AMENHOTEP II AND THE HISTORICITY OF THE EXODUS-PHARAOH (original) (raw)
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AMENHOTEP III AND THE EXODUS: ECHOES OF THE BIBLICAL NARRATIVE FROM EGYPT'S GOLDEN AGE
Jewish Bible Quarterly, 2017
Reviews biblical and archeological support for an early 14th century BCE Exodus during the reign of Amenhotep III. This Pharaoh has a puzzling gap in his documentation believed to have been caused by a national catastrophe. He ordered 700+ statues made of war, plague and healing goddess Sekhmet for unknown reasons. He is likely the Pharaoh of Manetho's leper account, which has been unfairly dismissed by "modern" biblical criticism. Traditional Biblical scholarship suggests that the Egyptian oppression of the Israelites began after the death of Levi and before the birth of Miriam, roughly 105 years prior to the Exodus. With this in mind, Hatshepsut's Speos Artimedos inscription may bear her boast of having "expelled" the Israelites, who were welcomed to Egypt by the Hyksos, by enslaving them. This dating also point to the Thera volcanic eruption as the cause of the great famine that brought Jacob and his family to Egypt ca. 1584. Moses would have been within short riding distance of Memphis, where Amenhotep III lived early in his reign, if Goshen, where the Israelites were settled, was in the Heliopolis Nome. The historian and Talmud scholar Solomon Zeitlin surmised that Onias built a Jewish temple in Leontopolis because he had a tradition that it was Goshen. (Although not covered in this article, the best way to make sense of the route taken by the Israelites upon leaving Egypt is that they traveled north to Succoth/Tell el-Maskhuta (Exod. 12:37) in the Wadi Tumilat, and to Etham, where they were turned south by God (Exod. 14:2), heading toward Mt. Sinai after crossing the Great Bitter Lake ("Sea of Reeds"). The Bible describes this circuitous route as a feint designed by God to trick Pharaoh into believing they were trapped in the desert.)
(2006) Amenhotep II and the Historicity of the Exodus-Pharaoh
The Master's Seminary Journal, 2006
For anyone willing to accept that ancient Israel's presence and burdened subjugation in Egypt could be historical, the question arises as to who this unnamed pharaoh might be, and why he remained unnamed. By comparing the biography of the exodus-pharaoh with the reign of Amenhotep II, the pharaoh who would have sat on Egypt's throne at the time (based on a proper synchronization of Israelite and Egyptian history), an evaluation can be made as to whether this pharaoh fits the many detailed requirements that must be true of the exodus-pharaoh. This paper may represent the most thorough effort yet attempted to identify the exodus-pharaoh with a historical ruler of Egypt.
Merenptah and Amenmesse -Egyptian Rumors Concerning the Exodus
“And in Length of Days Understanding” (Job 12:12): Essays on Archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond in Honor of Thomas E. Levy, 2023
The hypothesis at the core of this paper was published in a much larger work by the author in JEgH 12 2019. Due to its focus on Egyptological matters, that article reached a small circle of specialists, and its ramifications for the biblical scholarship have largely gone unnoticed. The present paper fills this gap-pointing as often as possible to the more extensive discussion of the previous paper's evidence. Recent archaeological evidence invalidates previous chronological solutions for the reign of Amenmesse: edging him between the reigns of Merenptah and Sethos II or allowing a partial overlap between Sethos II and Amenmesse's early reigns. His reign's time and geographical base must be rethought and identified within the regnal period of Merenptah. This reconstruction looks strikingly similar to the late narratives (Manetho, Apion, Potter's Oracle, The Lamb Oracle) concerning a revolt, Merenptah's flight to Ethiopia, his return to Egypt, and his defeat of the contender. The late narratives' association of Amenmesse's rule with the Israelites is understandable against the historical background of a stock of Israelite prisoners brought by Merenptah to Egypt from his previous campaigns. Due to this historical context, the literature of the time offers several hidden references to Israel. The Tale of Two Brothers, the political manifesto of the revolt, is an etiological story of the relations between Egypt and Israel using eponymic patterns as in the story of Danaos and Aigyptos. A Ramses V dated parodistic retelling of the tale, pChassinat III, introduces allusions later picked up by Manetho's characters of Moses and Joseph (Barbotin, Revue d’égyptologie 50:5–26, 1999; Bányai, J Egypt Hist 12:36–103, 2019, n. 153). A discussion of the literary material from this period demonstrates the necessity of a new approach to Early Israel and its possible relations to Retenu, a term designating an Asiatic neighbor of Egypt.
Who was The Pharaoh at the Exodus
2019
The pharaoh of the Israel's exodus from Egypt has long been a matter of fertile conjecture. Those who don't use the Hebrew Scriptures as their authority either place it in the reign of Ramses II or deny it altogether, and those who do hold to the numbers we have in scripture place it about 1446 BC which is at odds with the archaeological evidence we have. This paper gives evidence to support the conclusion of the 3rd century historian, Africanus, that the pharaoh of the Exodus was a contemporary of Ahmos, ( in the mid 1500's BC).
Amenhotep III: Egypt's radiant pharaoh
Choice Reviews Online, 2012
This book follows the life story of Amenhotep III, one of the most important rulers of ancient Egypt, from his birth and into the afterlife. Amenhotep III ruled for about 38 years, from circa 1391 to 1353 B.C., during the apex of Egypt's international and artistic power. Arielle P. Kozloff situates Amenhotep III in his time, chronicling the key political and military events that occurred during his lifetime and reign as well as the evolution of religious rituals and the cult of the pharaoh. She further examines the art and culture of the court, including its palaces, villas, furnishings, and fashions as well as his extended family, officials, and international relationships. Through the exploration of abundant evidence from the period, in the form of both textual and material culture, Kozloff richly recreates all aspects of Egyptian civilization at the height of the Mediterranean Late Bronze Age. Arielle P. Kozloff, former curator of ancient art at the Cleveland Museum of Art, is a private consultant and lecturer for museums and private collectors in the United States and abroad. She is the coauthor of Egypt's Dazzling Sun and The Gods Delight. She has contributed chapters to volumes including Egyptology Today, Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign, and Millions of Jubilees as well as articles to numerous journals, including Journal of Egyptian Archaeology and American Journal of Archaeology.
Rethinking the Pentateuch's place in Egyptian history
Two ancient historians correctly aligned Isaac, Jacob and Joseph to the 19th Egyptian Dynasty. 20th century biblical archaeologists dismissed those historians (Manetho and Bar Hebraeus) and proceeded to misinterpret the archaeological evidence and get the early history of Israel terribly wrong. Not every destroyed city in Canaan was destroyed by Joshua, whose conquest of Canaan did not occur until 1084 BC. The problem is chronology, Literal Bible chronologies placed Moses and Joshua no later than Egypt’s 19th Dynasty, which is best known for the powerful pharaoh Ramesses II (1279-1213). However, in Deuteronomy 34:7, Moses likely lived 120 seasons, not years. If the seasons were winter and summer, that’s just 60 years, consistent with the claim that “his eyes were not weak, nor his strength gone.” A systematic correction of this factor of 2 error leads to a contraction of the Pentateuch’s chronology, bringing earlier patriarchs Isaac, Jacob and Joseph into alignment with Egypt’s 19th Dynasty. Joseph then matches an Asiatic commoner named chancellor Bay, who became ruler of Egypt in the late 19th Dynasty, prior to being executed in year 5 of the 20th Dynasty pharaoh Ramesses III (1185-1154). Matching Joseph to Bay places Moses even later. This supports the 3rd century BC Egyptian historian Manetho’s account of the Exodus. Manetho listed Egypt’s kings through the 19th Dynasty, then described a (later) rivalry between Moses and a king named Amenophis. In Chronography, Bar Hebraeus called the same political rival Amonpathis. Moses'' rival, Amenophis/Amonpathis, matches a high priest named Amenhotep whose power rivaled that of his contemporary, pharaoh Ramesses IX (1125-1107). Thus, with normal lifetimes as a guide, a historical match to Joseph is found – much as the Bible describes him. Manetho described Moses first ruling Egypt for 13 years, then fleeing when king Amenophis and his son returned from exile in Ethiopia. This could only have occurred during the late 20th Dynasty, at the time of Ramesses X and Ramesses XI. Further investigation leads to the conclusion that Moses was the de facto ruler of Egypt during an era within the reign of Ramesses XI which was mysteriously called the "Repeating of Births" (i.e. a restoration of the 19th Dynasty -- when Isaac, Jacob and Joseph held great political power). Conflicting accounts of the Exodus (Hebrew vs. Egyptian) can now be evaluated in this historical context.
Who Was the Pharaoh of the Exodus?
An attempt to fix a date for the Exodus of the Hebrew slaves from the land of Egypt remains an intriguing quest for scholars and students of the Bible. The endeavor is frustrated significantly in that no exact date or name of any Pharaoh is given in the biblical text. Those two identities are inseparably linked, as definitively knowing one would result in knowing the other. And not knowing either one definitively has resulted in centuries of debate regarding the date of the Exodus, with sides being drawn favoring one of two commonly accepted dates. In "Rethinking the Exodus" another line of research is discussed that may help identify the Pharaoh of the Exodus, which would then settle the Date of the Exodus.
No prior attempt to put a date on the Exodus had a sound mathematical framework. Early Hebrews counted time in 'turns' (shanah) which could be turns of the year, turns of the moon (12.37 per year), or turns of the season (spring and fall). This removes the otherwise inexplicable longevity of Abraham through Moses. Abraham died at 175 ÷ 2 = 87.5 years. Moses died at age 120 ÷ 2 = 60 years. Correcting this translation error is the key to finding when the real Moses and his ancestors lived. Moses and the Exodus fall within the late 20th Egyptian Dynasty, as the power of the pharaohs was waning. That's a very complicated and poorly understood era in Egyptian history, and it is where the historical Moses has remained hidden until now. It shouldn't be possible to solve a problem as long debated as the date of the Exodus by simply proposing that "Moses died at 60 years old, not 120." I've been called a fool for proposing such a simple solution. Do not presume the solution cannot be true because it is too easy. Ask why such an easy solution has been overlooked. The blame can be shared by religious scholars and secular historians. Religious scholars have failed to question why Moses lived to age 120, and secular historians have failed to realize that if the Egyptian historians Manetho and Cheremon both claimed that Moses was real, then he probably was real. As quoted by Josephus (Against Apion, 1:15 and 1:26), Manetho placed Moses and his Egyptian rival "king Amenophis" later than a list of 18th and 19th Dynasty pharaohs, which allows only the 20th Egyptian Dynasty, where king Amenophis is readily identified as High Priest of Amun Amenhotep, a contemporary of pharaohs Ramesses IX (1125-1107) and Ramesses X (1107-1104). It is then trivial to identify the pharaoh who died while Moses was in Midian (Exodus 2:23) as Ramesses IX, and the pharaoh that Moses and Aaron subsequently confronted (Exodus 7:7) as Ramesses X. It is that trivial to identify the pharaoh of the Exodus, but it is somewhat harder to identify Moses, Aaron and Joshua. They were respectively: Nebmarenakht (Moses), vizier to pharaoh Ramesses XI (Aaron) and general Piankhi (Joshua), each of whom had both an Egyptian name and a Hebrew name - for political purposes. As Manetho claimed, Moses seized power in Egypt and ruled for 13 years. Then Amenophis and his son (High Priest of Amun Herihor) returned from exile in Ethiopia and defeated Moses. Moses fled from Egypt, but Joshua later invaded Canaan and established a new territory to rule. Canaan was formerly ruled by Hebrew aristocrats and their subordinate judges of Israel, who like Jacob and Joseph, were loyal to Egypt, but Egypt was no longer a major power. The power of the 20th Dynasty pharaohs collapsed when Moses and Joshua sided with Assyria and H.P. A Amenhotep sided with Babylonia. Ramesses XI was not a 20th Dynasty pharaoh. He was Hebrew vassal of Assyria. The majority of the period of Judges DOES NOT follow the death of Joshua. That is an editing error in the Bible. The judge Jair (Judges 10:3) was a judge east of the Jordan River in Havaath Jair, which was captured by Jair when he was a judge for Moses (Num. 32:41 and Deut. 3:14 ). Jair and Moses never conquered any territory in Canaan. Joshua did so, in alliance with Assyria's king Tiglath-Pileser I of Ashhur (Num. 24:20-24; Ashhur and Eber = Assyria and the Hebrews, soon to be subdued by ships from Kittim = the Philistine oppression of Judges 10:7). The Bible agrees with Manetho, but people who study the Bible hadn't recognized that the Exodus falls within chapter 10 of the Book of Judges.