The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

WHO WAS IPUWER? The name “Ipuwer” is known in the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms; Ipu-wer means “Ipu the venerable” (Enmarch 2008, p. 29; Mathieu 2012). Scholars believe that Ipuwer, author of this ancient poem, was probably a real historical figure because of the mention of an Ipuwer on a Dynasty XIX tomb relief decoration from Saqqara called the “Daressy fragment” (unprovenanced and now lost, although photographs survive) (Mathieu 2012). There is a band of hieroglyphics on this stone relief that lists a group called “royal scribes,” that names Ipuwer among the others. The specific title given to Ipuwer is “Overseer of Singers,” a title that was known in the Middle Kingdom (see Stefanovic and Satzinger 2014, pp. 28─33). This group of sages and notables of the past includes the famous vizier Imhotep of the 3 rd Dynasty as well as other well-known figures of Egyptian history. We see therefore that these figures were not people who necessarily lived at the time of Dynasty XIX (1292─1189 BC secular). The Ipuwer Papyrus itself does not include a title for its author, although this could have appeared in the lost opening to the poem. We know only that the writer is important enough to be boldly addressing someone called “The Lord of All.” This evidence of Ipuwer as a real person disproves Rice (1999), who states that there is no evidence of Ipuwer apart from the “Admonitions” manuscript. We see therefore that Ipuwer was most likely a real person who could have written this manuscript. And considering the far- reaching consequences of the plagues that preceded the Exodus, we should not be surprised that someone might have written some kind of contemporary description of those perilous times. WHO WAS THE LORD OFALL? At the end of the poem, we learn that Ipuwer addresses a personage called “The Lord of All” (Erman 1966, p. 107). We do not know who this is because the manuscript does not say, at least in the part that we have. This leaves scholars to give their preferred interpretations, and they do not have inhibitions about doing this. The two main choices are that The Lord of All was either the pharaoh of Egypt, or that he was a chief deity, perhaps even the Egyptian creator god. Because the pharaoh of Egypt was regarded as a kind of god throughout its ancient history, or at least touched by the divine, it could be argued that Ipuwer was addressing the pharaoh. After a discussion of the choices, Enmarch (2008, p. 30) decides that Ipuwer must be addressing the pharaoh— even though he admits that this title is most often used to refer to a deity in the Middle Kingdom. This rather weakens his argument. Because we are saying in this paper that Ipuwer is writing about the period immediately after the Exodus, there may have been no pharaoh ruling in either Lower or Upper Egypt at this time of catastrophe. It would have taken the Egyptians of Lower (north) Egypt a certain amount of time to look for the pharaoh’s body and to establish a new pharaoh in his place; in Upper (south) Egypt we do not know when the pharaoh was deposed. This makes it more likely that Ipuwer was addressing a high deity rather than a pharaoh. There is one other factor to be considered. The pharaohs of Egypt had absolute power, and were ruthless in exercising it. Would Ipuwer have dared to say such things to the pharaoh as are written in this manuscript? This seems unlikely, because the pharaoh could Habermehl ◀ Ipuwer Papyrus and the Exodus ▶ 2018 ICC 2 Figure 1. Photo of a section of the Ipuwer papyrus that is located in the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Netherlands. (Public Domain)