by
Damien F. Mackey
When the Bible is forcedly contoured to the king-lists it just does not
fit.
Since Imhotep
looks safe as Joseph of Egypt:
Enigmatic Imhotep - did he really
exist?
(2) Enigmatic Imhotep - did he really exist?
and since Imhotep (Joseph)
belonged to Egypt’s so-called Third Dynasty, as a vizier of pharaoh Horus
Netjerikhet, then we might expect the Fourth Dynasty to be the one into
which Moses was born and lived. And what makes the Fourth Dynasty
particularly appealing, from a biblical point of view, is that the Fourth
Dynasty was a pyramid-building dynasty. Back in antiquity, historians (see
below) claimed that slaves built the great pyramids of Egypt, a theory not at
all popular today. Thus:
The pyramids of Giza were not built by slaves - Australian
Associated Press (aap.com.au)
How the
pyramids of Giza were built remains one of Egypt’s biggest mysteries but Macquarie University Egyptologist Dr Karin Sowada told AAP FactCheck, that
archaeological evidence shows the pyramids were not built by slaves. That
misconception began with the Ancient Greek historian
Herodotus and
later continued with Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who both claimed that
slaves, Hebrew or otherwise, built the pyramids. ….
Dr Karin Sowada might need to re-examine that
“misconception”.
But can the Fourth
Dynasty be adequately matched to the life of Moses?
Its list of rulers is
generally given as follows:
1 Sneferu
2 Khufu
3 Djedefre
4 Khafre
5 Menkaure
6 Shepseskaf
Six rulers, of whom
several are poorly known.
Those who seek to find a
biblical match in relationship to ancient dynasties tend uncritically to accept
the king lists as they stand, and will then try to force-fit the biblical data.
We have seen this uncritical
approach employed in the case of the Book of Tobit and the neo-Assyrian
king-list:
Holy Tobit immersed in history
(DOC) Holy
Tobit immersed in history | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
And, again, in the case of the Book of Daniel and the neo-Babylonian
(Chaldean) king list:
King Belshazzar? Not a problem
(DOC) King
Belshazzar? Not a problem | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
When the Bible is forcedly contoured to the king-lists it
just does not fit.
But when the king-lists are subjected to the cobalt gaze of
biblical scrutiny, we learn that the received history needs to undergo a
significant revision.
That is because the king-lists generally contain
duplicates, sometimes series of duplicates.
On this, see e. g. my article:
Chaotic King
Lists can conceal some sure historical sequences
(DOC) Chaotic
King Lists can conceal some sure historical sequences | Damien Mackey -
Academia.edu
Might this pattern also,
perhaps, apply to the era of Moses?
Might we have been
looking to fit the Book of Exodus, for instance, alongside an erratic Egyptian king
list?
In e.g. my article:
Life of Moses and reform of the Old -
Middle Kingdom of Egypt
(2) Life of
Moses and reform of the Old - Middle Kingdom of Egypt
I seriously considered the conventional list arrangement
of Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty, leading me to streamline several duplicate
rulers there.
Before discussing that, however, let us consider what
dynastic structure we might expect from the biblical data (Exodus 1-2).
According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born during
the reign of an oppressive “new king who knew not Joseph” (1:8).
When Moses grew up, he, at forty years of age, fled from
a hostile ruler of Egypt to the land of Midian, and sojourned there for another
forty years.
At the end of that period, Moses was informed that all
the men who were seeking his life had died.
What is clear from this information, albeit meagre, is
that a new dynasty came into being some time prior to the birth of Moses, and that
that dynasty had terminated not too long prior to his return to Egypt from the
land of Midian.
Moses was now eighty years of age.
This means that, if the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt was
the dynasty of Moses’s birth and sojourn in Midian, it must have spanned
roughly a century, and then died out before the Plagues and Exodus events occurred
under a different dynastic ruler, who had no particular a priori grudge
against Moses and Aaron.
Conventionally, the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt spanned
a little bit more than a century - close to according with the biblical data - estimated
at from c. 2615 to c. 2495 BC.
These dates, of course, in
a Mosaïc context, will need to be lowered down the BC timescale by about a
millennium.
Traditionally, two major kings figure in this part of
Moses’ life: namely:
1. the “new
king”, whose daughter, “Merris”, saved the baby Moses from the water; and
2. the husband of
“Merris”, “Chenephres”.
The latter, “Chenephres”, seems to have exhibited the
same sort of jealous and inimical attitude towards Moses as King Saul will have
afterwards towards David.
For more on this, see e.g. my article:
‘Chenephres’ drives Moses out of Egypt
(14)
‘Chenephres’ drives Moses out of Egypt
This traditional information (from the Hellenic Jew,
Artapanus) now gives me further confidence that I am on the right track in
designating the Fourth Dynasty as that of Moses’s first 80 years. For it
provides us with the perfect trio of:
(a)
Cheops
(Khufu), now as the initial oppressor-king of Exodus 1:8;
his celebrated
successor
(b) Chephren
(Khafre), the husband of
(c) Meresankh.
The
name fits are very good, too, allowing for Greek transliterations of Egyptian:
Chephren becomes
the traditional “Chenephres”, husband of Meresankh, she who is simply “Merris”
with an Ankh, the princess who is said to have saved the baby Moses (cf.
Artapanus).
It makes sense for Chephren to have been the inimical
king from whom Moses fled to Midian.
This reconstruction necessitates an alteration to the
first part of the king list (1-4):
1 Sneferu
2 Khufu
3 Djedefre
4 Khafre
Four kings now needing to become two.
While Chephren (Khafre) stands firm here as the
second oppressive ruler in the life of Moses, Cheops (Khufu), however, I
would merge with Snofru, as follows:
Sneferu
(Snofru)
This
(somewhat semi-legendary) ruler seems to me to connect well with Cheops in
various ways. For instance (the pages are taken from N. Grimal’s A History
of Ancient Egypt):
Great
“legendary” reputation – good natured
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 … 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.
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.
Meresankh (“Merris”)
P. 170
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) ….
Like his alter ego Cheops,
P. 67
[Snofru’s] reign ... appears to have
been both glorious and long-lasting (perhaps as much as forty years).
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. ….
Djedefre
He to be considered further on in the section, “Who was the Fourth Dynasty’s Moses?” (ii) Djedefhor.
I suspect that kings 5-6 of the list are a
duplicate set of, respectively, Cheops and Chephren:
5 Menkaure
6 Shepseskaf
Menkaure
Menkaure, or Mycerinus may have been,
similarly to Cheops, 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. 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 reign span may not accord so well with some
of our longer-reigning (say forty years) alter
egos, it is fascinating, nonetheless, that Phouka
http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/pharaoh/dynasties/dyn04/05menkaure.html
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 his alter ego, Cheops.
Whether or not our composite king, (Snofru)-Cheops-Menkaure
really reigned for a colossal 63 years (which is most unlikely in an Exodus
context, even if he well preceded Moses’s birth), the attribution of the same
extensive reign to names that I have fused together as the one grandiloquent
monarch gives me further confidence in my reconstruction.
Shepseskaf
The poorly known Shepseskaf: Shepseskaf - Wikipedia
Shepseskaf's family is uncertain. Egyptologist George Andrew Reisner proposed that Shepseskaf was Menkaure's son based on a decree
mentioning that Shepseskaf completed Menkaure's mortuary temple. This, however,
cannot be considered a solid proof of filiation since the decree does not
describe the relationship between these two kings. Furthermore, the completion
of the tomb of a deceased pharaoh by his successor does not necessarily depend
on a direct father/son relation between the two. ….
The mother, wives and children of Shepseskaf are
unknown. ….
who I think (without much investigation) is probably just a
duplicate of Khafre (Kaf-Shepses) - but it does not really affect this
reconstruction.
Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty dies out with a female ruler, who I
suggest was Khentkaus, while Moses was still in Midian.
Who was the Fourth Dynasty’s
Moses?
(i)
Kagemni
I have already set the ball
rolling here by linking up my Sixth Dynasty Moses, Weni, and my Twelfth
Dynasty Moses, Mentuhotep, Vizier and Chief Judge of Egypt (cf.
Exodus 2:14), with the “chief justice and vizier”, Kagemni, of both the Fourth
and the Sixth dynasties:
Vizier
Kagemni another vital link for connecting Egypt's Fourth and Sixth dynasties
(DOC) Vizier
Kagemni another vital link for connecting Egypt's Fourth and Sixth dynasties
“Kagemni
was a chief justice and vizier, who lived at the
beginning
of the Sixth Dynasty (reign of King Teti)”.
Inside
Egypt
Vizier
Kagemni, then, is one iteration, and a most important one, of Moses in Egypt’s Fourth
Dynasty. See e.g. my article:
Moses later deified as Kagemni?
(14)
Moses later deified as Kagemni?
But
there is yet another one to be considered, and of even greater rank. He is:
(ii)
Djedefhor
An
actual son of the Cheops who is my choice for the new dynastic king of Exodus
1:8.
We
read of Djedefhor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djedefhor
Djedefhor or Hordjedef (died c. 2530
BC … [sic] was a noble Egyptian of
the 4th Dynasty.
He was the son of King Khufu and his name
means "Enduring Like Horus".
Biography
….
Djedefhor was a son of Khufu and
half-brother of kings Djedefre and Khafre. …. Queen Meritites I is named in
the tomb G 7220 of Djedefhor and it is possible she is his mother. ….
He is mentioned on an inscription in Wadi Hammamat, his
name appears in a cartouche, written after the
names of Khufu, Djedefre and Khafre, preceding the name of another of his
brothers, Baufra. ….
There is no evidence that either Djedefhor or Baufra
ruled as a king, even though only kings' names were written in cartouches
during the 4th dynasty.
The Teachings of Djedefhor,
a document of which only fragments remain, is attributed to him. Djedefhor
seems to have been deified after his death. [Mackey’s comment: Just as Kagemni
was] …. The wisdom text by Djedefhor was written as advice to his son,
Prince Auibra. ….
Djedefhor's titles were: ….
|
Title
|
Translation
|
Jones
Index
|
|
imy-rȝ
kȝt
nbt (nt) nzwt
|
overseer of all works
of the king
|
950
|
|
imy iz
|
he who is in the
iz-bureau, councillor
|
247
|
|
ˁḏ-mr
wḥˁw (ȝpdw)
|
overseer of
fishers/fowlers
|
1323
|
|
mniw nḫn
|
protector/guardian of
Hierakonpolis
|
1597
|
|
ḥȝty-ˁ
|
count
|
1858
|
|
zȝ
nswt n ẖt.f
|
King's son of his
body
|
2912
|
|
smr wˁty
|
sole companion
|
3268
|
Translation and indexes from Dilwyn Jones. ….
….
Earlier
I had written of Djedefre: “To be considered further
on in the section, “Who was the
Fourth Dynasty’s Moses?” (ii) Djedefhor.
Since the names Djedefre and Djedefhor are identical, apart from the
theophoric (re, hor), I would identify this as just the one person, son
of Khufu.
Queen Meritetes would then more than likely be the same as Meresankh, the
legendary “Merris” who was the Egyptian foster-mother of Moses.
Here we learn that he, Djedefhor, was a half-brother of Khafre (an
abbreviation of Kha-nefre?), the legendary “Chenephres”.
And, like his alter ego, Kagemni, Djedefhor wrote down wise Instructions.
As we shall discover next, Djedefhor, like Weni (the Elder), was
known as Djedefhor the Old (meaning the Scholar?):
https://althistory.fandom.com/wiki/Djedefhor_I_(Pharaonic_Survival)
Djedefhor I (Pharaonic
Survival)
….
Djedefhor, called the Old and
the Scholar, was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of
the Fourth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom. He is also known as Hordjedef.
Djedefhor was the son of Khufu I …
and his mother was Meritites I. He is notable for being one of the few Egyptian
Pharaohs to Abdicate ….
Damien Mackey’s comment: I
had been quite adamant that Moses was not, as according to a tradition, a
“king”. But now, with the new recognition, potentially, of Moses as the briefly-reigning,
or Crown Prince (co-ruler?) Djedefre-Djedefhor,
I have had to reconsider my view on this.
Having Moses as a ruler, or perhaps a co-ruler, would
give some force to the quaint legend of Moses, as a baby, rejecting the crown
of Egypt, and to the far more solid information by St Paul (Hebrews 11:24-25):
“By
faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of
Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the
people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin”.
Biography
Djedefhor was a son of Pharaoh Khufu and
brother of pharaohs Djedefra [sic] … and Khafra … his
mother was Queen Meritites … making him a full brother of Djedefra is named in
the tomb G 7220 of Djedefhor and it is possible she is his mother.
The Teachings of Djedefhor, a document of
which only fragments remain, is attributed to him. Djedefhor was deified after
his death. The wisdom text by Djedefhor was written as advice to his son,
Prince Auibra.
As a prince, Djedefhor dedicated himself to scholarly
pursuits, showing a profound interest in education and intellectual growth. His
elder brother Kawab's untimely death left a vacancy in the line of succession.
Their father, Khufu, initially intended for Djedefhor to ascend the throne,
recognizing his wisdom and capabilities. However, Djedefhor declined the offer,
feeling that his contributions were better suited to other roles. Consequently,
his younger brother [sic?] Djedefra was named Crown Prince.
Djedefhor continued to cultivate his reputation as a
learned and highly respected individual. His counsel was sought after and
greatly valued during the reigns of his brothers, contributing significantly to
the governance and intellectual climate of the time.
Upon the premature death of King Bakara, Djedefhor was
elected king by the Great 20 of Upper and Lower Egypt. Reluctantly, he accepted
the position but made it clear that he would only serve until a more suitable
candidate could be found. During his brief reign, Djedefhor refrained from
commissioning any grand public works, maintaining a focus on stability and
continuity. He expressed a desire to be buried in the family tombs in the
eastern field at Akhet Nesu.
In November, the Great 20 of the two lands selected
Menkaura [sic] as the new Crown Prince. Djedefhor spent the remaining days of
his reign preparing his successor for the responsibilities ahead. On February
12, he formally abdicated the throne, and Menkaura succeeded him as Pharaoh.
Djedefhor then served as a state councilor, continuing to offer his invaluable
wisdom and guidance until his death 8 years later [sic].
Teaching of Djedefhor
The Instruction of Hardjedef, also
known as the Teaching of Hordedef and Teaching
of Djedefhor, belongs to the didactic literature of the Egyptian Old
Kingdom. It is possibly the oldest of all known Instructions, composed during
the 5th Dynasty according to Miriam Lichtheim, predating The
Instructions of Kagemni and The Maxims of Ptahhotep.
Damien Mackey’s comment:
But “the 5th Dynasty” was actually contemporaneous with those
dynasties associated with Kagemni.
The first lines of the text establish Prince Djedefhor,
Khufu's son, as the author of the Instruction. In antiquity
Hardjedef enjoyed a reputation for wisdom, his name appears in the Westcar
Papyrus, and according to the Harper's lay from the tomb of King Intef,
a copy of which survives in Papyrus Harris 500, he is mentioned in the same
breath as Imhotep, his maxims having survived while his tomb had been lost. His
fame was especially great during periods of classicistic revival, when he and
other Old Kingdom sages became role models for aspiring scribes. Sample text
(lines 11–15):
|
Set up a house in the
graveyard
and make your abode
in the West exquisite. Remember that death means nothing to us; remember we
value life - but the house of death serves life!
|
|
Nicolas
Grimal (op. cit.):
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 ….
…
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.
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:
https://mathstat.slu.edu/~bart/egyptianhtml/kings%20and%20Queens/Djedefre.html
“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:
http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp455-fs14/2014/10/09/djedefre/
“Djedefre … was
later succeeded by his brother Khafre, and one theory is that Khafre
killed Djedefre …”.
http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp455-fs14/2014/10/09/djedefre/
Damien Mackey’s comment:
Khafre, indeed, sought to kill - but did not succeed in killing - Djedefre
(Moses), who was thereby forced to flee to Midian (Exodus 2:15): “When Pharaoh heard of
this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to
live in Midian …”.
