4, 2017 . Thutmose III reigned 54 years 1504-1450 B.C. The account parallels the Book of Exodus. When Amenhotep III (reigned c1390 - 1352 BC) became Pharaoh in 1390 BC, Egypt had become the richest and most powerful nation on earth through war and conquest. This absence has provided the occasion for considerable controversy and speculation as to just who this Pharaoh was and when he ruled in Egypt. From among them, Ramesses II is the heavy favorite of Bible-believing scholars, bolstered by the Torah’s explicit mention of the place-names Ramesses (Gen. 47:11) and Raamses (Exod. This sounds very much like confirmation of Moses’ remark that the army was still disabled years after the Israelites left Egypt (Deut. Amenhotep III, also called Amenophis III, king of ancient Egypt (reigned 1390–53 bce) in a period of peaceful prosperity, who devoted himself to expanding diplomatic contacts and to extensive building in Egypt and Nubia. However, Tuthmosis IV fell ill and died after only reigning nine years. In 1483 B.C., Moses was exiled from Egypt by this Thutmose upon the death of Hatshepsut, Moses’ foster mother and protector… Upon the death of Thutmose in 1450, Amenhotep II assumed the sole leadership of the country.” According to the Good News article, it was Amenhotep II who was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. While pharaohs in general were self-indulgent—self-promoting inscriptions, extensive building projects, wall paintings and the like testifying to extravagant lifestyles—Amenhotep III seems to stand out for these particular indulgences. Exodus date 1443 occurred at end of ninth year, beginning of tenth year of Amenhotep II who reigned jointly two and a half years with Thutmose III. A team of Spanish and Egyptian archaeologists made a find in a southern Egyptian tomb that opens the way to a … He was the “Master of the Horse” for Amenhotep III, the grandson of Thutmose III. That resolves the chronological discrepancy between the Biblical date for the Exodus in 1446 and the date of Thutmose III’s death in 1450, and in so doing it puts the Exodus directly in the middle of two sets of problematic texts and thus provides another potential explanation for them. How-ever, if the Israelites lived in or near Heliopolis, as Josephus believed, Moses would have had a short trip to Memphis from his home base. Frogs frequently came on land after Nile inundations—as they did in the second plague—so much so that the Egyptians considered them an omen of fertility. For another, the trauma of the last plague (see Ex. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. Ira Friedman, a retired attorney, is an independent researcher with an interest in the intersection of the Torah and ancient Egyptian history. Amenhotep II as Pharaoh of the Exodus. The Pharaoh of the oppression would be Thutmose III (1490-1436 b.c.). The Egyptian Empire of the New Kingdom reached its height during its eighteenth dynasty, particularly during the reigns of Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III who ruled c. 1425-1350 B.C. To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser. The Exodus Problem. What Do the New Jersey Marijuana Regulations Mean? Academia.edu uses cookies to personalize content, tailor ads and improve the user experience. The only difference is that the identity of the Pharaoh of the Exodus has been shifted from Thutmose III to Amenhotep IIA. Is the Pharaoh of the Exodus. You can download the paper by clicking the button above. He had an unprecedented accumulation of wealth, he was “rich in horses” and he was evidently a womanizer. 16- Thutmose IV succeeded his father Amenhotep II although he was not actually the crown prince and the one chosen by Amenhotep II as successor to the throne. 45, No. Builds up elite military force, 2nd to none in the Middle East. Recent reports that epidemics may have caused a prolonged pause in the documentation of Amenhotep III (1390-1353 BCE), and other information we have about his reign, suggest that he may have been the pharaoh of the Exodus. He was also called Amenophis and his name Amenhotep means Amun, one of the gods in Egypt. If the 10 plagues did occur during his reign, Amenhotep may have felt responsible for failing to maintain cosmic order and stability (. The only difference is that the identity of the Pharaoh of the Exodus has been shifted from Thutmose III to Amenhotep IIA. Amenhotep III or as he was used to be called “Nebma’atre, Amenophis III, and Amana-Hatpa” was the 9th ruler of ancient Egypt during the 18th dynasty.All of his names are highly associated with Amun just to satisfy his deity and he was the son of Tuthmosis IV. Amenhotep II was born to Thutmose III and a minor wife of the king: Merytre-Hatshepsut.He was not, however, the firstborn son of this pharaoh; his elder brother Amenemhat, the son of the great king's chief wife Satiah, was originally the intended heir to the throne since Amenemhat was designated the 'king's eldest son" and overseer of the cattle of Amun in Year 24 of Thutmose's reign. If Israel left Egypt shortly after the death of Thutmose III, the pharaoh of the Exodus would have been Amenhotep II. The papyrus was written by an Egyptian named Ipuwer and appears to be an eyewitness account of the effects of the Exodus plagues. The Bible prohibits Israelite kings from owning many horses, having many women and accumulating much gold (Deut. fits with the chronology of the 18th Dynasty pharaohs in Egyptian records. Amenhotep III was an incredibly successful pharaoh, but he was also set up for success. Osarsiph sent ambassadors to the shepherd kings in Jerusalem who had long bef… Biblical passages correlate The Pharaoh of the Exodus would be Amenhotep II (1436-1407 b.c. The Temple was built in his fourth year (965 b.c. 1:11), confirmation that Ramesses II did indeed have a palatial city called Pi-Ramesses, and a dramatic upsurge, starting at the end of his century, in Israelite settlements across the Canaanite hill country and Transjordan. 33:4) may have overwritten memory of the first nine plagues. By using our site, you agree to our collection of information through the use of cookies. -In the early 19th Century an ancient papyrus was found in Egypt. AMENHOTEP III 1390-1352 He was born at the beginning of the 14th century BCE to Tuthmosis IV, who was then pharaoh of Egypt. Amenophis II: Amenhotep II was also known as Amenophis II and he was the son of Thutmose III. The simple answer: we do not know for sure, but there are quite a few plausible possibilities. Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. Biblical history can be harmonized with Egyptian history, claims to the contrary notwithstanding. According to Egyptologist Arielle Kozloff, this and other factors add up to emerging evidence that epidemics caused this Pharaoh’s scribes to fall silent (she suspects the black plague). During his reign, Tuthmosis IV helped make Egypt a prosperous nation, bringing in gold and making alliances with other nations. ), and Rameses II (1279 - 1213 B.C.). ), and the Exodus occurred about 1445/6 b.c. Thutmose IV as a Candidate for the Eldest Son of Amenhotep II. Below is a summary of a news report announcing a discovery related to Amenhotep III and his son Amenhotep IV:. He ruled approximately from 1452 BC to 1425 BC. As the Bible tells it: And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. The tenth biblical plague against Egypt fits with what is known about the death of Amenhotep … Amenhotep III was Thutmose's son by a minor wife, Mutemwiya. oPapyrus 2:10- The river is blo… As I wrote in a Jewish Link column in 2015, Sekhmet became known as “the destroyer by plague” from the “Destruction of Humanity” myth, which told of her killing Egyptians for disrespecting her father, the sun-god Ra; their blood, or a blood-like substance used to subdue her, flowed into the Nile. For the exodus-pharaoh, the worst part of God's prediction of judgment was that his own firstborn son would die. Both the records of Flavius Josephus and an honest study of the chronology of the period attest to us that an 18th Dynasty pharaoh named Thutmose (called Tethmosis by Josephus, Against Apion 1.91-94, most probably Thutmose III) was the pharaoh of the Exodus. No doubt, epidemics struck ancient Egypt from time to time. There are several reasons to believe that the Israelites resided near Heliopo-lis. THUTMOSE III 1504-1450 Takes over rule of Egypt in 1483, rules Egypt for 22 years and dies. Image: Amenhotep III. 17:16-17). THUTMOSE IV 1417-1390. The Exodus from Egypt: Archaeological Data and Expectations. It was taken to the Leiden Museum in Holland and interpreted by A.H. Gardiner in 1909. Amenhotep II began to reign in 1453 B.C. Trends and Perspectives, Re-calculating the Historical Age of the Israelites in Egypt and the Date of the Exodus PART TWO. The Biblical book of Exodus does not name the Pharaoh whom Moses encountered after his return from Sinai. In my next column, I will discuss two Exodus-like accounts written by a non-biblical source, the controversial priest/historian Manetho from the third century BCE. His was a golden age for Egypt; peace prevailed throughout its empire, and riches were flowing in from Egypt’s vassal states. Recently, however, scholars made a discovery that could add another name to the list: Amenhotep III (1390-1353 BCE). I admit to a motive here: he attributes these Exodus-like events to Amenhotep III and one of the Thutmosides (not Hatshepsut, but she may be the Pharaoh he means). Remembering Englewood's Mordecai (Morty) Katz, z”l, Marlboro 8-Year-Old Inspires Others to Give, A Clear Guide to Israel’s Messy Coalitions. Amenhotep III’s son Akhenaten brought on the Amarna Revolution, the theological civil war that violently pitted Egyptian god against god, priest against priest, which would certainly qualify as the ultimate manifestation of God’s “judgment against the Egyptian deities” (Exod. He inherited the throne at a time when Egypt was well established as the world ruler. last year of Amenhotep III. According to Mr. Osman, it was the declining health of Pharaoh Amenhotep III that afforded his wife, Tiye, the influence to see to it that her son Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) became the next in line. So, in the first plague, God may have led the Egyptians to focus their prayers for relief from that and later plagues on Sekhmet, setting them up for the last plague, in which God repudiated Sekhmet (and the other Egyptian deities) when He prevented “the Destroyer” from attacking Israelite houses (Exod. Israel’s exodus from Egypt in 1446 B.C. Throughout his 40 years of reign, he had built incredible statues. Moreover, it is possible that evidence of any of the first nine “plagues” will never be found. Moreover, the Egyptians had experienced events similar to the first nine plagues before. Who was the Exodus Pharaoh? To learn more, view our, Re-calculating the Historical Age of the Israelites in Egypt and the Date of the Exodus Part THREE. William Shea. 12:13, 23). a. This would make it occur in the 18th Egyptian Dynasty. Careful review of his heavy documentation has surfaced a gap of roughly eight years, from his 12th year to his 19th. Some proponents of the early Exodus date (around 1450 BC) propose the successor of Thutmose III, his son Amenhotep II, as a possible option for the pharaoh of the Exodus. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. When the Nile’s water turned to blood or a blood-like substance in the first plague, the Egyptians may have assumed that Sekhmet was attacking Egyptians again, as she did in the myth. It would be nice if we had more persuasive evidence of the 10 plagues and the Exodus, regardless of which Pharaoh it points to. Violent storms such as the seventh plague, though rare, occurred from time to time, as testified by the Ahmose tempest stela. In the recent Ridley Scott film, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Moses confronts the Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses II, with the request that pharaoh let Moses lead the children of Israel. Arguably the most important extra-biblical account of the Exodus comes from the Egyptian historian Manetho, who relates that a king called Amenophis was advised by his oracle, also called Amenophis, to clear his country of the lepers and impure people who were within Egypt’s borders at that time. 213 ites resided well north of Memphis, near Avaris or the Wadi Tu milat. For one thing, the Egyptians usually avoided recording bad events. Kozloff writes that other known events indicative of a national health crisis probably occurred during these “lost years”: the death of this Pharaoh’s oldest son, the deaths of his in-laws (both known to have died from malaria), and Amenhotep III’s order that as many as 700 statues of Sekhmet, ancient Egypt’s goddess of war and plague, be cast and prayed to daily. Vol. Amenhotep II (1427-1392 B.C. 18. THE PHARAOH OF THE EXODUS Upon Amenhotep II's death, his co-regent for 29 years, the 4th Thutmoses, became Amenhotep III. Finally, the darkness of the ninth plague is reminiscent of the Ipuwer’s report in “Admonitions of a Sage,” dated to Egypt’s Middle Kingdom or Hyksos times, that the sun was obscured during a violent period. The joint Egyptian and European “Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project” recently re-erected a colossal quartzite statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep III near Luxor, Egypt. The Israelites may not have become an ethically identifiable group until after the Exodus. The Akhenaten's reign: an egyptological delirium! Amenhotep III proclaimed himself a deity while he was still alive, something no pharaoh before him had done. b. 3. 12:12). So far, Pharaoh Merneptah’s stela from around 1209 BCE is the first mention we have found of a people called “Israel.” Until then, Egypt and other powers may have thought of the Israelites as just another group of Apiru or Shasu—nomadic or semi-nomadic groups that attacked the Canaanite city-states. Of interest for this placement are: 1. But that may be too much to expect. Among the documents that broke the silence were records of appointments to various offices, replacing former incumbents whose names have been scratched out along with the cause of their departure. During the reigns of Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, the Egyptian army remained inexplicably quiescent even as strife was tearing apart Egypt’s Canaanite city-state vassals and diminishing the tribute they paid to Egypt. Amenhotep II, the Egyptian pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Or so it seemed. The papyrus describes violent upheavals in Egypt, starvation, drought, escape of slaves (with the wealth of the Egyptians), and death throughout the land. More statues of Sekhmet were made at this Pharaoh’s command than of all other subjects combined, including likenesses of Pharaoh himself. The final step before determining whether Amenhotep II is a viable candidate for the exodus-pharaoh is to synchronize the date of the exodus with Egyptian history. Amenhotep II was "second born" son of Thutmoses III: a. Thutmoses III is confirmed as the pharaoh of the exodus in that his firstborn son "Amenemhat" by Queen Merytre-Hatshepsut died in the 10 th plague but his second born son, Amenhotep II survived the 10 th plague and succeeded Thutmoses III … But even Kozloff notes the similarity between the scenario she draws and the Exodus story, although she defers to the view that a 13th-entury BCE Pharaoh let the Israelites leave Egypt. Locust infestations occurred from time to time in the Near and Middle East, as they did most recently in 2013. Mr. Osman claims that a co-regency began in which both Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV … This is a line of sphinxes constructed by Amenhotep III in order to allow the gods to visit each other between the temples at Luxor and Karnak. Amenhotep III is a Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of the new kingdom around 1382 to 1344 BC. There are two main opinions among scholars as to who the Pharaoh was during the time of the Exodus in Egypt by the Hebrews. I will explain why his writings should be regarded as remnants of ancient Egyptian records and oral traditions that testify to the historical records. Modern archaeologists claim there is no evidence of a mass exodus of any group from Egypt and they generally assign the Biblical Exodus to the reign of Rameses the Great but this date is far to late for an Israelite mass exodus. 1070-180 BC). According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC, or from June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC, after his father Thutmose IV died. Exodus occurs in spring of 1446BC . Amenhotep III’s son Akhenaten brought on the Amarna Revolution, the theological civil war that violently pitted Egyptian god against god, priest against priest, which would certainly qualify as the ultimate manifestation of God’s “judgment against the Egyptian deities” (Exod.