Moses, Egypt, Kings before the Exodus
by
Damien F. Mackey
Part One:
‘New King’ of Exodus 1:8
(a) Incorporating Snofru
So far I have identified this biblical ruler with: Khufu (Cheops), 4th Dynasty; Teti, 6th Dynasty; and Amenemes I, 12th Dynasty (with likely inclusions of other kings “Amenemes”).
Now, in this series, the new king’s identity will be significantly expanded.
The first extra name with which I intend here to integrate the new dynastic founder will be Snofru,
also considered to have been of the 4th Dynasty, whom I have previously found extremely difficult to locate convincingly.
Then, as the series progresses, I shall be looking to integrate into a Mosaïc scheme of things the likewise troublesome 5th Dynasty.
A corollary of my identification of Cheops with the oppressor-king of Exodus 1:8, is that his celebrated successor, Chephren, the husband of Meresankh, becomes the traditional “Chenephres”, husband of “Merris”, who is said to have saved the baby Moses (Artapanus).
{Most of the following quotes will be taken from N. Grimal’s A History of Ancient Egypt (Blackwell, 1994)}
Snofru
This (somewhat semi-legendary) ruler seems to me to connect well with Cheops and Amenemes I in various ways. For instance:
Great “legendary” reputation
P. 67
.... Snofru soon became a legendary figure, and literature in later [?] periods credited him with a genial personality. He was even deified in the Middle Kingdom, becoming the ideal king who later Egyptian rulers [sic] such as Ammenemes I sought to emulate when they were attempting to legitimize their power.
P. 70
Cheops ... is portrayed in [Papyrus Westcar] as the traditional legendary oriental monarch, good-natured, and eager to be shown magical things, amiable towards his inferiors and interested in the nature of human existence.
P. 159
Like his predecessors [sic] in the Fifth Dynasty, the new ruler [cf. Exodus 1:8] [Amenemes I] used literature to publicize the proofs of his legitimacy. He turned to the genre of prophecy: a premonitory recital placed in the mouth of Neferti ... who bears certain similarities to the magician Djedi in Papyrus Westcar. Like Djedi, Neferti is summoned to the court of King Snofru ... at the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty he had become the model of good-natured kingship to whom the new kings traced their origins.
Cult figure
P. 67
Snofru’s enviable reputation with later rulers, which according to the onomastica was increased by his great popularity with the people, even led to the restoration of Snofru’s mortuary temple at Dahshur. P. 69 ... cult among Middle Kingdom miners in the Sinai.
P. 165 There is even evidence of a Twelfth Dynasty cult of Snofru in the region of modern Ankara.
P. 70
Cheops was not remembered as fondly as Snofru, although his funerary cult was still attested in the Saite (Twenty-Sixth) Dynasty and he was increasingly popular in the Roman period. According to Papyrus Westcar, he liked to listen to fantastic stories of the reigns of his predecessors.
Black Athena Revisited, p. 52
…. The destinations are mainly cults associated with ... Amenemhet [Amenemes] II ... and perhaps of Amenemhet I as well (cf. the Petrie fragment mentioned by Posener).
P. 170 (back to Grimal)
Ammenemes [Amenemes] III.... his name became closely associated to the [Faiyum] area in the Greco-Roman period, when he was worshipped under the name of Lamares.
Snofru is also associated with a Meresankh, though she is considered to be his mother.
P. 67 [She was] one of Huni’s concubines. There is no definite proof of this ....
Meresankh will become something of a golden thread, linking the traditional “Merris” of Moses’ childhood to the 4th Dynasty (Meresankh) and to the 6th Dynasty (as Ankhenesmerire).
Like his alter ego Cheops, and his alter ego Teti, and his alter ego Amenemes I ....
P. 67 [Snofru’s] reign ... appears to have been both glorious and long-lasting (perhaps as much as forty years).
(Also in common with these king-names), The Palermo Stone suggests that Snofru was a warlike king.
Snofru’s places (tribes) of conquest included:
P. 67
Nubia-Dodekascoenos
P. 68
Libyans
Medjay
(Abu Simbel)
Sinai
P. 69
Syria-Palestine
(Wadi Nasb Wadi Maghara)
Bedouin
These are all the sorts of places we associate, too, with his proposed alter egos.
Snofru’s trading places
... commercial links with Lebanon and Syria via the Phoenician seaboard. He had a fleet of 40 vessels.
Snofru built
... ships, fortresses, palaces and temples ...
Three pyramids.
If Snofru were Cheops, as I am arguing, then Snofru’s three pyramids - built perhaps early in his reign - would have been the perfect preparation for his later masterpiece, the Great Pyramid at Giza.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneferu “Under Sneferu [Snofru], there was a major evolution in monumental pyramid structures, which would lead to Khufu's Great Pyramid, which would be seen as the pinnacle of the Egyptian Old Kingdom's majesty and splendour, and as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”.
Less positive picture of the king
P. 71
... it is difficult to accommodate within this theory [building immoderation = unpopularity] the fact that Snofru’s reputation remained untarnished when he built more pyramids than any of his successors.
Pp. 69-70
[Cheops’] pyramid transforms him into the very symbol of absolute rule, and Herodotus’ version of events chose to emphasise his cruelty.
Taken from: https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh2120.htm
124. ... Cheops became king over them and brought them to every kind of evil: for he shut up all the temples, and having first kept them from sacrificing there, he then bade all the Egyptians work for him. So some were appointed to draw stones from the stone-quarries in the Arabian mountains to the Nile, and others he ordered to receive the stones after they had been carried over the river in boats, and to draw them to those which are called the Libyan mountains; and they worked by a hundred thousand men at a time, for each three months continually. Of this oppression there passed ten years while the causeway was made by which they drew the stones, which causeway they built, and it is a work not much less, as it appears to me, than the pyramid; for the length of it is five furlongs and the breadth ten fathoms and the height, where it is highest, eight fathoms, and it is made of stone smoothed and with figures carved upon it. For this, they said, the ten years were spent, and for the underground chambers on the hill upon which the pyramids stand, which he caused to be made as sepulchral chambers for himself in an island, having conducted thither a channel from the Nile.
For the making of the pyramid itself there passed a period of twenty years; and the pyramid is square, each side measuring eight hundred feet, and the height of it is the same. It is built of stone smoothed and fitted together in the most perfect manner, not one of the stones being less than thirty feet in length.
Moreover:
126. Cheops moreover came, they said, to such a pitch of wickedness, that being in want of money he caused his own daughter to sit in the stews, and ordered her to obtain from those who came a certain amount of money (how much it was they did not tell me); but she not only obtained the sum appointed by her father, but also she formed a design for herself privately to leave behind her a memorial, and she requested each man who came in to her to give her one stone upon her building: and of these stones, they told me, the pyramid was built which stands in front of the great pyramid in the middle of the three, each side being one hundred and fifty feet in length.
Menkaure, or Mycerinus, who will also figure in this series (see c.), may have been similarly disrespectful to his daughter: https://analog-antiquarian.net/2019/01/11/chapter-1-the-charlatan-and-the-gossip/
Legend had it that Menkaure had a daughter who was very special to him. One version of the tale said that she died of natural causes, whereupon in his grief he had a life-size wooden cow gilt with gold built as a repository for her remains. This, Herodotus claimed, could still be seen in his time in the city of Sais, “placed within the royal palace in a chamber which was greatly adorned; and they offer incense of all kinds before it every day, and each night a lamp burns beside it all through the night.
Every year it is carried forth from the chamber, for they say that she asked of her father Mykerinos, when she was dying, that she might look upon the sun once in the year.”
Another, darker version of the tale had it that Menkaure had been rather too enamored of his daughter. She sought refuge from his unwelcome advances with his concubines, but they betrayed her, and her father proceeded to “ravish” her. She hanged herself in the aftermath, whereupon a remorse-stricken Menkaure buried her in the gilt cow and her mother the queen cut off the hands of the concubines who had betrayed her. This explained why, in a chamber near that of the cow in Herodotus’s time, there stood many statues of women with the hands lopped off, “still lying at their feet even down to my time.”
P. 170
Ammenemes III ....This economic activity formed the basis for the numerous building works that make the reign of Ammenemes III one of the summits of state absolutism.
Recall: “[Cheops’] pyramid transforms him into the very symbol of absolute rule …”.
(b) Incorporating Djedefre
“Djedefre …. His personality and his reign are still obscure; it is not even possible
to say whether he reigned for only eight years, as the Turin Canon indicates,
or a longer period … sixty-three years … suggested by Manetho …”.
N. Grimal
In (a) incorporating Snofru we added Snofru to Khufu (Cheops), 4th Dynasty; to Teti, 6th Dynasty; and to Amenemes I, 12th Dynasty (with likely inclusions of other kings “Amenemes”), as alter egos for the biblical dynastic founding king.
Now, here in (b), I am taking Cheops’ presumed son, Djedefre, to be Cheops himself – this incorporation will, I believe, open the way later for the inclusion of the Fifth Dynasty.
Continuing on with N. Grimal:
P. 71
The first [presumed son of Cheops] was Djedefre (Didufri or Radjedef) …. His personality and his reign are still obscure; it is not even possible to say whether he reigned for only eight years, as the Turin Canon indicates, or a longer period (without going as far as the sixty-three years suggested by Manetho).
I find it most interesting that Grimal had written almost identically (just before this) re the reign length of Cheops: “It is not even known whether Cheops’ reign lasted for twenty-three years, as the Turin Canon suggests, or sixty-three years, which is the length ascribed to him by Manetho”.
A possible sixty-three years of reign each!
“It is also notable that [Djedefre] managed to complete his pyramid at Abu Rawash, which was a sizable monument and so a reign of only eight years is perhaps unlikely”.
P. 72
The place of Djedefre in the royal family, particularly his relationship with his half-brother [sic] Chephren who succeeded him on the throne, is unclear. His mother’s name is unknown, but he is thought to have married his half-sister Hetepheres ….
Appropriately: p. 67: “… [Snofru] would have married … Hetepheres …”.
And (p. 72) “Meresankh”, also appropriately to my reconstruction, “married Chephren …”.
We have already met famous literary characters, magicians, scribal figures, in Djedi and Neferti, and now we encounter the great Djedefhor. P. 73: “… a figure who, in some regards, was almost equal to Imhotep” [that is, the biblical Joseph of Egypt’s Third Dynasty]: he was considered to have been a man of letters and even the writer of an Instruction from which scribal students were taught. A number of passages from his Instruction were quoted by the best authors, from Ptahhotep to the Roman period …. Djedefhor was also the person who was said to have introduced the magician Djedi in Papyrus Westcar.
I shall have more to say about Ptahhotep when we discuss the Fifth Dynasty.
Pp. 73-74
The rift between the reigns of Djedefre and Chephren was probably not as great as scholars have often suggested, and there was in fact no real ideological contrast between the two kings:
On the contrary, Chephren seems to have pursued the same theological course as his predecessor pursued: he continued to bear the title of ‘son of Ra’ and also developed, in a masterly fashion, the theological statement of Atum’s importance vis-à-vis Ra, which had already been emphasized by Djedefre.
Whilst there may be no solid “evidence” to indicate that Djedefre had killed his own brother:
“There are stories about that Djedefre killed his brother and then grabbed the throne. There is no evidence for this theory however. It seems that Prince Kawab died during the reign of his father and was buried in a mastaba in Giza”,
Djedefre himself may have been murdered:
“Djedefre later married. He was later succeeded by his brother Khafre, and one theory is that Khafre killed Djedefre …”.
If so, then this is perhaps another similarity between Djedefre and Teti (murdered?), Amenemes I (murdered?).
(c) Incorporating Menkaure
A distinct pattern seems to be emerging and it will become even more evident.
It is that the founding Egyptian ruler, say (Snofru or) Cheops, is duplicated again in the king-list, as, say, Djedefre, but then recurs again yet further on. In this case (c) it will be Menkaure.
This pattern may be discerned (if I am right) in the 4th; 5th; 6th; and 12th dynasties – all this being, however, the one dynasty - the 13th Dynasty also being contemporaneous.
Returning to N. Grimal
P. 74
… Menkaure (‘Stable are the kau of Ra’), or, to take Herodotus’ transcription, Mycerinus.
We recall Menkaure’s allegedly shameful treatment of his own daughter, reminiscent of Cheops’ own prostituting of his daughter, at least according to Herodotus.
Grimal continues: “Manetho is uncertain about the length of his reign, which was probably eighteen years rather than twenty-eight”.
Whilst this may not accord so well with some of our longer-reigning (say forty years) alter egos, it is fascinating, nonetheless, that Phouka
also has for Menkaure a Manethonian figure of sixty-three years, a figure that we have already met in the case of two other of our alter egos, Cheops and Djedefre.
Menkaure may also enable us to incorporate into our revisionist mix the Fifth Egyptian Dynasty via Menkaure’s virtual namesake, Menkauhor, whose reign is otherwise “poorly known” (p. 74).
Grimal continues: “… like Neuserre [Menkauhor] sent expeditions to the Sinai mines …”.
As did our other alter egos.
We read above that Menkauhor is “poorly known”, a phrase that – along with “little known” – one encounters time and time again in ancient history.
That is because kings, kingdoms, have been split up into pieces by historians and scattered.
The fact that (p. 74):
… Menkauhor’s pyramid has not yet been identified, and it is difficult to decide whether it is likely to have been at Dahshur, or at northern Saqqara where a personal cult was dedicated to him in the New Kingdom …,
could lead us now to the conclusion that Menkauhor’s missing pyramid may have been Menkaure’s (far from missing) pyramid at Giza.
(Soon we shall read about a supposedly missing sun temple as well).
Note, again (from quote above), that Menkauhor became – like the other alter egos – a “cult” figure.
(d) Incorporating Sahure
This is another observation that we frequently encounter in ancient history,
a failure to believe a straightforward record only because the limited knowledge
of historians prevents them from grasping the bigger picture.
The following description of the Fifth Dynasty expansion by N. Grimal could just as well have been written of the Sixth, the Twelfth, Egyptian dynasties. It is apparently all one and the same.
P. 76
During the fifth Dynasty Egypt seems to have been opened up to the outside world, both northwards and southwards. The reliefs in the mortuary temple built by …. Sahure, include the usual … conquered countries ….
To which Grimal adds: “… (belonging more to rhetoric than to historical evidence)”.
This is another observation that we frequently encounter in ancient history, a failure to believe a straightforward record only because the limited knowledge of historians prevents them from grasping the bigger picture.
However, as Grimal then goes on to tell:
… but they also show the return [sic] of a maritime trading expedition probably from Byblos, as well as forays into the Syrian hinterland; if the references to bears in these region are to be believed. A campaign against the Libyans has also been dated to Sahure’s reign ….
Grimal then becomes negative again, adding: “… although there is some doubt surrounding this “.
Re trade to Byblos, we find M. Bernal (Black Athena, p. 149) mentioning three Old Kingdom names in connection with it, all of whom are “new king” alter egos of mine: “… the names of Menkauḥōr and Izozi [= Isesi, to be discussed in (e)] as well as that of Sahureˁ …”.
Sahure’s trade and exploits read like Snofru again, as well as others:
… primarily economic: the exploitation of mines in the Sinai, diorite quarrying to the west of Aswan and an expedition to Punt, which is mentioned in the Palermo Stone and perhaps also depicted on the reliefs in Sahure’s mortuary temple.
That “diorite quarrying” no doubt served to provide the material for superb 4th dynasty statues:
In one of Sahure’s names, Sephris (Manetho), I think that we might come close to Cheops’ name of Suphis (Manetho): http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/pharaoh/dynasties/dyn04/02khufu.html
(e) Incorporating Djedkare
Just as in the case of the mighty and long-reigning Khufu (Cheops), one may find it very hard to imagine that a ruler of the significance of Djedkare Isesi (Assa), whose reign may have been as long as forty years - a figure that we have already found connected with the reign of Snofru - has only one image of which to boast: https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/djedkare/
N. Grimal tells:
P. 79
[Djedkare’s] reign was long: Manetho suggests that it lasted about forty years, but this figure is not confirmed by the Turin Canon, which suggests a reign of only twenty-eight years.
Djedkare Isesi is thought to have had a famous and scholarly noble named Ptahhotep, who apparently lived for 110 years. Because of this particular age, and because of the fact that Ptahhotep’s writings bear striking resemblances to certain Hebrew wisdom (e.g. Proverbs), I had felt constrained to identify Ptahhotep with (Imhotep =) biblical Joseph of Egypt, who lived to be 110 years of age (Genesis 50:26).
This duration, 110 years, would become something of a mythical age figure in Egypt.
(Joshua also lived until the age of 110, Joshua 24:29)
But in this challenging endeavour it does not serve to have pre-conceived ideas.
Try as I may, Djedkare Isesi himself just would not lend himself to the era of Joseph, to any sort of a fit with Joseph’s (Imhotep’s) master, Zoser (or Djoser).
I am now of the view that Djedkare, too, is an alter ego of the (now most substantial) “new king” of Exodus 1:8, and that his name is compatible with that of the previously considered Djedefre (with whom Djedkare also shares the name elements Bik-nub, djed).
That may mean that we need to consider, as does Grimal (p. 79), the likelihood of “more than one Ptahhotep”. My tentative suggestion would be that the one who reached 110 was Joseph-Imhotep, of an earlier era, and that the one who served Djedkare Isesi - if indeed one did - could be Moses himself, also known as Mentuhotep. See e.g. my article:
Historical Moses may be Weni and Mentuhotep
It is possible that one known in Thebes as Mentuhotep might be Ptahhotep in Memphis and, say, Imhotep in Heliopolis.
Fittingly (with Djedkare as an alter ego, I think, of 4th dynasty names), we find Djedkare Isesi adhering to “the Heliopolitan dogma”.
P. 78
[Isesi] … without … moving away from the Heliopolitan dogma. He chose the name Djedkare – ‘The Ka of Ra is Stable’ – as his nsw-bity (king of Upper and Lower Egypt) title, thus placing himself under the protection of Ra ….
Grimal proceeds to add here, “… but he did not build a sun temple …”.
Neuserre, though, upon whom I have only briefly touched, and who “is remembered mainly for his sun temple at Abu Ghurob”, may be an alter ego of Djedkare.
At: https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/djedkare/ a connection is made between Neuserre (Niuserre) and Menkauhor (a previous alter ego):
“[Djedkare] may have been the son of his predecessor Menkauhor, but there is no positive evidence of this and it is also proposed by some that he was the son of Niuserre”.
More likely, I think, Djedkare was Menkauhor, was Neuserre.
The Turin Canon’s estimation of Djedkare’s reign length, “twenty-eight years”, comes close to Neuserre’s estimated (p. 77), “about twenty-five years”.
The name Meresankh, our ‘golden thread’, also re-emerges in connection with the Fifth Dynasty:
“[Djedkare] may have been married to Meresankh [so-called] IV who was buried in the main necropolis in Saqqara, but it is also possible that Meresankh was the wife of Menkauhor”.
As with Khufu/Cheops, Meresankh (“Merris”) would have been, instead, the daughter (not wife), who married the succeeding ruler.
Djedkare can remind one also of the previously discussed Sahure – the latter’s Horus and Nebty names, respectively, Neb-khau and Neb-khau-nebty, are replaced by just the one element (Djed) in Djedkare’s corresponding names, Djed-khau and Djed-khau-nebty.
Grimal makes this comparison between Sahure and Djedkare Isesi:
P. 79
Like Sahure, [Isesi] pursued a vigorous foreign policy that led him in similar directions [also, again, like Snofru]: to the Sinai, where two expeditions at ten-year intervals are recorded at Wadi Maghara; to the diorite quarries west of Abu Simbel; and further afield to Byblos and the land of Punt.
There is also a Merenre connection – {for more on Merenre, see (f)}: “Isesi’s expedition to Punt, mentioned in a graffito found at the lower Nubian site of Tomas, was evidently still remembered [sic] in the time of Merenre”.
But this (e.g. Nubian site of Tomas) also connects perfectly with Teti (founder of the 6th Dynasty), whom I have already linked with the “new king”, especially akin to his persona in Amenemes I:
Twelfth Dynasty oppressed Israel
Moses emerges during this dynasty as (the semi-legendary) Sinuhe, and as the solidly historical Vizier and Chief Judge, Mentuhotep. See e.g. my article:
Moses – may be staring revisionists right in the face. Part Two: Moses as Vizier and Chief Judge
On Teti, Grimal has written:
P. 81
[Teti] … was able to continue [sic] many of the international links of the Fifth Dynasty: he maintained relations with Byblos and perhaps also with Punt and Nubia, at least as far as the site of Tomas in northern Nubia.
As with Djedkare, so with Menkauhor (Menkaure?), so with Teti, the chief officials and governors appear to have been allowed greater power. Thus:
P. 79
The acquisition of greater powers by officials continued during Isesi’s reign, leading to the development of a virtual feudal system.
Likewise, with suggested alter ego Menkauhor:
P. 78
It was during this period that the provincial governors and court officials gained greater power and independence, creating an unstoppable movement which essentially threatened the central authority.
Likewise, with suggested alter ego Teti:
P. 80
Thus ensconced in the legitimate royal line, [Teti] pursued a policy of co-operation with the nobles ….
P. 81: “Clearly, Teti’s policy of pacifying the nobles bore fruit”.
Likewise, with suggested alter ego Amenemes I:
P. 160
… he allowed those nomarchs who had supported his cause … to retain their power … he reinforced their authority by reviving [?] ancient rites.
Nor is one now surprised to read (p. 80): “… there were a good number of officials who served under Djedkare and Wenis as well as Teti …”, because this historical period in my revision (including Wenis in Part Two later) encompasses only two successive reigns.
Correspondingly, we find in Auguste Mariette’s (https://pharaoh.se/library-vol-9)
Note on a fragment of the Royal Papyrus and the Sixth Dynasty of Manetho
the sequence … Tet [Teti], Unas [Wenis]
They read: 1. Menkeher 2. Tet 3. Unas.
(f) Incorporating Merenre
“During Merenre’s reign the policy of Egyptian expansion into Nubia bore fruit,
judging from inscriptions left by successive expeditions to Tomas”.
N. Grimal
The era of Merenre introduces us to some key characters, including my 6th Dynasty Moses: Weni (already discussed).
As well there is “Khui, a noble from Abydos” (p. 83), who is my Khufu (Cheops).
Khui, in turn, had a daughter Ankhenesmerire (i.e., Meresankh), who is (my) Khufu’s daughter, Meresankh, the “Merris” of Moses’ legend.
Weni, who is often described as “a genius”, expresses his career (Autobiography) “in a perfect literary form”.
As Moses (my view), he would go on substantially to write the Pentateuch.
Needless to say, I am instinctively fusing Merenre I and II - the latter thought to have been little known: https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/merenreII/
“His name appears on a damaged false door inscribed with Sa-nesu semsu Nemtyemsaf (“The elder king’s son Nemtyemsaf” – i.e dating to the period before he became king) near the pyramid of Neith. His name as a king also appears on a decree protecting the cult of queens Ankhesenmerire and Neith, also from pyramid complex of Neith in Southern Saqqara. We know little else about this king”.
The name Merenre means ‘Beloved of Ra’.
However, Manetho also gives him Cheops’ other name, Suphis, as Mentusuphis (or Methusuphis).
Merenre, like Djedefre, is thought to have reigned for only a short time, “a reign of only about nine years” (p. 84). We recall that Djedefre was accredited with only eight years (p. 71), but that there was also to be considered for him Manetho’s sixty-three years.
Merenre was again, like his presumed alter egos, warlike, “adopting Antiemdjaf … Anti was a falcon-god of war …”.
He followed similar economic patterns, too.
P. 84
… [Merenre] continued to exploit the mines in the Sinai and, to provide materials for the construction of his pyramid, the quarries in Nubia, at Aswan and at Hatnub, where a graffiti confirms the exploits recounted by Weni in his autobiography … maintaining control of Upper Egypt and delegating its administration to Weni.
And so on it goes, round and round: Sinai, Nubia, Aswan ….
I have tentatively linked Weni - operating militarily in the southern region for the 6th Dynasty - with General Nysumontu - operating militarily in the south for Amenemes I in the 12th Dynasty:
Moses as General Nysumontu?
Here is that Tomas again:
P. 85
During Merenre’s reign the policy of Egyptian expansion into Nubia bore fruit, judging from inscriptions left by successive expeditions to Tomas.
…. There is evidence that Merenre was not only active in these places … but also sent officials to maintain Egyptian rule over Nubia ….
On p. 168 we learn that Sesostris III (probably our “new king” of Exodus 1:8’s actual successor – he to be considered in Part Two), “… began by enlarging the canal that Merenre had built near Shellal to allow boats to pass through the rapids of Aswan”.
In my revision this activity of Sesostris would have occurred soon after the death of Merenre.
In conventional history it would have been a time distance of roughly (2260 – 1860 =) 400 years.
Finally, just as we have found that our founder king (Djedefre?; Teti; Amenemes I) had come to a sticky end, having been murdered, so, too, it may have been with Merenre.
“However, according to Herodotus, Merenre was murdered, forcing his queen, Nitocris, to take revenge before committing suicide”.
In the course of this Part One the following names all became potential candidates for reconstructing the “new king” of Exodus 1:8:
Snofru; Khufu; Djedefre; Menkaure;
Menkauhor; Neuserre; Sahure; Djedkare Isesi;
Teti; Merenre;
Amenemes I (and perhaps II-IV)
That is a conventional time span of some (2600 – 1800 =) 800 years!
Part Two:
Egyptian king when Moses fled Egypt
The Tale of Sinuhe, which seems to recall in rough fashion the flight of Moses from Egypt,
may help us here by locating this famous incident to early in the reign of Sesostris I.
With the “new king” of Exodus 1:8 firmly established as, among many names, Teti-Amenemes I, the founding dynastic king (who was murdered) whose land was becoming overrun by foreigners,
then the ruler from whom Moses fled to Midian - some time after the murder of Amenemes I, according to Sinuhe - can only have been the (son-) successor of that first dynastic king.
To jump ahead of our story, by taking account of the C2nd BC Jewish historian, Artapanus, Moses was the foster son of the Egyptian queen “Merris”, who had married “Chenephres”:
Moses, according to Atrapanus, was raised as the son of Chenephres, king of Upper of Egypt. Chenephres thought Moses was his own son – but, apparently, the bond between a father and a son wasn’t enough to keep Chenephres from trying to kill him.
Chenephres sent Moses to lead his worst soldiers into an unwinnable war against Ethiopia, hoping Moses would die in battle. Moses, however, managed to conquer Ethiopia. He became a war hero across Egypt. He also declared the ibis as the sacred animal of the city – starting, in the process, the first of three religions he would found by the end of the story.
He started his second religion when he made it back to Memphis, where he taught people how to use oxen in agriculture and, in the process, started the cult of Apis . He didn’t get to enjoy his new cult for long. His father started outright hiring people to assassinate him, and he had no choice but to leave Egypt. ....
[End of quote]
With “Merris” already identified as Meresankh - of whom Egyptology may have unnecessarily created I-IV, not to mention her alter egos in Ankhesenmerire I-II - then “Chenephres”, apart from being Sesostris I (Sinuhe), must be the 4th Dynasty’s Chephren (Khafre), who married Meresankh”:
“Khafre was the son of King Khufu and succeeded the short-lived Redjedef, probably his elder brother. He married his sister Khamerernebti, Meresankh III”.
Khufu (Cheops) I have already identified with the founder king of Exodus 1:8.
But I have also identified him with Redjedef (Djedefre), who was not (as I think) a ruler distinct from Khufu.
Let us now recall, very briefly, our many versions of the first dynastic king (from Part One) to determine if each of these may have a (son-) successor who is appropriate for “Chenephres”.
Snofru
His appropriate successor, I think – though it does not follow conventionally – would be the (albeit poorly known - parentage uncertain) Huni.
The name Huni may link up further on with Unis (Wenis) of the 5th Dynasty.
Huni’s nomen may enable us to link him up with the 6th Dynasty’s Pepi.
“[Huni] may have had the Nomen Neferkare ...”: https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/huni/
“Kerpheris” the name given to Huni, apparently, by Manetho is not unlike Kenephres/Chenephres.
Khufu (Djedefre)
His highly appropriate (son-) successor was Khafre (Chephren), a name that will be reflected amongst the 12th Dynasty’s Sesostris’s praenomina (Kheperkare, Khakheperre, Khakaure).
Menkaure
The Kaf- element (Khafre) now becomes significant. The successor in this case can only be Shepseskaf (Manetho’s Sebercheres), who, like Khafre, was closely associated with (married to) a Khamerernebti. Shepseskaf continued his predecessor Menkaure’s building works, “... he completed the pyramid of Menkaure ...”: https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/shepseskaf/
Sahure
Just going by names here of Sahure’s presumed successors: Neferikare has a heap of Kha- element and Neferkare type names (Nephercheres, Neferkeris, Kaikai, Kaka, Nefer-it-ka-re, Neferirkara).
And Shepseskaf (see previous paragraph) seems to re-emerge in Shepseskare.
But the more important 5th Dynasty connection (e.g., with Huni) will be Unis (Wenis), see next.
Djedkare Isesi
As just noted, his successor was Unis or Wenis, and most appropriately Auguste Mariette, as we read in Part One, showed that Unis (Unas) followed on immediately after Tet (Teti), who is my 6th Dynasty version of the dynastic founder king. Teti and Unas also figure together in pyramid text decoration: “Two of the pyramids (those of Unas and Teti) contain chambers decorated with hieroglyph texts (the so called 'Pyramid Texts') that are amongst the earliest manifestations of ancient Egyptian writing”: https://www.flickr.com/photos/amthomson/43838532761
Various scholars have noted the linguistic resemblance of the names Unas (in all of its permutations) with the name “Jannes” of 2 Timothy 3:8: “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith”.
Merenre
As in some of the other instances, the 6th Dynasty is out of sequence (my opinion), with Merenre - my dynastic founder king (= Teti) - following Pepi (Neferkare), who is, in fact, the son-successor.
The life of Moses before the return from Midian knew of only two long-reigning Egyptian monarchs, the “new king” of Exodus 1:8, and the ruler from whom Moses fled to Midian. That one dynasty died out (Exodus 4:19) - its last ruler a woman - and Moses returned to Egypt.
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