Was Ahmose I Pharaoh of Egypt the One we Seek? Or Was it Akhenaten ? Both 18th Dynasty Pharaohs Or Others?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

Ahmose I, king of ancient Egypt (reigned c. 1539–14 bce) and founder of the 18th dynasty who completed the expulsion of the Hyksos (Asiatic rulers of Egypt), invaded Palestine, and re-exerted Egypt's hegemony over northern Nubia, to the south.

Ancient Egypt witnessed a glorious period during the reign of Ahmose. This brave king had high regard for women and gave them positions of power. To implement his political and economic agendas, he established two capitals and used a simple army strategy to increase the wealth of the nation under his rule.

Ahmose I was a pharaoh and founder of the Eighteenth 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.  That would have taken place in the 1700s BCE,  almost 4,000 years ago with the date of starting in 3,721 BCE.  

This is the pharaoh that might be thought to have been in power when 70 Israelites  of Jacob's family  went into Egypt from Canaan, leaving a drought-hit land for the plush Nile-fed land of Egypt, seeking relief.  They found the land so fertile that they remained there until the Egyptians were afraid of them being they also had multiplied greatly, being shepherds with their sheep and being at peace.  

                                                 

 Akhenaten  was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning c. 1353–1336 or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Before the fifth year of his reign, he was known as Amenhotep IV  meaning "Amun is satisfied", Hellenized as Amenophis IV).

As a pharaoh, Akhenaten is noted for abandoning Egypt's traditional polytheism and introducing Atenism, or worship centered around Aten. The views of Egyptologists differ as to whether Atenism should be considered as a form of absolute monotheism, or whether it was monolatry, syncretism, or henotheism. This culture shift away from traditional religion was not widely accepted. After his death, Akhenaten's monuments were dismantled and hidden, his statues were destroyed, and his name excluded from lists of rulers compiled by later pharaohs.

In deciding which pharaoh was the one Moses knew and dealt with, it more likely to me, would be Akhenaten,, as Moses, through his experiences, and this ruler, were quite similar-leading to strict monotheism. The pharaoh's name that spoke with Moses was not given, and people have been guessing as to who it might have been. 

 Who could say if it's possible that Moses could have influenced Akhenaten?  Moses was raised as a prince in the royal house and had the same education most likely as this pharaoh.  Notice that both Ahmose I and Akhetaton were of the 18th dynasty era.  Monotheism was not popular with the Egyptian people and poor Akhetaton was hidden from public view, a shame on the empire.  

1372 – 1350 BC: Akhetaton (Amarna) is constructed as the ephemeral capital of the pharaoh Akhenaten and dedicated to the sun god Aten. It is abandoned a few years after Akhenaten's death. ... 1325 BC: Pharaoh Tutankhamun dies and is buried in a richly furnished tomb in the Valley of the Kings.  Amarna is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site that represents the remains of the capital city newly established and built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten of the late Eighteenth Dynasty, and abandoned shortly after his death. 

My favorite TV archaologist, Simcha Jacobovici, The Naked Archaologist,  has gone for 1500 BCE as the beginning of the Exodus, while my records, going with dates found in  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, presents to me the dates of Moses' life (1391-1271 BCE), so that at age 80 the date would have been 1311 BCE. This pharaoh would have been 19 years younger than Moses, still on the throne when Moses asked for the freedom of his people. The unpopular pharaoh, believing in the Sun G-d, Aten only, monotheistic but unwilling to let go his free help.  After all, slavery was the usual way of life if one was unlucky enough.  Moses may have remembered that this pharaoh was in agreement with him about monotheism, but they didn't agree about slavery.  

I'm not saying that G-d hadn't spoken to Moses, but that the conditions going for the Exodus were perfect.  IT WAS TIME.  Like a puzzle, the conditions were all in place for the Exodus.  

I asked my computer who the pharaoh was in the Exodus story and it said Ramses II, to my surprise.  

If this is true, then the oppressive pharaoh noted in Exodus (1:2–2:23) was Seti I (reigned 1318–04), and the pharaoh during the Exodus was Ramses II (c. 1304–c. 1237). In short, Moses was probably born in the late 14th century bce.           

                                Head of the Mummy of Seti I

Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek) was a pharaoh of the New Kingdom Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II. As with all dates in Ancient Egypt, the actual dates of his reign are unclear, and various historians claim different dates, with 1294 BC to 1279 BC and 1290 BC to 1279 BC being the most commonly used by scholars today. This is going back in time.                             

Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom, itself the most powerful period of Ancient Egypt.

Ramesses II led several military expeditions into the Levant, reasserting Egyptian control over Canaan. He also led expeditions to the south, into Nubia, commemorated in inscriptions at Beit el-Wali and Gerf Hussein. The early part of his reign was focused on building cities, temples, and monuments. He established the city of Pi-Ramesses in the Nile Delta as his new capital and used it as the main base for his campaigns in Syria. At fourteen, he was appointed prince regent by his father, Seti I. He is believed to have taken the throne in his late teens and is known to have ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 BC.

According to my records, he was ruler of Egypt, while  Moses was on the 

Exodus, getting closer to Canaan.  

My Exodus history started in 1311 BCE and ended in 1271 BCE.

The recent film, Exodus, Gods and Kings, had Ramesses the Great as the step-brother of Moses and the pharaoh of the Exodus. But there is nothing in the Egyptian records linking Ramesses to the Exodus, and indeed nothing at all in the records about the Israelites and their slavery, nothing about their escape into the Sinai after the plagues, nothing about the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea – nothing. So it is embarrassing for archaeologists to be asked who the pharaoh of the Exodus was. But it is a question that comes up every year before Passover, when we Jews celebrate our escape from Egyptian slavery into freedom.

Resource:

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/who-was-the-pharaoh-of-the-exodus-395885

https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/the-reign-of-ahmose-the-first-king-of-the-xviiith-dynasty/ 

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

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ahmose-I