The Chronological Setting
AS we have explained above, it is only since 1927 that it has been possible to reach certainty as to the dates for kings who reigned in ancient times, say, before the twelfth century B. C. We have also seen how this astronomically fixed system of dating testifies to the precision of the Biblical dates for the life of Abraham. We shall now show that the same is true for the times of Moses.
According to the Bible, we have the following dates:
B.C.
1722. The death of Joseph.
1666. The birth of Moses.
1626. Moses fled from Egypt.
1586. The Exodus from Egypt.
1546. The death of Moses.
Let us now proceed to ascertain which Pharaohs reigned during the lifetime of Moses. We can do this by working forward from the fixed date for the First Babylonian Dynasty. Thus: B.C.
These figures are given in early and very accurate Babylonian lists of kings. This Third Babylonian Dynasty was that of “Kassite” kings, of whom the first 4 account for 68 years, and the last 15 account for 165 years. The figures for the rest of the dynasty cannot be read because of damage to the tablet; but we can proceed as, follows:
The remaining 17 kings reigned for 344 years in all, which gives an average of slightly more than 20 years apiece. From the total given for the whole dynasty we know that the 21st king’s reign ended in B. C. 1378. We may therefore estimate that the 17th king, named Kadashman-Bel, reigned round about the year B.C. 1470; and that his successor, Burnaburiash II reigned round about B. C. 1450. The importance of this is, that the former exchanged letters with Amenhotep III of Egypt, and the latter with Amenhotep IV (or Akhnaton), as we know from the famous Tel-el-Amarna Tablets. Thus, at long last, it has become possible to date, within very narrow limits, these two Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty.
Let us now inquire how the Biblical History stands the test of this new information. Those who are “old-fashioned” enough to believe the Bible will easily anticipate the nature of the reply.
The New King Who Knew Not Joseph
Ahmose, the prince who founded the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty, expelled the foreign Hyksos kings, and pursued them and their forces into Syria (see WEIGALL, II, p. 244). When we recollect that it was the Hyksos Dynasty that exalted Joseph and favored Israel, and that the expulsion of the Hyksos was the result of a prolonged struggle, we see how marvelously brief yet precise is the description given in Ex. 1: 8: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.” This expulsion of the Hyksos occurred some little time after the death of Joseph (see Ex. 1:66And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. (Exodus 1:6)).
According to WEIGALL (II, pp. 239-240), Ahmose began his reign some 190 years before the middle of the reign of Amenhotep III. Other authorities make the interval longer. WEIGALL omits the reign of the widow of Ahmose, who, according to Manetho (as quoted by several writers), reigned for 13 years. He also omits the reign of the widow of Thutmose I. A longer period than WEIGALL’S is indicated as necessary by an inscription of Queen Hatshepsut (or Hatasou), which says that 120 years had elapsed from the expulsion of the Hyksos to her own times (WEIGALL, II, p. 334). In any case, it is quite clear that the Pharaohs of Moses belonged to the Eighteenth Dynasty, which, if WEIGALL’S figures are accepted, was founded about the time Moses was born.
The Pharaoh of the Exodus
The recent discoveries have remarkably confirmed the identification of Thutmose II, as the Pharaoh of the Exodus. A considerable number of arguments in support of this are set forth in Rev. J. URQUHART’S “New Biblical Guide,” Vol. IV., published at the beginning of the present century; and now the new light on the chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty, as explained above, appears to make the identification certain. Furthermore, this identification explains fully some curious facts which are emphasized by WEIGALL. For example, this writer dwells on the contempt and hatred shown for the memory of Thutmose II. by his widow Hatshepsut; and this is exactly what was to be expected in view of the obstinate and disastrous folly manifested by the Pharaoh who defied the God of Israel. Again (2) WEIGALL shows that from the death of Thutmose II, the power of the Egyptian priesthood was broken for a while; and that priesthood must have been utterly discredited in its contest with Moses and Aaron. Further (3) he shows that at the death of Thutmose II, there was suddenly a state of unsettlement and dispute about the succession to the throne; and we remember that Pharaoh’s firstborn died in the last Plague. Also (4) WEIGALL points out that Thutmose II. died in springtime; and of course it was at that season (Passover) that the Pharaoh of the Exodus died. Again, (5) the body of the Pharaoh of the Exodus must have had upon it the marks left by the Plague of Boils; and WEIGALL (II, pp. 293-4) says in regard to Thutmose II.: “His body, as may be seen at the present day, is covered with small tubercles or eruptions.” Thus “he being dead yet speaketh;” and his mummified remains bear silent but eloquent witness to the truthfulness of Scripture.
A sixth confirmation is worthy of more extended mention. According to the Biblical History, forty years intervened between the Exodus and the victorious entrance of Israel into Canaan under Joshua, which was the beginning of their rapid conquest of most of Canaan and Lower Syria. Now the successor of Thutmose II, was Thutmose III, who for some twenty years was under the domination of Hatshepsut and her circle of advisers. As soon as he was free from this restraint, he commenced a series of brilliant campaigns against Canaan and Lower Syria. Sixteen times he led his forces to victory there; but in the later campaigns he took his army by sea to Syrian ports, instead of marching them across northern Sinai and through the country of the Philistines. Then, just forty-one years after the death of his father, Thutmose III stopped this series 431 military expeditions, and never attempted to resume them, turning his attention instead to conquests to the south of Egypt. This exactly accords with the facts recorded in the Bible. The smashing by Thutmose III. of the power of the kinglets of Canaan and of Lower Syria was a Divine preparation for Israel’s conquests in the same region. On the other hand, the invasion and occupation by Israel made impossible any further continuance of those Egyptian campaigns. A favorite title of these Pharaohs was “the hornet;” and quite possibly this fact is alluded to in Exodus 23:2828And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. (Exodus 23:28), Deut. 7:2020Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed. (Deuteronomy 7:20), and Josh. 24:1212And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. (Joshua 24:12); although the main reference appears to be to literal hornets.
Who Was “The Daughter of Pharaoh?”
According to the Biblical History, the time from the death of Joseph to the Exodus was 136 years. The best available information as to the Egyptian history is as follows:
Ahmose, the “new king,” reigned
Nefertari, his widow, reigned
His widow, and Thutmose II. reigned
This leaves 25 years for the period indicated in Ex. 1:66And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. (Exodus 1:6), from the death of Joseph to the expulsion of the Hyksos people from Egypt. “The daughter of Pharaoh” who adopted Moses was, then, the daughter of Ahmose and Nefertari (who was the heiress of the ancient Pharaohs who had been dethroned by the Hyksos). The Pharaoh reigning when Moses fled from Egypt was Thutmose I, who, if the above figures are correct, died five years later. He and his sister-queen Amessis had no son to succeed to the throne; but they had a daughter named Hatshepsut. Amessis, towards the end of her reign, married Hatshepsut to a son of Thutmose I, “a child of the harem,” who, in virtue of this marriage came to the throne as “Thutmose II.” Later on, as recorded in Ex. 9:1616And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. (Exodus 9:16), God reminded him of this elevation from obscurity to dominion.
We thus see again how exact is the harmony between the Scriptural statements and all the new knowledge which is in these days being granted to us. And let it be said once more that this accuracy would have been utterly impossible if the narrative had been composed, as the critics of the Bible have been asserting, by Jews who were separated by a thousand years from the events described.
Linguistic Evidence
We would again refer to the considerable amount of new evidence as to the peculiarities of language, as published so recently by Dr. YAHUDA. His volumes exhaustively prove that the writer of the Pentateuch, and the first readers, were Israelites whose vocabulary and way of speaking had been deeply colored by a long and intimate acquaintance with Egyptian language and customs. From this it follows that the writer was indeed Moses; and from this again it follows that the record of events given in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy is first-hand and first-rate testimony.
Former Conditions in the Sinaitic Peninsula
We have previously mentioned that new evidence is accumulating which shows that the rainfall over Egypt and the neighboring lands was formerly much greater than it is at present. This throws light upon the fact that for almost forty years some three million people, with flocks and herds, sojourned in the Peninsula of Sinai. Nearly the whole of their route has been followed, and the places of their encampments identified, by the descriptions and names furnished in the Books of Exodus and Numbers. The critics of the Bible, in their learned ignorance, imagined that these portions of Scripture were concocted in much later times and by a set of Jews who were quite unfamiliar with the localities; but the archaeologists are convinced, by actual investigation and discovery, that the Biblical narrative bears upon it the unmistakable marks of truthfulness.
Moses and Khamu-Rabi
The nineteenth century critics of the Bible, in their almost complete ignorance of the facts of the ancient civilizations, for a long time maintained that the art of writing had not been invented so early as the time of Moses. Later on, faced by absolute evidence to the contrary, but still reluctant to abandon their theories, they declared that the days of Moses were at any rate far too early for the idea of a Code of Laws such as is found in the Book of Exodus. They were, apparently, determined not to admit the truthfulness of the testimony of the Son of God that Moses gave the Law to Israel; the basis of their critical theories being the ruling out of Divine intervention, in favor of the “natural evolution” of religion and all else.
Modern discovery, however, is increasingly unkind to those theories. In the winter of 1901-2, DE MORGAN’S Expedition to Persia found the famous copy of the Code of Khamu-Rabi (or Hammurabi), the Amraphel of Gen. 14. This is a monument of blackdiorite, 8 feet high. It has on its upper part an engraving of the king worshipping his favorite god; and underneath is a long inscription in 44 columns, and comprising 2644 lines. The introductory sentences are followed by no less than 282 laws. Now this Code of Laws was published in the time of Abraham, 400 years before the Exodus; and its discovery at once annihilated the critical position. Furthermore, it has since been found out that Khamu-Rabi’s Code was largely a revision of another Code of laws issued 500 years earlier still by Urukagina, king of Lagash: that is, about 900 years before Moses.
But criticism was reluctant to cease its attack upon this rampart of the faith. These critics are resourceful men. They advanced another theory, namely that the Mosaic legislation was borrowed from that of the Babylonian monarch. This also has proved to be an untenable position. Dr. JEREMIAS of Leipzig has pointed out far-reaching differences between the two systems of laws. (See “The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East,” English Translation, 1911.) In the Code of Khamu-Rabi, the religious motive is quite absent; transgression is not thought of as sin against God; there is no control of lust itself, there is no inculcation of unselfishness or of love to one’s neighbor. A further striking difference is well expressed by MACY: “Those (laws) of Amraphel were formed for a settled nation, and were chiefly made to protect property; while those of Moses were formed for the guidance of a people whose individual lives were considered as of more importance than property. One, in fact, was the outcome of the mind of man, to whom wealth was everything. The other was the result of the inspiration of God, to Whom every individual life was of great value. No other nation in those days had such laws; for that point of view was unknown among any other nation, at that time.” We may point out one more vital difference: While the Mosaic laws condemn magic and all superstition, the very first two laws of the Babylonian Code recognize magical spells as of real power.
These fundamental differences unquestionably establish both the originality and the immense superiority of the Laws of Moses. See what Moses himself says on this matter in Deut. 4:5-85Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. 6Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 7For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? 8And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? (Deuteronomy 4:5‑8). Thus this last device of the “Higher Critics” to save their theory ends, like the rest, in failure.
Egyptian Cults and Mosaic Rituals
Recent researches have made clear what a vast gulf separates the sacrificial ritual given by God to Israel through Moses, from the degraded practices of the Egypt out of which they were delivered. Professor MELVIN G. KYLE, in an article written in 1924, says: “There were few real sacrifices in Egyptian religion... There was no act of substitution, hence no idea of substitutionary sacrifice. No account was taken of the blood, hence no blood atonement. The sacrifices were not burned on the altar or elsewhere, hence no doctrine of dedication; and there was no sacrificial meal, hence no fellowship with the Divine. Thus not a single one of the great ideas of the Mosaic sacrifices was found in Egypt. Moses did not get his system from Egypt, for Egypt did not have it to give.” It appears that the primeval revelation given by God to the ancestors of the human race had in many respects become more corrupted among the Egyptians than even among their neighbors to the East, as the facts to be next mentioned prove.
In 1905, Sir FLINDERS PETRIE explored an ancient temple in the Sinai Peninsula called the Temple of Serabit, close to certain mines which were worked by the Egyptian Government before and after the time of the Exodus. The workers in those mines were evidently not Egyptians; and the temple was built for their sake. The ritual differed essentially from that of Egypt, resembling rather the Semitic modes of worship. For example, the temple was built on a “high place;” incense altars were used; ceremonial washings were practiced; burnt sacrifices were offered. It is quite possible, and even probable, that a number of the mine workers who used to worship in that temple were descendants of Abraham-Ishmaelites, or even Israelites before the Exodus—who thus continued ancestral modes of worship. This supposition is strengthened by the nature of inscriptions discovered there, going back in date to about the time of the Exodus. These inscriptions are in an alphabetic writing which resembles old Hebrew letters but also shows the influence of Egyptian hieroglyphic signs.
Revelations at Ras Sharma
Mention has already been made, in our remarks on “The Origin of Alphabetic Writing,” of the remarkable discoveries made at Ras Shamra on the Syrian coast during and since 1929. The temple there was famous in the ancient world. Even Egyptian royalty sent embassies to it. In those times the city was known as Ugarit, as is proved by a tablet found on the spot. Some of the Ras Shamra tablets contain an epic poem called “The Gracious Gods;” and its contents prove that the people who composed it, and who were responsible for the type of civilization and the religious beliefs and terminology which prevailed at Ugarit, had migrated thither from the south of Palestine centuries before the days of Moses.
Now one of the main assumptions of the critics of the Bible is that “the Books of Moses” were not really written by Moses at all, but were a combination of several documents, the earliest of which was written about 700 years after Moses was dead. These critics say that the documents can be easily distinguished; because one writer (or set of writers) knew only the Divine titles “El” and “Elohim” (translated “God”), while another knew the Deity only as “Jah” or “JHVH” (translated “LORD”). The Ras Shamra tablets have demonstrated that this basal assumption of “Higher Criticism” is entirely erroneous; for in these tablets, coming from a period one thousand years earlier than the assumed earliest critical “source,” those various Divine titles are used by the same writer.
It is also interesting to note that these tablets show that in the Ugarit religion, which was imported into Syria in patriarchal times from the district in which Abraham lived, the sacrifices offered to the gods included the whole-burnt-offering, the trespass-offering, the peace-offering, and the first-fruits-offering. Bread and wine were also offered. Even the phrases used by the Ras Shamra writers sound familiarly to readers of the Old Testament, e.g., “strong as the bulls of Bashan.” Facts like these make it impossible for archaeologists to believe any longer in the “armchair” theories of the “Higher Criticism;” while believers in the Bible rejoice as each fresh discovery in the Ancient East brings its tribute to the truthfulness of the Sacred Scriptures.
Canaanite Depravity
Moses again and again refers to the abomination of the practice of human sacrifice among the Canaanites. Until recently this has by some writers been declared to be a misrepresentation. MACALISTER, however, in his excavations at Gezer, between 1902 and 1909, found definite proofs of this revolting religious rite. This is his testimony: “The whole area of the High Place was found to be a cemetery of newborn infants. That these infants were all the victims of sacrifice is suggested by their close association with the High Place, and confirmed by the fact that two at least displayed marks of fire. These infants were deposited in large jars.” Similarly, the archaeologists excavating at Ras Shamra have found proofs that the sacrificing of newborn children was practiced there at a period contemporary with Moses. It has recently been proved that in Egypt, also at that period, human sacrifice was occasionally practiced.
The practice of prostitution as a religious rite is referred to in the Hebrew of Deut. 23:17, 1817There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. 18Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God. (Deuteronomy 23:17‑18). This has been abundantly confirmed and illustrated by recent discoveries, for example, at Ras Shamra, very recently, and at Ur of the Chaldees. At Ras Shamra also, as at other places, clear evidence has been found of the ancient practice of making food-offerings to the dead (see Deut. 26:1414I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me. (Deuteronomy 26:14)). An authoritative volume published in 1934 refers to “the practice of a ritual for the souls of the exalted dead, the ‘Rephaim’ referred to in the tablets of Ras-Shamra.”
“Cities Walled up to Heaven.”
One thing that strongly impressed the Israelites who came out of Egypt, when they reached the borders of the Promised Land, was the hugeness of the defensive walls around the cities of Canaan. Upon this matter also recent archeology is shedding light. Sir FLINDERS PETRIE speaks as follows of some of the fortifications of Old Gaza excavated by him: “A deep trench was sunk, vertical on the outer side, and sloping up inaccessibly a hundred and fifty feet to the crest of the wall. Such were the cities, ‘great and walled up to heaven,’ which dismayed the nomad Israelites” (see Deut. 1:2828Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there. (Deuteronomy 1:28)).
Thus, just as in the case of the earlier sections of the Biblical History, so also in regard to the Scripture record of the times of Moses, the boasted “scholarship” of the critics of the Bible is ending in confusion of face for them. Of such men it was written long ago: “The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?” (Jer. 8:99The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them? (Jeremiah 8:9)).
Note on the Exodus-Pharaoh
A number of recent writers maintain that Amenhotep II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, which, they say, occurred early in his reign; but the Scriptures distinctly and repeatedly state that the Pharaoh of the Exodus perished with his army in the Red Sea: Ex. 9:15, 16; 14:4-3015For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. 16And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. (Exodus 9:15‑16)
4And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. 5And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? 6And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him: 7And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. 8And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand. 9But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon. 10And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. 11And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? 12Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness. 13And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. 14The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. 15And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: 16But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. 17And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 18And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 19And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: 20And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night. 21And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 23And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, 25And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians. 26And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. 27And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. 29But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 30Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. (Exodus 14:4‑30); Psa. 136:1515But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever. (Psalm 136:15).