the Temple" (Serendipity: (Extracts from Researches in Sinai) http://www.arcl.ed.ac.uk/), emphasis mine.

²⁷ Andrew Bayuk, "Gold Powder" (Guardians Ancient Egypt Discussion Board: http://egyptologist.org).

²⁸ Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards, "Pharaohs Fellahs and Explorers" (University of Pennsylvania Digital Library Projects: http://digital.library.upenn.edu).

Links

Moses
Jewish Encyclopedia: Moses
Jewish Virtual Library: Moses
Catholic Encyclopedia: Moses
Wikipedia: Moses
Answers.com: Moses
Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus
Biblical Artefacts and Studies: The Chronology of Egypt and Israel
Tour Egypt: The Traditional Route of the Exodus
Tour Egypt: On the Trail of the Exodus
Bible Origins: The Route of the Exodus
Jewish Encyclopedia: Levi
Jewish Encyclopedia: The Levites

Egypt
Wikipedia: The New Kingdom of Egypt
Wikipedia: Pharaoh Thutmose III
Wikipedia: The Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt
Wikipedia: Pharaoh Ramesses I
Wikipedia: Pharaoh Ramesses II
Tour Egypt: The Nomes (Provinces) of Ancient Egypt
Egyptology Online: Manetho and the King Lists
Kunoichi's Home Page: Hathor, Goddess of Love, Music and Beauty...
THE SISTRUM IN THE SINAI: Essays on Hathor and the Biblical Exodus
Tour Egypt: Hathor
Tour Egypt: Hathor, Lady of Beauty
The White goddess: Hathor
Ancient Egypt Online: Hathor
Egyptian Monuments: Dendera
Wikipedia: Sopdu
Egyptian Dreams: Sopdu
Tour Egypt: Sopdu
Catholic Encyclopedia: Amalek

Tour Egypt: Sopdu
BiblePlaces.com: Jebel Musa (Mt. Sinai?)
Tour Egypt: Mount Sinai and the Peak of Mount Musa (Mousa)
DrBarrick.org: A Brief Response to the Alternate View Placing Mount Horeb in Midian
Tour Egypt: The Temple and Mines at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai
Answers.com: Serabit el-Khadim
Wikipedia: Serabit el-Khadim
About.com: Serabit el-Khadim
Geographia.com: Serabit el-Khadem
The Megalithic Portal: Pictures of Serabit el-Khadem
Ancient Egypt: An Introduction to Its History and Culture: Mining

Travel
Wikitravel: Sinai
Sinai4You: Nuweiba
Trip Adviser: Red Sea and Sinai
Atlas Tours: Welcome to Sinai (Egypt)
Atlas Tours: Sinai (Egypt) Tourist Information
Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh: Serabit El-Khadim, Sinai, Egypt - Site Information
Travel-Budget.com: Sinai Holiday Travel
Egypt Magic: Tour Sinai
Travelotica.com: Sinai Travel Guide
St. Katherine's Monastery
GoRedSea.com: Mount Sinai (Gebel Musa)
Travel Advisories:
U.S. Department of State
U.S. Department of State: Background Note: Egypt
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
World Travel Watch
AllSafe Travels: Egypt

Museums
Harvard Semitic Museum
University of Chicago Oriental Institute
University of Chicago Oriental Institute

Geographical info
NASA Images from space
Google Earth: Hathor Temple @ Serabit al-Kadim

Books

Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark:
Amazing Revelations of the Incredible Power of Gold
Laurence Gardner
Rating:
In Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark, Gardner follows up on his groundbreaking research on the subject of mfkzt, the mysterious "white powder of gold" that he argues cogently is actually a monatomic form of gold that some ancient priesthoods, including most prominently the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews, used in their religious rituals in order to create a gateway between the material world and the spiritual world. Eaten in bread form the monatomic gold, Gardner argues, was used by the ancient priesthoods to bring health, long life, and spiritual insight. Used in the famous Ark of the Covenant, the white powder of gold could be used for communion with God, for healing, or for destruction. Though Gardner's research hardly qualifies as "scholarly", he does demonstrate a substantial grasp of both scriptural, esoteric and even related scientific disciplines and harmonizes them beautifully in a way that has to be read to be believed. Though his scientific proof for the existence of monatomic gold is not well supported, the concept of ORMEs (Orbitally Rearranged Monatomic Elements) is, so his thesis is not without credibility. And if monatomic gold is in fact a scientific reality, the existence of which would indeed answer very many questions about some of the most mysterious concepts presented in the Old Testament, then Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark could be considered one of the most important books ever written in the field of Old Testament research, particularly research regarding the Ark of the Covenant. And though Gardner wastes several chapters on the ridiculous and unsupportable Magdalene heresy, which by itself reduced the rating of this book from 5 "breads" to four, the material on the white powder of gold is literally worth its weight in gold. (Review by Mysterious World)
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Researches in Sinai
William Matthew Flinders Petrie
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This is the classic text of the legendary Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie's 1904-1905 survey of all of the Egyptian monuments to be found in the Sinai Peninsula. Largely overlooked as one of his lesser works, Researches in Sinai may actually hold hidden clues revealing the most important secrets regarding the most ancient mysteries of mankind, including the true location of Mt. Sinai, the location of the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and possibly even the entrance to the Underworld. A must-have for any serious Egyptologist, particularly one interested in the writings of Petrie. (Review by Mysterious World)
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A History of Sinai
Lina Eckenstein
Lina Eckenstein, who traveled with the legendary Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie as his assistant, records her discoveries and analysis thereof in this little known but important book that may help uncover the secrets of the true Mt. Sinai. (Review by Mysterious World)
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Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt
Kathryn Bard
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This outstanding work is prepared by scholars for serious students of the archaeology of ancient Egypt. Egyptologists, philologists, historians, classicists, art historians, and anthropologically trained archaeologists helped write it. Margaret Bunson's Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (Facts On File, 1991) is much more accessible and more reasonably priced for public, middle-school, high-school, and college undergraduate libraries. Her black-and-white illustrations are strong and definitions are brief and clear for term-paper purposes. There are entries for such familiar topics as Nefertiti and Tuthmose (spelling used by Bard), which are accessible in Bard only through the index as part of more complex, but thorough, discussions. Bard's work, however, is well worth the cost and belongs in all college and university libraries and other libraries supporting research in ancient archaeology. (Review by Booklist)
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The Mountain of God (Hardcover)
Emmanuel Anati
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The author, who has directed the expedition at Har Karkom in the Negev for the past five years, presents his findings along with the hypothesis that the mountain is, in actuality, Mount Sinai, the mountain of Moses and the Exodus. Anati himself points out two major obstacles to his theory that the mountain is nowhere near current versions of the route of the Exodus and that no finds from the site date to the accepted chronology of the Exodus. Anati, however, suggests a much earlier date for the Exodus, in the mid-third millennium B.C. This latter aspect of the book will be extremely controversial among specialists, to say the least. But the site, with its rock art and other aspects of material culture, is of definite interest. A lavishly produced book for archaeology collections.
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The Gold of Exodus
Emmanuel Anati
Rating:
When a millionaire adventurer goes in search of the true Mount Sinai, he gets more than he bargained for. Spies, missiles, and secret military installations are just some of the obstacles that Larry Williams and his sidekick Bob Cornuke must confront in their unprecedented journey to find the lost treasures of Moses. In The Gold of Exodus, award-winning journalist Howard Blum records a page-turning story of an adventure that makes history. While risking their necks by sneaking into the xenophobic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, amateur archaeologists Williams and Cornuke become pawns in a game of international espionage that eventually leads them to the top of the most sacred mountain in the world, and into the hands of shotgun-wielding Bedouins. The Gold of Exodus is a true story that is too unbelievable to be fiction, too suspenseful to be put down, and too significant to soon be forgotten.
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Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant
Graham Hancock
Rating:
English journalist Hancock retells the circumstances and thoughts that led to his discovery that the Lost Ark of the Covenant really exists. Hancock traveled to Ethiopia in 1983, having been hired by the Ethiopian government to write and produce a coffee-table book extolling the ancient glories of their country. He was greatly surprised when he learned that he was not allowed to document Ethiopia's population of Falasha Jews, because they offiically "did not exist", and that many people could land in jail, or worse, if he went around photographing such nonexistents. Despite this he continued on to Axum, deep in the desert, where he witnessed the temples and statuary of the Black Jews of Ethiopia. After following a trail of religious and ethnographic clues reminiscent of a detective story, Hancock finally located a sect that claimed to have the original Ark of the Covenant, though they refused to let him see the holy artifact in order to prove their claim. Refused entrance to the sanctuary of the jealously guarded Ark, Hancock returned home, where he saw Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, which inspired him to investigate the history of the Ark. Hancock's theory is that the Ark was stolen by King Solomon's son Menelik, the offspring of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who took the Ark south to Ethiopia where it has been kept to this day by faithful Falasha descendants of the original Jewish emigrees. The Sign and the Seal is a definitive, groundbreaking classic of the genre of ark research, and a fascinating read. (Review by Mysterious World)
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From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt
Sir E. A. Wallis Budge
A rich, detailed survey of Egyptian conception of "God" and gods, magic, cult of animals, Osiris, more. Also, superb English translations of hymns and legends. 240 illustrations.
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Audio

Voices Voices
Vangelis
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One of Vangelis' lesser-known works, Voices offers a variety of genres in one long, dreamlike revelation that has to be experienced fully before understanding that it is in fact one of his best. The voice chorus at the beginning works well with the "Exodus" motif in this series. (Review by Mysterious World)
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Raiders of the Lost Ark - John Williams Raiders Of The Lost Ark [SOUNDTRACK]
John Williams
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The first of the three Indiana Jones scores, Raiders established the popular Raiders March Theme as an instant classic in the world. As easily recognizable as the Star Wars fanfare, John Williams' Raiders March is the first track on this expanded edition of the Raiders soundtrack, from there it becomes a great thrillride that follows Indy's adventures to find the Ark. Along with the standard music there are some bonus tracks that were not previously published before. The insert has an interview with John Williams, pictures from the making of the movie and a break down of the tracks. This is a superior soundtrack recording and unlike the more mature sound to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, has many more instances where the Raiders March is used. Other themes to listen for include the ark theme, which makes a brief reappearance in Last Crusade, is used many times here as well as the love theme for Indy and Marion. 1995 reissue. 30 additional minutes have been interwoven which were deleted from the original 1981 release, totaling 74 minutes of pure listening pleasure. Re-mastered including a special 24 page booklet containing an interview with John Williams, as well as liner notes, rare photos and sketches not included with the original release. Standard jewel case housed in a slipcase. Top notch.
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Passion: Sources
Peter Gabriel/Realworld Music
Rating:
This excellent CD is a compilation of much of the source recordings that Peter Gabriel used for Passion. A must-have for lovers of world music, especially African and Middle-Eastern music.
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The Musicians of the Nile: Luxor to Isna
Musicians of the Nile
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Life in the villages spread out along the Nile hasn't changed in a thousand years; nor for that matter has the traditional music of the region which has remained impervious to outside influences, even Islamic ones. The recordings here weren't collected on site but captured live at a Paris concert and in Real World's own studios in darkest Wiltshire. No concessions are made to Western ears, however, other than upping the playback quality of the intricate tabla rhythms as they tangle with ancient instruments like the rababa, the droning oboe-like mizmar and the flutish arghul which goes all the way back to the Pharaohs. Not so much a record, more like an adventure in sound. This soundtrack is highly recommended by the publisher.
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DVD

The Adventures of Indiana Jones - The Complete DVD Movie Collection (Widescreen Edition)
Rating:
As with Star Wars, the George Lucas-produced Indiana Jones trilogy was not just a plaything for kids but an act of nostalgic affection toward a lost phenomenon: the cliffhanging movie serials of the past. Episodic in structure and with fate hanging in the balance about every 10 minutes, the Jones features tapped into Lucas's extremely profitable Star Wars formula of modernizing the look and feel of an old, but popular, story model. Steven Spielberg directed all three films, which are set in the late 1930s and early '40s: the comic book-like Raiders of the Lost Ark, the spooky, Gunga Din-inspired Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the cautious but entertaining Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Fans and critics disagree over the order of preference, some even finding the middle movie nearly repugnant in its violence. (Pro-Temple of Doom people, on the other hand, believe that film to be the most disarmingly creative and emotionally effective of the trio.) One thing's for sure: Harrison Ford's swaggering, two-fisted, self-effacing performance worked like a charm, and the art of cracking bullwhips was probably never quite the iconic activity it soon became after Raiders. Supporting players and costars were very much a part of the series, too--Karen Allen, Sean Connery (as Indie's dad), Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, Denholm Elliot, River Phoenix, and John Rhys-Davies among them. Years have passed since the last film (another is supposedly in the works), but emerging film buffs can have the same fun their predecessors did picking out numerous references to Hollywood classics and B-movies of the past (Review by Amazon.com)
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The Search for the Real Mt. Sinai with Free Expedition Map
Two Explorers take an incredible expedition into the blistering Arabian Desert and turn up what many scholars believe to be one of the greatest discoveries in history...the real Mt. Sinai, the holy mountain on which Moses received the Ten Commandments. This program tells their amazing story how they crawl into forbidden military installations, and use night vision goggles to avoid being detected as they pursue their mission and discover over a dozen significant remnants still remaining at the site. The explorers embark on a journey that would change their lives forever..finding remarkable evidence that confirms the Bible as historically accurate. Weaving together real life adventure historical research and exclusive never-before-released footage, this exciting adventure leaps off the screen to document a story you'll never forget. (Review by Amazon.com)
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