After the publication of Be Thou There; the Holy Family’s Journey in Egypt (AUC Press, 2001), Cornelis Hulsman organized a number of ‘pilgrimages’ to locations of the Holy Family in Egypt. One of these was with the German Evangelical Church in Boulaq, Cairo, to Tal Basṭa, Bubastis in the prophecy of Ezekiel. Bubastis had been the capital of Egypt between 945 BCE-715 BCE and was still a major city in Egypt in Ezekiel’s days (c622 BCE-c570 BCE). The purpose of these pilgrimages was to help visitors understand the historical context of these traditions.
Rev. Konrad Knolle, pastor of the German Evangelical Church in Cairo, 2002-2005, wrote this text in 2003 upon the request of Cornelis Hulsman. This text was edited for publication as an Arab-West Report paper in December 2021. One can read this text in conjunction with ‘Between Science, Belief and Wishful Thinking; Reviewing Dr. Maḥmūd ʿUmar’s „The Well of the Holy Family in Tal Basṭa.”‘ (Arab-West Papers no. 77, December 23, 2020).
Chapters 30-32 of the prophecy of Ezekiel should be placed in the context of the power struggle between the two great powers of these days: Egypt and Babylonia. Babylonia was expanding to the West where Egypt dominated the states in Palestine/Syria. Egyptian domination in the region ended with the defeat of Egypt in the battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE. Eight years later the Babylonians conquered the state of Judah, installed a vasal king who revolted with Egyptian support against the Babylonians, which in turn resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and exile of the Jewish elite to Babylonia.
Many of the deportees as well as the population remaining in Judah had trusted Egypt’s promises and had hoped to gain freedom through Egypt’s sword. The defeat and exile made many doubt their faith in Yahweh. Ezekiel argued in response that Yahweh was not weaker than Marduk, the god of the Babylonians. He believed that the Jews were punished for their resistance against the commandments of God. For Ezekiel, this punishment proved the overwhelming greatness of Yahweh over all other gods and idols as He could employ even them to fulfill His will! Ezekiel promised that the Jews in Babylonia would return to the Promised Land and would one day reconstruct a state.
The Jewish faith changed from faith for one nation to an ethical universalism based on the analysis and strategy of Realpolitik in terms of what is internationally requested as universal truth and realistic political practice that prevails until today, Knolle states, if we take into account the request for human rights and freedom as documented in the principles of the United Nations.
This prophecy of hope later influenced returnees such as Nehemiah, governor of Persian Judea under Artaxerxes I of Persia (465–424 BC), and New Testament authors who expanded the concept of a universalist faith.