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Gen_41:14
On hearing this, the king sent in great haste to have Joseph brought from the prison. Yet, urgent as was the occasion, care was taken that he should “shave himself and change his raiment,” before he was introduced to the presence of the king. In the ancient courts, no one could enter the royal presence in a slovenly or offensive garb or appearance. See another instance of this at the Persian court, in Est_3:2. This seems so natural to us, as an instinct of natural etiquette, that we are apt to overlook some of the illustrative points which it bears in this case. These things are now little heeded in the East, except at formal audiences, and at such highly ceremonial courts as those of Persia and China. A man called or admitted in so great an emergency, would be introduced much as he had been found. Another matter requires notice. In any country mentioned in the Bible, excepting only Egypt, dressing the beard or the hair, instead of shaving, would have been the kind of preparation required. But in Egypt, and in Egypt only, a man put himself into decent condition by an operation which, in any other country, would have been ignominious. But this is one of the minute touches by which the exact historical truth of the narrative is established; for the testimony of all antiquity, as well as the sculptured and pictured monuments, concurs with this intimation, in describing the Egyptians as a shaven people. It is mentioned by Herodotus, among the distinguishing peculiarities of the Egyptians, that they were commonly shaved, but in mourning allowed their beards to grow. This agrees with the sculptures, as well as with the present text: “So particular, indeed, were they on this point, that to have neglected it was a subject of reproach and ridicule; and whenever they intended to convey the idea of a man of low condition, or slovenly person, the artists represented him with a beard. It is amusing to find, that their love of caricature was not confined to the lower orders, but extended even to the king; and the negligent habits of Rameses VII. are indicated, in his tomb at Thebes, by the appearance of his chin, blackened by a beard of two or three days’ growth. But it is likewise given as the test of hardships undergone in a severe campaign; and the warlike character of Rameses the Great is pointed out in the same manner.” Note: Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, iii. 357.
The Egyptians did not, like the Romans of a later age, confine the privilege of shaving to free-born citizens, and compel slaves to wear their beards and hair long, as a badge of servitude. Foreigners brought to Egypt as slaves, had usually beards on their arrival in the country; but as soon as they came into the service of this civilized people, they were obliged to adopt the cleanly habits of their masters; their beards and heads were deprived of hair, and they adopted a cap.
Among this people the priests shaved not only the beard but the head; and others, if they did not, like them, and like the modern Orientals, shave the head with it razor, were accustomed to wear the hair very short. The abundant and long hair which sometimes covers the heads of some of the figures on the monuments, seems to have been false, like our wigs. Indeed, actual specimens of such wigs have been found, and may be seen in museums of Egyptian antiquities. This practice respecting the hair and beard is known to have been regarded by the neighboring nations, and especially by the Asiatics, as peculiar to the Egyptians.
Wilkinson, in connection with this subject, remarks that “barbers may be considered as the offspring of civilization.” So many will continue to think; although, on that view, the increasingly hirsute appearance of modern Europe, since this was said, might argue a backward stride towards barbarism.
The extreme personal cleanliness of the ancient Egyptians is indicated, not only in this shaving of Joseph, but in his change of raiment; and perhaps, also, as Wilkinson imagines, in “the changes of raiment” which Joseph gave to his brethren when they set out to fetch their father and families to Egypt, Gen_45:22. The attention which the priests, in particular, paid to this matter, is mentioned by divers ancient authors. But it was not confined to their order. “Every Egyptian prided himself,” says Wilkinson, “on the encouragement of habits which it was considered a disgrace to neglect.” We can therefore readily account for the disgust they felt in seeing the squalid appearance and unrefined habits of their Asiatic neighbors, whose long beards were often the subject of ridicule to the Egyptian soldier; and for their abhorrence of the bearded and long-haired Greeks, which was so great that, according to Herodotus, “no Egyptian of either sex would, on any account, kiss the lips of a Greek, make use of his knife, his spit and cauldron, or taste the meat of an animal which had been slaughtered by his hand.”
But although the beards and long hair of the Greeks may have contributed to this result, it is not, as Wilkinson seems here to imply, stated by the historian, that this was the proximate cause of their abhorrence; but by reason of their treatment of cows, which the Egyptians; in regard to Isis, “worshipped with a more profound reverence than any other cattle;” and they hold the Greek mouth to be defiled by the eating, the knife by the cutting, and the crock by the boiling of the flesh of kine. Hence the apprehension of the Israelites in a later day, that they should be stoned if they sacrificed “the abomination (idol) of the Egyptians before their eyes.” Exo_8:26.
This imputed uncleanness of those who are eaters of forbidden food, and users of their utensils, exists at the present day in the East, both among Moslems and heathen. Among many examples of this that occur to us, we give one of very recent occurrence. It is from Lieut. Lynch’s account of his expedition to the Dead Sea—
“In the evening some of the tribe of Ta’amirah came in, a little more robust, but scarcely better clad than the Raschayideh. They were warm and hungry, from walking a long distance to meet us. They had no food, and I directed some cooked rice to be given to them. They had seated themselves round the pot, and were greedily about to devour it, when one of them suggested, that perhaps pork had been cooked in the same vessel. They rose, therefore, in a body, and came to the cook to satisfy their scruple. I never saw disappointment more strongly pictured in the human countenance, than when told that the vessel had often been used for that purpose. Although nearly famished, they would not touch the rice, and we could give them nothing else.”
Such facts as these have no unimportant bearing upon the scruples of the Egyptians to eat with the Hebrews—the inferences to be deduced from which will soon require our separate attention.