Moses and The Israelites

One of the most troubling problems for biblical archaeologists was the lack of archaeological evidence for Moses and the Israelites in Egypt. Prior to the Exodus, there were hundreds of thousands of Israelites in Egypt, yet little or no evidence of their existence has been found, even though the sojourn is recorded as lasting for centuries in the Scriptures!

Aaron is an older brother of Moses, a Levite and the first high priest. The Islamic sources have very scant details of Aaron, but from the Bible, we know that Aaron was the eldest son of Amram and Jochebed, a daughter of Levi (Exodus 6:20). Aaron is three years older than Moses but younger than Miriam (Exodus 2:1,4; 7:7).

The biblical chronology dates the birth of Moses to around 1527 BC. In the new chronology of Egypt, the pharaoh on the throne of Egypt was Neferhotep I of the 13th Dynasty.

Ar: Musa, Heb: Mosheh ( ). Corresponds to the Biblical Moses who brought the Taurat (Torah). Moses is called the Speaker with God in Islam; the name of Moses occurs 136 times in the Qur'an, the highest among all the prophets.

Artapanus writes that a pharaoh named Palmanothes was persecuting the Israelites. His daughter Merris adopted a Hebrew child who grew up to be called prince Mousos. Merris married a pharaoh Khenephres. Prince Mousos grew up to administer the land on behalf of this pharaoh. He led a military campaign against the Ethiopians who were invading Egypt; however, upon his return, Khenephres grew jealous of his popularity. Mousos then fled to Arabia to return when Khenephres died and lead the Israelites to freedom. It may be only a Mosaic story with similarities to the biblical account, yet the only pharaoh with the name Khenephres was Sobekhotep IV, who took the name Khaneferre at his coronation. He reigned soon after Neferhotep I of the 13th Dynasty, as mentioned above, the pharaoh in power at Moses' birth!

Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews', with access to very old manuscripts and writing in AD 93, also mentioned Moses' Ethiopian or Kushite war. Here, Moses led an Egyptian army down the Nile valley, past the Third Cataract, deep into Kush (modern Ethiopia). In the British Museum is a stela (page 261, fig. 289) which tells of a 13th Dynasty pharaoh undertaking a campaign south into the region of Kush. That pharaoh is none other than Khaneferre, the step-father of Moses according to Artapanus. He is the only 13th Dynasty pharaoh who is recorded as having campaigned into Upper Nubia or Ethiopia. At Kerma on the Nile an official Egyptian building was found, outside of which was discovered a statue of Khaneferre, so dating this building to the 13th Dynasty. This is many hundreds of kilometers south of the known boundaries of 13th Dynasty Egypt and may have been a governor's residence'. It would have been built to secure Egyptian interests in the area after the military victory of the Egyptians led by Moses, as this was the only Kushite war at that time with Egypt. As Moses was a prince of Egypt and was 40 years old according to the Bible when he fled to Arabia, he could certainly have led this military operation - an Israelite leading an Egyptian army to war! If this part of Josephus' account is true then it adds weight to the rest of his account of the life of Moses and also gives us some firmer evidence of the existence of this charismatic leader!

Chapter I: The Bloodline Begins:

It is now generally acknowledged that the opening chapters of the Old Testament do not accurately represent the early history of the world, as they appear to suggest. More precisely, the tell the story of a family - a family that in time became a race comprising various tribes; a race that in turn became the Hebrew nation. If Adam can ever be said to have been the first of a type (notwithstanding the whole of human evolution behind him), then he was certainly the progenitor of the Hebrews and the tribes of Israel.

Two of the most intriguing characters of the Old Testament are Joseph and Moses. Each played an important role in the formation of the Hebrew Nation, and both have historical identities that can be examined quite independently of the Bible. Genesis 41:39-43 tells how Joseph was made Governor of Egypt.

And Pharoah said unto Joseph...Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled; only in that throne will I be greater than thou...and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Referring to Moses, Exodus 11:3 informs us similarly that:

Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharoah's servants, and in the sight of the people.

Yet for all of this status and prominence neither Joseph nor Moses appear in any Egyptian record under either of those names.

The annals of Rameses II (1304-1237 BC) specify that Semitic people were settled in the land of Goshen. It is further explained that they went there from Canaan for want of food. But why should Rameses' scribes mention this settlement at Goshen? According to standard Bible chronology the Hebrews went to Egypt some three centuries before the time of Rameses, and made their Exodus in about 1491 BC, long before he came to the throne. So, by virtue of this first-hand scribal record, the standard Bible chronology as generally promotes is seen to be incorrect.

It is traditionally presumed that Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt in the 1720's BC, and was made Governor by the Pharoah a decade or so later. Afterwards, his father Jacob (Israel) and 70 family members followed him into Goshen to escape the famine in Canaan. Notwithstanding this, Genesis 47:11, Exodus 1:11 and Number 33:3 all refer to 'the land of Rameses' (in Egyptian, 'the house of Rameses'). This was a complex of grain storehouses built by the Israelites for Rameses II in Goshen some 300 after they were supposed to be there!

It transpires, therefore, that the alternative 'Jewish Reckoning'  is more accurate that the 'Standard Chronology'; Joseph went to Egypt not in the early 18th Century BC but in the early 15th Century BC. There he was appointed Chief MInister to Tuthmosis IV (ruled c. 1413-1405 BC). To the Egyptians, however, Joseph the Vizir was known as Yuya, and his story is particularly revealing not just in relation to the Biblical account of Joseph but also in respect of Moses. The Cairo-born historian and linguist Ahmed Osman has made an in-depth study of these personalities in their contemporary Egyptian environment, and his findings are of great significance.

When Pharoah Tuthmosis died, his son married his sibling sister Sitamun (as was the Pharonic tradition) so that he could inherit the throne as Pharoah Amenhotep III. Shortly afterwards he also married Tiye, daughter of the Chief Minister (Joseph/Yuya). It was decreed, however, that no son born to Tiye could inherit the throne. Because of the overall length of her father Joseph's governorship there was a general fear that the Israelites were gaining too much power in Egypt. So when Tiye became pregnant, the edict was given that her child should be killed at birth if a son. Tiye's Jewish relatives lived at Goshen, and she herself owned a summer palace a little upstream at Sarw, where she went to have her baby. She did indeed bear a son  but the royal midwives conspired with Tiye to float the child downstream in a reed basket to the house of her father's half-brother Levi.

The boy, Aminadab (born around 1394 BC), was duly educated in the eastern delta country by the Egyptian priests of Ra. In his teenage years he went to live at Thebes. By that time, his mother had acquired more influence than the senior queen, Sitamun, who had never borne a son and heir to the Pharoah, only a daughter who was called Nefertiti. In Thebes, Aminadab could not accept the notion of Aten, an omnipresent God who had no image. Aten was thus an equivalent of the Hebrew "Adonai" (a title borrowed from the Phoenician and meaning 'Lord') in line with Israelite teachings. At that time Aminadab (Hebrew equivalent of Amenhotep - 'Amun is pleased') changed his name to Akhenaten (servant of Aten).

Pharoah Amenhotep then suffered a period of ill health. Because there was no direct male heir to the royal house, Akhenaten married his half-sister Nefertiti in order to rule as co-regent during this difficult time. When in due course Amenhotep III died, Akhenaten was able to succeed as Pharoah - officially called Amenhotep IV.

Akhenaten and Nefertiti had six daughters and a son, Tutankhaten. Pharoah Akhenaten closed all the temples of the Egyptian gods and built new temples to Aten. He also ran a household that was distinctly domestic - quite different from the kingly norm in ancient Egypt. One many fronts he became unpopular - particularly with the priests of the former national deity Amun (or Amen) and of the sun god Ra (or Re). Plots against his life proliferated. Loud were the threats of armed insurrection if he did not allow the traditional gods to be worshipped alongside the faceless Aten. but Akhenaten refused, and was eventually forced to abdicate in short-term favour of his cousin Smenkhkare, who was succeeded by Akhenaten's son Tutankhaten. On taking the throne at the age of about 11, Tutankhaten was obliged to change his name to Tutankhamun. He, in turn, was only to live and rule for a further nine or ten years, meeting his death while still comparatively young.

Akhenaten, meanwhile, was banished from Egypt. He fled with some retainers to the remote safety of Sanai, taking with him his royal sceptre topped with a brass serpent. To his supporters he remained very much the rightful monarch, the heir to the throne from which he had been ousted, and he was still regarded by them as the Mose, Meses or Mosis (heir/born of) - as in Tuthmosis (born of Tuth) and Rameses (fashioned of Ra).

Evidence from Egypt indicates that Moses (Akhenaten led his people from Pi-Rameses (near modern Kantra) southward, through Sanai, towards Lake Timash. This was extremely marshy territory and, although manageable on foot with some difficulty, any pursuing horses and chariots would have foundered disastrously.

Among the retainers who fled with Moses were the sons and families of Jacob (Israel). Then at the instigation of their leader, they constructed the tabernacle at the foot of Mount Sanai. Once Moses had died, they began their invasion of the country left by their forefathers so long before. But Canaan (Palestine) had changed considerably in the meantime, having been infiltrated by waves of Philistines and Phoenicians. The records tell of great sea battles, and of massive armies marching to war. At length, the Hebrews (under their new leader, Joshua) were successful and, once across the Jordan, they took Jericho from the Canaanites, gaining a real foothold in their traditional Promised Land.

Following Joshua's death, the ensuing period of rule by appointed 'judges' was a catalogue of Jewish disaster until the disparate Hebrew tribes united under their first king, Saul, in about 1055 BC. with the conquest of Palestine (Canaan) as complete as possible, David of Bethlehem - a descendant of Abraham - married Saul's daughter to become King of Judah (corresponding to half the Palestinian territory). By 1048 BC, he had also acquired Israel (the balance of the territory) becoming overall King of the Jews. The Bloodline of the Holy Grail had begun.

As Moses grew to adulthood in Egypt, he assumed the title of Tutmoses II as heir to the throne of Egypt, but when he left Egypt after committing murder, he was replaced, and another man assumed that title. But statues of Moses as an adult apparently do still exist! On the left below is Moses as a child, and on the right is Moses as an adult, as Thutmoses II, prince of Egypt, before he left Egypt for Midian!  (Images of statues in various museums support this relationship)

FROM: http://www.users.bigpond.com/MSN/gary_fletcher/akhenmoses.html

Six Princesses: The Daughter of Akhenaten

This shrine stela also from the early part of the Amarna period depicts Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Princesses Meretaten, Mekeaten, and Ankhesenpaaten worshiping the Aten as a family. Dorothea Arnold in her article "Aspects of the Royal Female Image during the Amarna Period" discusses the plethora of reliefs depicting intimate family moments. While Akhenaten leans forward to give Meretaten a kiss, Mekeaten plays on her mother's lap and gazes up lovingly.

At the same time Ankhesenpaaten, the smallest, sits on Nefertiti's shoulder and fiddles with her earring. Arnold claims that the shrine stela "relates to the Aten religion's concept of creation" in which the King and Queen are viewed as "a primeval 'first pair." At the top of the composition, the sun-god, Aten, represented by a raised circle, extends his life-giving rays to the Royal Family. The relief uses the concept of the "window of appearances" or a snapshot of life. The figures are framed by a fictive structure which suggests the form of a square window. Aldred in his book Egyptian Art calls this "a brief moment in the lives of five beings as they are caught in an act of mutual affection". In actuality, the royal palace at Akhetaten had a window from which the royal couple could observe the city and address their subjects.

It is accepted that Akhenaten and Nefertiti had six daughters. No son was ever shown in reliefs.

The names of the daughters were; Meritaten (1349 BC) - Meketaten and Ankhenspaaten (1346 BC) - Neferneferuaten (1339 BC) - Neferneferure and Setepenre (1338).

In 1337 BC the official family, with all six of Nefertiti's daughters was shown for the last time.

In 1336 BC Meketaten died in childbirth.

In 1335 Nefertiti seemed to vanish, assumed dead.

This limestone relief found in the Royal Tomb at Amarna depicts Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and two of their daughters making an offering to the sun-disk Aten. Akhenaten and Nefertiti carry flowers to be laid on the table beneath the "life-giving" rays of the Aten. The figures are carved in the grotesque style, a characteristic of the early half of the Amarna period. Nefertiti, sporting the double plume headdress mentioned in the stela dedication, is the petite figure placed behind her larger scale husband. The compostion mirrors early artistic representations of the royal couple. To emphasize the strength and power of the pharaoh, Egyptian iconographical tradition required the female figure to be smaller in scale than the male.

Akhenaten's minor wives includeD Merytaten, Kiya, Mekytaten, and Akhesenpaaten.

Akhesenpaaten was also a wife to her brother King Tut.

The Exodus: Moses' birth and education - original Biblical texts

Exodus 2

1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.

3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.

4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.

6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.

7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?

8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.

9 And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the women took the child, and nursed it.

10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

King James Bible