Moses, the Tutmoses and the Exodus

Abstract

The dating of the Exodus is generally given as inter alia, sometime during the reign of Raamsess II, Horemheb or Tutmosis III. The Raamsess II school () base their claim on the store-cities mentioned in Exodus ch.1; the proponents of Horemheb cite to the Book of Olam Rabbah,and the advocates of Tutmosis III raise the potent argument that the only biblical information dating the Exodus is found Kings I, noting that the Exodus occurred 480 years before Solomon began building the Temple, generally placed c. 970-960 BCE. This would set the Exodus c. 1450--1440 BCE, consistent with Joshua entering the Holy land about the turn of the century. Using current secular chronology, this reckoning places the Exodus during the reign of Tutmosis III, who reigned from 1479 to 1425 BCE. The birth and early palace years of Moses, which began 80 years before the Exodus, would then belong to the reigns of the Tutmoses I and II (who reigned from 1506 BCE to 1479 BCE). These three pharaohs, the only ones whose reigns are consistent with the chronological reference in Kings, are herein collectively referred to as “The Tutmoses.” Conventionists are loathe to veer either from the Horemheb school, or favor Raamsess a situation which has discouraged serious investigation by Biblical scholars knowledgeable in Hebrew language, legacy, legends and commentary into the reign of Tutmosis III as the pharaoh of the plagues and the Exodus. At the suggestion of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan who identifies Tutmosis III as a potential Exodus-pharaoh, I investigate this possibility further. A systematic investigation of textual details and inferences depict a sequence of events incompatible with an Exodus during the reigns of Raamsess II or Horemheb, but supports Rabbi Kaplan’s thesis that Tutmosis III was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Further investigation into the reigns of The Tutmoses provides corroborative evidence for the Biblical narrative.