THE MYSTERY OF THE ROSETTA STONE

In August 1799 a warship sailed away from the coast of Egypt. On board was Napoleon Bonaparte, with a small party of officers. Little more than a year earlier, Napoleon had invaded Egypt with a powerful fleet and a large army.

Napoleon had hoped to make Egypt a French possession, so that he could move on to attack the British in India. But the British Admiral Nelson had destroyed his naval fleet. And now, defeated, Napoleon was leaving his army behind.

His military adventure turned out to be an absolute disaster. It was a complete failure in every way – every way but one. You see, while the French army was in Egypt, one of the soldiers made an incredible discovery. He found an ancient stone inscription that unlocked the mysteries of a long-lost empire.

Join me as we follow archaeologists and linguists, as they decode this strange inscription and reveal the secrets of ancient Egypt. And together, we’ll listen to civilisations long dead speak with thunder tones to our generation. And there may even be a message from the past, for you and me.

EGYPT AND THE NILE

This is the world’s longest river. The Nile flows around 6,700 kilometres, from its source in Equatorial Africa to the Mediterranean Sea, covering one tenth of the earth’s circumference, and passing through nine countries. 

Today, as for thousands of years, the central fact of life for the Egyptian people is this river, the Nile. Without the Nile, there would be no Egypt as we know it! You see, the land of Egypt is 96% desert. Less than 4% of its total land area is productive. All the rest is dry, barren desert.

To the ancient Egyptians, this river was the source of life, and civilisation began along its banks. Great religions were born here – even the Bible story. Its first writer, Moses, was plucked from the waters of the Nile as an infant, and reared by an Egyptian princess.

This mighty river enters southern Egypt and flows past the magnificent monuments of Abu Simbel, the majestic temples of Luxor, the fabled Valley of the Kings with its 64 royal tombs, and the enormous pyramids of Giza.

Finally, it makes a grand sweep past the little town of Rosetta, also known as Rashid, and ends its journey at the Mediterranean Sea.

BURIED TREASURE AT ROSETTA

Now, it was here at Rosetta, near the mouth of the Nile, that one of archaeology’s greatest discoveries was made – in fact, one of the greatest discoveries in all history! Here’s how it happened.

Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1798. Accompanying his army was a team of 175 French scientists and artists. They were there to map the land and study the mysterious monuments of Egypt. Strange hieroglyphic picture-writing on the temple walls and monuments looked down on Napoleon’s men.

This fascinating picture-writing can be seen today etched everywhere on the huge columns and blocks of stone. Yet, not a person in Egypt, or in all the world for that matter, could read these strange inscriptions.

In fact, for 15 centuries the knowledge of this writing was lost to civilisation. Men had gazed fascinated upon Egyptian hieroglyphs without understanding their meaning. The ancient Egyptians were a mystery, because no one could read their hieroglyphic writing.

But in 1799 one of Napoleon’s officers was supervising the restoration of Fort Rosetta on the banks of the Nile Delta. As he was digging a trench, he came upon an unusual stone– just over a metre high, three-quarters of a metre wide, and weighing 762kgs – with inscriptions engraved on it.

He immediately realised that he had discovered something special, and that it was important to the scientists accompanying the French army in Egypt. And he certainly was right!

The discovery of this slab of black basalt – now known as the Rosetta Stone – marked the beginning of modern archaeology. It was the key which unlocked the puzzle of ancient Egyptian writing. In fact, the Rosetta Stone is probably the most important archaeological artefact in the world today.

After the defeat of Napoleon and the French surrender of Egypt in 1801, the Rosetta Stone was brought to London as a prize of war, and taken to the British Museum.

MESSAGE IN THREE LANGUAGES

The Rosetta Stone was a part of a decree issued by the new King Ptolemy V, King of all Egypt, in 196 BC. The text contains a decree establishing a cult in the temples, in his honour.  What it said is of little importance. The important thing is that its message was inscribed in three languages.

Yes, the same message was repeated three times, in three different languages. At the top of the stone are fourteen lines of hieroglyphs, then in the middle, thirty-two lines of a sort of Egyptian handwriting, Demotic, and finally at the bottom, fifty-four lines of Greek.

The three forms of writing repeated the same message. Since Greek was easily understood, it was just a matter of matching up the Greek against the hieroglyphs…

Now, this may not seem a difficult task, but, try as they would, no one could make progress in reading the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Rosetta Stone sat in the British Museum for decades. No one could decipher it. No one could crack the Hieroglyphs code.

No one, that is, except a brilliant young French linguist, Jean-Francois Champollion. He was just 9 years old when the Rosetta Stone was first discovered. But by then he was already an accomplished linguist, and was fluent in Greek, Latin and Hebrew.

By his mid-teens, Champollion had mastered a further six ancient Oriental languages. Then he turned his attention to the Rosetta Stone, and devoted all his energy to cracking the hieroglyphic code. It became his passion!

He was determined to read and understand it. He worked from the known to the unknown – from the Greek which he knew and understood, to the Demotic and to the Hieroglyphs.

CRACKING THE CODE

Suddenly, after years of exhausting and detailed study, Champollion saw the true explanation of the strange picture writing, in the autumn of 1822. Until then he had thought hieroglyphs had some sort of symbolic meaning, used as letters only to write foreign names.

But now he recognized that the signs were used for sounds as well as for words. The key lay in the cartouches, or oblong circles of Egyptian Hieroglyphs representing the names of the kings, found throughout the Rosetta Stone.

Within a few days he successfully made sense of many kings’ names. It was quite clear he had deciphered the hieroglyphs correctly, and he announced his discovery in Paris on 17 September, 1822. He’d done it!

Finally, Champollion had cracked the Hieroglyphic code, perhaps the greatest code in history. The ancient mystery of hieroglyphs had been solved.

Until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and the work of Champollion, no one had been able to read the ancient hieroglyphic writing which could be seen everywhere on the walls of the tombs and temples of ancient Egypt. We knew nothing of the ancient Egyptians.

FORGOTTEN CIVILISATIONS

But now the ability to read the Egyptian language as it was written in the days of the ancient pharaohs, unlocked vast treasures of a forgotten civilisation. The door to the past was now open.

And as archaeologists and linguists began to read the hieroglyphs on the tombs, temples and monuments of ancient Egypt, and as they studied the ancient inscriptions, to their amazement, they found that they correlated with the Bible record and shed light on the Bible narrative. In fact, they found things exactly as the Bible says they were.

For example, at the Giza plateau, near the great pyramids, the mysterious Sphinx is found crouching in the sand. The Sphinx is considered to be the greatest statue on earth. It was carved out of one piece of solid limestone bedrock.

Between the paws of the Sphinx is an impressive stone monument. Its hieroglyph text tells of the day the Sphinx supposedly spoke. The inscription records how Thutmose IV unexpectedly became pharaoh.

One day when he was on a hunting expedition he stopped to rest in the shade of the Sphinx. As he did so, he claimed the Sphinx spoke to him and told him he would become the Pharaoh of Egypt. When this came true, he cleared the sand away that was covering the Sphinx and put this memorial between its paws, that’s still here today.

It’s an obvious attempt to legitimise his claim to the royal throne. It’s quite evident that Thutmose IV never expected to become king. His father was on the throne, and his older brother was the crown prince, next in line for the throne.

However, both his older brother and his father disappeared from the scene of action about the same time. What could possibly have happened to the king and the rightful heir, the crown prince?

Well, this inscription was placed here about the time the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, left Egypt. At the time of the Biblical Exodus you will remember that ten dreadful plagues fell upon Egypt.

The last of these plagues destroyed the first-born child of every Egyptian family, including the first-born son of Pharaoh. This is how the Bible describes it in Exodus 12:29,30.

“At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon… 

Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.” (Exodus 12:29,30)

And so, it seems that Thutmose IV came to the throne unexpectedly when his older brother, the crown prince, was slain in the tenth plague, and his father, the ruling pharaoh, drowned in the Red Sea as he chased the Israelites.

It’s amazing how the hieroglyphic inscriptions and the discoveries of modern archaeology confirm the ancient Bible story.

That’s true of many sites in Egypt. About 200 kms south of Giza, at Beni Hassan, there are 39 rock tombs that are cut into the limestone cliff. These tombs belonged to nobles who ruled this Egyptian province almost four thousand years ago.

Each tomb is cut out of solid rock. The walls of these tombs are covered with magnificent paintings and Hieroglyphic inscriptions. Of special interest is the beautiful tomb of Khnumhotep. He was the province’s most important official, the governor of the eastern desert.

A painting in his tomb shows a group of Semites from Canaan arriving in Egypt. It shows the clothes they wore, the kind of footwear they had, and the musical instruments they played.

These tombs date back to the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was common for people from Canaan to visit Egypt to barter for corn in times of famine, just as the Bible says the Israelites did in the time of Jacob. Here’s what the Bible says in Genesis 42:1-3,

“When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons… ‘Indeed I have heard that there is grain in Egypt: go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may live and not die.’  So, Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.”

This painting is one of many that clearly shows that life in ancient Egypt was very much as indicated in the Bible.

BIBLE RELIABILITY

Yes, as archaeologists study the hieroglyphs and uncover the past here in Egypt, they are discovering monuments, inscriptions, people and places that demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of the Bible.

Further south along the Nile, at ancient Thebes, now modern Luxor, a double row avenue of ram-headed Sphinxes leads to the great Temple of Karnak. This is the largest temple complex ever built.

To enter we pass through a gateway that’s 43 metres high. And then beyond the first court we enter the famous Hypostyle Hall, one of the most spectacular sights in all of Egypt. A sandstone forest of 134 gigantic columns. The pillars are 10 metres in circumference, with architraves weighing 70 tonnes each.

Nearby archaeologists found a fascinating victory relief carved deep into the temple walls. It tells how Pharaoh Shishak led a devastating military campaign against Israel, after the death of the Israelite king Solomon.

The inscription records Shishak’s victory over Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, and tells how he captured over 100 towns in Israel, including the capital Jerusalem.

Each conquered city is represented by the figure of a Hebrew on whose body is inscribed the city’s name. The details of the campaign are also recorded in the Bible. Here’s what it says in 1 Kings 14:25,26.

“In the fifth year of Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made.” (1 Kings 14:25,26)

It wasn’t all that long ago that sceptics were saying, “There is no such person as Shishak….the Bible is wrong” they said. But you know, once Champollion cracked the Hieroglyphic code, these inscriptions on temple walls and tombs have proved the critics wrong, and the Bible right.

THE HITTITES 

It seems that the more archaeologists work, the more evidence they discover to confirm Bible history. Perhaps one of the most amazing examples of this is found right here in Karnak Temple and surrounds the story of the ancient Hittites.

Now, the problem with the ancient Hittites might well be called the riddle of the ages. Because you see, 48 times the Bible mentions the Hittite race – its dealings with Abraham, with Solomon, with David, with Egypt.

These Bible references picture the Hittites as one of the most powerful of ancient empires. Yet in all the records of antiquity, aside from the Bible, not a trace of them – not a word – remained. Only the Bible mentioned the Hittites.

So, scholarly critics of the Bible said that it would be impossible for such an empire to disappear from history without leaving a single trace behind. Therefore, a lack of evidence was interpreted as evidence that the Hittites never existed – and were nothing more than an ancient legend, a Bible myth. People said the Bible was wrong.

Then came the Rosetta Stone. The Egyptian inscriptions were deciphered. The Hieroglyph reliefs and inscriptions could be read. And the great pillars, pylons and monuments of Karnak Temple told their story.

And here, on these massive walls, to everyone’s utter amazement, Pharaoh Rameses II describes how he went to war with the king of the Hittites in one of the great, decisive battles of history. A battle in which the power of Egypt was tested to the limit.

In fact, the battle was so important, and the Hittites so powerful, that Rameses carved the story about them on all the major temples of Egypt.

From these inscriptions and other archaeological discoveries, we now know that the Hittites were indeed a mighty empire, one of the most powerful in the ancient world. They were based in present-day Turkey and their rule stretched from the Black Sea to Damascus.

The Hieroglyphic inscriptions here at Karnak, show that the Hittites of Bible fame were no myth after all. And the Bible is vindicated, again. This has happened at one ancient site after another here in Egypt.

THE COLOSSI OF MEMNON

Across the Nile on the west bank, we are met by the Colossi of Memnon. This impressive pair of statues formed the entrance to a huge mortuary temple belonging to Pharaoh Amenhotep III.

They are all that remain of the fabulous temple built from white sandstone, with gold throughout, and floor and doors covered with silver. Even in their ruined state the Colossi are impressive.

Just behind the Colossi, Pharaoh Merneptah, the 13th son of Ramses II, built his mortuary temple. And it was here in 1896 that the famous archaeologist, Sir Flinders Petrie made an amazing discovery.

He found a black stone slab just over 2m high, engraved with a description of Merneptah’s military victories in Canaan in 1207BC. It’s now known as the Merneptah Stele.

To everyone’s amazement it contained the name of Israel. It’s the earliest reference to Israel outside of the Bible, and the only reference to Israel in the Egyptian record. People were surprised, because sceptics said that the Children of Israel did not enter Canaan at the time indicated in the Bible.

They said the Israelites only appeared in Canaan hundreds of years later. But the discovery of the Merneptah Stele, over 3200 years old, and now in the Cairo Museum, shows that the Bible was right again. It shows that the message of the hieroglyphic inscriptions, and the evidence archaeologists are uncovering, is entirely consistent with the Bible description of Israel’s origins.

HATSHEPSUT AND MOSES

We find this pattern continues at the most beautiful temple in all of Egypt. Rising out of the desert plain on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor is the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut.

Ancient Egypt produced a number of remarkable women, but Hatshepsut was the greatest of them all. She was the first woman to become pharaoh and wear the double crown of Egypt.

But the amazing thing is that virtually all of her statues have been smashed, and her engravings and inscriptions have been defaced and vandalised. We know for a fact today that this was done by the Pharaoh who followed her, Thutmose III..

For some reason he hated Hatshepsut so much that he wanted her name and memory obliterated from the face of the earth. He wanted her erased from history. But why? Well, the Bible throws some light on this mystery.

You see, it appears that it was Hatshepsut who rescued the Hebrew baby Moses from the Nile and adopted him as her son. And so Moses, the Prince who led the Israelites out of Egypt, would have been familiar with this Temple.

And Hatshepsut planned to put her adopted son, Moses, on the throne of Egypt, instead of Thutmose, and Thutmose hated her for that, and never forgave her. But listen to what the Bible says happened – in Hebrews 11:24,

“Moses when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” (Hebrews 11:24)

It appears that Moses was groomed to be Pharaoh. He could have possessed all the treasure of Egypt. But he chose rather to be numbered with his blood brothers, the Israelites. He turned down the throne of Egypt.

And so Thutmose III seized control. In a fit of revenge, he embarked on a campaign to wipe away Hatsehpsut’s memory. He chiselled out her inscriptions and tore down her statues.

It all fits together with the Bible record. As archaeologists and linguists read the hieroglyphs on the temples, tombs and monuments of ancient Egypt, they bring a message from the past to our generation, and to you and me.

It‘s a message that echoes across the centuries stating loud and clear, ‘You can trust the Bible.’ –  that when you read the Bible you are not dealing with myths and legends, rather, you are dealing with reliable history and real people.

Wouldn’t it be a tragedy to spend your life doubting and questioning the Bible, the Word of God – when you could have had it to depend upon all along? You could have it to stand on when every other prop was swept away? The Bible really is the right Book for right now!

SPECIAL OFFER AND CLOSING PRAYER

If you’d like to know more about the Bible, and the inner peace and happiness it brings, then I’d like to recommend the free gift we have for all our Incredible Journey viewers today.

It’s the popular Bible Reading Guide, We Can Believe the Bible.

This small, easy to read Bible Guide is our gift to you and is absolutely free. And there’s more – when you request We Can Believe the Bible we will also include our new booklet, Secrets of the Rosetta Stone. So, make sure you take this opportunity to receive the double giftpack we have for you today.

CONTACT DETAILS

Be sure to join us again next week when we will share another of life’s journeys together. Until then, let’s pray for a trusting spirit so that we can put our confidence in the Bible and its message of hope and inner-peace. Let’s pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the Bible and the evidence of its reliability and trustworthiness. Please grant us the genuine peace and happiness that its message brings.

We thank you in Jesus’ name, Amen.