The whole subject of the interrelations of ancient Egypt and the Old Testament is very much larger than most people realize, be they lay or scholars. In this book Currid has thoughtfully selected a series of themes as a sampling from this very wide field; that some of these themes are not among the more obvious and well-worn subjects lends a freshness to his work. Currid early points out that what one may call the more reactionary (nineteenth-century) kind of Old Testament scholarship has preferred to understate the value of Egypt for biblical studies, while not a few others have shown themselves to be more conscious of ancient Egypt’s potential as a source of meaningful background to the Old Testament. It is worth recalling that, even merely geographically, Egypt was far closer to the Hebrews and later Israelites in Palestine than was far-distant Mesopotamia, several hundreds of miles to the east.
