A new light has been poured upon the Old Testament; its story has been supplemented and explained; its statements tested and proved.
The Israelites were but one out of many branches of the same family.
Their history is entwined around that of their brethren, their characteristics were shared by others of the same race.

The Canaan they occupied was itself inhabited by more than one people, and after the first few years of invasion, its influence became strong upon them.

In race, indeed, the Jew was by no means pure; at the outset a mixture of Israelite and Edomite, he was further mingled with Moabite and Philistine elements.

The first king of Judah as a separate kingdom had an Ammonite mother, and bore an Ammonite name, while the portraits which surmount the names of Shishak's conquests in southern Palestine show that the old Amorite population was still predominant there.

It was religion and history that made the Jew, not purity of race.
That Egypt must have exercised an influence upon Israel has long been known.