Introduction
Over the years I have heard many arguments that the stories of the Old Testament were not actual historical events and were only meant to provide moral lessons for the children of Israel. Does it matter to us, as believers, if Moses was a real man?
Of all of the accounts recorded in Scripture, the story of Moses is one of special significance. There is no other event recorded that our Heavenly Father uses to identify Himself to his people more than how He was the one that delivered them from Egypt. Even the Lord Jesus validates the life of Moses when he makes mention of him throughout his ministry, and especially in the book of John:
“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John 5:46-47).
If all Scripture is given by God’s inspiration, and the Lord Jesus is the son of God and our savior, then there is a compelling, logical reason to believe it is true if for no other reason than Jesus says it’s true.
Logic also dictates that we shouldn’t just blindly follow the Bible without validating its truthfulness. To say we believe in the Bible because the Bible says it is true does not do anything to validate our faith. The Quran and the Book of Mormon both make the same claim. One of the things that has been used to validate the truth as we know it is archeology. But archeology of itself cannot recreate a story; there exists a much broader field of study that works to incorporate not only artifacts, but also the culture and traditions of people, as well as their day to day life.
The purpose of this article is to employ this anthropological approach as we evaluate the account of Moses and see if there is any possibility that the account is historically accurate. We cannot, of course, prove that the story happens just the way that we tell it here, but my purpose is primarily to demonstrate that it is plausible and that the Biblical account agrees with what we know about the culture in ancient Egypt at the time. So without any further build up, let’s go on a journey back to ancient Egypt in the year 1525 B.C.
Ancient Egypt
Pharaoh rules the world. He is viewed as a man-god, as a representation of Osiris on earth. Osiris was the Egyptian god of the dead and he was actively working through the pharaoh. Pharaoh had a somber responsibility to maintain ma’at. Ma’at is the order and peace in the world that could only be maintained if all of the gods were happy. If the Nile does not flood, if there is famine in the land, if there is great disease afflicting the Egyptians, the pharaoh would be the one to blame. Even after death, the pharaoh would enter the afterlife and continue his role in maintaining ma’at just like the pharaohs before him.
The term “daughter of pharaoh” was much more than a reference to the offspring of Pharaoh; it was a title in itself. The “Daughter of Pharaoh” was also called the “Throne Princess” and she was considered to be a god in her own right. The Egyptians at the time believed she had “Ra-blood” (Ra, the sun god) and that validated her as being the next queen. It was also her responsibility to marry the firstborn son of Pharaoh who was considered to be the god “Horace” manifested on earth. The marriage of Horace to the Throne Princess would create a new manifestation of Osiris and Isis on Earth. Yes… that meant she was destined to marry her brother!
We began in the year 1525 B.C. because that is the approximate date of the Egyptian records that state that all male slaves were to be killed. While it does not explicitly state that the slaves were Hebrews, the rest of the story seems to match up pretty well. The pharaoh at the time would have been Thutmoses I who ruled from 1526 BC – 1512 BC, which means he took immediate action when assuming power in ordering the death of the newborn males. In secular history, he is best remembered for building the Valley of the Kings and as a prominent military leader. There are no records to suggest that people looked at Thutmoses I as dimwitted or slow-minded, so this leads to a troublesome question: If he was so smart, why did he not kill Moses as soon as his daughter brought the child to him? He certainly knew that this was one of the condemned Hebrew children; so did pharaoh’s daughter (Exod 2:6).
The Daughter of Pharaoh, who would later become one of the very few female pharaohs, was Hatshepsut at that time. Critics will often say that if this was the case, then Scripture should have recorded her name. The simple answer is that the name of the Throne Princess was never recorded, because only the title was used as a show of respect. The only reason this woman’s name is recorded in Egyptian history is because she later became a pharaoh.
As we remember from before, this woman was considered a god. Also, there are two gods that rule the Nile, Hapy and Khnum. Hapy was the god of the Nile and Khnum was the guardian of the Nile. When they are coupled with the Throne Princess, there would be than a total of three gods that found it fit to save this child’s life. When pharaoh was presented with this child who was apparently blessed by the three gods, he was faced with a decision: He could fulfill his order and kill the child, or he could try and maintain ma’at and not offend the gods by slaughtering the child.
When this is coupled with the fact that a 10-12 year old Hatshepsut presents the child to her father and says that his name is Moses, one might say she named him after her father, (Ma’at, or it could also mean “draw out of water”).
As the years passed, Hatshepsut marries her brother Thutmoses II and they have seven daughters and no sons. This was a problem as far as succession was concerned because the dynasty was supposed to continue through the marriage of Horace to the Throne Princess to create the equivalent of Osiris and Isis on earth. Thutmoses did have other children through other wives; the firstborn son of Thutmoses II was Thutmoses III.
This situation created a very interesting political situation. Who would be the next pharaoh and ruler of Egypt? Moses was the man who was blessed by the gods and Thutmoses III was the firstborn son of the present pharaoh, but not the son of the Throne Princess.
“By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” (Heb 11: 24-25).
Hebrews 11 paints a picture of a path to being pharaoh being well paved for Moses. It was his for the taking!
The validity of this account is reinforced because there are Egyptian records that show Thutmoses II had prophesied that Thutmoses III would become pharaoh. There would be no need for a prophecy if the line of succession was uncontested. Thutmoses II’s prophesy never came to fruition as Hatshepsut assumed the throne for herself and made Thutmoses III a general in her army. Thutmoses III excelled in that role and never wanted to give it up. He did, though, ultimately become pharaoh after Hatshepsut mysteriously disappeared.
There were many rules in the land of Egypt, but there is one rule of particular interest: no Egyptian was supposed to harm or kill another Egyptian. This rule was so strongly followed that even if a pharaoh wrongfully harmed an Egyptian, he would be punished (pharaoh was responsible only to the high priest).
The Exodus
Scripture tells us that not long after the children of Israel are set free, pharaoh sends his army after them to bring them back. Many people look at that event and say the account of Moses cannot be true because there is no record of it. That seems like a logical point because it is true that there is no record of it happening. But to be fair, there also is no Egyptian record of any of the ancient Egyptians losing a battle. Ever. In fact, there is an Egyptian record of the battle of Kedesh where Rameses the Great made a monument to his great victory. Upon the evaluation of other ancient records from other countries, it turns out the victory was grossly overstated and it was really more of a draw.
After the events of the Red Sea several things happened. First, Amenotep II sent out another army to Asia and captured 750,000 people that were brought to Egypt to work as slaves and then someone destroyed all of Hatshepsut’s cartouches, effectively killing her in the afterlife. If Amenotep II did break all of Hatshepsut’s cartouches, he was taking a big risk of angering all of the gods and upsetting the balance in the world. One could argue that in his mind the balance was already upset and that ma’at was already destroyed. No one can fault him his anger though. If Hatshepsut was the one that pulled Moses from the river, then he felt she was to blame for all of the misfortune that he had encountered.
Was this the way that it really happened? No one knows for sure. Was Hatshepsut the Daughter of Pharaoh that was spoken of in Exodus and Hebrews? Perhaps we will find out in the Kingdom age. The purpose of this article is not to provide the exact story of what happened, it is to provide plausibility. Does the historical account presented in the book of Exodus agree with what we know of the history and culture of ancient Egypt? I believe it does and I believe that the events really did take place. If they did not, our hope is lost.
We mentioned earlier the words of Jesus:
“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John 5:46-47).
These words are as true today as when they were when Jesus first spoke them. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One