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The Coronation Ceremonies (For more click Here)
Moreover, the overflow from Israel went to the very heart of the matter: to the coronation ceremony. The very ceremonial procedure, in its three phases, that David had used for the coronation of his chosen son, Solomon, was the procedure used by Thutmose I (Amenhotep I's successor) in the coronation of the former's daughter, Hatshepsut.
I have followed J. Baikie for the Egyptian texts in the right-hand column below [40]:
David's CoronationThutmose I's Coronation
The Assembly Summoned The Assembly Summoned
"David", we are told, "assembled at Jerusalem all the officials of the tribes, the officers of the divisions that served the king, the commanders of thousands, ... of hundreds, the stewards of all the property ... and all the seasoned warriors" (I Chronicles 28:1). Likewise in the case of the young Hatshepsut, her father, Thutmose I [50]:"... caused that there be brought to him the dignitaries of the king, the nobles, the companions, the officers of the court, and the chief of the people."
Future Ruler Presented Future Ruler Presented
Next, David presented his son, Solomon, to the assembly as his successor, saying:'... of all my sons ... the Lord ... has chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord, over Israel. He said to me, 'It is Solomon your son .... I have chosen him to be My son, and I will be his Father'.' (vv. 5-6). So did Pharaoh present his daughter to the august assembly [60]:"Said His Majesty to them: 'This my daughter ... Hatshepsut .... I have appointed her; she is my successor, she it is assuredly who will sit on my wonderful seat [throne]. She shall command the people in every place of the palace; she it is who shall lead you ...'."
Assembly Embraces King's Decision Assembly Embraces King's Decision
The assembly of Israel concurred wholeheartedly with David's decision:"And all the assembly blessed the Lord ... and bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord, and did obeisance to the king .... And they ate and drank before the Lord on that day with great gladness" (29:20, 22). Similarly, in the case of the Egyptian officials [70]:"They kissed the earth at his feet, when the royal word fell among them .... They went forth, their mouths rejoiced, they published his proclamation to them."
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Might not one have imagined that Egypt, so steeped in ceremony and cultic procedure over so many dynasties and centuries would by now have had its own inviolable court system? How great therefore must have been the Israel of David's time that even its ceremonial procedures had flowed into Egypt?Religious Parallels
Perhaps even more remarkable still was that Israel's religion was overflowing into Egypt. That Hatshepsut was re-inventing Karnak as Egypt's Jerusalem is evidenced by the unmistakably Davidic psalmery that she had written on the base of one of her obelisks. Conventional scholar, Baikie, both notes it and chronologically misinterprets it [80]:
And then, in language which might have come straight out of the Book of Psalms, though it belongs to an age centuries before [sic] the first of the Psalms was written, she continues:
I did it under [God's] command; it was he who led me. "Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime ... Teach me thy way, oh Lord, and lead me in a plain path ... he leadeth me ..."Ps. 42:8; 27:11; 23:2.
I conceived no works without his doing; it was he who gave me directions. "... when the king sat in his house, and the Lord gave him rest round about him from all his enemies ... thou shalt build me an house ..." 2.Sam. 7:1,5.
"He (David's son) shall build an house for my name ..."2.Sam. 7:13
I slept not because of his temple; I erred not from that which he commanded. " The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts." Psalm 119:110.
My heart was wise before my father; I entered into the affairs of his heart. "Thou hast proved my heart; thou hast visited me in the night ... Who so is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord." Ps. 17:3; 107:43.
"For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart."Eccl. 5:20.
I turned not my back on the City of the All-Lord; but turned to it the face. "Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy ways ... Thy face, o Lord, will I seek."Ps. 44:18; 27:8.
I know that Karnak is God's dwelling upon earth ….
James Breasted, Records of Egypt, Vol. II, Sec. 316; p. 131."I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in forever. ... The Lord God ... may dwell in Jerusalem forever."1.Kings 8:13; 1.Chronicles 23:25.
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Baikie continues [90]:
The sleepless eagerness of the queen for the glory of the temple of her god, and her assurance of the unspeakable sanctity of Karnak as the divine dwelling-place, find expression almost in the very words which the Psalmist used to express his sense of duty towards the habitation of the God of Israel, and his certainty of Zion's sanctity as the abiding-place of Jehovah: "Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids. Until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob - For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell; for I have desired it" Psalms 132:3-4, 13-14; 2.Samuel 7:5-6
As noted in previous articles, not only David's own writings [95], but even images from the pre-Davidic Torah (e.g. Genesis) - and from Solomon's wisdom writings and his love poem, Song of Songs - were used by Hatshepsut in her inscriptions.
Construction Parallels
Hatshepsut even built her magnificent temple at Deir el-Bahari along Solomonic lines - not surprisingly since Solomon himself, as Senenmut - was her chief architect. The Phoenician influence this beautiful temple displays (cf. Mariette) would undoubtedly be the work of Hiram's Phoenicians, allies of Solomon, who were amongst the master craftsmen for the building of the Temple in Jerusalem (1.Kings 5:7-18).
Covenant, Ark of the
Hatshepsut would even employ a high-priest in her religious infrastructure.
Now of the high offices of priest, secretary and recorder (herald) established by David in Israel (2.Samuel 8:16-17. Cf. 1.Kings 4:2-3), the latter two are actually considered by some to have been borrowed from Egypt [100]. But more likely now the correct order of influence is that these became established Egyptian offices only after having firstly been borrowed from Davidic Israel.
Furthermore, do we not find at the time of Hatshepsut greater attention being given to the greatest of all the gods, Amun, and to his barque (ark)-like vessel which was carried around by priests bearing poles on their shoulders? Thus Joyce Tyldesley [110]:
The Red Chapel, now known more commonly by its French name of Chapelle Rouge, was a large sanctuary of red quartzite endowed by Hatshepsut to house the all-important barque of Amen. Amen's barque, or barge, known as Userhat-Amen (Mighty of Prow is Amen), was a small-scale gilded wooden boat bearing the enclosed shrine which was used to protect the statue of the god from public gaze.[115] When Amen, on the holy days which were also public holidays, left the privacy of his sanctuary to process through the streets of Thebes, he sailed in style concealed within the cabin of his boat-shrine which was carried, supported by wooden poles, on the shoulders of his priests. When Amen was not traveling the barque rested in its own sanctuary or shrine.
The sacred barque had always played a minor role in Egyptian religious ritual, but during the early New Kingdom it had become an increasingly important part of theology, and most temples now gave great prominence to the barque sanctuary.
That strongly reminds one of the Ark of the Covenant, of great age, before which David danced (2.Samuel 6:14). David had re-emphasized the order that the awe-inspiring Ark was to be carried by "no one but the Levites"(1.Chronicles 15:2). The 'boat' aspect may even hark back to the time when baby Moses (little Horus in the Egyptian version) was enclosed by his mother in an ark (teba) and floated on the river (Exodus 2:3).
Both the Israelite and Egyptian versions of the ark were oracular. Both ideally went forth before their armies into battle (1.Samuel 14:18). Thutmose III (biblical "Shishak") will, after Hatshepsut's death, have that ark of Amun proceed before his own army up the terrifying Aruna (Araunah) pass as he marches to the conquest of Jerusalem and the plundering of its Temple's treasures.
This occurred in the fifth year of Solomon's son, Rehoboam (1.Kings 14:25).
The influence of David upon Egypt was so strong at this time that we may yet need to take our conclusions deeper than we have done so far. David may not merely have influenced Thutmose I in his proceedings.
David may actually have been Thutmose I!
The upshot of this would be that the Egyptians still remained their conservative, insular selves, doing what they had done for centuries. But Israel had also overflowed upon the land. We may have here a clash of two entirely different cultures. Something somewhat akin (and I would not want to push the analogy too far) to the situation that prevailed for a time with the co-existence in Mexico of the war-like Spaniards and the pyramid-building Aztecs. The former prepared to stop at nothing to impose their religion upon the land's inhabitants. The latter continuing with their rituals and re-writing the inexplicable Spanish phenomenon according to their own religious traditions and folklore.
Some questions immediately arise from this new scenario:
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If David really was Thutmose I, where does that leave Hatshepsut, supposed daughter of Thutmose I?
What is the connection between Solomon's coronation and Hatshepsut's?
Does David really stack up well as Thutmose I, origin-wise, career-wise, age-wise?
Did David conquer and enslave Egypt?
What about the typical Egyptian (and un-David-like) pagan trappings associated with Thutmose I as with the other pharaohs?
These are the questions that one must now begin to answer.
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