Date of the Death of Thutmosis and synchronized with the date of the Exodus

by koot van wyk 27 January 2009


Establishing that Abib is Nisan

In Exodus 13:4 Moses said: "On this day in the month of Abib, you are about to go forth".

In Exodus 12:2 the Lord said: "This month shall be the beginning of the months for you, it is to be the first month of the year to you".

Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 7a

"It is also written, Observe the month of 'Abhibh [Dt. xvi 1]. Now which is the month of in which there are green ears of corn ['abhibh]? You must say, This is Nisan and this is called 'first'" (op. cit. Segal 1957: 260 at footnote 3).


Passover at Nisan 14

We know that Nisan 14 in Jewish Tradition is the Jewish date for the celebration of the Passover.


Spring is in Abib

In an article by J. B. Segal, "Intercalation and the Hebrew Calendar" Vetus Testamentum Vol. 7 (1957): 250-307 we learn that (260) that "The time of the Hebrew spring festival is rightly prescribed as 'Abhibh, the season of the green ears, not the season of the ripe corn".


Spring is the time that kings go out to battle

According to 2 Samuel 11:1, Spring is the time that kings go out to battle. Another name for it is "at the turn of the year" (1 Kings 20:22).


Heliacal observation likely on the night of the Passover

Segal pointed out that there is the unusual phrase used in Exodus 12:42 lel shimmurim which is translated as "night of observation". Segal brings it in relation to the Akkadian phrase arah tammarti "month of observation" (of the heliacal rising). The citation of the Akkadian is from Stephen Langdon and J. K. Fotheringham, Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga, 69 page 32 (Segal 1957: 273 at footnote 4).

Segal mentions that for Egyptians the heliacal rising of Sirius was important since it was connected to the Inundation of the Nile.

The interesting fact seems to indicate that Israelites were observing that night of the Exodus if Sirius rises since they have to move through the Nile to the Red Sea during the night. It is like modern travelers looking at the weather for the next day they are going to travel.


Shemu Season as the period of the Inundation of the Nile

There are three seasons in Egypt: Aakhet with four months, Pert with four months and Shemu with four months.

E. W. Budge in his An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary 1920: 740 indicate that the meaning of shemm is "to inundate" or "the summer inundation".


Pert Season as the spring season

Very likely Pert is the Season of spring. Seeds and grains are available.


Pert as the Season in which the Sothis star appeared

The appearance of the star Sothis was called in Egyptian per-t sept-t. This is related to the season of Pert.

The word has a variety of meanings: the appearance of a heavenly body, sprout, plant, vegetable, grain, corn, wheat, field produce, grains, seeds of a plant, progeny, posterity, descendants among others (Budge 1920: 242-243).

It is meaningful that Israelites were observing the night of the Exodus, expecting the appearance of a heavenly body since it is the night that the Angel of the Lord appeared and slaughtered the first born children.

It is reported for example that there was a Heliacal rising of Sirius in the 12th dynasty on the 16th day of the 4th month of the second season Pert in the 7th year of Sesostris III.


Date of the death of Thutmosis III

"According to the American Egyptologist, Peter Der Manuelian, a statement in the tomb biography of an official named Amenemheb establishes that Thutmose III died on Year 54, III Peret day 30 of his reign after ruling Egypt for 53 years, 10 months, and 26 days. (Urk. 180.) Thutmose III, hence, died just one month and four days shy of the start of his fifty-fifth regnal year. When the co-regencies with Hatshepsut and Amenhotep II are deducted, he ruled alone as pharaoh for just over thirty of those years"

Source: Peter Der Manuelian, Studies in the Reign of Amenophis II, Hildesheimer Ägyptologische Beiträge (HÄB) Verlag: 1987: 20.

http://www.answers.com/topic/thutmose-iii

Thutmosis III died in the month of Rekh Netches of the Season of Pert on the 30th day of that month.


11th March as the date of the Death of Thutmosis III

According to scholars the date of the death of Thutmosis III was on the 11th of March. That would have been in 1450 BCE in our calculation.


1450 BCE as the year of the Death of Thutmosis III

Thutmosis III died in 1450 BCE as most calculations indicate. It is the year of the Exodus from Egypt according to strict consonantal Masoretic calculation based on 1 Kings 6:4. Utilizing Greek sources, Eupolemos and Josephus, the 4th year of Solomon is 970 BCE and not 967/66 BCE as E. Thiele indicate.


Lunar and Egyptian Calendars slip or wander

The Lunar calendar was a slipping calendar since the year had only 354 days. The Egyptian year had 365 days. It was a wandering calendar and the seasons were shifting. This explains why an inundation may have occurred in the days of Sesostris III in Pert rather that Sekmu.


Conclusions

1. Thutmosis III died the morning of the Exodus.

2. The Exodus was during Passover.

3. Passover is Nisan 14.

4. Nisan is slipping Julian months but mostly around March and April.

5. Nisan is in spring.

6. The Exodus was during spring.

7. Abib is also called Nisan.

8. Scripture says that the Israelites left in Abib or Nisan or the first of the year.

9. Thutmosis III died in the third month of Pert on the 30 th day which was 11th March.

10. The Exodus was in 1450 BCE and Thutmosis III died in 1450 BCE.

11. The inundation of the Nile was sometimes as early as Pert as in the days of Sesostris III of the 12th dynasty.

12. The 14th of Nisan was that year on the 11th of March in 1450 BCE.

13. If Shemu is summer as Budge indicate then one should expect Pert to be spring.