Egypt

Egypt figured significantly as a stage on which the biblical narrative was enacted. Here Abraham lived in time of famine. Joseph, his great-grandson, was sold into slavery in Egypt and rose to a position equivalent to that of prime minister. Through Joseph’s intercession, Jacob and the rest of the Hebrew patriarchal family living in Palestine came to reside in the eastern delta region of Goshen—again as a result of famine. Initially treated favorably, they were later reduced to bondage; crying to God, ultimately they were released through the 10 plagues. Thereafter, for 40 years, they wandered in the Egyptian Sinai, where they received the law, specifications for building the tabernacle, and instructions for the priestly and sacrificial systems.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, a group of Jews forced Jeremiah to go with them to Egypt (Jer 43:6–7), where they became numerous during the intertestamental period and gradually forgot their Hebrew. At Alexandria, Jews translated the OT into Greek (the Septuagint) between about 250 and 150 BC. This became the Bible of the early church, especially of those Christians outside Palestine.