The survey of western Palestine Author:Walter Besant Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A JOURNEY TO THE BIBLICAL SITES IN LOWER EGYPT, ETC. By GREVILLE J. CHESTER, B.A., MEMLER OF THE ROYAL ARCH.F.OI.OGICAL INSTITUTE. The work of the Pales... more »tine Exploration Fund could scarcely be deemed complete if Egypt were left out of the scope of its investigations. In the very first Book of the Old Testament we read of Abrain going, during a famine, to sojourn in the rich and fertile land of Egypt, and of his deceitful dealings with the king of that country; and on the very threshold of the Neiu Testament we are told of the flight of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph with the Holy Child to the same place of refuge, and how it was that' out of Egypt God called his Son.' In addition to this, much of the Old Testament relates to Egyptian transactions, and there is, in point of fact, scarcely a better or more striking commentary upon the inspired prophets than the present state and aspect of the ancient Biblical cities of Lower Egypt. So far as the writer can discover, there are no Arabic or Christian traditions in Egypt relating to the visit of the Patriarch Abram, and Brugsch's identification of a place called in the monuments T-en Moshe, (the 'Island or Riverbank of Moses'), with the name of the great Deliverer and Law-giver, must at the best be considered very doubtful ('History of Egypt,' ii. 112). With respect, however, to the ' Flight into Egypt,' and the sojourn of the Infant Christ in that ancient land, four traditions prevail to this day amongst the Copts, who are the representatives of the ancient Egyptians, and the inheritors to some extent of the traditions, as they are the actual possessors of the property, of the ancient orthodox Church of Egypt. The first of these traditions relates to the Crypt Church of Sitt Miriam, the Lady Mary, under the fine ...« less