Who Was the Pharaoh of the Exodus?

Content:

• Summary
• The Pharaoh of the Exodus
• Explanation of the New Egyptian Chronology
• Criticism of the New Egyptian Chronology

Summary

The Bible doesn't tell us the names of who the Pharaohs were at the time of Moses.
The following chapters all give interesting and convincing suggestions as to who
the Pharaoh of the Exodus is, but their names are different. My personal opinion

is that the suggestion by Christopher Eames gives the correct Pharaohs at the time of Moses. If so, then Amenhotep II is the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

Why it can't be Ramesses II is explained in the following videos:

• Time 37:36–41:33 in Was There An Exodus from Egypt?
• Time 7:03–11:47 in Ancient Egypt's New Chronology . . ..
• Time 1:07:58–1:14:13 in EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY & BIBLICAL . . ..

The biblical Ramesses was rebuilt as the capital of Egypt under Ramesses II, when it probably also got its name, which is used in the Bible even before it got its name

just to locate its place (Exo 1:11, 12:37, Gen 47:11). This is called an anachronism.

The Pharaoh of the Exodus

Christopher Eames is a New Zealander, educated in the US, working in England,
who has a huge passion for Israel. Some of his best life experiences have been digging and traveling around Israel with his friends. He has always had a passion
for things buried in the earth – and no earth is more interesting than Israel’s!

See the video: Who Was the Pharaoh of the Exodus?

• Time   3:05–13:41: Introduction by Christopher Eames.
• Time 13:43–17:45: Akhenaten who turned toward Monotheism.
• Time 17:46–22:14: Amenhotep III during the 40 years in the wilderness.
• Time 22:14–24:46: Thutmose IV who wasn't the firstborn son.
• Time 24:47–26:59: Amenhotep II as the Pharaoh of the Exodus.
• Time 26:59–28:14: Thutmose III as the Pharaoh of the oppression.
• Time 28:15–29:46: Hatshepsut; Moses' stepmother; Pharaoh's daughter.
• Time 29:46–30:18: Thutmose III, part 2.
• Time 30:18–33:20: Amenhotep II, part 2.
• Time 33:21–34:31: Hatshepsut, part 2.
• Time 34:32–36:33: Amenhotep II, part 3.

See it described in detail in the the article: Who Was the Pharaoh of the Exodus?

It puts the Exodus in 1446 BC and Israel’s entrance into Canaan in 1406 BC.

Akhenaten turned towards Monotheism, specifically the worship of the sun god Aten. 

He renamed himself after the god, his original royal name was Amenhotep IV.

Akhenaten’s reign marked a time of major upheaval in Canaan.
The invasion of Canaan fits remarkably well with the biblical account
of Israel’s conquest of Canaan; the Promised Land, see Joshua.
It started during the reign of Akhenaten’s father, Amenhotep III.

An inscription on a pylon from the time of Amenhotep III mentions YHWH,
which is the earliest known mention of the famous name of the God of Israel.

Amenhotep III’s father and predecessor was Pharaoh Thutmose IV.
He publicly declared on the Dream Stele that he was divinely installed. Presumably because he wasn't the firstborn, the presumed heir to the throne
of Egypt. This is consistent with the biblical account of The tenth plague:
the death of the firstborn, which included the crown prince of Egypt.

The fact that the Pharaoh in the Exodus also survived The tenth plague logically suggests that he wasn't the firstborn either. Egyptian records reveal Amenhotep II, father of Thutmose IV, for not being the firstborn heir to the throne either.
This places Amenhotep II as the Pharaoh of the Exodus from Egypt.

Moses died at the age of 120, with his life divided into three 40-year periods:

• First, he was a prince in Egypt.
• Second, he lived in the desert of Midian. 
• Third, at the age of 80, he was called to deliver Israel from Egypt
  and took them, over a period of 40 years, to Canaan.

If Israel entered Canaan in the late 15th century (1446 BC),
Moses must have been born in the latter half of the 16th century.
This place the birth of Moses somewhere within the reign of Thutmose I.

Thutmose I fathered a fully royal daughter, Hatshepsut (born by his great royal wife, Ahmose), and a semi-royal son, Thutmose II (born by his minor wife, Mutnofret).
To secure his son's rightful place on the throne of Egypt, 
Thutmose I had his 18-year-old son marry his 24-year-old half-sister.

Thutmose II's reign lasted as little as three years. A discovery during his reign
sheds light on an Egyptian practice at this time, the killing of enemy boys.

Hatshepsut failed to produce a male heir for Thutmose II, who instead
fathered his successor, Thutmose III, through a concubine named Iset.
However, Thutmose III was only 2 years old when his father died, so Hatshepsut began a 22-year co-regency with Thutmose III 
and became a powerful Pharaoh in her own right.

Including his involvement with his stepmother Hatshepsut, Thutmose III 
reigned for 54 years, one of the longest in Egyptian history. As a sole monarch, 
Thutmose III set about establishing himself as arguably Egypt's greatest,
most powerful Pharaoh. He was undoubtedly Egypt's greatest conqueror.
Through his many campaigns, this "Napoleon of Egypt" (as he is sometimes called) created the largest empire Egypt had ever seen. During this long period of time,
it's a good chronological fit that Moses was in the royal court of Egypt and then fled into the wilderness of Midian where he lived for a significant period of time.

If Thutmose III preceded the Pharaoh in the Exodus from Egypt, his firstborn son and successor to the throne, the royal prince Amenemhat, would probably be
the Pharaoh of the Exodus. But in Egyptian records, Amenemhat is barely
a historical footnote, since Thutmose III’s firstborn son died before his father.
When Pharaoh Thutmose III died, the throne of Egypt was inherited by a son
who wasn't the firstborn; Amenhotep II, the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

Egyptian records show that Pharaoh Amenhotep II ascended the throne at the age of 18 and reigned for 26 years. Several royal inscriptions show that he initiated three massive military campaigns; these conquests occurred in the first half of his reign,
in years 3, 7, and 9. During his third campaign, he apparently imported more than 101,000 captives (the highest number of slaves brought into Egypt by any Pharaoh).
This pharaoh was notorious for his cruelty towards captured enemies and prisoners.

But after his third campaign we have almost no record of his reign. The same is true of his monuments. Of the monuments we have from his reign, some are apparently only partially complete. He died in his early 40s, an age confirmed by analysis
of his mummy. He warned of the dangers of foreign "magicians" late in his reign.

More than 2,000 years ago, Manetho and Chaeremon, both Egyptian priests
and historians, insisted that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was Amenophis (Amenhotep). Amenophis is the Classical Greek form of the name Amenhotep.

This means that Amenhotep II was Pharaoh during the Exodus from Egypt,

and Moses' stepmother in Egypt was the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut.

Explanation of the New Egyptian Chronology

New Chronology (Rohl) is an alternative Egyptian chronology developed
by the English Egyptologist David Rohl and other scholars (see John Bimson).

It's re-dating Egyptian kings of the Nineteenth Dynasty to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty,
bringing forward conventional dating by up to 350 years.

It directly affects the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt. Rohl argues that this
would allow scholars to identify some of the most important events
in the Old Testament with events in the archaeological record.
It makes it possible to identify some of the well-known biblical characters
with historical figures appearing in contemporary ancient texts. 
Rohl's view is that the biblical text (like all other ancient documents) should be treated as a potentially reliable historical source until it can be shown otherwise.

The main reason for Rohl's re-dating is as follows: He claims that the identification
of "Shishaq King of Egypt" (1 Kings 14:25–26, 2 Chronicles 12:2–9)
as Shoshenq I is based on faulty inference. Rohl instead argues that Shishaq 
should be identified in the Bible as Ramesses II, which moves forward
the date of Ramesses II's reign by up to 350 years.

Rohl disputes that the military activities of Shoshenq I match the biblical account of Shishaq on the grounds that the campaigns of the two kings
are completely different and that Jerusalem doesn't appear
in the inscription of Shoshenq I as a subjected town.

The New Chronology (Rohl) therefore rejects the identification of Shoshenq I 
as the biblical Shishaq, and instead offers Ramesses II as the real historical figure behind the biblical Shishaq. Ramesses II, who campaigned against Israel, 
was also nicknamed Shysha. Due to a change of a letter character in the meantime, the name Shysha became Shishaq in the Bible,
which means that they are the same person. Pottery is used for dating.

This means that Rohl moves the Israelite sojourn, Exodus, and conquest
from the end of the Late Bronze Age to the latter part of the Middle Bronze Age
(from the Nineteenth Dynasty to the Thirteenth Dynasti/Hyksos period).
Rohl argues that this solves many of the problems associated
with the historicity question of the biblical narratives. 

He uses the archaeological reports from Avaris in the eastern Nile Delta,
which show that a large Semitic-speaking population lived there
during the Thirteenth Dynasti. These people were culturally similar
to the population of Middle Bronze Age (MB IIA) Canaan. 
Rohl identifies these Semites as the people on whom
the biblical tradition of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt was based.

Towards the end of the Middle Bronze Age (late MB IIB) archaeologists
have uncovered a series of city destructions, which John Bimson and Rohl 
have argued correspond closely to the cities attacked by the Israelite tribes
in the Joshua narrative. Most importantly, the heavily fortified city of Jericho
was destroyed and abandoned at this time.

Rohl shows this and provides evidence that the Exodus isn't a myth but a historical fact, see in The Biblical Exodus. Fairytale or Historical Fact? (by David Rohl):

• Time      0:40–   15:15: Why Shoshenq I can't be the biblical Shishaq.
• Time    15:16–   19:04: Why this dating is so important.
• Time    19:05–   31:13: Why Ramesses II is the biblical Shishaq.
• Time    38:30–   54:55: Ramesses II defeats the Israelites.
• Time    57:33–1:12:07: Why academical archaeologists dismiss Exodus.
• Time 1:12:08–1:14:22: Made assumptions for New Chronology (Rohl).
• Time 1:14:23–1:30:25: The Israelite stay in Avaris (the land of Goshen).
• Time 1:30:26–1:47:37: Joseph.
• Time 1:49:40–1:54:10: The Proto-Sinaitic script alphabet.
• Time 1:54:11–1:59:57: Moses.
• Time 1:59:58–2:02:52: The Egyptian collapse and the Hyksos invasion.
• Time 2:02:53–2:14:57: The new timeline, Jericho, Hazor, and Shechem.

See also Was There An Exodus from Egypt?

• Time      2:26–   5:06: The city of Avaris.
• Time      5:07– 15:48: Joseph.
• Time    15:49– 18:20: Rapid growth of Semitic people in Avaris.
• Time    18:21– 20:26: The time of slavery in Avaris.
• Time    20:27– 24:00: The killing of the newborn boys and Moses.
• Time    24:01– 25:30: The so-called wrong time period.
• Time    25:31– 37:30: Moses and the judgment of Egypt.
• Time    37:31– 41:34: Problem having Ramesses II at the Exodus.
• Time    41:35– 43:33: Excavations supporting the Exodus.
• Time    43:34→        : The Egyptian collapse and the invasion of Hyksos.

See also Evidence that the Jews were in Egypt and that King David has Existed.

Rohl answers questions about New Chronology (Rohl) 
in Ancient Egypt's New Chronology by Egyptologist Dr. Rohl:

• Time      1:11–    2:28: Background information about Dr. Rohl.
• Time      2:46–    4:50: Questioning the conventional chronology.
• Time      5:37–    6:40: Implications for Egyptian dynasties.
• Time      7:03–  11:47: Problem having Ramesses II at the Exodus.
• Time    12:12–  13:07: Why the Bible is a reliable historical source.
• Time    13:39–  16:05: Circular arguments in conventional chronology.
• Time    16:33–  18:52: How to reconstruct the chronology.
• Time    19:38–  21:58: Carbon dating versus archaeology.
• Time    22:35–  28:26: The Amarna letters.
• Time    28:51–  34:15: The Greek dark age.

Rohl identifies, among other things:

• Amenemhat III as Pharaoh in the time of Joseph, who was his vizier. 
• Sobekhotep III as "the king who didn't know Joseph" (Exo (2 Mos) 1:8).
• Neferhotep I as a very powerful Pharaoh who continued to enslave them.
• Sobekhotep IV as the Pharaoh from whom Moses fled to Midian.
  He was Moses' stepfather and a very powerful Pharaoh.
• Dedumose II as the Pharaoh of the Exodus.
• Ramesses II (nickname = Shysha) as Shishaq.

Dates proposed by Rohl for these Egyptian monarchs (all dates BC,
NC=New Chronology (Rohl), CC=Conventional Egyptian Chronology):

• Senusret III:      NC: 1698–1660. CC: 1878–1839.
• Amenemhat III: NC: 1678–1634. CC: 1860–1814. Joseph was his vizier.
• Sobekhotep III: NC: 1568–1563. Enslaved the Israelites.
• Neferhotep I:     Reigned after Sobekhotep III.
• Sihathor:           Reigned less than a year as co-regent with Neferhotep I.
• Sobekhotep IV:  NC: 1530–1508. Moses fled from him.
                           Reigned after Neferhotep I and his co-regent Sihathor.
• Dedumose II:    NC:1450–1446. The Exodus took place in 1447.
                          He was Pharaoh about 45 years after Sobekhotep IV. 
                           He became the last Pharaoh of that dynasty.
• Ramesses II:     NC:943–877. CC: 1279–1213. Same as Shishaq.

Criticism of the New Egyptian Chronology

The Christian Egyptologist Gavin Cox provides an alternative explanation
of Egyptian chronology based on the Bible. It differs from Rohl's chronology.

See Cox's description explained in EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY & BIBLICAL HISTORY |
 THE GENESIS SERIES (EPISODE 41):

• Time 1:07:58–1:14:13: The Ramesses II problem.
• Time 1:14:14–1:16:05: The Israelite stay in Avaris (the land of Goshen).
• Time 1:16:06–1:19:01: At the time of the Hyksos.
• Time 1:19:01–1:19:58: The time of the Exodus.
• Time 1:20:00–1:21:39: Chronological synchronism (Shishaq).
• Time 1:23:11–1:27:03: Problems with C-14 dating, part 1.
• Time 1:34:02–1:35:07: Incorrect assumptions.
• Time 1:35:08–1:39:52: Problems with C-14 dating, part 2.
• Time 1:40:09–1:41:41: The Bible is trustworthy.
• Time 1:42:09–1:44:04: Why the Bible is neglected.
• Time 1:44:05–1:47:34: At the time of the Hyksos.
• Time 1:47:52–1:49:05: Thutmose III was the Pharaoh of the Exodus.
• Time 1:49:37–1:51:43: The change of a paradigm.
• Time 1:52:25–1:57:17: Scientific evidence for a chronology.
• Time 1:57:37–1:59:36: Using pottery for dating.
• Time 1:59:51–2:01:50: Chronological synchronism.
• Time 2:02:30–2:10:13: Problems with C-14 dating, part 3.
• Time 2:16:22–2:19:16: Thutmose III, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten.
• Time 2:19:53–2:20:30:The lack of evidence for the Exodus.
• Time 2:21:08–2:21:38: Joseph in Egypt.
• Time 2:22:08–2:23:47: The Hittites.
• Time 2:24:04–2:24:53: How it affects other nations chronology.
• Time 2:25:28–2:26:52: The Biblical chronology is reliable.

Then also see the times 38:47–41:39, 43:09–44:00, 48:28–48:55 for C-14 dating

in the video Science Confirms Biblical Creation | Dr. Jason Lisle . . ..

Cox's differs in the following way with Rohl. Cox believes that:

1. The identification of "Shishaq King of Egypt"
   (1 Kings 14:25–26, 2 Chronicles 12:2–9) as Shoshenq I is correct. 
2. The Hyksos ruled Egypt when the Israelites arrived and allowed them
   to stay there because the Hyksos were a Semitic people,
   like the Israelites. Rohl, on the other hand, believes that the Hyksos
   conquered Egypt later when Egypt had no army to defend them.
3. Thutmose III was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. 
   Rohl believes Dedumose II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus.
4. Hatshepsut was probably Moses' stepmother.

See also Scientific Proofs of the Bible.