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I have been interested in biblical chronology for over 20 years. Before I got excited about exploring biblical eschatology in more depth, I tried to calculate the exact date of Adam’s creation as best I could by adding up biblical genealogies and dates. My interest in biblical chronology stemmed in part from eschatology, because by the age of about 13 I was already aware of the 6,000-year biblical history advocated by many of our church fathers, ending with the second coming of Jesus and the establishment of the millennial kingdom. However, calculating the exact date was not quite so straightforward and easy, so I left it at that. I returned to the issue 22 years later in my January article, where I drew on the latest information from history, archaeology, astronomy and ancient world chronologies to arrive at a date of 3959 BC as the most probable date of Adam’s creation and therefore 2042, when 6000 years of history will have been completed.
In my article I explained how this date coincided very closely with the chronology of Bede, the father of English history in the 700s, who calculated creation to 3952 BC, and the chronology of the father of Protestant Reformation Martin Luther, who in his 1541 chronology Luthers Chronikon oder Berechnung der Jahre der Welt dated creation to 3961 BC and thus the end of the 6000-year calendar to 2040 AD. I received a comment on the English version of my article from a Christian physicist living in Spain, who understands astronomy and ‘hard sciences’ like quantum physics. He was also well acquainted with the eschatological ideas of Isaac Newton, which I myself have often quoted in my own writings.
I have corresponded with him privately. He commissioned my book on King Charles and sent me as a gift of his own book, in which he has come to the same conclusion about the possible significance of the year 2040 for biblical chronology and eschatology. In it he presents some pretty convincing astronomical evidence as to why Abraham’s birth would have occurred in 1953 BC and therefore the date of creation would also fall in Luther’s proposed year 3961 instead of 3959.
I may address the man’s thoughts in future blog articles, but in this article I will focus on the controversy over who was the Pharaoh of Exodus who would not have let the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. As an aside, whether we take the biblical creation story six days ago literally or not (personally, I think the creation of heaven and earth could have happened much earlier), its historical narrative begins from creation of Adam in 3959 (or 3961) BC and by the beginning of Exodus we have moved forward 2,433 years to 1526 BC.
The rest of the Old Testament again covers the events of the next 11 centuries, from 1500 to 400 BC. These exact years are of course controversial and can be challenged by how we interpret certain passages (or whether we use the Septuagint or Masoretic manuscripts), but when it comes to the days before the beginning of our Christian calendar, the birth of Moses can be placed with a fair degree of certainty in 1526 and the Exodus in 1446.
Content
- Edwin R. Thiele and Exodus
- The Bronze Age and the beginning of written history
- Was Nimrod the first ruler in history?
- Archaeology confirms biblical history
- Chasing the Pharaoh of Exodus
- “Napoleon of Egypt”
- Administrative years coincide
- Ancient Armageddon
- The Prince of Egypt
- The brothers Amenmose, Wadjmose and Ramose.
- Conclusion
- Footnotes
Edwin R. Thiele and Exodus
This is largely due to the meticulous work of the Christian archaeologist and chronicler Edwin R. Thiele, who lived in the 1900s, in his book The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (1951), which has also been widely accepted by Assyriologists, Egyptologists and ancient world chroniclers of extra-biblical history. Wikipedia tells us: “Thiele and his successors achieved wider acceptance than any similar chronology; as the Assyriologist D. J. Wiseman (1993) wrote: ‘The most widely accepted chronology today is based on Thiele’s careful study.’ More recently, in 2010, Leslie McFall argued that ‘Thiele’s chronology is fast becoming the consensus view of Old Testament scholars, if it has not already reached that point.'”1 The AI program ChatGPT4 responded to my query about why Thiele’s chronology was considered more reliable than other chronologies:
Here are five reasons why Edwin Thiele’s chronology is considered more reliable:
- Integrated cross-referencing: Thiele used synchronicity between the histories of Israel, Judah, Assyria and Babylonia.
- Astronomical data: he included astronomical data for accurate timing of events.
- Systematic methodology: Thiele applied a more systematic and critical approach to biblical and extra-biblical sources.
- Archaeological evidence: he made use of modern archaeological finds in his chronology.
- Rectifying chronological contradictions: Thiele addressed and reconciled the contradictions in the biblical narratives, leading to a more coherent and historically consistent timeline.
Through these and other methods, Thiele was able to locate the foundation of the Temple of Solomon to the year 967 BC with a fair degree of certainty. Of course, all scientific claims are falsifiable, i.e. refutable by contrary evidence, and no claim can receive 100% consensus from different researchers. This also applies to Thiele’s chronology. Scholars more familiar with Thiele’s methodology or the chronologies of the ancient world than I am can present evidence both for and against Thiele’s chronology. But to save time, my starting point for now is that Thiele’s dating of the year of the temple’s foundation would be correct because it is the most widely accepted chronology of the ancient world.2
From this starting point, the events of Exodus can also be dated between 1526 and 1446 BC, because chapter 6 of 1 Kings tells us the following:
Now it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, that is, the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.
Moses, on the other hand, is said to have been 80 years old when he led his people out of Egypt and lived for another 40 years after that.3 Thus, Moses’ entire lifespan would be between 1526 and 1406 BC. The years of Pharaoh’s reign of Exodus should therefore fall within this period. This is of course based on the assumption that the Penteteuch, the five books of Moses, represent real history and that Thiele’s chronology of the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah is correct. So the question is: is there any evidence for this narrative in extra-biblical history? Yes, there is. And Thutmose III, who ruled Egypt during this period, is the most likely candidate for the Pharaoh of the Exodus story.
The Bronze Age and the beginning of written history
Before I go to the Pharaoh of Exodus, a few words for those who laugh at the young earth creationists’ claims of 6000 years of world history. The very official narrative of history that underwrites evolutionary theory confirms that written history does not go back farther than six millennia into history. The term ‘prehistory’ refers to a supposed primitive period in history, millions of years before the first civilisations and the development of literacy. But the first civilisations do not go back any further than the fourth millennium BC, when the Bible also records the appearance of the first city states in the Middle East:
Then Cain left the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and Cain built a city, and named the city Enoch, after the name of his son.
Genesis 4:16-17
A few verses later, we learn how an advanced civilisation emerged around the same time:
Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and flute. As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
In biblical chronology, this is around 4000-3000 BC, and secular history confirms that this was the case. I quote from Wikipedia:
Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world history, recorded history begins with the accounts of the ancient world around the 4th millennium BC [3000-4000 BC], and it coincides with the invention of writing… There is disagreement concerning exactly when prehistory becomes history, and when proto-writing became “true writing”. However, invention of the first writing systems is roughly contemporary with the beginning of the Bronze Age in the late Neolithic of the late 4th millennium BCE.
The Sumerian archaic cuneiform script and the Egyptian hieroglyphs are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate symbol systems from 3400 to 3200 BCE with earliest coherent texts from about 2600 BCE. The earliest chronologies date back to the earliest civilizations of Early Dynastic Period of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Sumerians, which emerged independently of each other from roughly 3500 BCE. Earliest recorded history, which varies greatly in quality and reliability, deals with Pharaohs and their reigns, as preserved by ancient Egyptians. Much of the earliest recorded history was re-discovered relatively recently due to archaeological dig sites findings. A number of different traditions have developed in different parts of the world as to how to interpret these ancient accounts.4
Was Nimrod the first ruler in history?
Some may wrongly conclude that the first civilisations only arose after the Flood, when Nimrod became the “mighty one” on earth.5 But Genesis chapter 4 says it was Cain, Abel’s murderer, who founded the first cities on earth, and that in the ancient world cities also formed small states, when nation states like today’s did not yet exist. In this light, it is more likely that the first ruler in history was Cain and not Nimrod (Nimrod was the first ruler in the post-flood era), which would be consistent with the fact that, for example, the age of Egyptian pharaohs began as early as 3400-3000 BC, about 1000 years before the Flood on the biblical timeline.
Secular history tells us that the Bronze Age began in the Middle East around 3300 BC, when people were able to forge their first useful and decorative objects for weapons and vessels by smelting metals such as bronze. Genesis 4:22 records its beginning around the same time and names as the father of the Bronze Age a person named Tubal-Cain, a descendant of Adam in the seventh generation.
The same verse tells us that the world’s first musical instruments such as flutes and lyres were built around the same time. Archaeologists have dated the earliest lyres they have found to 2700 BC6, roughly the same period as Genesis. If we read the first book of the Bible as it was written, without the need to reconcile it with modern man’s “scientific” myths about a time before written history, we find that there was never any prehistoric time. Man, agriculture and civilisation arose at the same time. Nor did man deviate from God’s original creation plan, for man was given the right to cultivate and preserve the earth and to subjugate it to us.7 This mandate also includes the right to establish advanced civilisations.
Different human communities have always lived at very different levels of scientific, technological and cultural development. Even today, some communities still live a primitive hunter-gatherer lifestyle, while other cultures are already planning to colonise the stars. Primitive and advanced communities have always lived in parallel. And it is not a sign of any differential rate of biological evolution in different human races, as the openly racist evolutionary doctrine often pointed out in the European imperialist period, imagining that the Australian Aborigines or African blacks were closer in their mental capacity to the primitive human ape than the civilised Westerner. So-called “development” and “civilisation” is much more influenced by culture or environment than by genetics (and today, I think, so-called “civilised man” is much less civilised than so-called “primitive” peoples who can still conclude that man cannot give birth).
Archaeology confirms biblical history
Modern historians agree that the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were real states in the first millennium BC. This is supported by a large body of archaeological evidence as well as by references to the nation of Israel and its kings in the chronicles of the surrounding states. For example, a Canaanite inscription of Tel Dan dating from the 800-700s refers to Ahab, the 7th king of Israel, and Jehoram, the 9th king of Israel, and mentions them as “of the house of David”, thus confirming the historicity of King David.8
But extra-biblical historical sources go even further in recognising the existence of Israel. The oldest known reference to Israel’s existence to date is an Egyptian Merenptah tablet dated to 1213-12039, carved shortly after the reign of Ramses II (1279-1213 BC), the legendary pharaoh often (erroneously) associated with the stubborn pharaoh of the Exodus story. Steela’s hieroglyphs contain the following reference to ancient Israel:
The princes are prostrate, saying ‘Peace!’ Not one raises his head among the Nine Bows. Desolation is for Tjehenu; Hatti is pacified; Plundered is the Canaan with every evil; Carried off is Asqaluni; Seized upon is Gezer; Yanoam is made non-existent; Israel is laid waste—its seed is no more; Kharru has become a widow because of Egypt. All lands together are pacified. Everyone who was restless has been bound.
Somewhat ironically, the arrogant Pharaohs of Egypt thought they had wiped Israel out, but their triumphalism is now being examined as proof that the nation of Israel existed then and still exists today, even though the Pharaohs of Egypt have not existed for two millennia. While the other nations named in Steela have the symbol of city-states in front of their names, Israel has a hieroglyph in front of its name, which suggest that Israel did not yet exist as a kingdom at that time. According to The Oxford History of the Biblical World, the Egyptians typically used this “foreign nation” sign to denote nomadic groups or peoples without a fixed city-state home, suggesting the seminomadic or rural status of Israel at that time.10 The Steela thus confirms the biblical account that Israel did not have a king at that time.
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Judges 17:6
Chasing the Pharaoh of Exodus
The Merenptah stela does not completely rule out the possibility that the pharaoh in the Exodus story was Ramses II, since his successor Merenptah may have put forward his own propagandistic version of the Exodus story, claiming that his predecessor had succeeded in destroying the Israelites, even though the Bible says that the pharaoh and his army drowned in the Red Sea while the Israelites were being rescued when God split the sea in two.11 However, the inscription would argue more strongly that Israel was already living in the Levant at that time, along with other nations or city-states named in Stealth. It should also be understood (since this is not clear from the Bible) that the Egyptian pharaohs at that time ruled a large empire that extended all the way to the Levant (Palestine-Syria) and the Euphrates in Mesopotamia. In Steela, the pharaoh boasts of how Egypt managed to defeat or pacify the nations that rebelled against Egyptian rule in the Levant, including the nation of Israel.
The phrase “Israel is destroyed – its seed is no more” is also a rhetorical language typical of the period, used to express the total military humiliation of an enemy people, even if many individuals of that people had survived. For this reason, some scholars have suggested that the “genocide” of the Canaanite peoples by the Israelites was also same kind of exaggerated use of language typical of the period, since many of those supposedly peoples destroyed can be found later in the pages of the Bible. Moreover, the Bible mentions that these nations practiced extreme evil, such as sacrificing little children to the Canaanite god Moloch, for which God commanded Israel to judge these nations for their wickedness. Furthermore, a few passages support the idea that the Canaanite nations were the ones who tried to destroy the Israelites first, which is why Israel’s war against these nations was more about self-defence.12
The main problem with the Ramses theory is that it does not fit in with the chronology of the Bible. Ramses II reigned 200 years too late to be the Pharaoh of Exodus. Moreover, the Bible records the death of the firstborn of the Exodus pharaoh in the 10th plague. Ramses II’s first-born son Amun-her-khepeshef did die, but more than 40 years before his father’s death, which does not fit the biblical account.13 Below is an interesting video by Christian archaeologist Joel Kramer, who suggests that the pharaoh during the time of Exodus was Amenhotep II, successor of Thutmose III. I personally find the later pharaoh (whose mummy, as I understand, is on the right in the picture) to be a more plausible option.
In favour of Amenhotep II, the video presents three main pieces of evidence: 1) the compatibility of his reigns with the biblical timeline, 2) the “mysterious disappearance” of his first-born from Egyptian history, leaving Thutmose IV in power even though he was not the crown prince, and 3) the long reign of his father Thutmose III (54 years), which seems to fit with the Exodus story and Stephen’s narration of it before the Jewish Sanhedrin in the New Testament.14 The video also mentions a history by the first century Jewish historian Josephus, who – quoting the Egyptian history of Manetho of 200 BC – declared the pharaoh of Exodus to be Amenhotep II.
Below is a critical response to the claims in the video above from Christian YouTube apologist Michael Jones, known for his channel Inspiring Philosophy. Michael is a passionate defender of Christianity whose work is in many respects quite admirable and commendable. While I like many of his videos, I do not agree with his views defending theistic evolutionary theory. It should therefore come as no surprise that he also defends the late date of the Exodus under Ramses II. Indeed, Christians who reconcile the theory of evolution with Genesis do not usually take the chronological dates of the Bible very literally.
Michael Jones’ criticism focuses on the fact that Manetho cannot be considered a valid source because much of his original work has been lost and because Josephus himself disagreed with the pharaoh named by Manetho. In addition, a number of other early church historians, such as Eusebinus, Africanus and Theophilus, all named different pharaohs in place of the pharaoh in the Exodus story. It is noteworthy, however, that all of them stated that this pharaoh was the Egyptian king who reigned before Ramses II, and Theophilus specifically named the pharaoh Thutmose.
It is also possible that if Amenhotep II, named by Manetho, is based on Egyptian sources that have since disappeared, then the king who succeeded Thutmose III may have been trying to take credit for “exiling” the Israelites, given that the pharaoh in the Exodus story died chasing Moses and 600,000 Israelites. The next ruler may have tried to rewrite history and take credit for the departure of the Israelites as they plagued the people with many plagues before their departure.
“Napoleon of Egypt”
I will now present some evidence for why I believe the Pharaoh of Exodus is Thutmose III. Like Ramses II, Thutmose III was one of the most important rulers of ancient Egypt during the 18th Dynasty. Wikipedia says the following about him:
Thutmose III’s legacy as a warrior king was remarkable. After the death of Hatshepsut, he became the kingdom’s only reigning pharaoh, leading no fewer than 17 campaigns, all of which were victorious, while expanding the Egyptian empire to its widest extent. He is also considered the father of the ancient Egyptian navy, creating the first battle fleet in the ancient world. He is consistently regarded by historians as a military genius, and is widely regarded as Egypt’s greatest warrior pharaoh.
He is also considered one of the most powerful and famous rulers of the New Kingdom period in ancient Egypt, itself considered the pinnacle of Egyptian power. He is also widely regarded as one of the greatest warriors, military commanders and military strategists of all time. Numerous records of his military campaigns are detailed in the writings known as the Annual Reports of Thutmose III.
While these militaristic achievements are not direct evidence that he is the Pharaoh of Exodus, it would make sense to think that the most famous Pharaoh in the Bible is also one of the most significant Pharaohs in Egyptian history. Moreover, the success and power of Thutmose III may speak to why he was as hardened, proud and unyielding as the Bible says he was. Thutmose III was not used to losing – even to the Almighty – and so he went after the Israelites even after the death of his firstborn.
Administrative years coincide
Perhaps the most significant evidence, however, is the years of Thutmose III’s reign, which coincide perfectly with the biblical chronology. For example, the problem with archaeologist Joel Kramer’s Amenhotep II theory, quoted above, is that his pharaoh does not die in the same year as the Exodus according to Edwin R. Thiele’s chronology. Amenhotep II reigned for several years after this, but the book of Exodus tells us the following:
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart toward the people, and they said, “What is this that we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” So he had horses harnessed to his chariot and took his people with him; and he took six hundred select chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. So the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly…
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out with your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.” So Moses reached out with his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, Pharaoh’s entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained. But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right and on their left. So the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
Exodus 14
These verses show Pharaoh of Exodus to have been a great warrior king who went out himself with his armies to pursue the Israelites and died with them as the waters of the Red Sea receded upon them and their bodies lay dead on the shore. These soldiers and the pharaoh himself were therefore found dead by the Egyptians who came in search of them, and that is why the mummy of that pharaoh can still be seen today. But his death should coincide with the biblical chronology of the Exodus, i.e. 1446 BC. Michael Jones suggests above that the consensus among modern Egyptologists is that Thutmose III would have reigned between 1479 and 1425 BC. His death would therefore not coincide with 1446.
However, this timing is based on the years of Amenhotep I’s reign as determined by astronomical data, from which two different dates and the number of years of reign of the Egyptian rulers who followed him can be deduced. Amenhotep I reigned in 1500 BC and his reign can be confirmed as beginning in either 1546 or 1526:
In the ninth year of the reign of Amenhotep I, the rising of the heliacle of Sothis was observed on the ninth day of the third month of summer. Modern astronomers have calculated that if the observation had been made from Memphis or Heliopolis, such an observation could only have been made on that day in 1537 BC. If, on the other hand, the observation was made from Thebes, it could only have been made in 1517 BC. The latter option is generally accepted as correct, since Thebes was the capital in the early years of the 18th Dynasty: the date of the accession of Amenhotep I is usually given as 1526 BC. The date of Amenhotep’s accession to the throne is generally accepted as 1546 BC, although the possibility of 1546 BC is not entirely ruled out.
The Manetho’s Epitome states that Amenhotep I ruled Egypt for twenty years and seven months or twenty-one years, depending on the source. Although the highest attested year of Amenhotep I’s reign is only his tenth year, Manetho’s claim is confirmed by a passage in the funerary biography of a magician named Amenemhet. It explicitly states that he served under Amenhotep I for 21 years. Thus, the reign of Amenhotep I is given as about 1546-1526 BC in the high chronology and about 1526-1506 BC or 1525-1504 BC in the low chronology, although individual scholars may give dates that differ by a few years from these.15
If we assume, contrary to the prevailing theory, that the rise of the Heliakel of Sothis was recorded from the city of Heliopolis, then the reign of Amenhotep I would have ended in 1526 – the same year that Moses was born, according to the story in Exodus 2. The king who ordered the children of Hebrews to be put to death was therefore either Amenhotep I or his successor, Thutmose I, who had two daughters, one of whom later became Pharaoh of Egypt and Hatshepsut, the deputy ruler of Thutmose III.
This would fit with the biblical story of the birth of Moses, who was placed in a reed box by his mother and picked up by Pharaoh’s daughter from the Nile River when she was washing there.16 According to the story, Pharaoh’s daughter hired Moses’ mother to nurse the baby, who then handed Moses over to the Egyptian royal family when Pharaoh’s daughter became his surrogate mother. Manetho records the reign of Thutmose I as 12 years and 9 months, from 1526 to 1513 BC.17
The reign of the next ruler, Thutmose II, also lasted 13 years according to Manetho18, meaning that he would have ruled between 1513 and 1500 (if the heliacal of Sothis was discovered in the city of Heliopolis in 1537 and not Thebes in 1517 BC). Thutmose II was probably the pharaoh whom Moses fled to the land of Midian after killing an Egyptian official. Under his rule, Moses would have been ‘grown up’, as Exodus. 2:11 states. Thutmose III inherited the throne the same year that Thutmose II’s reign ended, but since Thutmose III was only two years old when he ascended the throne, Hatshepsut, Thutmose II’s sister-wife, ruled alongside him for the next 21-22 years.19
We have very definite information about the length of the reign of Thutmose III, as it is known from the “tomb of the warlord Amenemheb-Mahu. Amenemheb-Mahu records the death of Thutmose III in the 54th year of his master’s reign, on the 30th day of the third month of Peret “20 . 54 years forward and you arrive at 1446 BC – the year of the Exodus. In addition, the tomb gives the date of death as the 30th day of the third month of Peret, which in the Egyptian calendar corresponded to the spring of our calendar or the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Genesis 12 tells us that the Israelites left Egypt on the Jewish Passover, which is commemorated today by the Hebrew festival of Pesach, from which the Christian Passover also derives as a commemoration of the death and resurrection of our Lord.
Ancient Armageddon
Thutmose III would have been 56 years old when he died, physically strong enough to participate in the pursuit of his chosen people on the Red Sea. From the history of Egypt we know that he himself took part in many battles outside Egypt and as far north as present-day Israel where he fought the Battle of Megiddo against the rebellious king of the Canaanite vassal state in 1457 BC. The Battle of Megiddo is interestingly the first detailed battle recorded in world history and, according to the Book of Revelation, the last battle in world history would also be fought on this same Megiddo plateau (hence the name Armageddon). With the Battle of Megiddo, Thutmose III established Egyptian rule over the Levant where the people of Israel settled some 50 years later after 40 years of wilderness wandering.
The victory of the battle marked the culmination of Egyptian imperial power, which may explain the swelling and hardening of the king’s heart (although God himself ultimately hardened Pharaoh’s heart). Thutmose III thought of himself as an invincible and autocratic ruler who would do as he pleased without any regard for the demands of Moses, the ‘Egyptian traitor prince’. Thutmose’s narcissism was certainly fuelled also by Egypt’s polytheistic state religion, which made the Pharaohs gods.
Wrong Pharaoh, but a excellent animation nonetheless. (The Prince of Egypt, 1998)
The Prince of Egypt
In the 1998 animation released by DreamWorks Pictures, the Prince of Egypt, Pharaoh is named Ramses II and Moses is shown as his half-brother and childhood friend. The Bible does not say that Moses and the stubborn Pharaoh were friends or “brothers” in their youth, but story-wise this idea fit well with Prince of Egypt which depicts a bitter war between two brothers as shown in the “plagues” song above. However, Moses grew up his childhood and youth in the same royal court as Pharaoh and they both belonged to the same generation, so the idea is partly true. If Thutmose III was the Pharaoh of Exodus, he would have been born about 24 years after Moses in 1502 BC. If Hatshepsut, the daughter of Thutmose I, was Moses’ Egyptian surrogate mother – as suggested above – then Moses and the stubborn pharaoh were “cousins” or half-cousins, since Thutmose III was Hatshepsut’s nephew.
However, an interesting additional dimension to the story would be that Hatshepsut also became the de facto pharaoh of Egypt during the first years of the reign of Thutmose III, when he was still too young to rule the country. If Moses grew up as Hatshepsut’s “child”, he would have been in this sense the crown prince and a potential challenger to the power of Thutmose III. Thutmose III is known to have destroyed statues of Hatshepsut after his death in an attempt to sanctify his memory from Egyptian history. Wikipedia says:
While it is clear that much of this rewriting of Hatshepsut’s history took place only towards the end of the reign of Thutmose III, it is not clear why it was done, except to demonstrate the typical pattern of self-aggrandisement of the pharaohs and their administrators, or perhaps to save money by not building new monuments for the burial of Thutmoshoi III and using instead the grandiose structures built by Hatshepsut.
In the light of the Moses story, all sorts of speculations could be drawn from this. Thutmose III destroyed statues of his predecessor Hatshepsut, who may have been the surrogate mother of the ‘crown prince’ Moses, towards the end of his reign. Was this an outburst of anger at the plagues Moses had inflicted on Egypt, or perhaps an attempt to prevent his court from rebelling and declaring Moses the new Pharaoh of Egypt? Exodus 11:3 says the following about him:
And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Furthermore, the man Moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.
The Egyptian people and even the Pharaoh’s servants thus began to sympathise with the opressed Israelites, and Moses’ royal status as a former prince of the court may also have contributed to this unusual popularity. This popularity could have led in practice to a situation where Pharaoh’s servants would have assassinated him and raised up Moses as the new king of the land. However, God had other plans for him. The 24-year age difference between Moses and Thutmose III would also explain why Moses had no reason to fear any more the Egyptian rulers who had previously tried to kill him. Moses probably fled Egypt during the reign of Thutmose II between 1513 and 1500 BC, when Thutmose III had not yet been born or was a mere infant. God said to Moses in Midian:
Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.”21
The brothers Amenmose, Wadjmose and Ramose.
But is there any evidence in Egyptian history that a prince named Moses was growing up in the Egyptian court at that time (between 1526 and 1500 BC)? Thutmose I, during whose reign Moses would have spent the first 13 years of his life at the Egyptian court, had two daughters, Hatshepsut and Neferubity, and three sons, the future Pharaoh Thutmose II and princes named Amenmose and Wadjmose. Their mother’s name was Ahmose. Note the name “mose” in the names of all the Egyptians who ruled at that time. Wikipedia says that the name Moses “has been considered a possible etymology of the Egyptian root msy (‘child’) or mose, which is probably an abbreviation of the Theophoric name from which the name of the god has been omitted. The suffix mose appears in the names of Egyptian pharaohs, such as Thutmose (‘birth of Thoth’) and Ramose (‘birth of Ra’) “22
Chronologically, the Exodus story would fall between 1526 and 1446, when three pharaohs named Moses (Thutmose I, II, III) ruled Egypt. According to the biblical story, Moses was named by the pharaoh’s daughter, not by his Hebrew mother.23 There is no complete knowledge or consensus among Egyptologists about the origin of princes Amenmose and Wajdmose. Either of them could have been the young Moses who grew up in the royal court of Egypt. On the other hand, both princes are thought to have died young before their father Thutmose I.24 But the tomb of Thumose I, built during the reign of Thutmose II (1513-1500 BC), depicts another mysterious prince named Ramose alongside Amenmose and Wajdmose.25 For example, Joyce Tyldesley’s Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt says on page 91:
Thutmose I must have had at least four sons, Wadjmose, Amenmose, Ramose and Thutmose, the latter of whom eventually succeeded his father on the throne.
So is Ramose the Moses of the Bible, because there is no further mention of him in Egyptian history after this? In the light of Thiele’s chronology, he would have been at least about the same age as the biblical Moses. But if the Exodus is real history, why do we not find in the Egyptians’ own sources information about the killing of Hebrew children, the 10 plagues and the partition of the Red Sea? The last one is fairly easy to answer. According to Exodus 14, the Israelites were the only survivors left to witness this miracle because Pharaoh and his entire army drowned in the Red Sea. The Egyptians who came in search of Pharaoh only saw the bodies lying dead on the seashore, without knowing what killed them. As for the killing of Hebrew children, it is clear that the Egyptian rulers did not necessarily want to record such atrocities on public monuments for posterity to remember, as the Nazis also sought to destroy evidence of the Holocaust after the Second World War.
It is also more plausible that the proud and hard-hearted Thutmose III would have preferred to bury the evidence of God’s miracles and plagues rather than boast about them publicly on stone tablets. Nor would letting slaves escape have given him a very good reputation among his heirs after an otherwise successful career. Of course, later archaeological excavations may provide further evidence for the historical accuracy of the Exodus story, but the knowledge of the Hebrew escape and Moses would most probably have been recorded only during the reign of Amenhotep II, the successor of Thutmose III.
Perhaps for this reason, the Egyptian historian Manetho, who lived a millennium later, names Amenhotep II as the Pharaoh of Exodus. Amenhotep II sought to take credit for either ‘expulsion’ of the hated Hebrews or righting the wrongs of his stubborn father. The final plague, the death of the first-born, including the pharaoh’s first-born, would also fit into the reign of Thutmose III, since Amenhotep II was not his first-born, who died before his father.
Conclusion
This theory would also be consistent with the actual history of the time, since Exodus 1:8-10 tells us the following:
Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, otherwise they will multiply, and in the event of war, they will also join those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.”
From this passage it can be inferred that shortly before Moses was born, there would have been some sort of turning point in Egypt where the former Hebrew-friendly form of government turned into a Hebrew-hostile regime that feared an internal revolt of the Hebrews against the Pharaoh. This was the first anti-Semitic episode in history, as the Jews have been accused throughout world history of disloyalty to the peoples among whom they have lived. This also creates a picture of a disunited people who needed an enemy, internal and external, to unite the Egyptians under the tyrannical rule of Pharaoh. Such upheaval occurred just before the birth of Moses in the 16th Century BC, with the new dynasty in Egypt, the 18th Dynasty, during which Egypt grew into one of the most powerful nations of the ancient world.
The founder of the new dynasty was Ahmose I (also called Moses), who ruled for 25 years from 1571 to 1546, if his successor Amenhotep I’s 9th year of reign was observed in the city of Heliopolis in 1537 with the rising of heliacle of Sothis . Archaeologist Joel Kramer suggested that the tyrant preceding the Pharaoh of the Exodus should have ruled for a long time – at least over 40 years. However, this cannot be directly inferred from the Bible’s texts, and the oppressor of the Hebrews, the infanticidal Pharaoh and the one whom Moses fled from, may not necessarily refer to one and the same Pharaoh. It is possible that the events of the reigns of the first four Pharaohs are condensed in Exodus 1-2. The “new king” and oppressor of the Israelites in Exodus 1:8 is the founder of the new dynasty, Ahmose I, the infanticide could refer either to the reign of Amenhotep I or his successor Thutmose I, and the Pharaoh whom Moses fled from could be Thutmose II. Exodus 2:23 states::
Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage ascended to God.
This does not necessarily mean that a pharaoh would have reigned for an unusually long time, because the “long time” in the verse can also be translated “after many days had passed”. (as translated by above NASB translation). Moreover, “a long time” can also refer to the fact that the Israelites had already been in slavery for a long time when King Thutmose II died in 1500 BC. After that, Queen Hatshepsut reigned on the throne as the deputy ruler of her nephew Thutmose IIII. Gen. Genesis 1:11 says that the Israelites would have built for Ahmos I “storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.” For this reason, many say that the events of the Exodus must be related to the reign of Ramses II, since Ramses II built the Egyptian city that bears his name.
However, Kramer suggested that this may have been an addition by later writers to describe an older city by its newer name, as new cities were often built on the site of older ones. Again, according to the Septuagint, Pithom is Heliopolis, one of the oldest cities in Egypt. Rabbi Saadia Gaon, who lived in the 900s, believed that the city of Rameses mentioned in the verse referred to the same area where Heliopolis was located. Already in Genesis there is mention of a “province of Rameses” in Egypt, where Joseph placed his father and brothers.25 This was 400 years before the reign of Rameses II in 1200 BC.
Ahmose I unified Egypt by expelling the Semitic rulers called Hyksos, who had gained a significant foothold in Egypt during previous dynasties, and some of the Egyptian pharaohs were also members of this Semitic Hyksos people. According to Josephus, who lived in the first century, the members of this group might have been Hebrews, and some scholars believe that the expulsion of the Hyksos kings or tribe in the 18th dynasty also inspired the biblical story of the Exodus.26 This theory may have some merit, since the Bible says that Joseph gave the Hebrews a very important position in Egypt before the rise of the new dynasty. The Hebrews became convenient scapegoats for the country’s internal problems and the same pattern has been repeated throughout history in the rather unfortunate history of the Hebrews. But the love of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for His chosen people has never wavered.
“At that time,” declares the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.” This is what the Lord says: “The people who survived the sword Found grace in the wilderness— Israel, when it went to find its rest.” The Lord appeared to [a]him [b]long ago, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you out with kindness. I will build you again and you will be rebuilt, Virgin of Israel!
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will live securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord Our Righteousness.’ “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought the sons of Israel up from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up and led the descendants of the household of Israel back from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”
Jeremiah 31:1-4, 23:5-8
Footnotes
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_R._Thiele#Reception_of_chronological_work ︎ ↩︎
- The Crreationwiki website states the following about Thiele’s chronology: “Thiele’s approach to chronology was based on the fact that he gave priority to the historical methods and conventions of the ancient authors who gave us the texts of the historical books of the Old Testament. This was accompanied by his belief that these texts should be regarded as the primary and authentic historical record, unless clear evidence to the contrary showed otherwise. Thiele’s chronology has achieved a status in the scholarly world that has never been attained by writers who regard the historical texts of the Bible as uninspired and prone to error.” ︎ ↩︎
- Exo 2. 7:7, Deut. 34:7. ︎ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorded_history ︎ ↩︎
- Gen. 10:8 ︎ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyre ︎ ↩︎
- Gen. 1. 1:28, 2:15 ︎ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Dan_stele ︎ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah_Stele ︎ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah_Stele#Determinative ︎ ↩︎
- Exo 15:4 ︎ ↩︎
- https://bereanarchive.org/articles/history/ancient-israel-morality-of-the-conquest-of-canaan#Unprovoked-Attacks-on-Israel ︎ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amun-her-khepeshef ︎ ↩︎
- Acts 7:30 ︎ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenhotep_I#Dates_and_length_of_reign ︎ ↩︎
- This theory is contradicted by the fact that Hatshepsut and Moses are likely to have been around the same age. “Pharaoh’s daughter” in Exodus 2. 2:5 may also refer to Ahmos, the wife of Thutmose I, who was probably also the daughter of the previous pharaohs. Hence Hatshepsut would have been a half-sister to Moses rather than his a surrogate mother. ︎ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_I#Dates_and_length_of_reign ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_II#Dates_and_length_of_reign ︎ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatshepsut#Reign ︎ ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_III#Dates_and_length_of_reign ︎ ↩︎
- Exodus 4:19 ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#Etymology_of_name ︎ ↩︎
- Exodus 2:10 ↩︎
- https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_I#Family ↩︎
- Genesis 47:11 ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos#Potential_biblical_connections ↩︎