Ramses II of 19th Century BCE and Thutmose III of 18th Century BCE, Contenders of Exodus History Building Pithom and Ramesses

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

A family group of 70  children of Israel (we know him as Jacob) went to Egypt since their land in Canaan had been hit by a terrible drought, and their crops could no longer grow.  They did so well there with their sheep that the pharaoh became most worried. 

  Joseph, Jacob's son by Rachel,  on throne-chair, 2nd in command, in charge of all the land of Egypt, with a main project of the granneries.  Joseph was given the pharaoh's ring he wore, dressed in fine linen, a gold chain around his neck, and rode in the pharaoh's 2nd best chariot.  When he rode by, people yelled, Avrech! He re-named Joseph as Zaphenath-paneah and he gave him a wife, Asenath, the daughter ofPoti-phera.  Joseph's days were before this pharaoh's knowledge of previous history. These days were part of the first days of a 400 year span of living in Egypt.   

 He didn't know Joseph, the son of Jacob who had become the 2nd to the pharaoh of the day, so this was another pharaoh.  This one figured that there were more of these new people than there were of Egyptians and was afraid that they'd join Egypt's enemies and make war on them.                             

They settled in Goshen in lower Egypt near the mouth of the Nile River.  The time of the Hebrews in Egypt including slavery was 400 years. This pharaoh only knew Hebrews as the lower-classed slaves.  Maybe several pharaoh's were involved during the 400 years.   

STORE-CITIES (עָרֵ֤י מִסְכְּנﯴת׃֙, “cities of storage”; i.e. “magazines”). Under the lashes of taskmasters the Israelites built Pithom and Raamses as “store-cities” for Pharaoh (Exod 1:11). Pithom has been identified as Tell et-Retabah and Raamses as ancient Tanis. 

Solomon built a number of “store-cities” in Hamath (1 Kings 9:19) and in places throughout his realm not recorded in the Bible (1 Kings 9:19; 2 Chron 8:4, 6). During Baasha’s reign Ben-hadad concentrated upon and took the “store-cities” of Naphtali along with other cities (2 Chron 16:4). Jehoshaphat, in a program of strengthening Judah, built both “store-cities” and fortresses (17:12). Hezekiah also promoted the construction of “storehouses” (miskenoṭ; i.e., storage facilities, 2 Chron 32:28).

The “store-city” apparently had its background in the practice of Egypt to provide storage for the excessive yield of a “fat” year as a reserve against the poor yield of a “lean” year, as was the case in Joseph’s time. The storage facilities or “store-cities” are perhaps illustrated in the long, rectangular, room-like structures found at Beth-shemesh, Lachish, and other places. Beginning with Solomon and throughout the reigns of the later kings, these cities were used for storing grains and oil to be sent later to the palace personnel in Jerusalem or Samaria (for Jerusalem, see 1 Kings 4:7, 22, 23) or to be collected as an important part of government revenue, as is known from the ostraca of Samaria and other sources.

            BUILDING PITHOM AND RAMSES

The tribe of Israel were taken as slaves at this point and enslaved there, and their task was to build the storage cities of Pithom and Ramses; work with mortar and bricks, every labor of the field, and with everything they were forced to do, were treated with unbearable harshness. 

Pithom,  located near Ismailia in Al-Ismāʿīliyyah muḥāfaẓah (governorate) and mentioned in the Bible (Exodus 1:11) as one of the treasure houses built for the pharaoh by the Hebrews prior to the Exodus. Although Pithom has been identified as Tall al-Maskhūṭah, excavations at the site have revealed that, aside from an unfortified outpost of the Hyksos period (see ancient Egypt: The Second Intermediate period), the earliest layers do not predate the 7th century BCE. The monuments of Ramses II that in the past have been used as a dating criterion for the site were apparently transported to Tall al-Maskhūṭah, perhaps by the kings of the 30th dynasty (380–343 BCE; see ancient Egypt: The 28th, 29th, and 30th dynasties), to adorn this later city. This lessens Ramses being THE pharaoh of our history.  This construction at the end of the 7th century may even had been carried out by Pharaoh Necho II, possibly as part of his uncompleted canal building project from the Nile to the Gulf of Suez.  However, This name comes from Hebrew פיתום‎ Pithom which was taken from the Late Egyptian name *Pi-ʔAtōm (from earlier *Par-ʔAtāma) "House of Atum".

Pi-Ramesses"House of Ramesses") was the new capital built by the Nineteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC) at Qantir, near the old site of Avaris. The city had served as a summer palace under Seti I (c. 1290–1279 BC), and may have been founded by Ramesses I (c. 1292–1290 BC) while he served under Horemheb.

Midwives listening to pharaoh but secretly not complying 

Exodus 1:22.  

                Moses hidden in bullrushes in basket                                                                                       

Midwives Shifrah and Puah were called forth and told to kill all sons of these Hebrew women, but the midwives were non-compliant.  Moses's mother had hidden him in a basket and set it in the Nile River.  They were living in Goshen at the time.   

              princess finding Moses in basket, Mirium with her

Pharaoh's first command regarding infanticide was limited to the midwives (Exodus 1:16). Now Pharaoh expands his command to "all his people," or all the Egyptians. Every newborn Israeli son was to be thrown into the Nile River. He essentially decreed for the mass genocide of all infant Jewish males as told in  Exodus 1:22 . 

Moses or a Moses lived in the 13th century BCE.   Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE; Jerome suggested 1592 BCE, and James Ussher suggested 1571 BCE as his birth year. 1592-1391= a difference of about 201 years using Jerome. So,we have a difference of about 200 years in our calculations. 

Commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Egyptianpharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty. The 19th century BCE was the century that lasted from 1900 BCE to 1801 BCE. .Along with Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty, he is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom, which itself was the most powerful period of ancient Egypt.  The 18th century BCE would run from 1800 BCE to 1701 BCE

                                        

The pharaoh ordering the deaths of the male babies could 

have been Thutmose III who was the son of Thutmose II by a

 secondary wife, Iset (or Aset). This is my pick of the pharaoh

 because he had a son who had died.   Thutmose II was the 

son of Thutmose I and a minor wife, Mutnofret.  There were 

several pharaoh's involved in the Israelites' period in Egypt. 

The most important pharaoh is thought to have been Ramses II  (ca 1303–ca 1213 B.C.)  non-Jewish math .  In fact, he is the 1st that researchers thought was the pharaoh of the Exodus history.  This was 3,326 years ago!  

"Though scholars generally do not recognize the biblical portrayal of the Exodus as an actual historical event, various historical pharaohs have been proposed as the corresponding ruler at the time the story takes place, with Ramesses II as the most popular candidate for Pharaoh of the Exodus. He is cast in this role in the 1944 novella The Tables of the Law by Thomas Mann. Although not a major character, Ramesses appears in Joan Grant's So Moses Was Born, a first-person account from Nebunefer, the brother of Ramose, which paints a picture of the life of Ramose from the death of Seti, replete with the power play, intrigue, and assassination plots of the historical record, and depicting the relationships with Bintanath, Tuya, Nefertari, and Moses.

In film, Ramesses is played by Yul Brynner in Cecil B. DeMille's classic The Ten Commandments (1956). Here Ramesses is portrayed as a vengeful tyrant as well as the main antagonist of the film, ever scornful of his father's preference for Moses over "the son of [his] body". The animated film The Prince of Egypt (1998) also features a depiction of Ramesses (voiced by Ralph Fiennes, for both the speaking and the singing), portrayed as Moses' adoptive brother, and ultimately as the film's villain with essentially the same motivations as in the earlier 1956 film. Joel Edgerton played Ramesses in the 2014 film Exodus: Gods and Kings. Sérgio Marone plays Ramesses in the 2015–2016 Brazilian telenovela series Os Dez Mandamentos (English: 'Moses and the Ten Commandments').

In the 2013 miniseries The Bible, he is portrayed by Stewart Scudamore."

Resource: Torah, Stone Edition,  Exodus 

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/03/important-resources-used-to-date-exodus.html

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/03/when-egypt-ruled-immigrants-came-from.html

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/ramses-ii

https://www.britannica.com/place/Pithom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pithom#:~:text=This%20construction%20at%20the%20end,to%20the%20Gulf%20of%20Suez.

https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Store-Cities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_(Genesis)#:~:text=Impressed%20with%20Joseph's%20interpretations%2C%20Pharaoh,(Gen%2041%3A41).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi-Ramesses

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_II

The Hyksos of Egypt and the Exodus

 Nadene Goldfoot                                      

A man described as "Abisha the Hyksos"
(𓋾𓈎𓈉 ḥḳꜣ-ḫꜣswt, Heqa-kasut for "Hyksos"), leading a group of Aamu.
Tomb of Khnumhotep II (circa 1900 BC).
This is one of the earliest known uses of the term "Hyksos".

The term "Hyksos" is derived, from the Egyptian expression 𓋾 meaning "rulers [of] foreign lands".Hyksos  "ruler(s) of foreign lands"; Ancient Greek: Ὑκσώς, Ὑξώς) is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BCE). 1500 BCE is the date that Simcha Jacobovici, archaeologist and historian,  declares to be the date of the Exodus led by Moses.   

Hyksos in hieroglyphs
ḥḳꜣ-ḫꜣsw / ḥḳꜣw-ḫꜣswt,[17][18] "hekau khasut"[4][b] "Hyksos" Ruler(s) of the foreign countries

The first century AD Jewish historian Josephus gives the name as meaning "shepherd kings" or "captive kings" in his Contra Apion (Against Apion), where he describes the Hyksos as Jews as they appeared in the Hellenistic Egyptian historian Manetho. Josephus's rendition may arise from a later Egyptian pronunciation of ḥḳꜣ-ḫꜣswt as ḥḳꜣ-šꜣsw, which was then understood to mean "lord of shepherds." 

In his epitome of Manetho, Josephus connected the Hyksos with the Jews, but he also may have called them Arabs. In their own epitomes of Manetho, the Late antique historians Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius say that the Hyksos came from Phoenicia. Until the excavation and discovery of Tell El-Dab'a (the site of the Hyksos capital Avaris) in 1966, historians relied on these accounts for the Hyksos period.  According to ancient classical authors, the Phoenicians were a people who occupied the coast of the Levant (eastern Mediterranean). Their major cities were Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad. These cities are in today's Lebanon, which is now falling apart as a country due to the Hezbollah terrorists who have taken it over.  

           We believe these are Israelites entering Egypt, now understood as the foreign Hyksos. All their clothing is woven with patterns and colors, similar to Joseph's coat of many colors.  Jacob was starting a trend.  They had fled to Egypt at a time of famine due to a drought that had hit Canaan and were led there by Jacob, leader of his family of 70 dry Israelites.   Picture above is from this panel.  They remained until they had multiplied, scaring the Egyptians of their large numbers that caused them to become Egyptian slaves.  Altogether, they were in Egypt 400 years before the Exodus began in 1500-1311 BCE.  The difference of 189 years ended 40 years later by arriving in Canaan with Joshua leading the final number of 601,730 Israelites of 12 tribes of Jacob.  It actually was 603,550 people who had left Egypt.  They had a loss of 1,820 along the way as it was rough going, fighting along the way with natural dangers besides.  

         Joseph wearing his coat of many colors that his father had made for him special.  

Wouldn't Joseph, 11th son of Jacob, be the 1st Hyksos ruler in Egypt?  He was bought as a slave by Potiphar, chief of Pharaoh's household, but imprisoned on a false accusation brought by Potiphar's wife.  His reputation as an interpreter of dreams eventually reached the pharaoh (king) who released him from prison and was so impressed that Joseph was appointed viceroy (just under the pharaoh).  Joined by his father and brothers (12 tribes of Jacob)  he received grazing land in Goshen, thus beginning the Israelite settlement in Egypt.  The story of Joseph has been dated during the Hyksos domination of Egypt of the 18th to 16th centuries BCE.  

                                            A fragmentary statue of Ahmose I, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The pharaoh in this history was Ahmose I.  pharaoh and founder of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. He was a member of the Theban royal house, the son of pharaoh Seqenenre Tao and brother of the last pharaoh of the 17th dynasty, Kamose.

In the Bible, the pharaoh's daughter raised Moses (One of the reasons for associating Moses with various pharaohs is because of the shared name “mose” or “moses” in their monikers. The biblical definition of “Moses,”  משה Mosheh in the Hebrew, is given simply as “drawn,” as at Exodus 2:10:)as her own after the baby was fished out of the river (Exodus 2:10); her other son is thus the older stepbrother of Moses, with the theory that the name Ahmose means “brother of Moses,” and therefore it was during the reign of pharaoh Ahmose I that the patriarch lived.  This takes care of the naysayer who said, " Furthermore, if the date for a “historical” Moses in the 15th or 13th century were accurate, then he could not have been the brother of a pharaoh from the 16th century"and  Egyptologists are certain that the name means “born of the moon” or “the moon has given birth.

 During the reign of his father or grandfather, Thebes rebelled against the Hyksos, the rulers of Lower Egypt. When he was seven years old, his father was killed, and he was about ten when his brother died of unknown causes after reigning only three years. Ahmose I assumed the throne after the death of his brother, and upon coronation became known as nb-pḥtj-rꜥ "The Lord of Strength is Ra".

The details of the 10 plagues that Moses brought on the Egyptians because of Pharaoh belligerence against freeing the slaves could account for some of these deaths.  

During his reign, Ahmose completed the conquest and expulsion of the Hyksos from the Nile Delta, restored Theban rule over the whole of Egypt and successfully reasserted Egyptian power in its formerly subject territories of Nubia and Canaan. The archaeological evidence for an Egyptian presence in Canaan outside Gaza seems to start with Thutmose III. He then reorganized the administration of the country, reopened quarries, mines and trade routes and began massive construction projects of a type that had not been undertaken since the time of the Middle Kingdom. This building program culminated in the construction of the last pyramid built by native Egyptian rulers. 

Ahmose's reign laid the foundations for the New Kingdom, under which Egyptian power reached its peak. His reign is usually dated to the mid-16th century BC which would be 1550 BCE.                        

Was Ramses II the Pharaoh depicted as "Moses's brother" in the Bible? The Torah lists the places where the Israelites rested. A few of the names at the start of the itinerary, including Ra'amses, Pithom and Succoth, are reasonably well identified with archaeological sites on the eastern edge of the Nile Delta, as is Kadesh-Barnea, where the Israelites spend 38 years after turning back from Canaan; other than these, very little is certain.

RAMESSES I-who everyone thought was the pharaoh of the Exodus

One scholarly tradition places the Exodus around 1290  , reducing the time between that and the accepted date of Solomon’s temple to a mere 329 years, not the 480 of God’s Inerrant Word.

 (Jews still say that Moses was born in 1391 BCE and started the Exodus at age 80) which would have been in 1311.) In this timeline, the pharaoh of the Exodus has been identified as Ramesses/Rameses/Ramses I (fl. 1292–90). The same dearth of evidence for this contention in the historical/archaeological record occurs in this era as well, but now the apology is that, since the Exodus represented a military defeat, it could have been ignored, because Egyptian rulers “never recorded their reverses and, in fact, transformed some of them into victories.”

  

If Egyptian rulers were prone to transforming defeats into victories, in such an extreme case as the Exodus tale one would expect that the pharaoh would boast loudly about having vanquished such a mighty foe with its powerful god. Nothing of the sort occurred, however, and there remains no other outside verification for any event of the Exodus, either during the time of Ramesses I or at all.  (My comment-what does the writer expect 3,333 years ago (1,311- 80th birthday of Moses+2,022=3,333)?  Moses was the only one who was a scribe.  There were no TV stations or reporters along the way with them recording.  Moses did it all which turned out to be the Torah, known as the 5 books of Moses.  He was the 1st reporter for the Jewish people and had to create his own newspaper/book.    

         Shaded green area is the Middle Kingdom

Israelites were the Hyksos, the foreigners who spent a good deal  of their 400 years in Egypt as slaves.  They were known to be Semites, and lived as a large population of the Middle Kingdom.  Excavations in Egypt have revealed royal Hyksos scarabs, etc. bearing names similar to Hebrew, while Hyksos remains have also been uncovered in Israel before 1948.  The Hyksos ruled in Egypt in about 1720-1580 BCE, and during this period, the Israelites entered the country and were favorably treated;  the period of bondage is believed to have begun after the expulsion of the Hyksos.  Remember, Joseph came first, lived alone, and finally his father and brothers came during the drought finding him ruling as the viceroy.  

The word Hyksos is apparently Egyptian, meaning "rulers of the foreign lands",  It was first applied to his people by Manetho, a 3rd century BCE Egyptian priest and author of the history of Egypt, who erroneously took the word to mean "shepherd kings."  His history included the story of the expulsion of the lepers who he connected as the Israelites, from Egypt at Divine behest.  This bit of anti-Semitism could have also started with Alexandrian anti-Semites.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmose_I

https://live.jewishexpert.com/moses-pharaoh#:~:text=In%20the%20Bible%2C%20the%20pharaoh's,I%20that%20the%20patriarch%20lived.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ramses-ii-pharaoh-depicted-mosess-brother-bible-dr-tony-mariot

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phoe/hd_phoe.htm#:~:text=According%20to%20ancient%20classical%20authors,Sidon%2C%20Byblos%2C%20and%20Arwad.