Who was the Pharoah of Egypt during the Exodus?
Traditionally it’s assumed to be Ramses the great. But they arrived at this by going across from a bible timeline over to the Egyptian one.
Recently some Egytpologists are beginning to question this. Although it’s not a popular position. They believe that the Pharoah was Shishak. Shishak lived some 350 years after Ramses the Great took power. The show was really interesting and his evidense seemed really good but I’m not an Egyptologist. I’ll try and find some links
This is really interesting but Moses is an Egyptian name. You can see it in such Pahroah’s names as Tutmoses and Ahmoses. I think it means ‘son of’ I can’t find my notebook with the info
The story according to Peter James He’s the guy that is trying to take a second look at what has been set up. You see in general ‘People of the Book’ like the Ramses story better because it occured when Egypt was strong and powerful. Shishak ruled a much weaker Egypt. Anyway read it for yourself. If you want more try and find the video at your local University
Brother Rat writes:
I understand it means “child” (as in “child of _(god name)”, a widespread theophoros formula, the way the names “Theodore” = “gift of god” or “Godiva (God Gifu)” = “gift of God”. You can see where this idea comes from. So “Ramses” = “Ra Moses” = “child of Ra”, oe “Thutmose” = “Thoth Moses” = “child of Thoth”.
You can find information on this in (among other places) Sigmund Freud’s Moses and Monotheism. Read this with a grain of salt. Also see Elias Auerbach’s Moses.
It’s true that many see Ramses as the Pharaoh of the Oppression, and I suspect that has a lot to do with why the museum show “Ramses II” toured the States about fifteen years ago. But the identification is by no means generally accepted, even among conservative groups. But I can’t recall the names of any of the other candidates. As an agnostic type, myself, I don’t think any historical character was involved.
Ramesses II is generally seen as the Pharaoh of the Oppression (forcing the enslaved Israelites to build him treasure cities). Merneptah, his eldest surviving son (Ramesses died at about 90) is generally seen as the Pharaoh of the Exodus; he raised a stele proclaiming that he had destroyed Israel in 1235 BCE (his father’s monuments should also be taken with as much salt as is consistent with cardiovascular health).
According to the Torah Anthology by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, it was most likely Hemhoreb.
“Ramses” is mentioned in connection with the Jews as the name of a city they were forced to build (Exodus 1:11). I think somehow it is that which led to a popular belief that Ramses who is connected with the Exodus itself.
The problem with that, though, is that Shishak is one of the few pharoahs mentioned by name in the bible. Jeroboam flees to Shishak’s Egypt after King Solomon tries to kill him, and Shishak later attacks the kingdom of Judah and loots Jerusalem.
I think I may have gotten it backwards. Let me look more closely. (teach me to go on memory, always always google)
Traditionally it has been assumed that Shishak was Shoshenq I. But some Egyptologists are now debating whether or not this assingment of identity was correct. You see in Hebrew of the OT I believe that they wrote without vowels (I haven’t actually seen one but that’s how they write.) So Shshk and Shshnq were assumed to be variations of one name. So the question of who was Shishak is debatable. And boy is it, just do a search for Shishak Shoshenq in Google, but there’s no real edu websites. Peter James’ website Ok check that out. There’s an FAQ about Shishak-Shoshenq question.
So I think what he did was show was that Egyptian history could and should be compressed a few hundred years, which also compresses Hebrew history by some amount. Damn I wish I had that video still. It was really good. I think they still how it on the Travel Channel every now and then. Anyway I forget who he said were the Paharoahs of Exodus. But I believed him. His evidence was real good, I felt. Hey, I do have a BA in history, for all the good that does.