Moses, from the comforts of Egypt to the desert landscapes of Midian

by Damien F. Mackey The Patriarchs (Isaac, Jacob, Joseph) would presumably have lived through Early Bronze I and II, until Moses and Joshua, whose Exodus people are to be archaeologically identified as the Middle Bronze I (MBI) nomadic people, led Israel into an EB III/IV Syro-Palestinian world that had grown up contemporaneously with Egypt’s great pyramid-building age. When Moses slew the Egyptian overseer in defence of a fellow Hebrew (Israelite) (Exodus 2:12), he imagined that the time had come for him to release the Hebrew nation from its bondage in Egypt. And he thought that his people would recognise this, but they did not (Acts 7:25). Not only were his people - {fighting amongst themselves (v. 26)} - not ready to leave Egypt, but Moses himself, despite what he may have thought, was not yet ready to lead them out of Egypt. Moses was, at this stage, too Egyptianised (Acts 7:22), too paganised growing up amongst Hamites. He needed a prolonged spiritual detoxification amongst Semites, descendants of Abraham. The “Egyptian” as Jethro’s daughters reported Moses to their father, when Moses had first arrived in their land, needed to be de-Egyptianised. Moses was now 40, and the Lord would give him another 40 years of spiritual retreat in this desert land of Midian. Then another 40 years leading Israel – 120 years all up. Egypt was at the peak of its ancient powers, the glorious Pyramids standing at Giza, the country ruled by an uncompromising and powerful pharaoh, Sesostris Neferkare, the “Chenephres” of tradition. Egypt had, with the assistance of Moses, conquered the Ethiopians (Cushites), and the Bedouin of Sinai. It shared maritime adventures and ports with the skilful Cretans, and its ships sailed to exotic lands like Ophir (Punt), for its fine gold, and to Byblos, for that prized cedar wood. Syrian Ebla, too, was flourishing, with its famous Palace G contemporaneous with this Egyptian phase of history. Most importantly for our later biblico-historical reconstructions - for the time of the Joshuan Conquest following the Exodus - Syro-Palestine was in its Early Bronze III (EB III) phase of strong buildings and forts (corresponding with EB IV in Transjordania). Many of these would be either burned to the ground, or occupied, by the Joshuan Israelites, the Middle Bronze I (MBI) nomadic (invading) people. Thanks to the liberating efforts of Dr. John Osgood, we can now be certain that Abram (later Abraham) belonged to Late Chalcolithic En-gedi (continuing on into EB I), contemporaneous with Ghassul IV in Palestine and Gerzean in Egypt. The Patriarchs (Isaac, Jacob, Joseph) would presumably have lived through EB I and II, until Moses and Joshua, whose Exodus people are to be archaeologically identified as the Middle Bronze I (MBI) nomadic people, led Israel into an EB III/IV Syro-Palestinian world that had grown up contemporaneously with Egypt’s great pyramid-building age. Eventually, during Moses’s long period of Exile in Midian, the strong Egyptian dynasty (called the Twelfth) of the long-reigning Amenemhet and Sesostris would begin to fade out, terminating with a female ruler of short duration. And Moses would receive the call from the Lord to return to Egypt and release his people from their captivity. In conventional text book terms, the demise of the Twelfth Dynasty - not through any act of violence, but for want of an heir - was followed by the Thirteenth Dynasty. But perhaps the reality of things is not quite so clear cut as this. What is called the Thirteenth Dynasty had already existed during what is called the Twelfth, with some of the former serving as officials for the Twelfth Dynasty throne, as shown by Dr. Donovan Courville. Moreover, I suspect that the major rulers of the Twelfth Dynasty, Amenemhet and Sesostris, already figure in the Thirteenth Dynasty, as the succession, Amenemhet (so-called VII) and Sobekhotep (so-called II). Sobekhotep (so-called IV) had also the name Khaneferre (“Chenephres”), the same name (in reverse) as Sesostris Neferkare (= Khaneferre). That the Twelfth Dynasty was also a Crocodile (Sobek) worshipping dynasty is apparent from the name of its last ruler, the female, Sobek-neferure. Pharaoh Sesostris, under his Sixth Dynasty guise of Pepi Neferkare, would wage damnatio memoriae (“damnation of memory”) on Moses, as the former Pharaoh, Userkare, and would relegate the latter’s kingship to the “desert”. That fits well, indeed, with Moses being pursued out of the land of Egypt by a wrathful, and jealous, Pharaoh, and seeking exile in the desert land of Midian. The Thirteenth Dynasty (so-called) Pharaoh that Moses and Aaron would ultimately have to face would be Neferhotep (so-called I), who must have had no personal grudge against Moses (Exodus 4:19): “And the LORD said to Moses in Midian, ‘Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead’.”