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NASB | Genesis 12:10 ¶ Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 12:10 ¶ Now there was a famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt to live temporarily, for the famine in the land was oppressive and severe. |
Bible Question: The Eqyptian history is way before the Bible. Where is the Bible in the early years of man? |
Bible Answer: There is certainly a record of what happened before the flood of Noah that utterly destroyed the (unnamed) land of Noah and almost all of mankind. See Genesis 1-11. The inspired name for Egypt is pronounced mitsrayim, Strong's Translating Concordance uses reference H4714 for mitsrayim. At BlueLetterBible.org browse to Genesis 12:10 and click the "C" Concordance button to see this. If you then click on the number 4714 in that concordance entry, you will see the first use of "mitsayim" is for the apparent grandson of Noah who apparently founded the nation of the land of Mitsrayim / Egypt. Genesis 12:10 is the first translation of mitsrayim as "Egypt" because that is the land where Abram went to live at that point. Whatever else happened in Egypt before Abram went there is apparently not considered significant in the Scriptures. Remember the Scriptures primarily are meant to teach the character of God, and mere human history is often a distraction from God. Your question may then become one about the number of years between when Mitsrayim went to the land and when Abram went there, which might be detailed in the Egyptian historical records. Be careful about assuming the translated word "son" can be taken literally as a single generation. The Hebrews also used that word for any male heir. This is why Jesus can legitimately be called the "Son of David" even though several generations separated David from Jesus. The same is true of the Hebrew word translated as "father". It means a male ancestor separated by any number of generations. This is why the Pharisees referred to Abraham as their "father" despite the many generations between them. The translated words "son" or "father" are indeed good one-for-one translations of the inspired words. However translated words are NOT inspired words, so human assumptions about what translated words mean may be wrong. Some interpreters assume assume the Scripture about the generations of Hebrews is complete so they can calculate the how many years passed.In your servant's opinion God does not tell us how many years separated Mitsrayim from Abram / Abraham, which may be a distraction from His purposes. |