Thus, perhaps the fairest way of stating the case may be
as follows.

There can be no a priori objection to the supposition
that the Israelites were delivered from their Egyptian bondage
by a leader called Moses, and that he exerted a great influence
over their subsequent organisation in the Desert. There is no
reason to doubt that, during their residence in the land of
Goshen, the Israelites knew nothing of Jahveh; but, as their own
prophets declare (see Ezek. xx.), were polytheistic idolaters,
sharing in the worst practices of their neighbours. As to their
conduct in other respects, nothing is known. But it may fairly
be suspected that their ethics were not of a higher order than
those of Jacob, their progenitor, in which case they might
derive great profit from contact with Egyptian society, which
held honesty and truthfulness in the highest esteem. Thanks to
the Egyptologers, we now know, with all requisite certainty, the
moral standard of that society in the time, and long before the
time, of Moses. It can be determined from the scrolls buried
with the mummified dead and from the inscriptions on the tombs
and memorial statues of that age. For, though the lying of
epitaphs is proverbial, so far as their subject is concerned,
they gave an unmistakable insight into that which the writers
and the readers of them think praiseworthy.

In the famous tombs at Beni Hassan there is a record of the life
of Prince Nakht, who served Osertasen II., a Pharaoh of the
twelfth dynasty as governor of a province. The inscription
speaks in his name: "I was a benevolent and kindly governor who
loved his country. ... Never was a little child distressed nor a