Recent Testimony of Archaeology to the Scriptures. 39 so-much-talked-about resurrection in the belief of thè Egyp tians was not a resurrection at all, but a resuscitation to the same old life on “oxen, geese, bread, wine, beer, and all good things,” is furnishing a most complete solution of the prob lem of the obscurity of the idea of the resurrection in the Pentateuchal documents. For, whether they came from Moses when he had just come from Egypt or are by some later author attributed to Moses, when he had just come from Egypt, the problem is the same: Why is the idea of the resurrection so obscure in the Pentateuch? Now to have put forth in revela tion the idea of the resurrection at that time, before the growth of spiritual ide*as of God and of worship here, of the other world and the future life there, and before the people under the influence of these new ideas had outgrown their Egyptian training, would have carried over into Israel’s relig ious thinking all the low, degrading materialism of Egyptian belief on this subject. The Mosaic system made no use of Egyptian belief concerning the future life because it was not by it usable, and it kept away from open presentation of the subject altogether, because that was the only way to get the people away from Egypt’s conception of the subject. ^ w e l l h a u s e n s m is t a k e . ’ 4 . The discovery of the Aramaic papyri at Syene( made possible a new chapter in Old Testament criticism, raised to a high pitch hopes for contemporary testimony on Old Testament history which hitherto hardly dared raise their heads, and contributed positive evidence on a number of im portant points. Tolerable, though not perfect, identifications are made out for Bagoas, Governor of the Jews; of Josephus and Diodorus; Sanballat, of Nehemiah and Josephus; and Jochanan, of Nehemiah and Josephus. But more important than all these identifications is the information that the Jews had, at that period, built a temple and offered sacrifice far from Jerusalem. Wellhausen'5« lays down the first stone
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