Difference between revisions of "Zoan"

<p> [[Zoan]] (''Zô'Am'' ), ''Low Region?'' or ''Place Of Departure?'' A city of lower Egypt; called by the [[Greeks]] Tanis—now San. Zoan was an exceedingly ancient city, built seven years after Hebron. &nbsp;Numbers 13:22. The "field of Zoan" was the place of God's wonders. &nbsp;Psalms 78:12; &nbsp;Psalms 78:43. When Isaiah wrote, it would appear to have been one of the chief cities in Egypt, as he speaks of "the princes of Zoan." &nbsp;Isaiah 19:11; &nbsp;Isaiah 19:13; &nbsp;Isaiah 30:4. Ezekiel foretells the fate of the city in the words: "I will set fire in Zoan." &nbsp;Ezekiel 30:14. There are no other [[Scripture]] references to Zoan. Zoan has been satisfactorily identified with the ancient [[Avaris]] and [[Tanis]] and the modern San. Very interesting discoveries have been made there within a few years. Among the inscriptions has been found one with the expression ''Sechet Tanet,'' which exactly corresponds to the "field of Zoan." &nbsp;Psalms 78:43. The mounds which mark the site of the town are remarkable for their height and extent, and cover an area a mile in length by three-fourths of a mile in width. The sacred enclosure of the great temple was 1500 feet long and 1250 feet wide. This temple was adorned by [[Rameses]] H. There are some dozen obelisks of great size, all fallen and broken, with numerous statues. "The whole constitutes," says Macgregor, "one of the grandest and oldest ruins in the world." </p>

<p> (Heb. Tso'an, צעִן '';'' Sept. Τανίς; ,Vulg. ''Taais'' )'','' an ancient city of Lower Egypt, situated on the eastern side of the Tanitic branch of the Nile, and mentioned several times in the Old Test. (&nbsp;Numbers 13:22; &nbsp;Psalms 78:12; &nbsp;Psalms 78:43 &nbsp;Isaiah 19:11; &nbsp;Isaiah 19:13; &nbsp;Isaiah 30:4; &nbsp;Ezekiel 30:14). Its ruins have lately been carefully explored (Petrie, ''Tanis,'' in "Mem. of Eg. Expl. Fund,' Lond. 1884-8). </p> <p> '''I.''' The name, preserved in the [[Coptic]] ''Jane,'' the Arabic ''San'' (a village still on the site), and the classical Tayit, Tanis (whence the Coptic transcription Taneos), comes from the root צָעִן "he moved tents" (&nbsp;Isaiah 33:20), cognate with טָעִן : "he loaded a beast of burden;" and thus signifies "a place of departure" (like Zaanannim, &nbsp;Joshua 19:33,or Zaanaim, &nbsp;Judges 4:11, on a similar thoroughfare). Zoan lay near the eastern border of Lower Egypt. The senses of departure or removing therefore, would seem not to indicate a mere resting place of caravans, but a place of departure from a country. The Egyptian-name ''Ha-Awar'' or ''Pa-Awar'' (''Avaris, Ἀουαρίς'' ) means "the abode" or "house" of "going out" or "departure." Its more precise sense fixes that of the Shemitic equivalent. </p> <p> '''II.''' ''History. —'' </p> <p> '''1.''' ''From Manetho. —'' At a remote period, between the age when the pyramids were built and that of the empire, Egypt was invaded, overrun, and subdued by the strangers known as the Shepherds, who, or at least their first race, appear to have been Arabs cognate with the Phoenicians, ‘ How they entered Egypt does not appear. After .a time they made one of themselves king, a certain Salatis,' who reigned at Memphis, exacting tribute of Upper and Lower Egypt, and garrisoning the fittest places with especial regard to the safety of the eastern provinces, which he foresaw the Assyrians' would desire to invade. With this view, finding in the Saite (better elsewhere Sethroite) home, on the east of the Bubastite branch, a very fit city called Avaris, he rebuilt and very strongly walled it, garrisoning it with 240,000 men. He came hither in harvest-time (about the vernal equinox),to give corn and pay to the troops, and exercise them so as to terrify foreigners. </p> <p> The position of Tanis explains the case. Like the other principal cities of this tract-Pelusium, Bubastis, and [[Heliopolis]] it lay on the east bank of the river towards Syria. It was thus outside a great line of defence, and afforded a protection to the cultivated lands to the east and an obstacle to an invader, while to retreat from it was always possible, so long as the [[Egyptians]] held the river. But Tanis, though doubtless fortified partly with the object of repelling an invader, was too far inland to be the frontier fortress. It was near enough to be the place of departure for caravans, perhaps was the last town in the Shepherd period, but not near enough to command the entrance of Egypt. [[Pelusium]] lay upon the great road to Palestine; it has been until lately placed too far north, (See [[Sin]]), and the plain was here narrow from north to south, so that no invader could safely pass the fortress; but it soon became broader, and, by turning in a south- westerly direction, an advancing enemy would leave Tanis far to the northward, and bold general would detach a force to keep its garrison in check and march upon Heliopolis and Memphis. An enormous standing militia, settled in the Bucolia, as the [[Egyptian]] militia afterwards was in neighboring tracts of the delta, and with its headquarters .at Tanis, would have overawed Egypt, and secured a retreat in case of disaster, besides maintaining hold of some of the most productive, land in the country, and mainly for the former two objects we believe Avaris to have been fortified. </p> <p> '''2.''' ''From The Egyptian Monuments.'' — Apipi, probably [[Apophis]] of the fifteenth dynasty, a Shepherd-king who reigned shortly before the eighteenth dynasty, built, a temple here to Set, the Egyptian Baal, and worshipped no other god. According to Manetho, the Shepherds, after 511 years of rule, were expelled from all Egypt and shut up in Avaris, whence they were allowed to depart by capitulation by either Amosis or Thummosis (Aahmes or Thothmes IV), the first and seventh kings of the eighteenth dynasty. The monuments show that the honor of ridding Egypt of the [[Shepherds]] belongs tog Aahmmes. Rameses II embellished the great temple of Tanis, and was followed by his son Menptah. </p> <p> After the fall of the empire, the first dynasty is the twenty-first, called by [[Manetho]] that of Tanites; its history is obscure, and it fell before the stronger line of Bubastites, the twenty-second dynasty, founded by Shishak. The expulsion of Set from the pantheon, under the twenty-second dynasty, must have been a blow to Tanis, and perhaps a religious war. occasioned the rise of the twenty-third. The twenty-third dynasty is called Tanite, and its last king is probably Sethos, the contemporary of Tirhakah, mentioned by Herodotus. (See Egypt). </p> <p> '''3.''' ''From The Bible'' we learn that Zoan was one of the oldest cities in Egypt having been built seven years after Hebron, which already existed in the time of Abraham. (&nbsp;Numbers 13:22; comp. &nbsp;Genesis 22:2). It seems also to have been one of the principal capitals, or royal abodes, of the Pharaohs (&nbsp;Isaiah 19:11; &nbsp;Isaiah 19:13); and accordingly "the field of Zoan," or the fine alluvial plain around the city, is described as the scene of the marvelous works. which God wrought in the time of Moses (&nbsp;Psalms 78:12; &nbsp;Psalms 78:33), and once more appears in sacred history as a place to which came ambassadors, either of [[Hoshea]] or Ahaz, or else possibly Hezekiah: "For his princes were at Zoan, and his messengers came to Hanes" (&nbsp;Isaiah 30:4). As mentioned with the frontier town Tahpanhes, Tanis is not necessarily the capital. But the same prophet perhaps more distinctly points to a Tanite line when saving, in "the burden of Egypt," "The princes of Zoan are become fools; the princes of [[Noph]] are deceived" (&nbsp;Isaiah 19:13). The doom of. Tanis is foretold by Ezekiel: "I will set fire in Zoan" (&nbsp;Ezekiel 30:4), where it occurs among the cities to be taken by Nebuchadnezzar. </p> <p> '''III.''' ''Description And Remains. —'' Anciently a rich plain extended due east as far as Pelusium, about thirty miles distant, gradually narrowing towards the east, so that in a south-easterly direction from Tanis it was not more than half this breadth. The whole of this plain about as far south and west as Tanis, was anciently known as "the Fields" or "Plains," "the Marshes" (τὰ ῾Ελη, Ε᾿λεαρχία )'','' or "the pasture-lands" (Βουκολία )''.'' Through the subsidence of the [[Mediterranean]] coast, it is now almost covered by the great lake Menzaleh, of old, it was a rich marsh-land watered by four of the seven branches of the Nile, the Pathmitic, Mendesian, Tanitic, and Pelusiac, and swept by the cool breezes of the Mediterranean. </p> <p> At present the plain of San is very, extensive, but thinly-inhabited; no village exists in the immediate vicinity of the ancient Tanis; and, when looking from the mounds of this once splendid city towards the distant palms of indistinct villages we perceive the desolation spread around it. The ‘ field' of Zoan is now a barren waste; a canal passes through it. without being able to fertilize the soil; ‘ fire' has been set in ‘ Zoan' and one of the principal capitals or royal abodes of the Pharaohs is now the habitation of fishermen, the resort of wild beasts, and infested with reptiles and malignant fevers. It is remarkable for the height and extent of its mounds, which are upwards of a mile from north to south, and nearly three quarters of a mile from east to west. The area in which the sacred enclosure of the temple stood is about 1500 feet by 1250, surrounded by mounds of fallen houses. The temple was adorned by Rameses II with numerous obelisks and most of its sculptures. </p> <p> It is very ruinous, but its remains prove its former grandeur. The number of its obelisks, ten or twelve all now fallen, is unequalled, and the labor of transporting them from [[Syene]] shows the lavish magnificence of the Egyptian kings. The oldest name found here is that of Sesertesen III of the twelfth dynasty, the latest that of [[Tirhakah]] (Wilkinson, Handbook; p. 221-222). Two black statues and a granite sphinx, with blocks of hewn and occasionally sculptured granite, are among the objects which engage the attention of the few travelers who visit this desolate place. The modern village of San consists of mere huts, with the exception of a ruined kasr of modern date (id. Modern Egypt, 1, 449-4520; [[Narrative]] of the Scottish Deputation, p. 72-76). Recently, M. Mariette has made excavations on this site and discovered remains of the Shepherd period, showing a markedly characteristic style, specially in the representation of face and figure, but of Egyptian art, and therefore afterwards appropriated by the Egyptianl kings. The bilingual or rather trilingual inscription of [[Ptolemy]] III (Euergetes I) is of very great interest. See Lepsius, Das bilingue Decret von Kcnopus (Bel. 1867); Reinisch und Rosler, Die zweispraachige Inschrift von Tanis (Vienna, eod.); Proceedings of the Amer. Oriental Society, May, 1870, p. 8; Bibliotheca Sacra, 24:771; 26:581. </p>

<p> ''''' zō´an ''''' ( צען , <i> ''''' cō‛a ''''' </i> ; Τανίς , <i> ''''' Tanı́s ''''' </i> ): </p> <p> 1. [[Situation]] </p> <p> 2. Old [[Testament]] Notices </p> <p> 3. Early History </p> <p> 4. Hyksos [[Monuments]] </p> <p> 5. Hyksos [[Population]] </p> <p> 6. Hyksos Age </p> <p> 7. Description of Site </p> <p> The name is supposed to mean "migration" (Arabic, <i> ''''' tsan ''''' </i> ). The site is the only one connected with the history of Israel in Egypt, before the exodus, which is certainly fixed, being identified with the present village of San at the old mouth of the Bubastic branch of the Nile, about 18 miles Southeast of Damietta. It should be remembered that the foreshore of the Delta is continually moving northward, in consequence of the deposit of the Nile mud, and that the Nile mouths are much farther North than they were even in the time of the geographer Ptolemy. Thus in the times of Jacob, and of Moses, Zoan probably lay at the mouth of the Bubastic branch, and was a harbor, Lake Menzaleh and the lagoons near Pelusium having been subsequently formed. </p> <p> The city is only once noticed in the [[Pentateuch]] (&nbsp;Numbers 13:22 ), as having been built seven years after Hebron, which existed in the time of Abraham. Zoan was certainly a very ancient town, since monuments of the VIth Egyptian Dynasty have been found at the site. It has been thought that [[Zoar]] on the border of Egypt (&nbsp;Genesis 13:10 ) is a clerical error for Zoan, but the [[Septuagint]] reading ( <i> '''''Zógora''''' </i> ) does not favor this view, and the place intended is probably the fortress <i> '''''Zar''''' </i> , or <i> '''''Zor''''' </i> , often mentioned in Egyptian texts as lying on the eastern borders of the Delta. Zoan is noticed in the [[Prophets]] (&nbsp;Isaiah 19:11 , &nbsp;Isaiah 19:13; &nbsp;Isaiah 30:4; &nbsp;Ezekiel 30:14 ), and its "princes" are naturally mentioned by Isaiah, since the capital of the Xxiii nd Egyptian Dynasty (about 800 to 700 BC) was at this city. In &nbsp;Psalm 78:12 , &nbsp;Psalm 78:43 the "field (or pastoral plain) of Zoan" is noticed as though equivalent to the land of [[Goshen]] (which see). </p> <p> Zoan was the capital of the Hyksos rulers, or "shepherd kings," in whose time Jacob came into Egypt, and their monuments have been found at the site, which favors the conclusion that its plain was that "land of Rameses" (&nbsp;Genesis 47:11; &nbsp;Exodus 12:37; see [[Raamses]] ) where the Hebrews had possessions under Joseph. It is probably the site of Avaris, which lay on the Bubastic channel according to [[Josephus]] quoting Manetho ( <i> [[Apion]] </i> , I, xiv), and which was rebuilt by the first of the Hyksos kings, named Salatis; for Avaris is supposed (Brugsch, <i> Geog </i> ., I, 86-90, 278-80) to represent the Egyptian name of the city <i> '''''Ha''''' </i> - <i> '''''uar''''' </i> - <i> '''''t''''' </i> , which means "the city of movement" (or "flight"), thus being equivalent to the Semitic Zoan or "migration." It appears that, from very early times, the pastoral peoples of [[Edom]] and [[Palestine]] were admitted into this region. The famous picture of the <i> '''''Amu''''' </i> , who bring their families on donkeys to Egypt, and offer the Sinaitic ibex as a present, is found at <i> '''''Beni''''' </i> <i> '''''Ḥasan''''' </i> in a tomb as old as the time of Usertasen Ii of the Xii th Dynasty, before the Hyksos age. A similar immigration of shepherds (see [[Pithom]] ) from Aduma (or Edom) is also recorded in the time of Menepthah, or more than four centuries after the expulsion of the Hyksos by the Xviii th, or Theban, Dynasty. </p> <p> Besides the name of Pepi of the Vlth Dynasty, found by Burton at Zoan, and many texts of the Xii th Dynasty, a cartouche of Apepi (one of the Hyksos kings) was found by Mariette on the arm of a statue apparently of older origin, and a sphinx also bears the name of <i> ''''' Khian ''''' </i> , supposed to have been an early Hyksos ruler. The Hyksos type, with broad cheek bones and a prominent nose, unlike the features of the native Egyptians, has been regarded by Virchow and Sir W. [[Flower]] as Turanian, both at Zoan and at Bubastis; which agrees with the fact that Apepi is recorded to have worshipped no Egyptian gods, but only Set (or <i> ''''' Sutekh ''''' </i> ), who was also adored by [[Syrian]] [[Mongols]] (see [[Hittites]] ). At [[Bubastis]] this deity is called "Set of Rameses," which may indicate the identity of Zoan with the city Rameses. </p> <p> In the 14th century Bc the city was rebuilt by Rameses II, and was then known as Pa-Ramessu. The Hyksos rulers had held it for 500 years according to Manetho, and were expelled after 1700 BC. [[George]] the [[Syncellus]] ( <i> Chronographia </i> , about 800 AD) believed that Apepi (or Apophis) was the Pharaoh under whom [[Joseph]] came to Egypt, but there seems to have been more than one Hyksos king of the name, the latest being a contemporary of Ra-Sekenen of the Xiii th Dynasty, shortly before 1700 BC. Manetho says that some supposed the Hyksos to be Arabs, and the population of Zoan under their rule was probably a mixture of Semitic and Mongolic races, just as in Syria and [[Babylonia]] in the same ages. According to Brugsch ( <i> Hist of Egypt </i> , II, 233), this population was known as <i> ''''' Men ''''' </i> or <i> ''''' Menti ''''' </i> , and came from [[Assyria]] East of Ruten or Syria. This perhaps connects them with the Minyans of Matiene, who were a Mongolic race. This statement occurs in the great table of nations, on the walls of the [[Edfu]] temple. </p> <p> The Hyksos age corresponds chronologically with that of the 1st Dynasty of Babylon, and thus with the age of the Hebrew patriarchs [[Abraham]] and Jacob - time when the power of [[Babylon]] was supreme in Syria and Palestine. It is very natural, therefore, that, like other Semitic tribes even earlier, these patriarchs should have been well received in the Delta by the Hyksos Pharaohs, and equally natural that, when Aahmes, the founder of the Xviii th Egyptian Dynasty, took the town of Avaris and expelled the Asiatics, he should also have oppressed the Hebrews, and that this should be intended when we read (&nbsp;Exodus 1:8 ) that "there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph." The exodus, according to the Old Testament dates, occurred in the time of the Xviii th Dynasty (see [[Exodus]] ) when Israel left Goshen. The later date advocated by some scholars, in the reign of Menepthah of the Xix th Dynasty, hardly agrees with the monumental notice of the immigration of [[Edomites]] into the Delta in his reign, which has been mentioned above; and in his time Egypt was being invaded by tribes from the North of Asia. </p> <p> Zoan, as described by G. J. [[Chester]] ( <i> Mem. Survey West Palestine </i> , [[Special]] Papers, 1881,92-96), is now only a small hamlet of mud huts in a sandy waste, West of the huge mounds of its ancient temple; but, besides the black granite sphinx, and other statues of the Hyksos age, a red sandstone figure of Rameses 2 and obelisks of granite have been excavated, one representing this king adoring the gods; while the names of Amen, Tum and Mut appear as those of the deities worshipped, in a beautiful chapel in the temple, carved in red sandstone, and belonging to the same age of prosperity in Zoan. </p>