Page:Ancient Egypt Her Testimony to the Truth.pdf/25

8 chronology which is usually printed with the English Bible, needs critical correction quite as much as that of the kings of Egypt.

IV.—, who expelled the shepherds and recovered the throne of all Egypt. Manetho makes him the founder of the eighteenth dynasty, and interposes between his times and the former epoch a succession of more than 109 kings, and an interval of nearly 2000 years. The entire list, however, of the monarchs of Egypt, between Osortasen I. and Amosis, is preserved on several hieroglyphic genealogies; and the comparison of the two curiously illustrates the very little reliance that can be placed upon the particulars of dates preserved by the former. A succession of six kings only really intervened between Osortasen I. and Amosis, instead of the hundred and nine of Manetho. The dates of existing monuments executed in the reigns of each of these monarchs, give a period of 150 years between the accession of Osortasen and that of Amosis. If we add to this 100 years for the duration of all their reigns after the periods indicated by these monuments, which most probably exceeds the truth, it gives us an interval of 250 years only between the twelfth and eighteenth dynasties of Manetho, instead of nearly 2000 years.

The era of Amosis, or the eighteenth dynasty, was the golden age of Egyptian history. Nearly all the