The Rosetta Stone: a Christian Connection

The reading and writing of ancient Egyptian language died around A.D.500. It simply ceased to be used and died. Written language in Egypt began with the picture writing. We've all seen the rows of symbols made up of snakes, birds, hands, legs and wondered what these hieroglyphs could mean. Today, we know, but the path of discover wasn't easy--and there's a Christian connection.
First, we need to understand that the style of ancient Egyptian writing changed over time. Much like our English writing has changed. Have you tried to read Olde English lately? As you know, the meaning of the Olde English words is pretty much the same but our modern day writing style is much simpler. Actually, it's even difficult to read handwriting just 100 years old. So too in Egypt. Over time, we're talking thousands of years, the Egyptian style of writing evolved from hieroglyphs (little picture symbols) to a cursive form called heratic and then later to a shortened form called demotic. It was a matter of making writing simpler and easier. Basically, it could be said that the use of hieroglyphs was for official proclamations on temples and monuments, heratic script was for business use and demotic was everyday writing for making out shopping lists etc.
Times changed, for hundreds of years foreigners ruled Egypt. By the year A.D. 452 the final inscription on stone was made in demotic--the written use of ancient Egyptian died. For the next 1,300 years the art of reading the ancient scripts was lost. Enter Napoleon Bonaparte who set out from France with a military/scientific expeditionary force to Egypt. While the French soldiers were clearing away an old wall to expand a fort in Rosetta, Egypt, they discovered a broken fragment of stone that we today call the Rosetta stone.
The stone slab is about 4 feet (114 cm) high and 2 feet (72 cm) wide and weighs about 3/4 of a ton (762 kg). The original stone, probably rounded on top like a tombstone was about 8 feet tall and served as a billboard outside an ancient temple. It was a thank you note written in 196 B.C. to the king for giving the priests a tax break. However, what makes the stone important is that it was written in three different scripts: ancient hieroglyphics, demotic and Greek. Remember, the hieroglyphic was the "official" script, the demotic was written for easy reading, however, the Greek version was there because the king couldn't read Egyptian. He was a member of a long line of Greek kings who ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great conquered the land in the early 300's B.C. The arrogant Greeks didn't bother to learn Egyptian, rather, they forced the Egyptians to use Greek.
So, the French had discovered a piece of a monument written in Egyptian and Greek--and they could read the Greek. They knew their discovery was significant because the last line of the Greek text stated, "This decree shall be inscribed on a stela (billboard) of hard stone in sacred (hieroglyphic writing) and native (demotic writing) and Greek characters and set up in each of the first, second and third (rank) temples beside the image of the ever-living king." This thank you note in stone would prove to the be key to unlock the reading of ancient Egyptian heiorglyphics --but it wouldn't come easily as it took 21 years to decipher.
An English scholar Thomas Young (1773-1829) led the way, but it was a Frenchman Jean Franciois Champollion (1790-1832) who is looked upon as the Father of the Decipherment of Hieroglyphs. The Frenchman, who is said to have spoken 8 languages by age 14, learned the Coptic language. Coptics are Egyptian Christians. Tradition has it that St. Mark went as a missionary to Egypt and laid the foundation for the Christian church of Egypt. It is said that he told them they had to replace their pagan writing symbols. Therefore, Coptic was written in the Greek alphabet, supplemented by seven letters borrowed from demotic writing. Coptic used during the Christian period of Egypt also replaced the religious terms and expressions of earlier Egyptian with words borrowed from Greek. The Coptic language that is still used today in worship services is a spoken form of ancient Egyptian. Using his knowledge of spoken Coptic, the Frenchman began to put the pieces together. He, and others had been able to figure out that the hieroglyphs represented sounds. For instance, a picture of an owl had the sound value of the letter "m", a foot was "b" and a basket with handle was the sound "k." Although they figured out the basic sounds, their newly discovered words had no meaning. That is until the Frenchman used his knowledge of Coptic. He discovered that he could speak a word he had deciphered from the hieroglyphics and compare it to a spoken word in Coptic. For instance, the ancient Egyptian symbol for life is the ank (the symbol is a little circle on top of a cross). Champollion could speak the work "ank" and then ask what it meant in Coptic. In Coptic (ancient spoken Egyptian) it means life. And, therefore through the Coptic Christian connection, scholars were able to revive the understanding of those mysterious looking symbols we call hieroglyphs.
All of this would be just another academic triumph in scholarship were it not for the extensive connection the Bible people have to ancient Egypt. Unlocking the reading of ancient hieroglyphics opened up a new world in our understanding of the Old Testament and its people and places.
For those readers in the Union area a replica of the Rosetta stone on display at the Union County Carnegie Library. It's a souvenir I purchased while visiting the British Museum. Interestingly, the real stone is on open public display that you can touch and run your fingers over the ancient text. My little replica is about a foot high and is available if teachers would like to borrow it, or I am willing to visit classrooms and bring my artifacts and souvenirs from my visit to Egypt.

Blessings in your study of God's Word!

Marvin Hunt

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