The authenticity of the biblical version of history was defended tonight by Prof. Abraham S.E. Yahuda, of London, who declared at a reception for him at the Temple Emanu-El Community House that “every new excavation has only confirmed the Bible and confused the critics.”
Prof. Albert Einstein, in a message to the meeting, expressed the hope that “Yahuda’s convincing arguments and lucid presentation will contribute to strengthen and to revive the influence of the moral contents of the Bible, the greatest creation of the people of Israel.” Speakers at the reception included Rabbi Moses Hyamson, Prof. Fernando de los Rios, Rabbi William Rosenau, Prof. Chaim Tchnerowitz and Arthur Meyerowitz.
Prof. Yahuda declared: “The close relationship which I discovered between Hebrew and Egyptian made it clear to me that the development and growth of Hebrew from a primitive Canaanite dialect to a perfect literary language could only have taken place in a time and an environment when and where the Hebrews lived in the most intimate contact with the Egyptians. This I illustrated by quoting a number of Egyptian loanwords and typically Egyptian phrases from the Pentateuch. Proofs were so cumulative, that there could be no doubt that the Pentateuch could not have been written at any other time than the time of the Exodus. This implies that the Hebrew language was a genuine creation of the Hebrews during their stay in Egypt, developed by them under the influence of the Egyptian language from the Canaanite dialect which they spoke when they immigrated into Egypt, and that it was Moses who brought Hebrew to that high degree of perfection in which the Pentateuch is written.
“I wish to point out that the establishment of this fact is of far-reaching importance. By applying the combined method of comparative philology and archaeology, based on the monuments excavated not only in Egypt but also in Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia, the antiquity of the Pentateuch, as well as the accuracy of the Biblical records can be proved.”
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