This was figured not by Hebrews (ancient Israelites), but by ancient Egyptians.
Cysticercosis was endemic in ancient Egypt. Pork was a
staple food for common people in Egypt, but priests had strict dietary laws and they knew that Cysticercosis caused by tapeworms from swine.
Ancient Israelites just adopted a lot of customs from Egyptian Priestly caste, like circumcision, calendar and dietary laws. Not surprising, considering Moses was raised as Egyptian.
>...priests had strict dietary laws and they knew that Cysticercosis caused by tapeworms from swine.
> Ancient Israelites just adopted a lot of customs from Egyptian Priestly caste...Not surprising, considering Moses was raised as Egyptian.
Even allowing the existence of Moses (which, if we're feeling skeptical we can reinterpret as the long cultural shadow of Egypt), this still seems like a "just so" story.
Do you know if there's any evidence that Egyptian priests actually had medical justifications for their taboos? Similarly, how do we know that ancient Israelites adopted certain beliefs due to direct Egyptian influence, rather than participating in widespread regional practices also found in the Canaanite populations from which they emerged?
I don't think at the time there was distinction between religion, astrology, science, medicine and healthcare.
The priests had the knowledge, while the commoners were mostly illiterate.
During the Predynastic Period pigs were considered unclean in Upper Egypt but were domesticated and eaten in Lower Egypt. During the Dynastic Period Pigs were thought to be unclean in some areas and among the wealthier classes. Herodotus states that people who raised and ate pig were shunned but archaeological evidence suggests that although technically unclean, pork was still popular with many poorer Egyptians.
Moses or not, the word "Israel" was found in Egyptian scripts. "Hapiru" king "Yakubu" also mentioned in Egyptian sources - cognates with Hebrew Yaakov.
There are enough evidence, that ancient Egyptians and ancient Israelis had a contact.
I took a biblical archaeology class as an undergrad and both our teacher and every text we read were very cautious about making this link. There simply isn't very much evidence for who the 'PRW (apiru or whatever) were; we don't even know if it's a particular tribe/identity or just a catch-all for brigands and outlaws. Similarly, we don't have any historical evidence for what Israelite society was like before ~1000BC and definitely nothing about 2000BC (when the word apiru starts appearing).
I agree that the ancient documents about marauding apiru might be referring to Hebrews, but we really should keep our Bayesian hats on when evaluating archaeological evidence.
As for "Yakubu" and "Israel", any citations? Are those in one of the Amarna letters?
Cysticercosis was endemic in ancient Egypt. Pork was a staple food for common people in Egypt, but priests had strict dietary laws and they knew that Cysticercosis caused by tapeworms from swine.
Ancient Israelites just adopted a lot of customs from Egyptian Priestly caste, like circumcision, calendar and dietary laws. Not surprising, considering Moses was raised as Egyptian.