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The Exodus from Egypt
A Biblical and historical account
I. The Historic Characters
Exodus 1:1-7, “Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.” Now we know that the Hyksos, an Asiatic people (some ancient historians link them to the Amalikites) invaded the eastern Nile Delta in the Twelfth dynasty, initiating the Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt. The people wore cloaks of many colors associated with the mercenary Mitanni bowmen and cavalry of Northern Canaan, Aram, Kadesh, Sidon and Tyre. They conquered Lower Egypt and the Nile Delta. The Hyksos kingdom was centered in the eastern Nile Delta and Middle Egypt and was limited in size, never extending south into Upper Egypt, which was under control by Theban-based rulers. Most importantly, the Hyksos introduced new tools of warfare into Egypt, most notably the composite bow, the horse drawn chariot and the careful scribe. Hyksos relations with the south (Theban Upper Egypt) seems to have been mainly of a commercial nature, although Theban princes appear to have recognized the Hyksos rulers and may possibly have provided tribute for a period. These men were acquainted with cattle and sheep, more than the Egyptians. Their leaders assumed the role of the previous Pharaohs, although they were not true Egyptians. It is to this Hyksos ruled Lower Egypt that Joseph brought his family down to live in. (See Genesis chapters 36, 38-48.) After Joseph was instrumental in saving Egypt from the massive seven-year famine that struck the whole Middle East, these Hyksos Pharaohs were friendly with Joseph, and subsequently with the Israelites, as indicated by verses 1-7 of Exodus 1. But in verses 8-22, we see a change of attitude. What happened? Verse 8, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” Now we know these Hyksos “Pharaohs” would have a lot to be grateful for toward the Israelites, even after Joseph’s death and the Pharaoh that knew him. What happened historically? We know that the real Egyptian rulers in Upper Egypt, the Thebans, must have resented the imposter Pharaoh’s that had taken over Lower Egypt and the Nile Delta. In 1576BC a king arose in the south, in Upper Egypt at Thebes. His name was Ahmose I, (sometimes written as Amosis I). He was a member of the Theban royal house, the son of Pharaoh Tao II Sequenenre and brother of the last pharaoh of the Seventeenth dynasty, King Kamose. Sometime during the reign of his father or grandfather, Thebes rebelled against the Hyksos, the rulers of Lower Egypt. When he was seven his father was killed, and he was about ten when his brother died of unknown causes, after reigning only three years. Ahmose I assumed the throne after the death of his brother, and upon coronation became known as Neb-Pehty-Re (The Lord of Strength is Re). During his reign, he completed the conquest and expulsion of the Hyksos from the delta region, restored Theban rule over the whole of Egypt (Upper and Lower Kingdoms) and successfully reasserted Egyptian power in its formerly subject territories of Nubia and Canaan. He then reorganized the administration of the country, reopened quarries, mines [guess who he was using to mine those rock-quarries and mines? You guessed it, the Israelites!] and trade routes, and began massive construction projects of a type that had not been undertaken since the time of the Middle Kingdom. This building program culminated in the construction of the last pyramid built by native Egyptian rulers. Ahmose’s reign laid the foundations for the New Kingdom, under which Egyptian power reached its peak. His reign is usually dated to about 1576-1551BC (or 1550-1525BC by an alternate dating system which will be explained a little later). (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmose_I.) for more about Ahmose I.) This started the line of kings “which knew not Joseph.” This verse 8 doesn’t refer to one, but three pharaohs.
Key 15th Century Egyptian
Pharaoh Lineage, why Hatshepsut was “pharaoh’s
daughter”
“Her possible grandfather Ahmose, founder of the 18th Dynasty, had driven out the Hyksos invaders who had occupied the northern part of the Nile Valley for two centuries. When Ahmose’s son Amenhotep I did not produce a son who lived to succeed him, a redoubtable general known as Thutmose is believed to have been brought into the royal line since he had married a princess. Hatshepsut was the oldest daughter of Thutmose I and his Great Royal Wife, Queen Ahmose, likely a close relative of King Ahmose. But Thutmose I also had another son by another queen [Mutnofret], and this son, Thutmose II, inherited the crown when his father “rested from life.” Adhering to a common method of fortifying the royal lineage---and with none of our modern-day qualms about sleeping with your sister---Thutmose II and Hatshepsut married. They produced one daughter; a minor wife, Isis, would give Thutmose II the male heir that Hatshepsut was unable to provide. Thutmose II did not rule for long, and when he was ushered into the afterlife…Thutmose III, was still a young boy. In time-honored fashion, Hatshepsut assumed effective control as the young pharaoh’s queen regent.” [National Geographic Magazine, p. 97, April 2009] Now we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. But it was Thutmose I that instigated the Israelite baby-killing. His daughter was Hatshepsut. The Bible calls her “Pharaoh’s daughter” in Exodus 2:5, 7, 9, 10, and in Acts 7:21 and Hebrews 11:24. This was none other than Hatshepsut. The 15th century BC date of the Exodus agrees with a literal reading of the Old Testament and places the Exodus in the middle of the 15th century BC---deduced from a literal reading of 1st Kings 6:1, and supported by Judges 11:26. Acknowledging Solomon began his reign around 970BC, it can be mathematically deduced from 1st Kings 6:1 that the Exodus occurred around 1446/7BC. So if Hatshepsut falls within the right dates for the birth of Moses, Thutmose I was the one who had the male Israelite babies drowned.
Thutmose I instigates the
drowning of the Hebrew male babies
Backdating from the Biblical date of 1446 – 80 years (Moses’ age at the time of the Exodus) gave the birth date of 1526BC for Moses. Thutmose I was reigning at this time. It is a reasonable assumption Hatshepsut married Thutmose II a little while before he assumed the throne in 1517BC. “Hatshepsut can have been no more than 15 years old when she married her brother and become consort” (Tyldesley 1996:96). So if Hatshepsut was 15 in 1517BC, 1517BC + 15 = 1532BC for her estimated birthdate. Thutmose I had a daughter, but no sons by his primary wife Queen Ahmose, as we saw. Now compare Moses birth-date to hers. Moses was 80 at the time of the Exodus. 1446BC + 80 = 1526BC. 1532BC (Hatshepsut’s est. birth-date) – 1526BC (Moses birth-date) = 6 years. Hatshepsut was possibly six years old when she rescued Moses by having her servants go fetch him. The Bible says she had royal attendants. She was the daughter of Thutmose I and his primary queen, Queen Ahmose. This meant she was important, able, even at 6 years old, to command people to do whatever she told them to do. Hatshepsut was the only child of Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose that survived childhood. So, it was under her father Thutmose I that the drowning of the Hebrew babies took place. And she had one of them saved. Let’s read what he did. The Bible reveals he basically made slaves out of the Israelites. Now this “new king” situation could have started out under Ahmose I, but somewhere along the line his son-in-law Thutmose I took over. It is this Pharaoh that I believe verse 8 refers to when it states “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt…” We will lay out the line of kings in a little bit as explanation. Exodus 1:8-22, “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Now don’t forget, the Israelites were considered “allies” of the Hyksos Pharaohs, and thus their loyalty was suspect just after the Theban re-conquering of Lower Egypt and the Nile Delta. Come, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Therefore they did set taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Python and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor: and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiprah, and the name of the other Puah: and he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king commanded them, but saved the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why hast ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.” So it was Thutmose I that instigated the killing of all male Hebrew babies in Egypt. Their population was growing rapidly, and militarily, he must have been worried, even though he had them in slavery, due to their past alliance with the Hyksos pharaohs. Now an interesting twist comes into the picture.
Moses and ‘Pharaoh’s daughter’ enter
the picture
Exodus 2:1-10, “And there went a man of the house of Levi, and
took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived,
and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid
him three months. And
when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of
bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the
child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit
what would be done to him. And
the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at
the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s
side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her
maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, behold, the babe wept. And
she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. Then said his [Moses’] sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall
I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may
nurse the child for thee? And
Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take
this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy
wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed
it. And the child
grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and
he become her son. And she called his name Moses: and she
said, Because I drew him out of the water.” Pastor Chuck Smith says about Moses
mother, Jochebed: “Isn’t
it interesting how God is able even in adverse circumstances
to work his will, to work his purposes? “All
things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom.
8:28). I can imagine
that as Jochebed put that little ark in the river, there was
a prayer sent up from her heart that somehow this little child
of hers might be found [Moses was only three months old] and
adopted by one of the Egyptians, and perhaps his life be spared. She
could not bring herself to drown her baby. But God had other plans. And little Miriam, bold little Miriam,
came running up to the Pharaoh’s daughter [little six year
old Hatshepsut, as we saw], and she said, “How would you
like me to get a nurse for your baby from among the Hebrews?” And
she said, “Fine, go get one.” And
so Miriam ran home, got her mother, and
the Pharaoh’s daughter paid Jochebed for raising her own
child.” [The
Word For Today Bible, NKJ Version, p.79, Exodus 2:7-9 side-note.] Now
Moses in Hebrew means “drawn out”, but in Egyptian
it means “son of”, as in
“Thutmose” means “son of Thut.” It’s
a title. Mose’ was
called that, because no one knew who he was the “son of.” He would have been called Mose’ in Egyptian. Just a small point. How long did Moses remain with his birth-mother? Sandra
Mackey in her book on Arab culture says “boys breast-fed
much longer than girls, often for as long as two to three years” (1987:127). Moses
probably remained with his mother for three years, thus being able
to learn and remember his Hebrew origins (cf. Exodus 2:11-12; Act
7:25-27). From here Moses would have been introduced
into the royal household, the adopted son of “Pharaoh’s
daughter” as we saw in Exodus 2:10. He
was now in the Dynasty 18 royal harem along with all the other
children of royal blood. The curriculum would be the study of hieroglyphic
and other scripts, as well as the foreign languages of the world. Public
speaking too was an important part of their training, as well as
the ability to write well. As Hatshepsut’s adopted son he was
well-educated in the royal harem of dynasty 18, and able to dialogue
well, as seen later, before Pharaoh, and his ability to record
the first five books of the Old
Below, statue of Queen Hatshepsut before she assumed the complete role
of Pharaoh
Line of Dynasty 18 Pharaohs
AHMOSE I 1576-1551 Conquers Hyksos, drives them out of Lower Egypt.
AMENHOTEP I 1551-1530 Has no
sons
THUTMOSE I 1530-1517 Drowns baby Israelites. Father
of Hatshepsut , who finds baby Moses
in 1526BC.
THUTMOSE II 1517-1504 Marries half-sister
Hatshepsut just before his coronation.
HATSHEPSUT 1504-1483 Rules Egypt as the
most powerful Pharaoh-queen Egypt has ever had. Sends
Moses away into the desert in 1486BC, three years before she
dies.
THUTMOSE III 1504-1450 Takes over rule of Egypt in 1483, rules Egypt for 22 years
and dies. Builds
up elite military force, 2nd to
none in the Middle East.
AMENHOTEP II 1452-1417 Takes throne 6 years
before Moses returns from Midian. Is
the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Exodus occurs in spring of 1446BC
THUTMOSE IV 1417-1390
AMENHOTEP III 1390-1352
AKHENATON 1352-1336 Abandons Egypt’s worship of multiple gods to the worship of one
god. Wonder why?
SMENHARE 1338-1336
TUTANKHAMON 1336-1327
AYE 1327-1323
HOREMHAB 1323-1295
Dates
are those found in P. Ray (1997:4)
[Note about this chart and apparent contradiction in dating. Amenhotep II’s coronation can be dated without much difficulty because of a number of lunar dates in the reign of his father, Thutmose III. These sightings limit the date of Thutmose III’s ascension to either 1504BC or 1479BC. It can be seen in many of the research articles used, some use one set of dates, and others use the other set of dates based on these calculations, which by the way are 25 to 26 years apart. I have used the 1504 BC set of dates due to the fact that it lines up with Bible timing dates, such as Solomon’s ascension to the throne in 966BC. Easy choice. The two differing sets, 25 years apart does not change the list of kings, just alters their reigns equally by 25 to 26 years. (Wikipedia article on Amenhotep II)]. Thutmose III
Moses kills an Egyptian and has to flee Egypt
Exodus 2:11-15, “And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known. Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.” This Midian would be on the western shores of what is now Saudi Arabia. From the above chart we can deduce something significant. If Moses fled Egypt when he was 40, and returned when he was 80, as the Bible says, then based on the date chart above, we see he fled around 1486BC. This was about two to three years before Hatshepsut died. So when Moses killed the Egyptian, it appears she might have sent him on his way. Modern CT scans of the mummy believed to be Hatshepsut suggests she was about 50 when she died of some combination of metastic bone cancer, diabetes, and liver cancer. So when Moses killed the Egyptian, she sent him away, apparently, for his own safety. She must have known she didn’t have long to live, considering her condition. This is when he fled to Midian, 1526BC-40 = 1486BC. Hatshepsut dies at age 46 or 47 in 1483BC. Thutmose III now rules Egypt from 1483BC until his death in 1450BC, ruling 22 years. Moses returned to Egypt when he was 80 years old, God stating in Exodus 4:19, “Go back to Egypt for all the men are dead who sought your life.” It is 1446BC, Thutmose III has been dead for four years, and his son Amenhotep II is now ruling Egypt as Pharaoh, with an iron fist. (Amenhotep II co-ruled with his father, Thutmose III for two years.) How Does Moses Gain Access to the
Pharaoh?
Do you remember Moses was raised and educated in the royal harem of Dynasty 18? From what we learned about Hatshepsut’s family, and Moses being her adopted son, Moses was legally Amenhotep II’s step-uncle! Also the royal men and women who were raised in the royal harem knew Moses, which could have facilitated his access to Amenhotep II. “Political net-working among young men educated in the harem was common” (Tyldesley 1996:54-55). Upper-level society was no more than 2 to 3 thousand. They knew and remembered Moses. [information taken from the fine article “Moses and Hatshepsut”, written by Col. (Ret.) David G. Hansen, Phd. See http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2009/02/Moses-and-Hatshepsut.aspx.] Amenhotep II
What Kind of Pharaoh Was Amenhotep II?
“When he assumed power, Amenhotep II was 18 years old according to an inscription from his great Sphinx stela:
“Now his Majesty appeared as king as a fine youth after he had become ‘well developed’, and had completed eighteen years in his strength and bravery.”
After becoming pharaoh, Amenhotep married a woman of uncertain parentage named Tiaa…Amenhotep’s first campaign took place in his third regnal year. It is known that the pharaoh was attacked by the host of Qatna while crossing the Orontes river, but he emerged victorious and acquired rich booty, among which even the equipment of a Mitanni charioteer is mentioned. The king was well known for his physical prowess and is said to have singlehandedly killed 7 rebel Princes at Kedesh which successfully terminated his first Syrian campaign on a victorious note. After the campaign, the king ordered the bodies of the seven princes to be hung upside down on the prow of his ship. Upon reaching Thebes all but one of the princes were mounted on the city walls. The other was taken to the often rebellious territory of Nubia and hung on the city wall of Napata, as an example of the consequence of rising against Pharaoh and to demoralize any Nubian opponents of Egyptian authority there. Amenhotep called this campaign his first in a Stele from Amada, however he also called his second campaign his first, causing some confusion. The most common solution for this, although not universally accepted, is that this was the first campaign he fought alone before the death of his father and thus before he was the sole king of Egypt, and he counted his second campaign as his first because it was the first that was his and his alone. Amenhotep’s first campaign was so successful that he is recorded as having captured a vast amount of war booty, “consisting of 6,800 deben of gold and 500,000 deben of copper (about 1,643 and 120,833 pounds respectively), as well as 550 mariannu captives, 210 horses and 300 chariots.” In April of his seventh year [1445BC], Amenhotep was faced with a major rebellion in Syria by the vassal states of Naharin and dispatched his army to the Levant to suppress it. This rebellion was likely instigated by Egypt’s chief Near Eastern rival, Mitanni. His stele of victory carved after this campaign records no major battles, which has been read a number of ways…” Moses returned in the sixth year of his reign, remember. (Two years co-ruling with his father Thutmose III and four years on his own = “sixth year of his reign.”) We’ll read more about this in another quote about Amenhotep II. “…It may be that this campaign was more similar to one of the tours of Syria which his father had fought, and he only engaged minor garrisons in battle and forced cities to swear allegiance to him—oaths immediately broken upon his departure. Alternately, it appears that the two weeks when Amenhotep would have been closest to Mitanni are omitted from the stele, thus it is possible that his army was defeated on this campaign. Amenhotep’s last campaign took place in his ninth year [three years after the Exodus], however it apparently did not proceed farther north than the Sea of Galilee. According to the list of plunder from this campaign, Amenhotep took 101,128 slaves…” [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenhotep_II .]
“Change in Foreign-Policy after the Second Asiatic Campaign Another oddity of A2 [Stele?] is that after its conclusion, the Egyptian army---established by Thutmose III as the fifteenth-century-BC’s most elite fighting force---went into virtual hibernation. It’s previous policy of aggressiveness toward Mitanni became one of passivity and the signing of peace treaties. The reason for this new policy is missing from the historical record, but Amenhotep II evidently was the pharaoh who first signed a treaty with Mitanni, subsequent to A2. Redford connects this event to the “arrival (after year 10, we may be sure) of a Mittannian embassy sent by [Mitanni’s King] Saussatar with proposals of ‘brotherhood’ (i.e., a fraternal alliance and renunciation of hostilities). Redford adds that “Amenhotep II seemed susceptible to negotiations” and that he “was apparently charmed and disarmed by the embassy from ‘Naharin,’ and perhaps even signed a treaty. Yet such a treaty is completely out of character for imperial Egypt and this prideful monarch, especially since “the pharaonic state of the Eighteenth Dynasty could, more easily than Mitanni, sustain the expense of periodic military incursions 800 km into Asia. Support for Amenhotep II being the first to sign a pact with Mitanni is found in the actions of Thutmose IV: “Only by postulating a change of reign can we explain a situation in which the new pharaoh, Thutmose IV, can feel free to attack Mitannian holdings with impunity. Why would Amenhotep II do the unthinkable, and opt to make a treaty with Mitanni? This mysterious reversal in foreign policy would remain inexplicable if not for the possibility of a single, cataclysmic event. If the Egyptians lost virtually their entire army in the springtime disaster at the Red Sea, in Year 9 a desperate reconnaissance campaign designed to “save face” with the rest of the ancient world and to replenish the Israelite slave-base would be paramount. Certainly the Egyptians needed time to rally their remaining forces together, however small and/or in shambles their army may have been, and it would explain a November campaign that was nothing more than a slave-raid into Palestine as a show of force. The Egyptians could not afford to live through the winter without the production that was provided by the Hebrew workforce, and they could not allow Mitanni or any other ancient power to consider using the winter to plan an attack on Egyptian territories, which seemed vulnerable. If this scenario represents what actually transpired in ANE [Ancient Near East] history, however, tangible proof is needed to verify its veracity.” [Douglas Petrovich (a TMS alumnus, serves on the faculty of Novosibirsk Biblical Theological Seminary, Novosibirsk, Russia. See http://www.tms.edu/tmsj/17f.pdf for his full and exhaustive article.] The author goes on to show that potentially 2 million Israelite slaves were lost to the Egyptian workforce (cf. Numbers1:45-46 + more than double that figure, accounting for women and teenagers).
Removal of Hatshepsut’s monuments
and written memory of her reign
So at the end of Thutmose III’s life it appears he started a cleansing campaign to rid any historic knowledge of Hatshepsut after she assumed the role of Pharaoh, so as to assure the legitimate transfer of power to his son Amenhotep II. Moses is still in Midian up until the sixth year of Amenhotep II (two years co-ruling with his father, four on his own). Hatshepsut had sent Moses away into the desert of Midian, seeing the end of her life coming. When Moses is told by God to return to Egypt Thutose III is dead (cf. Exodus 4:19), having died in 1450BC. It is now 1446BC. So under Thutmose III, and now this brutal conquering Pharaoh Amenhotep II, these poor Israelites have been labouring as slaves under successively brutal, militaristic pharaohs. After his and Egypt’s massive loses resulting from the Exodus we find more historic evidence that Amenhotep II went on a real vengeful campaign to remove all references to Hatshepsut recorded anywhere in Egypt. From Douglas Petrovich we get, “Second, Amenhotep II was the sole culprit in his campaign to destroy Hatshepsut’s image. [Col. David Hansen thinks this “campaign” could have started very late in Thutmose III’s reign.] The responsible individual likely possessed pharaonic authority, and one legitimate motive for Amenhotep II to have committed this act is Hatshepsut’s rearing of Moses as her own son in the royal court (Acts 7:21). After the Red Sea incident, Amenhotep II would have returned to Egypt seething with anger, both at the loss of his firstborn son and virtually his entire army (Exod. 14:28), and he would have just cause to erase her memory from Egypt and remove her spirit from the afterlife. [Destroying the written history of a monarch was supposed to do this, in Egyptian religious beliefs.] The Egyptian people would have supported this edict, since their rage undoubtedly rivaled pharaoh’s because of their mourning over deceased family members and friends. The nationwide experience of loss also would account for the unified effort throughout Egypt to fulfill this defeated pharaoh’s commission vigorously. A precedent exists for Amenhotep II’s destruction of her monuments early in his reign: “At Karnak Hatshepsut left…the Eighth Pylon, a new southern gateway to the temple precinct….Ironically, evidence of Hatshepsut’s building effort is today invisible, since the face of the pylon was erased and redecorated in the first years of Amenhotep II.” Perhaps Year 9 was when it all began.” [Ibid. Douglas Petrovich]
Links:
Hyksos, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos
Ahmose I, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmose_I
Hatshepsut, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatshepsut
“Moses and Hatshepsut”, http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2009/02/Moses-and-Hatshepsut.aspx [very detailed study]
Amenhotep II, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenhotep_II
AMENHOTEP II AND THE HISTORICITY OF THE EXODUS-PHARAOH, http://www.tms.edu/tmsj/17f.pdf [very detailed study]
http://www.katapi.org.uk/BAndS/ChVI.htm
Below is the date chart that is off by 25 to 26 years, and off by that amount when lined up with the recognized start of Solomon’s reign in 966BC. You will find these pharaohs listed alternately with the dates below or from the other chart given earlier. Discrepancy has been explained with the other chart. I chose not to use these dates because they don’t square with the Biblical dating of the beginning of Solomon’s reign in 966BC. Backdating to the Exodus dates doesn’t square. Not important, we’ll all know at the 2nd coming of Jesus. I think I have the correct Pharaoh for the Exodus though. The sources I relied on are pretty thorough and reliable.
Pharaohs of
Egypt
New Kingdom
Dynasties
Ahmose I (Ahmosis
I) 1539-1514 Expels Hyksos
Amenhotep I
(Amenophis I) 1514-1493 Has no male heir
Thutmose I (Thutmosis
I) 1493-1483 Kills first-born Israelite males. Hatshepsut
is his daughter by Queen Ahmose. She rescues Moses at 6.
Thutmose II
(Thutmosis II) 1483-1479 Marries Hatshepsut, his half-sister. Reigns
six years and dies.
Hatshepsut 1479-1458 Rules Egypt as a Pharaoh, prevents Thutmose III from reigning until
she dies. Sends
Moses into the wilderness three years before she dies.
Thutmose III
(Thutmosis III) 1458-1426 Rules as Pharaoh for 22 years, even though his reign technically
began with Hatshepsut’s.
Amenhotep II
(Amenophis II) 1426-1400 Son of Thutmose III, was Pharaoh of the Exodus, a prideful, cruel
tyrant.
Thutmose IV
(Thutmosis IV) 1400-1390
Amenhotep III
(Amenophis III) 1390-1353
Akhenaton 1353-1336
Smenkhkare 1334-1333
Tututkahem (Tutankhamum) 1233-1323
Ay 1333-1319
Horemheb 1319-1292
Now as we read through the Biblical account of the Exodus, remember who the actual Egyptian characters were. They were real people, found in the pages of history. We are now ready to start reading the Biblical account of the Exodus and Passover in Egypt in the spring of 1446BC.
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