What part of this is truly historical? Did the Egyptians call their first man or god Hephaestus 5000 years before Manetho wrote his history? No. Undoubtedly not, but this was the story Manetho wanted to tell about Egypt's past in the early Ptolemaic period.1. The first man (or god) in Egypt is Hephaestus,1 who is also renowned among the Egyptians as the discoverer of fire. His son, Helios (the Sun), was succeeded by Sôsis; then follow, in turn, Cronos, p5 Osiris, Typhon, brother of Osiris, and lastly Orus, son of Osiris and Isis. These were the first to hold sway in Egypt. Thereafter, the kingship passed from one to another in unbroken succession down to Bydis (Bites)2 through 13,900 years. The year I take, however, to be a lunar one, consisting, that is, of 30 days: what we now call a month the Egyptians used formerly to style a year.3
2. After the Gods, Demigods reigned for 1255 years,4 and again another line of kings held sway for 1817 years: then came thirty more kings of Memphis,5 reigning for 1790 years; and then again ten kings of This, reigning for 350 years.
Josephus, a learned Jewish scholar of the first century AD, puts a character from the Hebrew Bible named Abram in Egypt, teaching its priests the sciences:
This undoubtedly did not happen, but it suited Josephus as a proud Jew to tell his people's story in a way that flattered them.2. For whereas the Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised one another's sacred and accustomed rites, and were very angry one with another on that account, Abram conferred with each of them, and, confuting the reasonings they made use of, every one for their own practices, demonstrated that such reasonings were vain and void of truth: whereupon he was admired by them in those conferences as a very wise man, and one of great sagacity, when he discoursed on any subject he undertook; and this not only in understanding it, but in persuading other men also to assent to him. He communicated to them arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy; for before Abram came into Egypt they were unacquainted with those parts of learning; for that science came from the Chaldeans into Egypt, and from thence to the Greeks also.
Joseph Smith, an American of the 19th century, took Josephus' ideas about Abraham and updated them for his own purposes. He shared the revelation that God gave Abraham that enabled Abraham to school the priests and pharaoh:
None of this stuff happened. It is not historically accurate. OK? It was not written to be historically accurate according to our understanding. All of these accounts were written for other purposes than to craft a scientific history. They are true to the extent that they seek to communicate something of great value to and about the time, place, and culture that they come out.15 And the Lord said unto me: Abraham, I show these things unto thee before ye go into Egypt, that ye may declare all these words.