Not a single scholar will attempt to date Moses.
I do. In fact, without allowing the text to link conservatively to the Umwelt
history, it is impossible to make proper cultural conclusions. As culture and
fashion change so fast and empires blow this back and forth, up and down,
absence and presence, borrowed and puritanic, exclusivism and acculturation,
public display and erasing and destroying, it is through these fragments of the
past that the dots have to be connected to date Moses’ time in Midian when he
wrote Genesis.
Biblical calculation
started from the 4th year of Solomon in 970 BC for me but 966/7 BC
for Thiele. Then 1 Kings 6:1-4 is used to calculate 480 years back to the
Exodus. Which text should be used? The consonantal text of the Masoretic
Tradition. What about the LXX? It is an elusive text and dating from byzantine
times and later. It is based upon degenerative texts of a Qumran kind. The same
with the Targum, Syriac, Latin versions. 1450 BC. That should be the year the
Pharaoh died in the Red Sea with his troops. Since they were never found one
can expect that the oldest son will be in his sarcophagi with an age of
somewhere in the thirties since he died at Midnight. That is the age of the mummy
in the sarcophagi of Thutmosis III at the Oriental Institute in Chicago.
Amenhotep II would not start ruling in co-rulership since he was not the
crownprince. The crownprince is in the sarcophagi and the father is in the Red
Sea. How to calculate the pharaohs? One should pay attention to “Directions and
Dilemmas surrounding the Date of the Exodus” in K. van Wyk, Archaeology in the
Bible and Text in the Tel (Berrien Center, Michigan: Louis Hester Publication,
1996), pp. 100-113 and also the following chapter “Dilemmas and Directions in
Exodus dating: Towards a synchronization of the Pharaohs with Biblical
Chronology”pp. 114-128. Studies in Chronology of the Pharaohs are all but
satisfactory and clear. Areas of contention are: the value of traditions of
Manetho; the length of the reigns of the individual kings; the existence of
corregencies; the role of astronomical evidence especially the Sothic Cycle;
the use and abuse of versions for calculating the Chronology of the Bible. Each
aspect requires hours of research. Sober thinking and analysis is necessary at
each level. Manetho is prime for W. Helck (1956); problematic for D. B.
Redford; should be ignored E. Wente and Van Siclen also W. Ward; not necessary
for the period after the New Kingdom, says E. Hornung. Added problems are the
co-regency or subsequent rulership of pharaohs. Both styles are present. For
Amenhotep II it was subsequent. Yet Redford argues for a 1 and a third
co-regency. Wente and Van Siclen for 2 and a third co-regency. Krauss sees no
co-regency and in this case, Krauss is considered correct due to the biblical
evidence (father died and eldest brother as crownprince and thus a surprise
transition for him). From the accession of Raamses II to the accession of
Thutmosis III is 200 years for most scholars but others argued for 225. There
is the High, Middle, Conventional and Low chronological schemes. It is the
result of trying to get to grips on the listed factors above. Accession dates
for Raamses II is given as 1304 (older scholars); 1290 (later scholars); 1279
(Brinkman and Bierbrier). There is the difference between 967/66 and 970 BC as
date for the fourth year of Solomon in 1 Kings 6:1-4; there is the difference
between using the Hebrew consonantal text or the derivative secondary Greek
byzantine text to half the 480 to 240 years. Differences are also regarding the
astronomical data. The length of the Sothis Cycle differ with some scholars:
some say 1460 and others say 1456 years. The observation point for the Sothis
Cycle is not certain: if the observation point is from Heliopolis the date is
1541 BC if the years are 1456 and not 1460 [thus 1545 BC]; or observation from
Thebes mean it was 1523 BC for 1456 years and 1527 for 1460 years; or
observation from Elephantine mean that it was 1519 BC for 1456 or 1523 BC for
1460 BC. This would be the date on Papyrus Ebers for the 9th year of
Amenhotep I. All assumptions rests on the acceptance of the stability of 139 BC
for Manetho’s record of the Sothis Cycle in that year. There is definitely room
for an eclectic approach by the historian following the arguments of the
scholar representing a date that aligned closest to the biblical chronology.
1450 BC is the date of the Exodus accepting the 200 year period of Krauss
against Wente and Van Siclen’s 225. 1504 BC is the accession year of Thutmosis
III utilizing the older chronology of 1304 BC or the high-chronology. Those who
argue with Brinkman and Bierbrier’s 1279 for the accession of Raamses II can
still come to 1450 BC by accepting a 225 year period to the accession of
Thutmosis III. Shea and Van Wyk will argue for 970 BC and Thiele, Horn,
Schwantes, Waterhouse et al would argue for 966/7 BC. The extra-biblical evidence
for 970 BC was presented Van Wyk 1996: 207-237. Collaborative extra-biblical
evidence is amazing: sarcophage of Thutmosis III; haste of completion of his
tomb and sloppiness which speaks of a post-trauma fear; the book of the dead
linen in the sarcophage of Thutmosis III hoping that worms will not destroy
him; the announcement of his vizier that when the sun (Aten) came up in the
morning, Amenhotep II was established on the throne of his father a timing
coinciding with biblical evidence; Yoyotte and Mendehall supporting 1450 BC for
the death of Thutmosis III; evidence of Hatshepsut at Beni-Hasan circa 1503 BC
that the Hyksos ruled without a concept of Ra and that she rebuilt massively
with her father the Northland near Avaris which link Hatshepsut to the building
of the cities Pithom and Raamses. The role of oppressive labor is explained. One
can see her record on the east side of one of the two obelisks of her at Karnak
lines 25-30 “what Aten encircles labors for me”. This is in 1495 BC set up at
the 30th year jubilee (sed festival) since her father Thutmosis I
who started to reign in 1525 BC (circa). It was in 1490 BC that Moses killed
the Egyptian under severe labor conditions. He fled to Midian and wrote Genesis
after some time.