When exactly was the Exodus?

Egyptian silence

Egyptian royal records do not acknowledge any such group exodus of enslaved foreigners (nor the 10 plagues), the ensuing destruction of the entire Egyptian chariot army at the Sea of Reeds and death by drowning of the pharaoh.

Such silence has persuaded many archaeologists and historians that there was no Exodus (nor 10 plagues) at all and that the lengthy Bible account is fictional.[i]

But Egyptian records lie and cover up many things.

· The propaganda of the young Pharaoh Ramses II – etched into the walls of seven (7) of his temples -- proclaim his great victory at the battle of Kadesh against the Hittites and for years archaeologists and Egyptologists have taken him at his recorded word.

But it was not true.

The lands of Canaan and upper east coast of the Mediterranean that he had tried to seize from their Hittite overlord remained under Hittite control – as made clear in the peace treaty signed by the two sides 15 years after the battle of 1274[ii].

Some pharaohs had their names, statutes and monuments obliterated by successors.

· The female pharaoh Hatshepsut, wife of Tutmoses II and his successor as regent for her infant son, actually ruled Egypt as pharaoh for 10 years until her death.[iii] Her son Tutmoses III, obliterated any evidence of her rule.[iv]

Her rule was unknown to history until an inscription was deciphered in 1822 and her tomb and body found in 2007.[v]

· Five (5) other pharaohs were similarly ‘omitted’ from Egyptian history: Akhenaton, Neferneferuaten,[vi] Smenkhkara[vii], Tutankhamen and his successor the royal advisor Aye. When Horemhed, the commander of the army, replaced Aye as pharaoh after a mere 4 years, he systematically erased all evidence of the reigns of these five (5) predecessors: including tearing down Akhenaton’s temple and reusing the crumbed stone and replacing the name of Tutankhamen with his own on monuments and stela.[viii] He also desecrated Aye tomb by removing Aye’s name from the tomb wall illustrations/prayers, breaking up his sarcophagus and renaming Aye’s mortuary temple in his own name.[ix]

Horemhed also had their names ’omitted’ from the official list of pharaohs, and their periods as pharaoh merged into his own reign.[x]

Only modern archaeological finds have restored their names and achievements.

· The Hyksos, the successful invaders who conquered the Nile delta and Middle Egypt and ruled from over 100 years to possibly 180 years never appear in the official royal kings lists and records though they ruled from c.1650 BCE onward.

Until the excavation of their capital at Avaris in 1966, little was known other than the negative view presented by the 3^rd century BCE Egyptian priest/historian Manetho whose works have not survived except as excerpts cited by Josephus and later Roman historians.[xi] And a listing of some Hyksos pharaoh names on the back of a papyrus tax record that has survived in fragments, called the Tirun Royal List.[xii]

So ‘silence’ from the Egyptian record is no proof that the Exodus did not take place.

And archaeological ‘discoveries’ are hit-and-miss and very much due to ‘luck’.

Anti-Bible bias

Finally, most archaeologists -- especially Egyptologists -- and modern historians share the mindset carried over by Bible Criticism’s Documentary Hypothesis from the 19^th nineteen century: namely, that the descendants of Jacob until 586 BCE and the exile to cosmopolitan Babylon were simply illiterate (i.e., had no writing system at all) sheep and goat herding “Judean hillbillies”. In this negative mindset, all ‘historical’ information given in the Chumash and the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel I and II and Kings I and II is deemed fictions and products concocted in much later times.

However, this denial mindset: especially NO King David, NO King Solomon and NO FIRST TEMPLE, is rapidly becoming ‘obsolete’ and ‘proven false’ by archaeological excavations in Israel.

King David’s existence and his royal descendants has now been independently attested and the antiquity of the First Temple as well.[xiii]

Lastly, while for those north of the Euphrates used Cuneiform script down to the time of Jesus and beyond,[xiv] and Egypt Hieroglyphics and its 600+ letter descendant sketch figure shapes continued to be used well into late Roman Empire times, most notably in the Rosetta Stone,[xv] the 22 to 26 letter system we call the Alphabet is now known to have existed and used for writing by some group in Canaan as early as the 18^th century BCE based on a recent ivory comb inscription[xvi] and also later on in Sinai Egypt (called proto-Sinaitic)[xvii]

That the Israelites had mastered alphabet writing long before the Babylonian Exile of 586 BCE is also attested by the Samaritan Bible which was copied (with alterations) from an Israelite Torah scroll soon after they were relocated into the lands of the former kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE (2 Kings 17:24-28). It is in the earlier angular script that was used in Canaan for centuries before the Babylonian exile[xviii].

The script that became the standard for Torah scrolls after 586 BCE to the present, called ketav ashuri (i.e. thick square shapes used by the Babylonians), was just a change in font and not the start of Hebrew alphabet writing.

Put simply, the bias against the Chumash and Jewish history records pre-586 BCE no longer holds up – except in the minds and writings of so-called academic ‘scholars’.

Dating the Exodus

While Egyptologists: both archaeologists and historians, rely on dating Egyptian ‘events’ based on the reigns of its pharaohs, determining exactly when a new pharaoh gained the throne and when he died is, in fact, extremely difficult for the period of Hyksos rule over 2/3 of Egypt, and at best ‘murky’ for the ensuing rule of the 18^th dynasty established by the Hyksos defeating Ahmose(s) I.[xix]

When Ahmose(s) I ended the reign of the foreign Hyksos, he ensured their 15th dynasty rule was expunged from Egyptian history.

Any monuments they created were demolished and destroyed and so too their capital city of Avaris which was home to some 25,000 people.[xx]

And any royal records and libraries as well.

As noted above, only the much later, fragmented papyrus tax roll called the Turin King List preserves the names of some Hyksos pharaohs.[xxi] And Manetho’s 3rd century BCE history of Egypt survives only from excerpts in Josephus’ Against Apion and later Roman historians.[xxii]

Consequently, Hyksos rule is variously seen as lasting just over 100 years and all the way to 180 years.[xxiii]

As for dating native Egyptian pharaohs, historians try to reconstruct pharaoh reigns based on the order of the official royal wall list of Ramses II, (which purposely omits the reign of female Hatshepsut , and then Akhenaten, Neferneferuaten, Smenkhkara

Tutankhamen and Aye),[xxiv] rare inscriptions which state such and such an important official died in year X of a pharaoh’s reign,[xxv] or when a special celestial event took place[xxvi] or when a major religious festival took place in year X of a pharaoh’s reign.[xxvii]

While Wikipedia generally gives dates for18th dynasty pharaohs as if set in stone, it at times acknowledges there are two main chronologies endorsed by Egyptologists: called the Higher and the Lower Chronology, with substantial differences in dating.[xxviii]

The website Pharaoh.se is more up front: listing different start and end dates for each pharaoh as reconstructed by eight (8) different archeologists.

For example, Atmose(s) I’s dating by the AE Chronology is a full 30 years earlier than by Redford.[xxix] And similarly the dating for Tutmose(s) III for these two chronologies differs by 25 years.[xxx]

In brief, then, reconstructing the timeline for Hyksos rule and even the native ensuing 18th dynasty is very difficult and subject to major scholarly debate.

So, in reconstructing the timelines of Joseph, Moses and especially the Exodus, it may be best to rely on Bible anchor dates.

The Bible gives various ‘markers’ for dating the Exodus,

1 Kings 6:1 states King Solomon began to build the Temple in Jerusalem in his 4^th year, and this was 480 years after the Exodus.

In Gen. 15:13 God tells Abraham in a dream state that his descendants will live in a foreign land and become enslaved -- for 400 years.

More specifically, Exod. 12:40 and 41 state the Exodus took place 430 years after the arrival of Jacob and his full clan into Egypt.

מ וּמוֹשַׁב בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, אֲשֶׁר יָשְׁבוּ בְּמִצְרָיִם--שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה, וְאַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה.	40 Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
מא וַיְהִי, מִקֵּץ שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה, וְאַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת, שָׁנָה; וַיְהִי, בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה, יָצְאוּ כָּל-צִבְאוֹת יְהוָה, מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם.	41 And it came to pass at the end of four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the host of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

Rabbinic tradition adds what seems a complication, as it concludes the stay in Egyptian was just 210 years.

In doing so it stresses -- as Rashi details in his commentary to Exod.12:40 -- that Moses’ grandfather, Kehat – just 2 generations beforehand -- came to Egypt with Jacob: thereby making the stay in Egypt at 430 years highly improbable.

As well, Rashi cites Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:40 and Talmud Bavli Megillah 9a which correctly note the ancient Greek Septuagint Bible translation for Exod.12:40 is:

2:40 ¶ And the sojourning of the children of Israel, while they sojourned in the land of Mizraim {gr.Egypt} and the land of Canaan [was] four hundred and thirty years[xxxi].

I.e, the Greek translation clarified this very lengthy time duration included the years Abraham, Isaac and Jacob spent in Canaan.

This is also how Josephus in his Antquities of the Jews, Book II ch:15:2 describes the 430 year duration. And so too the ancient Samaritan Bible.[xxxii]

So, this ‘understanding’ left just 210 years according to the rabbinic count (Josephus says 215 years[xxxiii]) for the time spent in Egypt.

And as noted by Rashi at the start of his commentary to Exod. 12:40, this rabbinic understanding also resolves the 400 years mentioned in Abraham’s dream state which talks of Abraham’s “descendants”. Counting from the birth of Abraham’s descendant, Isaac, to Jacob’s arrival in Egypt totals 190 years and this leaves 210 years for their enslavement.

Bible’s dating of the Exodus

According to 1 Kings 6:1, Solomon began to build the Temple in Jerusalem in his fourth year as king, and exactly 480 years after the Exodus.[xxxiv]

א וַיְהִי בִשְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְאַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה לְצֵאת בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ-מִצְרַיִם בַּשָּׁנָה הָרְבִיעִית בְּחֹדֶשׁ זִו, הוּא הַחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי, לִמְלֹךְ שְׁלֹמֹה, עַל-יִשְׂרָאֵל; וַיִּבֶן הַבַּיִת, לַיהוָה.

1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.

King Solomon’s reign is normally dated to c. 970 BCE[xxxv] so the 4^th year when the temple construction began would be c. 966 BCE.

Going back 480 years would place the Exodus at c.1446 BCE.

This would be during the reign of pharaoh Tutmoses III.

As there are two different Egyptian chronology systems that date Tutmoses III’s reign to 1479 to 1425 BCE or to 1504 to 1450BCE,[xxxvi] he would be the pharaoh of the Exodus in either case. And the latter chronology places his death at 1450 BCE is very close to the projected Exodus date using Solomon’s Temple numbers.

Also, using King Solomon’s chronology, the start of the Israelite stay in Egypt at 210 years, would have begun c.1656 BCE.

This is during the early years of the reign of group labelled in Greek as ‘Hyksos’ which meant ‘foreigners’ or, as Josephus suggested, ‘shepherds’.[xxxvii] There were a Semitic people from the north – possibly Canaanites -- who conquered and ruled the Nile delta and Middle Egypt for at least100 years and possibly 180 years.[xxxviii] Their rule is counted as Dynasty 15.

During their reign, native Egyptians ruled upper Egypt as dynasties 16 and 17 and were regularly at war with the Hyksos until they defeated and overthrew the Hyksos – restoring a unified Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Ahmose I (c.1539–1514 or 1569 - 1545). [xxxix]

If the Exodus was actually after a full 430 years in Egypt, then the arrival of Jacob and his family would be c.1876 BCE. This would be during the rule of pharaoh Senwosret II or Senwosret III as their dates are disputed[xl].

Which date to choose?

To accept the date of c. 1876 would push back Abraham and the early patriarchs to, surprising, the 22^nd century BCE.

Jacob on arrival in Egypt was already 130 years old (Gen.47:9), his father Isaac married at age 40 (Gen.25: 20) and had Esau and Jacob after a long time, probably according to tradition, at age 60, and Abraham was 100 years old at Isaac’s birth (Gen. 21:5) – after living in Canaan for 25 years (Gen.2:4).

This total would push back the beginning of the Jewish people and Abraham to the mid-22 century BCE. (This would be during the 30 year reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Neferirkare [xli] and during the last decades of the Akkadian northern empire under King Dudu or his successor Shu-turul of Mesopotamian.[xlii])

A later arrival date of c.1656 seems more plausible as the Hyksos were kindred people of northern Semitic descent and animal herders as well.

It would also explain how a ‘new’ pharaoh did not know of Joseph and his loyal service to his pharaoh (Exod. 1:8), and why the new pharaoh feared the Israelites would be a fifth column and danger if a war broke out (Exod.1:10): i.e., with any of the kingdoms from the Mesopotamian north. Wars between Egypt and northern Mesopotamian kingdoms – in the quest for expanded empires -- were commonplace.

Bible issues re Hyksos era

However, the Bible text does raise some issues for such a Hyksos setting.

All the royal officials in the Joseph account have Egyptian names: not Canaanite or Mesopotamian – i.e., Hyksos names, and Joseph himself was given an Egyptian name by the pharaoh.

Joseph’s master in Egypt was a royal official named Potiphar. His name in Egyptian means “he who is given by the sun god Ra”[xliii]. The wife given to Joseph by the pharaoh is named Asenath which means “belonging to the Egyptian goddess Neth”[xliv], and she is the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On (Gen. 41:45 and 50) whose name also means “he who was given by the sun god Ra”.[xlv]

Pharaoh even gives Joseph the new name of Zaphenath-paneah. While its exact meaning in ancient Egyptian is debated, no one has ever suggested a non-Egyptian origin.[xlvi]

So, if the rulers of the Delta region of Egypt during Joseph’s time were the Hyksos, who had Semitic names such as Sakir-Har, Khyan, Khamudi and Apepi,[xlvii] why do all the royal officials have Egyptian native names? And why give Joseph an Egyptian name?

Another problem would seem to be the banquet described in Gen. 43:32.

לב וַיָּשִׂימוּ לוֹ לְבַדּוֹ, וְלָהֶם לְבַדָּם; וְלַמִּצְרִים הָאֹכְלִים אִתּוֹ, לְבַדָּם--כִּי לֹא יוּכְלוּן הַמִּצְרִים לֶאֱכֹל אֶת-הָעִבְרִים לֶחֶם, כִּי-תוֹעֵבָה הִוא לְמִצְרָיִם.

32 And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, that did eat with him, by themselves; because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians.

The eleven Hebrew brother were required to sit ‘separate’ from Joseph’s retinue as these royal officers found shepherds who eat sheep, goat and cattle meat offensive to their religious – Egyptian – beliefs.

And this antipathy is repeated in Gen. 46:34 where it states that all shepherds were required to live far from ordinary Egyptians.

לד וַאֲמַרְתֶּם, אַנְשֵׁי מִקְנֶה הָיוּ עֲבָדֶיךָ מִנְּעוּרֵינוּ וְעַד-עַתָּה--גַּם-אֲנַחְנוּ, גַּם-אֲבֹתֵינוּ: בַּעֲבוּר, תֵּשְׁבוּ בְּאֶרֶץ גֹּשֶׁן, כִּי-תוֹעֲבַת מִצְרַיִם, כָּל-רֹעֵה צֹאן.

34 that ye shall say: Thy servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers; that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.

So, if this was during the Hyksos era, would not these royal assistants be Hyksos --animal herders and meat eater’s -- as well?

And why would Joseph -- as a Hyksos viceroy -- only have native Egyptian assistants? Conquered and potentially rebellious natives?

Finally, Jacob and family with their large herds settle in the eastern Nile delta area called Goshen (Gen. 46:29,34; 47:1,4,6) by the city of Ramses (Gen. 47:11).

But that is exactly where the shepherd Hyksos also settled: around their capital of Avaris[xlviii] -- which is close to Ramses.

Would two large sets of sheep and goat flocks and cattle herds: Hyksos and Israelites, have fit into such a single area?

Solutions

The above concerns need to be recognized, but can be readily resolved.

Giving Joseph an Egyptian new name was wise politically as it would blend him into Egyptian society and mindset. Joseph’s wife and her father were clearly Egyptian nobility and they had accepted Hyksos rule and ‘joined in’. The same with Potiphar, the royal official who had been Joseph’s master and whom the text specifically notes was a native Egyptian (Gen. 39:1).

As the Hyksos were a small group of invaders, they needed native Egyptian support and experienced royal staff who could read and write hieroglyphics and its derivatives, and understand the royal account ledgers and records. Otherwise the highly developed Egyptian government system and its economic control would almost instantly have collapsed.

Rulers can be changed abruptly, but the machinery of a complex government and oversight of a large society and economy needs continuity of expertise.

So the inclusion of native Egyptians – especially of the educated and upper class -- is no surprise.

As for competing for grazing land and room for flocks and herds, Goshen is at the very eastern tip of the Delta and only a small section of the vast grasslands of the eastern delta of the great Nile River.

Moreover, the Hyksos setting fits the Biblical text very well in other ways.

1. Joseph wanted his father and family to be close to him and his home in the royal capital (Gen. 45:10). Avaris is the only official capital of the Hyksos dynasty. All other Egyptian capitals are not in the Delta: Thebes and Amarna are very far away and so too even Memphis. [xlix] And Avaris is very close to Ramses, the key city in Goshen where Jacob and his sons lived.

2. The pharaoh notes that he too has many animal herds and would consider hiring Joseph’s brothers (Ge. 47: 6). A native Egyptian pharaoh would not have herds of cattle, sheep, etc. as the Egyptians considered all shepherds ‘abominations’ on religious grounds (Gen. 46:34).

3. Joseph was viceroy from the age of 30 until his death at age110. So he was second-in-command for 80 years (Gen. 41:46 and Gen. 50:26). No pharaoh lived so long. So Joseph had to serve under a number of pharaohs who were part of a continuous line for close to – or at least -- a century long. This fits well with the duration of the Hyksos rule until expelled by Ahmose(s) I.[l]

4. Ahmoses I, as a native Egyptian pharaoh from the far south, would not have been familiar with Joseph and his role under Hyksos rulers nor, on religious grounds, have been sympathetic to Joseph’s shepherd and “evrim” kin. Hence, Ahmose(s) I, who died c. 1525 BCE, would be the logical ‘new pharaoh’ (Exod. 1:8): and who enslaved the Israelites (Exod. 1: 11- 14).

5. Ahmose(s) I -- at the very end of his reign -- may also have been the pharaoh who ordered the murdered of Israelite firstborn males (Exod.1:15 -22) or it would be at the start of his successor’s reign, Amenhotep I. This transition took place in 1526 or 1525 BCE.[li]

Moses was born in c.1526 BCE, 80 years before the Exodus of c. 1446 BCE (Exod. 7:7).

6. The Biblical name ‘Moses’ is closely related to the names of many of the Egyptian royalty of the 18^th dynasty.

From Ahmose(s) I who expelled the Hyksos through Tutmose(s) III of the Exodus,“mose(s)” was the end-name of 4 pharaohs, 6 queens and 9 other royal family members.[lii]

The name Ahmose(s) means “child of the Moon god”[liii] And the name Tutmose(s) similarly means “child of the Moon god”.[liv]

So, while the Bible’s etymology for ‘Moses’ in Hebrew is “drawn from the river” as stated in Exod. 2:10, and according to Josephus it meant the same in Egyptian as “moil” was their word for water,[lv] when the baby was named by the daughter of pharaoh who removed him from the Nile, the family’s dynastic preference for names with ‘moses’ – meaning “child” would also apply,

As such, the name Moses links the Bible’s account to the 18^th dynasty royal family and the upbringing of young Moses as a royal prince. Finally, with Tutmoses III as the pharaoh of the Exodus, the sudden and unexplained death of his son and heir – his firstborn son – Amenemhat[lvi], may well align with the Biblical 10th Plague: the death of the firstborn male which also touched the royal family.

Exod. 11:5

ה וּמֵת כָּל-בְּכוֹר, בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם--מִבְּכוֹר פַּרְעֹה הַיֹּשֵׁב עַל-כִּסְאוֹ, עַד בְּכוֹר הַשִּׁפְחָה אֲשֶׁר אַחַר הָרֵחָיִם; וְכֹל, בְּכוֹר בְּהֵמָה.

5 and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of cattle.

And Exod. 12: 29-30

כט וַיְהִי בַּחֲצִי הַלַּיְלָה, וַיהוָה הִכָּה כָל-בְּכוֹר בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם, מִבְּכֹר פַּרְעֹה הַיֹּשֵׁב עַל-כִּסְאוֹ, עַד בְּכוֹר הַשְּׁבִי אֲשֶׁר בְּבֵית הַבּוֹר; וְכֹל, בְּכוֹר בְּהֵמָה.	29 And it came to pass at midnight, that the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle.
ל וַיָּקָם פַּרְעֹה לַיְלָה, הוּא וְכָל-עֲבָדָיו וְכָל-מִצְרַיִם, וַתְּהִי צְעָקָה גְדֹלָה, בְּמִצְרָיִם: כִּי-אֵין בַּיִת, אֲשֶׁר אֵין-שָׁם מֵת.	30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

The Burial of Jacob and Joseph

One might argue that Goshen and the Nile Delta area must have been under native Egyptian rule throughout Joseph’s lifetime based on the funerary procedures done on Jacob’s body and, 54 years later, to Joseph’s body.

For both were embalmed and mummified in a complex, 40 day process as per traditional ancient Egyptian religious practice for nobles and royalty (Gen. 50: 2-3 and 26).

ב וַיְצַו יוֹסֵף אֶת-עֲבָדָיו אֶת-הָרֹפְאִים, לַחֲנֹט אֶת-אָבִיו; וַיַּחַנְטוּ הָרֹפְאִים, אֶת-יִשְׂרָאֵל.	2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. And the physicians embalmed Israel.
ג וַיִּמְלְאוּ-לוֹ אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם, כִּי כֵּן יִמְלְאוּ יְמֵי הַחֲנֻטִים; וַיִּבְכּוּ אֹתוֹ מִצְרַיִם, שִׁבְעִים יוֹם.	3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him threescore and ten days.

כו וַיָּמָת יוֹסֵף, בֶּן-מֵאָה וָעֶשֶׂר שָׁנִים; וַיַּחַנְטוּ אֹתוֹ, וַיִּישֶׂם בָּאָרוֹן בְּמִצְרָיִם.

26 So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old. And they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

So how could they have been under the rule of the Hyksos, Semites from the north where such funerary practices were unknown?

Yes, it is true that the Hyksos did not follow Egyptian mummification practice for their nobles and rulers.

Excavations since the discovery of their capital Avaris in 1966 at Tell el-Dab’a have shown a mixture of Canaanite/Mediterranean influences as well as native Egyptian.^{^[lvii]}

Some temples on site are of Egyptian design while others are Canaanite.[lviii]

In particular, burial of nobles and royalty were done in mud-brick vaulted chambers with the deceased accompanied by grave goods: jars for food, jewelry and swords, and even dead servants, donkeys and a horse – affirming a concept of an afterlife similar to the Egyptians.[lix]

But such burials show no sign of mummification as was the Egyptian custom for the upper class and royalty.[lx]

And such Hyksos burials were the norm in Mesopotamian[lxi] and Canaanite cultures[lxii].

However, on practical grounds, both Jacob and Joseph’s bodies had to be mummified. It relates to the fact both Jacob and Joseph enjoined the brothers – by oath -- to bury them in Canaan.

Jacob specified the family cave/crypt in Hebron where Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca and Leah where already buried (Gen. 49: 29-32). And Joseph was eventually buried in Shechem after the Exodus and Joshua’s conquest (Joshua 24:32).

Now the distance from Goshen in the Nile delta to Hebron and vicinity is just under 400 km^{^[lxiii]} if going in a straight line and longer if, as stated in the Bible, they circled far eastward to crossing the Jordon to get to Hebron (Gen. 50 10) – thereby avoiding the lands of the warlike Philistines (see Exod. 13:17).

And as we know from Gen. 22:4, the distance between Beer Sheba and Jerusalem, where Abraham took Isaac for his ‘binding’, which is at least 120 km,^{^[lxiv]} took the better part of 2 ½ days walking.

So going from Goshen to Hebron in a formal, royal procession for Jacob’s burial would have taken at least 8 to 10 days.

Way too long for a deceased body to remain ‘intact’ in the hot climate of the Near East.

Even today, for a body to be ‘preserved’ beyond one day requires either refrigeration or embalming -- and there was no refrigeration then.

The 5 stages of decay start immediately and by day 2 or 3 the internal organs have begun to liquefy and smell. And flies attracted by the smell of a newly dead body settle in orifices to lay eggs and soon larvae and maggots develop and eat away at soft tissue.^{^[lxv]}

So, for Jacob’s body to be brought back to Hebron it had to be embalmed properly. And the same for Joseph’s body which remained for well over 100 years in a sarcophagus in Egypt.

Hot weather and especially distance left no option in order to honour the dying wishes of Jacob and Joseph.

Even under Hyksos rule.

Moses and his pharaohs

Where did the Pharaohs live?

With the expulsion of the Hyksos by Ahmose(s) I, the official capital of all Egypt was again Thebes,^{^[lxvi]} a capital some 650 km south of Avaris^{^[lxvii]}.

This raises a number of concerns re the Bible story of Moses and the Exodus.

As stated in the Bible, Moses' biological parents and older sister were Hebrews living in Goshen near the Nile river, and the Egyptian pharaoh’s daughter who found him floating in the Nile and adopted him also had a royal palace near the Nile in the same vicinity though somewhat down river. (Exod. 2:2-10).

Young Moses grew up in this nearby royal palace and was able to walk around the forced labour imposed on the Israelites in Goshen -- where he killed an Egyptian taskmaster who was bearing an Israelite almost to death (Exod. 2:11- 12).

From there -- to escape Pharaoh's punishment -- he fled eastward and north into the Sinai desert and the territory of Midian (Exod. 2: 14-15).

Similarly, when Moses returns at age 80 and along with Aaron would regularly go to Pharaoh and confronted him during the 10 plagues, the pharaoh’s palace must have been near Goshen. (Exod. Ch 5 -12).

Travelling all the way south to Thebes on land or by river would have been too time consuming!

Way too far for Moses to easily or quickly travel back and forth as a youth or at age 80.

So how is this geographic, distance conundrum to be resolved?

The answer is that while Thebes remained the official capital, it was not the only royal residence.

Atmose(s) I build himself a royal palace and residence on top of the rubble of Avaris.[lxviii]

Why? Probably to assert his dominion. And on security grounds: to prevent a Hyksos army’s return or a revolt by any Hyksos civilians remaining, a large Egyptian military force would have been essential: stationed near Avaris from day one of the expulsion of the Hyksos.

Likewise, a large force and royal direction would have been needed to ensure the Israelites of Goshen did not revolt when their enslavement began and while it continued on for decades.

Records also show that later Pharaoh Seti I used it as his summer residence.[lxix]

As well, the major port city of Memphis (somewhat to the south) had another royal residence. Tutmose(s) III -- the Pharaoh of the Exodus -- had a palace there were one of his 5 wives, Merytre-Hatshepsut,[lxx] lived and raised their son and his successor, Amenhotep II.

Also noteworthy is once Amenhotep II was a young man, he was assigned by his father, Tutmose(s) III, to supervise the wood shipments to Memphis, was appointed the High Priest for Lower Egypt, and also put in charge of the Delta army of Egypt.[lxxi]

Put simply, young royals did not live idle lives but took on important official duties.

So too, may have the young Moses.

Consequently, there is no difficulty with Thebes being the far off capital and the Bible’s account re: Moses as a youngster or his confrontations with the pharaoh 80 years after his birth.

The palace and royal centre at Avaris was within easy travel from Goshen and the Israelites’ homes. Even Memphis, just south of Giza/Cairo, was viable.

Conclusion re dating Joseph, Moses and the Exodus

As argued above, an early Hyksos era dating for Joseph and the family’s migration to Goshen, c. 1656 BCE, holds up well, as does the Exodus at the end of Tutmose(s) III’s reign, c. 1446 BCE.

And the “new pharaoh who did not know of Joseph” and who instituted the brutal enslavement of the Israelites was the native Egyptian Ahmose(s) I, who had expelled the Hyksos.

Also, based on Moses’ age on his return, the pharaoh who had ordered the murder of newborn Israelite boys 80 years beforehand -- c.1526 BCE -- was Ahmose(s) I himself near his death[lxxii] or his successor, Amenhotep I.[lxxiii]

[i] See TVO documentary video Truth and Lies, episode 5. Also, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus section: origin and historicity; and the Copenhagen School Minimalism which rejects all of the Chumash as Persian era historical fiction writing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_minimalism

[ii] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kadesh, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian%E2%80%93Hittite_peace_treaty and TVO documentary Truth and Lies episode 2 at https://www.tvo.org/programs/truth-lies

[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatshepsut

[iv] https://lastcalltrivia.com/learn/hatshepsut/#:~:text=Hatshepsut's%20Legacy&text=This%20is%20because%20late%20in,from%20the%20official%20king%20list.

[v][v] Ibid.

[vi] Neferneferuaten in hieroglyphics (pharaoh.se)

[vii] Smenkhkara in hieroglyphics (pharaoh.se)

[viii] https://www.wondriumdaily.com/erasing-tutankhamen-horemhebs-attempt-to-rewrite-history/#:~:text=Akhenaten%20and%20Tutankhamen%3F-,Horemheb%20was%20trying%20to%20systematically%20erase%20all%20trace%20of%20Tutan

[ix] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ay_(pharaoh)

[x] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Horemheb

[xi] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos and https://arce.org/resource/hyksos/#:~:text=As%20a%20word%2C%20Hyksos%20is,during%20the%20Second%20Intermediate%20Period.

[xii] Turin King List - Wikipedia

[xiii] re David see https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/the-tel-dan-inscription-the-first-historical-evidence-of-the-king-david-bible-story/ and https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2021/06/11/top-ten-discoveries-related-to-david/ ; for coins and royal seals from or mentioning pre-Exile Judean Kings see https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2021/06/11/top-ten-discoveries-related-to-david/ on Solomon’s temple, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeological_remnants_of_the_Jerusalem_Temple undisputed evidence found in 2006 and 2007.

[xiv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform

[xv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demotic_(Egyptian). See also the landmark find Rosetta Stone dated 196 BCE at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone#

[xvi] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ancient-comb-israel-first-sentence-ever-found-canaanite-alphabet-lice/

[xvii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Sinaitic_script

[xviii] https://omniglot.com/writing/samaritan.htm

[xix] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmose_I

[xx] https://www.archaeology.org/issues/309-1809/features/6855-egypt-hyksos-foreign-dynasty#:~:text=The%20Hyksos'%20rise%20was%20reflected,neither%20plumbing%20nor%20toilets%20there.)

[xxi] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin_King_List

[xxii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manetho

[xxiii] See Kingdom section at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos

[xxiv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesseum_king_list and full list at The New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt (pharaoh.se)

[xxv] See dating Tutmose(s) III section at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_III and Amenhotep I - Wikipedia

[xxvi] See dating Atmose(s) I at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmose_I and Amenhotep I - Wikipedia

[xxvii] https://landioustravel.com/egypt/festivals-ancient-egypt/

[xxviii] See Dating and length at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_III

[xxix] Ahmose I in hieroglyphics (pharaoh.se)

[xxx] Thutmose III in hieroglyphics (pharaoh.se)

[xxxi] http://qbible.com/brenton-septuagint/exodus/12.html

[xxxii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan_Pentateuch

[xxxiii] http://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-2.html

[xxxiv] The Septuagint gives the interval as 440 years and whether it is a scribal error or not, it and the Hebrew text figures are very close. See https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/septuagint/chapter.asp?book=11&page=6 Surviving copies of Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews and Against Apion offer contradictory (and highly suspect) durations far from the above figures: Antiquities Book 8:2 is 592 years and Against Apion Book 2:2 of 612 years.