Pharaohs in the Hebrew Bible

The pharaohs in the Bible are those pharaohs (kings of Egypt) mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The term covers the pharaoh of the Exodus (and his predecessors, the pharaoh who settled the Israelites in Egypt and the pharaoh of the oppression) plus a number of later rulers.

Contents 1 Historical pharaohs 2 Pharaoh of the Exodus 3 See also 4 References

[edit] Historical pharaohs

The first pharaoh of Egypt mentioned by name in the Bible is Shishak (probably Sheshonk I^{[citation needed]}), the founder of the twenty-second dynasty and a contemporary of Rehoboam and Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:40; 2 Chronicles 12:2 sqq.). The title pharaoh is prefixed to his name in the Great Dakhla stela—as in Pharaoh Shoshenq—which dates to Year 5 of his reign.^{[citation needed]}

2 Kings 17:4 says that Hoshea sent letters to 'So, King of Egypt', whose identification still is not certain. He has been identified with Osorkon IV, who was a minor king at Tanis who ruled over a divided Egypt, with Tefnakht of Sais and Pi'ankhy.^[1]

Taharqa, who was the opponent of Sennacherib, is called King of Ethiopia (2 Kings 19:9; Isaiah 37:9), and hence is not given the title pharaoh, which he bears in Egyptian documents.

Last are two kings of the twenty-sixth dynasty: Necho II, whom the Bible says defeated Josiah (2 Kings 23:29 sqq.; 2 Chronicles 35:20 sqq.), and Apries or Hophra, the contemporary of Sedicous (Jeremiah 44:30). Both are styled as pharaoh in Egyptian records.

[edit] Pharaoh of the Exodus

According to the story in the Bible's Book of Exodus, the patriarch Jacob together with his sons and their families, seventy persons in all, went down into Egypt where Joseph had risen to a high position under the pharaoh. In the course of time Joseph, Jacob, and this pharaoh died, and a new pharaoh came to the throne who "knew not Joseph" and oppressed the Israelites. In the lifetime of this pharaoh, the "pharaoh of the oppression," Moses was born, and on his death Moses, now in his eightieth year, confronted the new pharaoh with the demand that he permit the Israelites to depart. The pharaoh refuses, but eventually, after God brings ten plagues upon Egypt, the Israelites depart, in the event known as the Exodus. This third pharaoh is the "pharaoh of the Exodus."

The biblical story does not name any of these pharaohs nor does it give enough information to securely identify the period in which the events are set, with the result that there have been many suggestions as to which of Egypt's many rulers was involved.

Candidates put forward for the role include:

• Dudimose, also known as Tutimaios (circa 1690 BC) This is a fringe theory put forward by the revisionist historians David Rohl and Immanuel Velikovsky.^[2]
• Ahmose I (1550 BC-1525 BC) whose case is advanced by the 1st century AD Jewish historian Josephus.^[3]
• Thutmose III (1479 BC-1425 BC)^[4]
• Horemheb (1319 BC-1292 BC) Original builder of Pi-Atum and the site that would become Pi-Ramesses. His Edict against monotheism also lends some support to the theory. Ahmed Osman surmised that he was the Pharaoh of the Oppression.
• Ramesses I Surmised by Ahmed Osman to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus.^{[citation needed]}
• Ramesses II (1279 BC-1213 BC) Also known as Rameses the Great, he is the most commonly imagined figure in popular culture, but there is no documentary or archaeological evidence that he had to deal with the Plagues of Egypt or anything similar or that he chased Hebrew slaves fleeing Egypt. Ramesses II's late 13th century BC stela in Beth Shan mentions two conquered peoples who came to "make obeisance to him" in his city of Raameses or Pi-Ramesses but mentions neither the building of the city nor, as some have written, the Israelites or Hapiru.^[5] Additionally, the historical Pithom was built in the 7th century BC, during the Saite period.^[6][7]
• Merneptah (1213 BC-1203 BC), son of Ramesses II Makes mention of "Israel" as a people established in Canaan during his time.^[4]
• Amenmesse (1203 BC-1199 BC)^{[citation needed]}

Date of the Exodus

There is a large variety of estimates as to the supposed date of the Exodus, with suggestions ranging from the 17th to 13th centuries BCE.

• A frequent suggestion is the Egyptian Empire period, in particular the 13th century BCE, as the pharaoh of that time, Ramesses II, is commonly considered to be the pharaoh with whom Moses squabbled — either as the 'Pharaoh of the Exodus' himself, or the preceding 'Pharaoh of the Oppression', who is said to have commissioned the Hebrews to "(build) for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses." These cities are known to have been built under both Seti I and Rameses II, thus possibly making his successor Merneptah the 'Pharaoh of the Exodus.' This is considered plausible by those^[who?] who view the famous claim of the Year 5 Merneptah Stele (ca. 1208 BCE) that "Israel is wasted, bare of seed," as propaganda to cover up this king's own loss of an army in the Red Sea. Taken at face value, however, the primary intent of the stela was clearly to commemorate Merneptah's victory over the Libyans and their Sea People allies. The reference to Canaan occurs only in the final lines of the document where Israel is mentioned after the city states of Ashkelon, Gezer and Yanoam perhaps to signal Merneptah's disdain or contempt for this new entity. In Exodus, the Pharaoh of the Exodus did not cross into Canaan since his Army was destroyed at the Red Sea. Hence, the traditional view that Ramesses II was the Pharaoh of either the Oppression or the Exodus is affirmed by the basic contents of the Merneptah Stele. Under this scenario, the Israelites would have been a nation without a state of their own who existed on the fringes of Canaan in Year 5 of Merneptah. This is suggested by the determinative sign written in the stela for Israel — "a throw stick plus a man and a woman over the three vertical plural lines" — which was "typically used by the Egyptians to signify nomadic groups or peoples without a fixed city-state,"^[8] such as the Hebrew's previous life in Goshen.
• Another theory places the birth and/or adoption of Moses during a minor oppression in the reign of Amenhotep III, which was soon lifted, and claims that the more well-known oppression occurred during the reign of Horemheb, followed by the Exodus itself during the reign of Ramesses I. This is supported by the Haggadah of Pesach, which suggests that they were oppressed and then re-oppressed quite a few years later by Pharaoh. The Bible and Haggada suggest that the Pharaoh of the Exodus died in year 2 of his reign, matching Ramses I. The fact that Pi-Tum and Raamses were built during the reign of Ramses I also supports this view. Seti I records that during his reign the Shasu warred with each other, which some see as a reference to the Midyan and Moab wars. Seti's campaigns with the Shasu have also been compared with Balaam's exploits.^[9]
• A more recent and non-Biblical view places Moses as a noble in the court of the Pharaoh Akhenaten (See below). A significant number of scholars, from Sigmund Freud to Joseph Campbell, suggest that Moses may have fled Egypt after Akhenaten's death (ca. 1334 BCE) when many of the pharaoh's monotheistic reforms were being violently reversed. The principal ideas behind this theory are: the monotheistic religion of Akhenaten being a possible predecessor to Moses' monotheism, and the "Amarna letters", written by nobles to Akhenaten, which describe raiding bands of "Habiru" attacking the Egyptian territories in Mesopotamia.^[10]
• David Rohl, a British historian and archaeologist, places the birth of Moses during the reign of Pharaoh Khaneferre Sobekhotep IV of the 13th Egyptian Dynasty, and the Exodus during the reign of Pharaoh Dudimose (accession to the throne around 1457–1444) and the Exodus specifically in the Year 1447 BC, when according to Manetho "a blast from God smote the Egyptians".^[11]

[edit] See also

• David Rohl
• Ipuwer Papyrus
• New Chronology (Rohl)
• Shiphrah - one of two midwives who helped prevent the genocide of Hebrew children by the Egyptians, according to Exodus 1:15-21.
• Thrasyllus of Mendes

[edit] References