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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