Who Was the Exodus Pharaoh?

Here is something that may help your understanding of the account of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, which was so aptly explained by archeologist Joel Kramer in his video, The Exodus Pharaoh Explained.

The predecessor of the pharaoh at the time of the exodus (whom we will call the "exodus pharaoh"), had to have reigned for more than 40 years, and here is how we know that. 

It says in Exodus 2:15: "When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well." 

Then in v 23, referring to the same king, it says: "During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God."

We know from Acts 7:23 that Moses was 40 years old at the time he first fled from Egypt into Midian. And in Acts 7:30 it says that Moses had been in Midian for 40 years at the time the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush, and told him to go back to Egypt to set His people free. 

We may assume that the pharaoh who tried to kill Moses when he was 40 years old (Ex 2:15) is the same king who had previously ordered the Hebrew baby boys killed at the time Moses was born 40 years earlier, because there's no mention of any Pharaoh dying until you get to v 23, so it implies it's referring to the same pharaoh mentioned at the beginning of the book of Exodus. Therefore, based on that assumption, since he was in power prior to the birth of Moses, and didn't die until after Moses fled from him to Midian at age 40, we may conclude that the reign of that Pharaoh who tried to kill him had to be more than 40 years.

Incidentally, when Moses was 80 years old, at the time when he led the Israelites out of Egypt, the "exodus pharaoh" that he dealt with would have been the son of the pharaoh who tried to kill him. Since Moses was raised by Pharaoh's daughter, who found him floating in a basket in the Nile River, and he was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Ac 7:22), he would probably have been raised as a prince (or in a princely fashion) in the same household as Pharaoh's son, who later reigned, and with whom Moses had to deal at the time of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Therefore, they would have known each other from the time of their youth, when they grew up together. 

The question as to which pharaoh Moses dealt with at the exodus is a hotly debated topic. Many believe it was the pharaoh known as Rameses II. But that cannot be so for two reasons: 

1) First, Rameses II didn't begin his reign until 167 years after the time of the exodus, which occurred in the mid 15th century around 1446 BC. Kramer points out that 1 Kings 6:1 says that Solomon began to build the temple 480 years after the exodus from Egypt, in the fourth year of his reign. Since it is well established that the fourth year of Solomon's reign was 966 BC, we simply need to add 480 years to 966 BC, to arrive at 1445 BC as the date of the exodus.

2) Secondly, the pharaoh who reigned immediately prior to the "exodus pharaoh" had to have reigned for more than 40 years, as was previously mentioned, but that is not the case with Rameses' II predecessor, Seti, who reigned for only 11 years.

Another important point Kramer has made is that Rameses II can not be the pharaoh from the period of Moses' childhood, in whose household he was raised. Here's why: 

We know that Rameses II was succeeded by Merneptah, so if Rameses II were the pharaoh of Moses' childhood, that would make Merneptah the "exodus pharaoh". 

However, according to Exodus 11:5, the firstborn son of the "exodus pharaoh" died in the 10th plague.  So in order for Merneptah to be the "exodus pharaoh", his successor who reigned after him could not have been his firstborn son. But we know that the successor of Merneptah was indeed his firstborn son, known as Seti II; so Merneptah fails the test for being the "exodus pharaoh", based on this criteria. Since Merneptah fails the test for being the "exodus pharaoh", that rules out Rameses II from being the pharaoh of Moses childhood. Thus Kramer proves how Rameses II fails all the criteria for being either the pharaoh of Moses childhood or the "exodus pharaoh".

Kramer explains that the first century Jewish historian, Josephus, quoted from an Egyptian historian named Manetho, who wrote an Egyptian history in Greek, quoting from early Egyptian religious historical records. According to Manetho, the "exodus pharaoh" was Amenophis, which is the Greek form of the Egyptian name Amenhotep. There were three pharaoh's by that name, but the one who reigned during the exodus period was Amenhotep II, who reigned from 1450-1423 BC. Since the biblical date for the exodus is 1446 BC, that places the exodus within the reign of Amenhotep II. See the images of his statue and his preserved mummy above.

The interesting thing about Amenhotep II is that he meets all the criteria for being the "exodus pharaoh": 1) He not only reigned during the exodus period, but 2) his predecessor, Thutmose III, reigned for 54 years, which was more than 40 years, and 3) the successor of Amenhotep II was Thutmose IV, who was not his firstborn son. That's because the firstborn son  of Amenhotep II died mysteriously.

In conclusion, based on the excellent research done by Kramer, we can conclude that only Amenhotep II meets the criteria to be the "exodus pharaoh" and only his predecessor, Thutmose III, fits the criteria to be the pharaoh of Moses childhood. 

Attribution notice: Images may be subject to copyright, used per the Fair Use Act only for educational or commentary purposes. Source info taken from archeologist Joel Kramer's video, The Exodus Pharaoh Explained. Scriptures taken from The Holy Bible NIV, copyright Zondervan, used by permission.

Author's note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like the other posts in this blog available through the Home page, such as All Scripture must be fulfilled, The Bible Never Fails, Oral Account of Creation from Adam to Abraham, and The Evil Nephilim Giants. You may also access other articles on the Home page for this blog, as well as my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master."

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.