New Paper on the Exodus
The Egyptian Kings of the Sojourn
Last week the Answers Research Journal published Paper #6 in the Chronological Framework of Ancient History series. This paper is on the Old and Middle Kingdoms of Egypt and makes a case for the identities of pharaohs of the Famine, the slaughter of infants, and the Exodus. This paper, CFAH-6, is the scholarly foundation of the series I publish here on substack called The Sojourn in Egypt.
Our paper is peer-reviewed and quite technical, so, it may not be the most fun way to read this information. However, it makes a solid case for how Egypt fits into Ussher’s chronology of the Bible. Below I will provide a summary of our findings.
The chart below shows our overview of Egyptian history from the Dispersion to the Hellenic Era when the Ptolemies ruled. We show that the dynasties listed by Manetho ruled from eight different home cities.
The next chart shows our overview of the period from the Dispersion to the Exodus. During that era, Egypt was ruled by dynasties in five cities.
There were two Pharaohs during Joseph’s Famine. In Memphis, Unas, the last King of Dynasty 5, ruled and depicted starving Asiatics from Canaan coming to buy grain on his pyramid causeway. In the capital, Itj-Tawy, near Zoan in the Delta, King Senusret I was the Pharaoh who had the dream that Joseph interpreted.
Some of the most important evidence presented shows that Dynasties 12 and 13 were contemporary and that Dynasty 13 “kings” served in a position similar to Vice-President of Egypt, and they worked for the Dynasty 12 King. The figure below shows the cartouches of Senusret III of Dynasty 12 carved next to Neferhotep I of Dynasty 13. Senusret III was the Pharaoh who made the decree to kill the Hebrew baby boys. The cartouche of Neferhotep I was found in the workers’ village at Lahun, where dozens of baby skeletons were found buried under the huts they lived in.
The next image is a statue of Amenemhat IV, whom we argue was the name of Moses as the crown prince of Egypt.
After Moses' flight, Dynasty 12 ended without an heir. Pepi II of Dynasty 6 took the top power in Egypt. He was the pharaoh for the final 40 years of oppression. He appears to have been the chief enemy of Moses who was hunting his life. Pepi II died in 1492 BC. God called Moses back to Egypt shortly after his death.
We also found that two kings died in the events of the Exodus. From Dynasty 13, Khaankhra Sobekhotep died, but it is unclear how. From Dynasty 6 in Memphis, Merenre II was said by Herodotus to have been “killed by his enemies”. His wife Nitocris later took revenge on his political enemies by drowning them. This suggests that Merenre II had died by drowning in the Red Sea.
