An Exodus Mystery Solved?

Amenhotep II: The Pharaoh of the Exodus

The identity of the infamous pharaoh who chased Moses and the Israelites as they fled Egypt has been a mystery for centuries, debated in modern times by numerous scholars and dismissed as a fairy tale by others. Who was this pharaoh? The primary difficulty with connecting archaeological and historical material to the pharaoh of the Exodus is that his name is never specified in the Bible.¹ However, there are several clues that point to a specific period and person in Egyptian history.

Clues

The book of Exodus never names the kings of Egypt, using instead only the title Pharaoh. Yet this in itself is a clue, since “pharaoh” is derived from an Egyptian phrase meaning “great house” and only came into use for the king of Egypt during the 18th Dynasty.² This implies that the Exodus and the authorship of the book likely took place in the 15th century BC or later. In fact, this non-naming of an enemy ruler appears to be intentional; it is a convention attested in numerous texts of the period, and it explains why Moses (traditionally held to be the author of Exodus) did not include the names, while later books such as Kings and Isaiah give the personal name of various pharaohs.

Another important clue is that the pharaoh whose reign preceded the Exodus reigned for over 40 years. We know this because Moses, who fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian overseer, did not return until 40 years later, when the pharaoh seeking his life had finally died.³ This narrows the field of candidates substantially, since very few pharaohs reigned for 40 or more years. Within the 18th Dynasty, only Thutmose III, who reigned for 54 years, qualifies as the pre-Exodus pharaoh.⁴

Thutmose III was succeeded by his son Amenhotep II. It is implied that the Exodus pharaoh himself was not a firstborn son, since he did not die in the tenth plague.⁵ And indeed, Amenhotep II was not the firstborn, as he had an older brother named Amenemhat who had died about two decades before Amenhotep II became pharaoh.

The final chronological clue concerns the approximate year of the Exodus. We can derive this from biblical passages that recount years and allow a reconstructed chronology. These include references to the 480th year prior to the 4th year of Solomon (1 Kings 6:1), 340 years prior to Jephthah (Judges 11:26),⁶ 19 generations from the Exodus to Solomon (1 Chronicles 6:33–37), and observations of a new era for the Israelites beginning with the Exodus (Deuteronomy 1:3). That the biblical writers and other ancient authors counted solar years and recorded them accurately can be deduced from a study of numerous ancient temple dedication texts.⁷ Since the fourth year of Solomon was ca. 967 BC, the pharaoh in power during the Exodus must have been on the throne around 1446 BC. In Egyptian history, this year falls early in the reign of Amenhotep II.⁸

A Convergence of Data

In addition, there is inscriptional evidence from around 40 years after the early years of Amenhotep II for the nomadic Israelites wandering in the area east of Egypt and war and destruction afterward in Canaan.⁹ This would be the expected timeline if the Israelites had fled Egypt during his reign, spent four decades wandering in the wilderness, and then entered Canaan to conquer and settle.¹⁰

Thus, there appears to be an initial convergence of data—a pre-Exodus pharaoh (Thutmose III) who ruled for over 40 years, a new pharaoh recently in power by about 1446 BC who was not a firstborn son (Amenhotep II), Yahweh worshippers wandering in the wilderness east of Egypt, and upheaval in Canaan 40 years later, all in an 18th-Dynasty setting.¹¹ However, these chronological and historical setting connections are not the only ancient evidence that ties Amenhotep II to the pharaoh of the Exodus.

Numerous incidents that occurred during the Exodus or as a result of it also have parallels with events in the reign of Amenhotep II. The earliest curious connection between Moses and this royal family took place decades before the escape from Egypt but had repercussions afterward. Not long after Moses was born, he was sent down the Nile river in a basket and picked up by order of the princess, who then decided to adopt him.¹² This “daughter of Pharaoh” was probably Hatshepsut, the only daughter of Thutmose I and Ahmose who survived past infancy and who eventually became a female pharaoh.¹³ Many years later, perhaps as retaliation for her adoption of Moses and by extension partial responsibility for the Exodus, Amenhotep II attempted to erase Hatshepsut from history by scratching out her name, defacing her images, and placing his name on many of her monuments, including the famous Eighth Pylon at Karnak.

Other events in his reign that may coincide with the Exodus include the abandonment of the palace district at Avaris/Ramses (‘Ezbet Helmi) and the disappearance of Semitic slaves from Pithom (Tell el-Retaba), perhaps because of the plagues and the departure of the Israelites.¹⁴ The chaotic time of the plagues may even have been recorded in poetic form by an Egyptian during the 18th Dynasty whose name “Ipuwer” appears during the reigns of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III.¹⁵

The effects of and reactions to the Exodus also seem to appear during the reign of Amenhotep II and in the years following, as military campaigns grind to a halt and an expedition is launched to bring slaves, chariots, and weapons to Egypt. The previous pharaoh, Thutmose III, conducted 17 known military campaigns. His son Amenhotep II, however, conducted only one campaign prior to the calculated time of the Exodus and a second one in the year following it which was focused on capturing plunder. In his year-nine expedition, Amenhotep II went to Canaan and claimed to have returned with 101,128 prisoners, 1,032 chariots, and 13,050 weapons of warfare.¹⁶ Although these are widely acknowledged as exaggerated numbers, Amenhotep II may have been attempting to recoup what he had lost in slaves, chariots, and weapons when the Israelites fled and his army and chariots were lost in the Sea of Reeds.¹⁷ In the century following, there is an absence of military campaigns. Nor were the Egyptians able to send any troops into Canaan to aid their vassals when the Canaanites were losing lands and cities to the “Habiru.”¹⁸

Further, Amenhotep II, as seen in his own inscriptions, appears to be a boastful, arrogant, and brutal ruler who tells sensational stories about his abilities and accomplishments, as if he felt the need to compensate for failures. For instance, he claims that from his chariot he simultaneously fired four arrows that pierced through copper targets as thick as a man’s palm, that he singlehandedly killed seven prince warriors and then mounted them on the bow of his boat, that he continued rowing a ship by himself after his 200 sailors were exhausted, that kings of various nations regarded him as their superior, and many other incredible feats. Although he may have been angry at his own gods and goddesses for abandoning him during a tumultuous period—even ordering the destruction of their images, including Amun-Ra—certainly this pharaoh who claimed such feats would not admit to his slaves escaping and their God defeating the deities of Egypt.¹⁹

The most shocking moment for the pharaoh, however, would have been the death of his firstborn son, who was supposed to become the next king of Egypt.²⁰ While the firstborn sons of other pharaohs died prior to ascending the throne, the situation with Amenhotep II is unique. His second-born son, who became Pharaoh Thutmose IV, commissioned a stele on which he recorded a fabricated story about the god of the Sphinx coming to him in a dream and promising that the kingship would be given to him.²¹ This was clearly intended to give the impression of divine endorsement and to reassure the Egyptians that Thutmose IV was legitimate and that their gods were in control, even though the original crown prince had died as a child. Incredibly, this firstborn child of Amenhotep II, named Webensenu, was found buried inside the tomb of his father in the Valley of the Kings. His mummy, along with an inscribed canopic jar and burial statuettes bearing his name, indicates that the young prince Webensenu was interred in the pharaoh’s tomb under special circumstances. Thus, the firstborn son of Pharaoh Amenhotep II died from unknown causes, was against convention buried in the king’s tomb, and his younger brother claimed divine intervention as the reason for later taking the throne.

Egyptian Corroboration

All of this circumstantial evidence points to Amenhotep II as the pharaoh of the Exodus, but one more important piece of data from Egyptian history helps to tie it all together. Manetho, an Egyptian priest and historian who lived during the fourth–third centuries BC, wrote a historical account that preserves an Egyptian version of the Exodus. The account has only been passed down in fragments, but in the preserved sections he remarks not only about the exit from Egypt but also notes that the name of the king at this time was Amenhotep.²² Thus, the only known Egyptian account from antiquity about the Exodus confirms the name of this ruler. All the information combined points to Amenhotep II as the infamous pharaoh of the Exodus.

Notes
1. E.g. “The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel.” (Exodus 14:8).
2. Inscription from the reign of Thutmose III found at the Temple of Armant.
3. Exodus 2:23, 4:19, 7:7; Acts 7:23–30.
4. Ramesses II ruled for 66 years, but he could not have been the pharaoh of the oppression because his successor, Merneptah, encountered the Israelites as the dominant people in Canaan in year five of his reign, meaning the Exodus could not have happened while he was king. Dedumose II, another proposed candidate for the Exodus pharaoh, actually subdued Egypt rather than chase a foreign group fleeing Egypt, and his predecessor, Dedumose I, only reigned for about seven years. Neither do any of the other proposed Exodus pharaohs, such as Thutmose III, Thutmose IV, Akhenaten, etc., fit all the various qualifications.
5. Exodus 12:30–31.
6. Judges 11:26 mentions 300 years, to which we can add the 40 years in the wilderness.
7. Titus Kennedy, “Temple Dedication and Construction Texts of the Ancient Near East with Elapsed Years: Implications for Long Duration Chronologies,” Religions 15, no. 4 (2024): 408.
8. The exact chronology of ancient Egypt, including the New Kingdom and 18th Dynasty, continues to be researched and debated. For the 18th Dynasty, however, the difference in varying chronologies is only about 20–25 years.
9. Titus Kennedy, “The Land of the SAsw (Nomads) of yhwA at Soleb,” Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies 6 (2019); Titus Kennedy, “The Bronze Age Destruction of Jericho: Archaeology, and the Book of Joshua,” Religions 14, no. 6 (2023): 796.
10. Deuteronomy 29:5; Joshua 5:6.
11. William Shea, “Amenhotep II as Pharaoh of the Exodus,” Bible and Spade 16.2 (2003); Douglas Petrovich, “Amenhotep II and the Historicity of the Exodus-Pharaoh,” The Master’s Seminary Journal 17, no. 1 (2006).
12. Exodus 2:2–10.
13. David Hansen, “Moses and Hatshepsut,” Bible and Spade 16.1 (2003).
14. Manred Bietak and Irene Forstner-Müller, “The Topography of New Kingdom Avaris and Per-Ramesses,” in Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen 2011; Bryant Wood, “New Discoveries at Rameses,” Bible and Spade 21.1 (2008); Sławomir Rzepka, et al., “Egyptian Mission Rescue Excavations in Tell el-Retaba. Part 1: New Kingdom Remains,” Egypt and the Levant 22/23 (2012/2013).
15. Titus Kennedy, “Ipuwer Versus the Exodus Plagues,” Bible and Spade 35.1 (2022).
16. The Memphis Stele of Amenhotep II.
17. Exodus 14:28–30.
18. See the Amarna Letters that request assistance from Egypt against the Habiru (but troops are never sent).
19. Western Karnak Stele of Amenhotep II.
20. Exodus 12:29–30.
21. The Sphinx Dream Stele.
22. Manetho, Aegyptiaca, preserved in Josephus, Against Apion 1.228–234. Amenophis is the Greek rendering of the name Amenhotep.