Egyptian history and the Exodus: some data to consider

More about the young boy that was found in Thutmosis III's sarcophage

H1 Some introductory remarks as to why this topic is necessary for the book of Judges, will suffice. The book of Judges records the event of the Conquest of Palestine in chapters 1-2 in a summarizing manner. It is as if the writer is summarizing events that happened in more detail in the book of Joshua. As to why a discussion of Thutmosis III is necessary here, the logic goes like this: the date of the Conquest is calculated on the basis of the date of the Exodus that is in turn calculated on the basis of the fourth year of the reign of king Solomon in 1 Kings 6:1. If the date of the Exodus is not calculated properly, the date of the Conquest will be out of tune and in discord with the Umwelt facts. That is unfortunately how it is with the majority of scholars on this subject. Postulated chronological structures leads to historical nihilism. The extra-biblical data cannot match a superimposed chronological scheme that is in disharmony with the calculation of the consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition. However, data will begin to fall into place, and should be, once the correct chronology is ascertained. This researcher is strongly considering this option and thus, if 1450 BCE was the date of the Exodus, as the Masoretic Text is indicating, then there must be data surrounding the death of Thutmosis III, who was the pharaoh who died in that year, that will give us some hints that the Exodus may have happened in that year. Pointers to such an event is then searched for in the data on Thutmosis III and brought into perspective helping to place a secure thinking on this date as an option. Thus, a short description of the death of Thutmosis III is relevant for a study on the book of Judges.

        Thutmosis III was the pharaoh of the Exodus according to Biblical chronology and according to other facts that supports the Biblical report. The night with the Exodus around 12 o clock the eldest son of Thutmosis III died, as the Bible states, namely the angel of death slaughtered the eldest sons. Also Thutmosis III's son was killed and the event caused Thutmosis III to allow the Israelites to go. The Israelites were ready and started moving but around two o clock or three o clock, Thutmosis III's tears and mourning for his son switch to anger and revenge. As an old man, the general spirit and soldier spirit returned in him. He remembered how he led the forces 16 times to Syro-Palestine to meet the enemies but mainly, although not mentioned, to look for Moses who was the rival to the throne since he was the favored of Hatshepsut. Moses was the favored and Thutmosis III was the illegitimate child of the streetwoman Iset  and Thutmosis II, the husband of Hatshepsut. This was shortly after their marraige when Hatshepsut was only 17 years old. When Hatshepsut was 18, Moses, who was 12 came to the court and it was for Hatshepsut an emotional release from stress with the presence of the illigitimate baby in the palace, Thutmosis III. Moses became her "younger brother" and a strong relationship on an emotional level grew between them. Moses lived according to the ways of his mother as she taught him with the stories of the ancestors. When Thutmosis III was on his way to the Red Sea, everything was darkness and they had to find their way. They could see a light-column on the horizon that enlightened the Israelites. But, for them everything was darkness. When they reached the Red Sea, Thutmosis III was full of revenge. They looked at the walls of water on both sides and could see how the last Israelites reached the other side. They could not explain this phenomenon, as many scholars today cannot explain it. The generals and Thutmosis III probably held a similar meeting that they had during the battle of Megiddo in 1479. This was now 29 years later. Back then they had the problem that there were three roads to Megiddo, one west of Megiddo from Tel-Aviv and another just east of Megiddo near the brooks, a kind of pass and a third one east of Taanach, which then meant they will have to come back all along the edge of the valley of Yisreel to Megiddo. The generals of Thutmosis III wanted all the western road but Thutmosis III, according to the report, said no, they are to take a shortcut through the pass at the brooks of Megiddo. Since they all hesitated, Thutmosis III did something unusual. He took his place at the front of the garrison and led them to the battle as navigator through the pass. The battle was a success and his heroic deeds are recorded in long detailed report in hieroglyphics that was also translated in modern languages. That day, 15 May 1479 the insistence of Thutmosis III to have it his way, was to his advantage and there was a victory for the Egyptian empire over the allied forces of Syria. The night of the Exodus they probably had the same problem. Negative generals that refuse to go in a tunnel of water and an insistent Thutmosis III that led the garrison. This time it was to his disadvantage because Psalm 106 verse 10 describes the mala fide hatred of the enemies and the situation of their death are described in verse 11, namely that all died as it reads: "and water covered their enemies, not one of them remained". This included Thutmosis III (the writer owes this insight from his teacher pastor Johann Japp during his classes at Helderberg College, South Africa in classnotes in 1978). Thutmosis III was then about 75 years old.

H2 If Thutmosis III was not found that morning, just as people struggle to find their loved ones after the tsunami in Indonesia, who is in the sarcophage of Thutmosis III? Is it Thutmosis III.  Scholars says no. X-ray plates indicate that the teeth are well-spaced, although it shows that it was worn down, yet there are no problems as one finds with the tooth problems of later pharaohs. On his right arm he worned a wide armband and a bend wire, the wire was probably connected by his repairers, that used wooden pieces to hold the parts of the broken mummy together. The cut in the stomach to remove the parts of the intestines was relatively small (4 inches) well-cut and carefully stitched together. Thutmosis III died after 55 years as king on March 17 in 1450 BCE. The X-ray experts James Harris and Kent Weeks said that the age of the mummy in the sarcophage of Thutmosis III was between 35-40 years old. The publication was done by Chicago University and is recorded in the X-ray atlas of the royal mummies that they made and published in 1980.

H3 Those who try to understand the chronology of the pharaohs must study the article by W. Ward in BASOR of 1992 where he describes the problems of Egyptian chronology.¹²⁸⁾ There are three points of view that are based on the dating for the beginning of the reign of Rameses II. Two points of view, the oldest one and that of Brinkman and Bierbrier are the closest to the Masoretic Text date of 1450 BCE as a date for the time of the Exodus. In the oldest point of view, that of Kraus is the best that gives 200 years between the beginning of the reign of Rameses II and the beginning of the reign of Thutmosis III. Thus, if the oldest date is accepted of 1304 BCE then Thutmosis III started his reign in 1504 BCE and 55 years later was 1450/1449 BCE with the Exodus. The viewpoint of Wente and Van Siclen that it was 225 years is not to be accepted in this framework. The later date 1290 BCE as the year for the enthronement of Rameses II is too late. This means that Thutmosis III died in 1435 BCE if one accepts Krauss' viewpoint that 200 years separate Thutmosis III and Rameses II. The third date that scholars of the Kassite sciences suggest, namely Brinkman and Bierbrier is 1279 as the date of the enthronement of Rameses II. This means, if Wente and Van Siclen is correct here with their 225 years between the kings and Krauss with his 200 years are not correct, then the 225 years minus the 55 years for the reign of Thutmosis III ends in 1450/1449 BCE.¹²⁹⁾

H4 The SDA chronology masters, Thiele and Horn worked out the date of the Exodus as 1446 BCE. A better suggestion is that of Shea who suggested it to be 1450 BCE. The extra-biblical sources were investigated by us also (see this researcher's book, Archaeology in the Bible and Text in the Tel, 1996) and it was found that 1450 BCE harmonized better with the building of the temple chronology of Salomon.

H5 According to our calculation in line also with that of Shea, the building of the temple occurred in 970 BCE but in the Thiele-Horn calculation that date is 967/966 BCE. Thiele calculated the enthronement of Salomon as 971 BCE and according to Eugene Merrill in JANES 1989, that date was at that time not yet contested. According to our view, Salomon was co-regent with his father between 973-970 BCE and in that year David died. This is the year of the beginning of the building of the temple. The writer do not want to enter in the issue here, but in the magnus opus of Thiele on chronology, and it is still the Bible of chronology, Thiele made an error with one of the kings of Israel or Judah by switching from a reading in the Masoretic Text to that of the Septuagint text. There is no need, in our view, to do this. It is possible that this error may have accounted for the later dating by Thiele and Horn. The problem consist only 1-2% of his work so that it is not that serious an issue. Whether the point of Thiele and Horn is accepted, or that of Shea and this writer, there is no way the Exodus could have been in the time of Ramses II as even Albright attempted to demonstrate. By ignoring the exactitude of Biblical chronology on this aspect, Albright in fact left the arena of Biblical Archaeology and entered speculative archaeology. Just from this point alone, without going into any detail about archaeological data, his (Albright's) conquest model would not work. Thus far, chronology.

H6 The focus in this section is actually the mummy of Thutmosis III and its sarcophage. According to this researcher the mummy is actually the son of Thutmosis III who died that night of the Exodus also, hours before his father disappeared. Maspero described the mummy when it was found, not in the tomb but kilometers further in the Temple at Deir-el-Behari. Maspero said: "The arabs already searched the mummy. Tied to the body were two small (German Ruder) and a (German SchilFestschrift trauFestschrift ). It was in such a bad condition that man had to open it: wherein they found the broken mummy in three pieces, about 1,60 meter in length. The linnenwrapping, that was wrapped around the mummy, contained long hieroglyphic texts, the 17th chapter of the book of the dead and fragments of the hymn to the Sun-god, in the name of the king Thutmosis III, the son of the queen Isi (or ist or iset) who's name appear here for the first time". It is not the mummy of Thutmosis III but that of a young man and not in the tomb but in the temple of Deir-el-Behari.

H7 The hieroglyphic text around the mummy of the young man is important for us since we believe that he died 12 o clock that night. Whether his body was broken by arabs or whether it was already broken in three pieces the night when the angel slaugthered him, cannot be answered. Since there are pieces of wood to repair the body found in the sarcophage one may accept that he was already broken in three at the time of the funeral-procedures since it appears not sensible to think that the Arabic robbers would take the time to put the body together again. The linnen-wrapping contained a text that was normally selected by a priest containing content that was suitable for the occasion as far as the needs of the deceased, the history of the deceased and fears of the family in his afterlife is concerned. That is why one must expect that the events of the angel of death at 12 o clock that night of the Exodus in 1450 BCE must be reflected in the hieroglyphics. Unfortunately the text is not complete. Horizontal cutmarks destroyed the text. The lowered part of the text is gone.

H8 The text of the linnen-wrapping read according to Edouard Naville in 1886:

"The good god, the lord of the world, the pious ruler, Aa-kheperu-ra, the son of the god from his body, loved by him, Amenophis, made this monument of his father, the good god, the lord of the world, the pious ruler, the king of upper- and lower-Egypt Men-kepher-ra, the son of Ra-Ammon from his body, loved by him, Thutmosis-nefer-kheperu. He presented him with the books of the perfection of the deceased with which he climb into the boat of Ra and with which his going and coming is accomplished (actually "extended" so Naville) with which he may come to the end of [his] d[ay]..".

H9 We note the following:

The throne-name Aa-kheperu-ra, the son of the god [Thutmosis III] from his body  loved by him, Amenophis [= Aa-kheperu-ra], made this monument. Monument? Why did Amenhotep II made a monument for his father? If the tomb is the monument it was done with very poor craftmanship (see our discussion in Archaeology of the Bible and Text in the Tel 1996). If it is the sarcophage and the linnen-wrapping, then the question is whether Amenhotep II was not satisfied with the tomb only and saw it necessary to add another act? The tomb was completed by two different teams of workman and we interpreted it as the first team probably the Israelites who did things very accurate but after the Exodus that night of 1450 BCE another team had to come and complete the work. The completion was done with haste. The second team painted around the objects without removing them, did not clean the tomb when they finished, drew the lines irregular, made many errors, paintmarks, incomplete lines which indicate that they wanted to finish the work in a haste (see the remarks by W. Romer). For us this points to the trauma of that night of the Exodus. The pillar in the center of the tomb is out of axis. Amenhotep II said that he placed the books for the perfection of the deceased with which the deceased is to climb into the boat of Ra and with which his coming and going will be extended. Thutmosis III died in our view in the Red Sea that night of 17 March 1450 BCE around 4 o clock the morning and his body was never found but Amenhotep II, who was a young man, used linnen-wrappings with hieroglyphics around a mummy in which he describes his own good deeds to his father Thutmosis III in a sarcophage of Thutmosis III but not the mummy of Thutmosis III.

H10 Sir Wallis Budge indicated that on the linnen one can also find chapter 44 of the book of the dead. Budge said:

"The following remarkable prayer was first found inscribed upon a linen swathing which had enveloped the mummy of Thothmes III., but since that time the text, written in hieroglyphics, has been found inscribed upon the Papyrus of Nu, 1 and it is, of course, to be found also in the late papyrus preserved at Turin, which the late Drp. Lepsius published so far back as 1842. This text, which is now generally known as Chapter CLIV of the Book of the Dead, is entitled "The Chapter of not letting the body perish". The text begins:--

"Homage to thee, O my divine father Osiris! I have come to thee that thou mayest embalm, yea embalm these my members, for I would not perish and come to an end, [but would be] even like unto my divine father Khepera, the divine type of him that never saw corruption. Come, then, and make me to have the mastery over my breath, O thou lord (p. 98) of the winds, who dost magnify those divine beings who are like unto thyself. Stablish thou me, then, and strengthen me, O lord of the funeral chest. Grant thou that I may enter into the land of everlastingness, even as it was granted unto thee, and unto thy father Temu, O thou whose body did not see corruption, and who thyself never sawest corruption. I have never wrought that which thou hatest, nay, I have uttered acclamations with those who have loved thy KA. Let not my body turn into worms, but deliver me [from them] even as thou didst deliver thyself. I beseech thee, let me not fall into rottenness as thou dost let every god, and every goddess, and every animal, and every reptile to see corruption when the soul hath gone forth from them after their death. For when the soul departeth, a man seeth corruption, and the bones of his body rot and become wholly loathsomeness, the members decay piecemeal, the bones crumble into an inert mass, the flesh turneth into fluid liquid, and he becometh a brother unto the decay which cometh upon him. And he turneth into a host of worms, and he becometh a mass of worms, and an end is made of him, and he perisheth in the sight of the god Shu even as doth every god, and every goddess, and every feathered fowl, and every fish, and every creeping thing, and every reptile, and every animal, and every thing whatsoever. When the worms see me and know me, let them fall upon their bellies, and (p. 99) let the fear of me terrify them; and thus let it be with every creature after [my] death, whether it be animal, or bird, or fish, or worm, or reptile. And let life arise out of death. Let not decay caused by any reptile make an end [of me], and let not them come against me in their various forms. Do not thou give me over unto that slaughterer who dwelleth in his torture-chamber (?), who killeth the members of the body and maketh them to rot, who worketh destruction upon many dead bodies, whilst he himself remaineth hidden and liveth by slaughter; let me live and perform his message, and let me do that which is commanded by him. Give me not over unto his fingers, and let him not gain the mastery over me, for I am under thy command, O lord of the gods. Homage to thee, O my divine father Osiris, thou hast thy being with thy members. Thou didst not decay, thou didst not become worms, thou didst not diminish, thou didst not become corruption, thou didst not putrefy, and thou didst not turn into worms". The deceased then identifying himself with Khepera, the god who created Osiris and his company of gods, says:-- I am the god Khepera, and my members shall have an everlasting existence. I shall not decay, I shall not rot, I shall not putrefy, I shall not turn into worms, and I shall not see corruption under the eye of the god Shu. I shall have my being, I shall have (p. 100) my being; I shall live, I shall live; I shall germinate, I shall germinate, I shall germinate; I shall wake up in peace. I shall not putrefy; my bowels shall not perish; I shall not suffer injury; mine eye shall not decay; the form of my countenance shall not disappear; mine ear shall not become deaf; my head shall not be separated from my neck; my tongue shall not be carried away; my hair shall not be cut off; mine eyebrows shall not be shaved off, and no baleful injury shall come upon me. My body shall be stablished, and it shall neither fall into ruin nor be destroyed on this earth" (Wallis Budge, Egyptian Ideas of Future Life [London: 1900], pp. 98-100).

H11 The linnen writer after the death of Thutmosis III and after the death, in our view, of his oldest son, wrapped around the body of the mummy a text in which he pleads that his body will not be attacked by worms. Why Amenhotep II was so concerned that a monument of his father had to be erected and that a linnentext had to be wrapped around [a young mummy = his brother?], placed in his father's sarcophage, his father who was never found? that he will not see any corruption? If the pharaoh was never found that night, the situation would have been a big concern to the priests of the Egyptian empire. That is in our view the reason for the long hymn to expel corruption. The name of Temu is important. Thutmosis III washed away that morning of the 17th of March 1450 BCE around 4 o clock. It was dark. The sun-god for the dark is Temu and the sun-god for the light is Ra. Here on the linnen-text Amenhotep II addresses the god for the night and asks for air. Thutmosis III died through absence of air which is expected when one drowns.

The text reads:

"Let not decay caused by any reptile make an end [of me], and let not them come against me in their various forms".

What is interesting in this line, wrapped around the mummy, is that Moses, who wrote Genesis in 1460 BCE in Midian, used similar motives describing the role of Lucifer or Satan in the form of a snake to Eve in the garden of Eden, see Genesis 2-3. The priest received thus from Amenhotep II or the favorite of Thutmosis III the request to break the body in three parts and put it together again with wood. He was instructed to select a text to prevent corruption of his father [who in our estimation was never found] pleading for air from the god Temu (the god during which time Thutmosis III died). He received also the instruction to keep his brother in mind who's body is the one around which the linnen-wrapping is placed who died by the Angel of death that night. The relevant words were:

"Do not thou give me over unto that slaughterer who dwelleth in his torture-chamber (?), who killeth the members of the body and maketh them to rot, who worketh destruction upon many dead bodies, whilst he himself remaineth hidden and liveth by slaughter".

H12 Snakes in the tomb of Thutmosis III.

One aspect that needs attention is the role of snakes in the tomb of Thutmosis III. On one wall of the tomb where the sarcophage was suppose to be, there are no less than 13 snakes. One snake is riding a boat of the waters. He says the words "life" = "ankh". Two other snakes is also in the throne-hall. The one snake has the head of the king and the other snake says "life" = "ankh". Three snakes are shown to stand in front of another long thin snake. The thin snake, says to the larger ones: "kheper ankh". Kheper is part of the name of Thumosis III. The other snake that also has the head of the king has four legs. Thus, a walking snake. Three other snakes not only have not only legs but wings to fly. One is reminded of the words of Moses in the account of the Fall of man and the manifestation of Satan in the form of a snake and the curse of God: ךלת ךנחג־לע "you will go on your stomach" Genesis 3:14. This means that he could fly before the curse to be after the curse only on his stomach. Moses wrote Genesis in 1460 BCE in Midian while he was hiding from Thutmosis III during his 16 campaigns in Palestine and these drawings were made after 17 March 1450 BCE when in our view, the son of Thutmosis III, age 35, was placed in the tomb. One other snake also says "life" = "ankh". If one looks at the words written on the linnen wrapped around the body of the mummy, one see: "Let not decay caused by any reptile make an end [of me], and let not them come against me in their various forms". We also remember the incident during the week before Thutmosis' death in 1450 BCE in which magicians made snakes but that the staff of Moses ate the other snakes.

H13 The purpose of Amenhotep II is to make sure his father will not see corruption, will receive air, and will be able to climb in the boat of Ra and extend his coming and going in order to reach the going out of the day. Let us invert his words: Because my father Thumosis III drowned that night at the Red Sea and because he was not found, I need to make sure my father does not see corruption, make sure he gets air [wherever he may be like people in the tsunami in Indonesia] and that he will be able to climb into the boat of Ra which will help him to extend [because he is hindered from this process] his coming and going so that he can reach the end of his day [which he did not reach at the wrapping-time of the linnen yet].