The Exodus Pharaoh EXPLAINED!

Summary

"The Exodus Pharaoh EXPLAINED!" by Expedition Bible dives into the historical and archaeological evidence surrounding the biblical event of the Exodus. The video explores the identity of the Egyptian Pharaoh during the Exodus, focusing on the debates between early and late dating of the event. By analyzing historical accounts, specifically from ancient historians like Manetho and Josephus, and archaeological findings, the video argues convincingly for Amenhotep II as the Exodus Pharaoh. Through engaging storytelling, the creator debunks popular theories like Ramses II being the Pharaoh, offering a fascinating glimpse into ancient history and archaeology.

Highlights

• Discover why Amenhotep II might be the Pharaoh who faced Moses, backed by archaeological evidence revealed in this captivating video 🔍
• Learn about Manetho, an ancient historian whose writings provide crucial insights into the Exodus timeline 📚
• Uncover the tale of Amenhotep II's firstborn and how this ties into the biblical narrative of the ten plagues 🚸
• Find out why Ramses II doesn’t fit the bill as the Pharaoh of the Exodus as Expedition Bible debunks traditional theories 🎭
• Engage with archaeological discoveries in Egypt that connect directly to the biblical story of the Exodus 🏺

Key Takeaways

• Amenhotep II is argued to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus based on historical and archaeological evidence 📜
• Manetho's accounts, quoted by Josephus, identify Amenhotep as the Pharaoh during the Exodus 🌍
• The video challenges the popular belief that Ramses II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus due to mismatched timelines ⌛
• Expedition Bible uses enthralling storytelling to merge archaeological insights with biblical narratives 📚
• Viewers are encouraged to delve deeper into biblical archaeology through the Expedition Bible's book and videos 📘

Overview

The video journey begins with the host sharing his personal expedition to Egypt, exploring sites related to the Exodus. Through picturesque storytelling, viewers are introduced to the central question: Who was the Pharaoh during this iconic biblical event? The narrative weaves through historical records, highlighting how these clues can potentially pinpoint the Pharaoh's identity.

Engagingly, the video delves into ancient texts, notably those by Manetho and quoted by Josephus, aligning them with biblical timelines. It discusses various Pharaohs named Amenhotep from the 18th Dynasty and through deduction, aligns Amenhotep II's reign with the biblical date of the Exodus around 1446 BC. Intriguingly, further biblical references are used to bolster the case against Ramses II, traditionally thought to be the Pharaoh.

As the narrative crescendos, viewers are brought face-to-face with the mummy of Amenhotep II. This powerful imagery serves to bind the historical with the tangible, suggesting the real-life presence of this Pharaoh during the Exodus. Supporting evidence from archaeological sites adds a compelling layer to the argument, concluding with a persuasive invitation for viewers to further explore the captivating world of biblical archaeology.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction The speaker has recently returned from a trip to Egypt, where they explored sites connected to the biblical Exodus. Archaeology is discussed, particularly the study of ancient civilizations through what they have left behind. The speaker visits a museum featuring mummies of pharaohs in the Royal mummy room and reflects on these ancient remains.
• 01:00 - 05:30: Historical Evidence from Manetho and Josephus In this chapter, the historical evidence from Manetho and Josephus regarding the time of a king and the identification of the Pharaoh of the Exodus is discussed. The discussion highlights the intrigue around the dating of pottery to this period and the debate concerning which royal mummy belongs to the Biblical Pharaoh of the Exodus. It argues that following the evidence in the Bible might offer a solution to this enduring historical debate.
• 05:30 - 10:00: Identifying the Pharaoh of The Exodus In this chapter, the focus is on identifying the Pharaoh during the time of the Exodus. The discussion begins by encouraging viewers to subscribe and expressing gratitude for comments on the author's book. It also invites readers to order the book "Where God Came Down: The Archaeological Evidence," which presumably provides more insights into the historical and archaeological aspects surrounding the Biblical Exodus. The central theme revolves around analyzing archaeological findings and historical context to pinpoint which Pharaoh ruled during the Exodus period, though specific details of the Pharaoh's identity are not provided in the transcript.
• 10:00 - 16:30: Testing Amenhotep II against Biblical Criteria The chapter discusses the historian Manetho and his role as an extra-biblical source for the Exodus. Although Manetho's original writings are lost, they are preserved through quotes by later historians. The earliest known reference comes from the first-century Jewish historian Josephus. The text references the complete works of Josephus and introduces Manetho as a principal Egyptian writer, emphasizing his Egyptian heritage.
• 16:30 - 19:30: Excavations at Avaris This chapter delves into the historical methodologies and writings of ancient historians, focusing on Josephus, a 1st-century AD historian. Josephus is noted for using older records, particularly those of Manetho, a 3rd-century BC historian, as direct sources for his own historical accounts. This reflects a common practice in ancient historical writing where historians relied on previous works to compile histories of their own eras. The chapter highlights the practice of quoting predecessors verbatim to lend authority and authenticity to their narratives, akin to bringing a witness to court.
• 19:30 - 25:00: The Case Against Ramses II This chapter discusses ancient Egyptian history, focusing on the records mentioning the Israelites. According to these records, a leader named Moses led the Israelites, who were captives in Egypt, out of the country. They subsequently built a city in Judea called Jerusalem. The records note that this exodus occurred during the reign of King Amenas, an Egyptian ruler known in Greek form as Amenas.
• 25:00 - 31:30: Comparison between Early and Late Exodus Dates The chapter discusses the debate between the early and late exodus dates through an analysis of historical records. It highlights how Josephus, a historian, quotes Manto, citing the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep as connected to the Exodus. This naming is considered significant because Josephus himself did not have direct knowledge of Amenhotep, but Manto did, through early Egyptian records, suggesting a closer link to historical accounts.
• 31:30 - 37:00: Conclusion The chapter discusses historical records concerning the Exodus Pharaoh in Egypt, mentioning sources from the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD. It highlights the significance of these sources in identifying the Pharaoh's name. The narrator teams up with archaeologist Dr. Titus Kennedy, and they visit the ancient site of Heliopoulos as part of their exploration.

The Exodus Pharaoh EXPLAINED! Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hi everyone uh I just got back from a long trip to Egypt and I was going to the sites that have to do with the biblical event of The Exodus Archaeology is the study of the ancient people from what they've left behind and one thing that the pharaohs have left behind is themselves and their mummified remains and so you go into the museum into the Royal mummy room and here are the Pharaohs of old I'm used to looking at
• 00:30 - 01:00 uh pottery that dates to the time of a king it's really intriguing when you're looking at the Kings themselves of these Royal mummies which one was the Pharaoh of The Exodus and this is hotly debated to this day but here's the thing if you just follow what the Bible says if you just follow the evidence then the answer to this
• 01:00 - 01:30 question is actually straightforward and clear don't forget to hit that subscription button and I wanted to thank everybody that's been leaving comments in the video comment section about my book I appreciate that very much and I will leave a link in the description where you can order a copy of my book where God came down the archaeological evidence okay so if we're going to talk about the phoh of The
• 01:30 - 02:00 Exodus then we need to talk about the historian manto because he's an extra biblical source for The Exodus now the writings of manetto are lost to us uh except through the quotes from later writers and the earliest of those writers is the first century Jewish historian Josephus this is the complete works of Josephus and in it Josephus wrote that one of Egypt's principal writers was manetto who was by birth an egyp
• 02:00 - 02:30 he wrote a history of his own country in the Greek tongue out of their sacred records Josephus says of manto I will set down his very words as if I were to bring the very man himself into a court for a witness okay so what Josephus is saying here uh is that the ad 1st Century historian Josephus is directly quoting the earlier 3r Century BC historian manetto who who has written a
• 02:30 - 03:00 history of Egypt using these much earlier Egyptian records there's no doubt that Mano wrote about the Israelites because he described a people whose leader was called Moses who were captives in Egypt but when they went out of that country they built a city in Judea and called it Jerusalem then manto says that these people took their Journey from Egypt during the reign of amenas the king of Egypt amenas is the Greek form of the
• 03:00 - 03:30 Egyptian name amen hotep so in Josephus we are given a quote from manto where he names the Pharaoh of The Exodus this is huge Josephus doesn't know the name Oman hotep he only knows it because he's quoting Mano and Mano knows the name Aman hotep because he has access to these early Egyptian records so the name amen hotep the Pharaoh of The Exodus is coming from these earlier records and
• 03:30 - 04:00 being recorded in the history of Egypt written by manetto in the 3rd Century BC and then quoted in ad 1st Century by the historian Josephus this is an incredible source that lets us know the name of the Exodus Pharaoh in Egypt I met up with one of my good friends and colleagues archaeologist Dr Titus Kennedy and one of the sites that we traveled to was the ient site of heliopoulos this is where
• 04:00 - 04:30 manto served as a priest and where he wrote his history of Egypt we're here at heliopolis the city of the sun now this city is important for many reasons but one of those is that there was a priest here who lived in the fourth and third Century BC named manth who is one of the foremost historians for ancient Egypt and in his writings manth tells us that the Pharaoh of The Exodus was someone named amen hotep the Pharaohs that are named Aman hotep are found in the 18th
• 04:30 - 05:00 Dynasty and so in the 18th Dynasty you have amen hotep the 1 2 third Etc and so which one of these is the one that manth is referring to and the best way to figure this out is to use the biblical date of The Exodus which is found in First Kings 61 1 Kings 61 says in the 480th year after the Israelites came out of Egypt in the fourth year of Solomon's Reign Over Israel in the month of ziv the second month he began to build the Temple of the Lord Lord so there's 480
• 05:00 - 05:30 years between these two events when the Israelites came out of Egypt The Exodus and the fourth year of Solomon's Reign it's very well established that the fourth year of Solomon's Reign is 966 BC so to get the date of The Exodus all we have to do is add 480 years to 966 BC and we get 1446 BC which is the biblical date of The Exodus now we can turn our attention back to the Egyptian
• 05:30 - 06:00 chronology and we can ask the simple question is there a pharaoh named Aman hotep that is reigning during the biblical date 1446 BC Aman hotep the reigned from 1546 to 1526 his Reign is too early amen hot up the third Reign too late from 1414 to 1377 BC in between them Ammond hot up the second Reign from 1450 to 1423 and so the biblical date of 1446 BC for The
• 06:00 - 06:30 Exodus Falls within the reign of Aman hotep II the Aman hotep that manetto is writing about must be Aman hotep II because the dates of his Reign are in sync with the biblical date of The Exodus there's additional information from other verses in the Bible that can also be used to further test amen hotep II for example in Exodus it talks about the Pharaoh that Reigns before The
• 06:30 - 07:00 Exodus pharaoh and he is often referred to as the Pharaoh of the oppression in the book of Exodus we are told this Pharaoh tried to kill Moses but Moses fled from pharaoh and went to live in Midian during that long period the king of Egypt died before the Lord had said to Moses and Midian go back to Egypt in the New Testament in Acts chapter 7 stevenh is retelling how Moses fled to Midian but then after 40 years had passed he returned to Egypt we can test
• 07:00 - 07:30 this then with Aman hotep II did the predecessor of Aman hotep II Reign for more than 40 years well his predecessor was his father uh thos III and thos III had a reign of 54 years he's the only Pharaoh in uh the 18th Dynasty that had a Reign for more than 40 years so amen hotep II passes this test Exodus 11:5 says of the 10th plague that every first firstborn son in Egypt will die
• 07:30 - 08:00 including the firstborn son of pharaoh who sits on the throne if amen hotep thei is The Exodus Pharaoh then his firstborn son should have died in the 10th plague and so the successor of Amen hotep II is his son thos IV who is not his firstborn son his firstborn son died mysteriously we know from the Egyptian records
• 08:00 - 08:30 this is the Great Sphinx at Giza and between the paws of the Sphinx is What's called the Sphinx dream Steely this was commissioned by Pharaoh thos i 4 who told a story about he came down to the Sphinx he took a
• 08:30 - 09:00 and while he was sleeping the gods came to him in a dream and they promised to him that he would become the next Pharaoh this was strange because he had an older brother who was the Crown Prince but this older brother had mysteriously died and disappeared from history this was propaganda he used the gods to give him Divine legitimacy when he wasn't expected to become the next Pharaoh so we have uh amen hotep II passing these tests these biblical criteria because
• 09:00 - 09:30 uh his predecessor reigned for over 40 years and the one who succeeded him to the throne was not his firstborn son next we travel deep into the region of the Delta to the ancient site of aaras one of the main excavators of aaras is the Austrian archaeologist Manfred BTO and he's the one that excavated the 18th Dynasty Palace there so we are here at Averys and this is where the Palace of almond hotep II uh was uh discovered and
• 09:30 - 10:00 excavated yeah starts in that corner essentially yeah and then comes over like this so we're just out in an agricultural field right here this is all that's left we can see p Pottery around we can see a few Foundation Stones around but this is where the 18th Dynasty Palace stood in this field underneath our feet and behind me here but this is this is a palace that has been discovered and this is a palace that has been excavated how long have they been Excavating in this area about 60 years and yet there's like nothing
• 10:00 - 10:30 hardly to see here um it's just all been turned back into agricultural Fields yeah mostly pottery and Maps BTO reported that the archaeology demonstrated that the occupation of this Palace covers the time from Amos to Alan hotep II this Palace complex was occupied Through The Rains of fmos III and almond hotep II when it was suddenly and mysteriously abandoned so the excavations at the 18th Dynasty
• 10:30 - 11:00 Palace in Averys provided then archaeological evidence to support amen hotep II as The Exodus [Music] Pharaoh one of the most impressive pharaohs in all of Egyptian history is the Pharaoh ramsy II and so it was very early on that egyptologists started to propose that ramsy II must have some connection with the
• 11:00 - 11:30 Exodus I am here at Memphis this is the first capital of Egypt and below me is this colossal statue of ramsis II who built this site up during his reign [Music] now the biggest problem with Ramsey II
• 11:30 - 12:00 being The Exodus Pharaoh is time because uh Ramsey II did not start his Reign until 1279 BC so this is 167 years later than 1446 BC which is the biblical date for The Exodus and remember that the predecessor to The Exodus Pharaoh has to have a reign of more than 40 years the predecessor of ramsy II is SE the and he
• 12:00 - 12:30 reigned from 1290 to 1279 BC which is just a reign of 11 years so he fails the test now Ramsey II does have a very long reign of 66 years and so is he the Pharaoh of the oppression well the problem here is that would make his successor MPA the Pharaoh of The Exodus and The Exodus Pharaoh can't have their firstborn son inherit their Throne because he would have died in the 10th plague uh the successor to MPA is Saidi II and he is his firstborn son so the
• 12:30 - 13:00 reason that ramsy II can't be connected to the Exodus is because he fails all these tests if he failed just one of these criteria then he would be disqualified as a candidate but he fails on all counts so now I'm going to give my general views of the debate that's been going on for a long time between the early date and the late date the early date for The Exodus is in the 15th century BC the late date is in the 13th century BC and this is amen hotep II
• 13:00 - 13:30 versus ramsy II as pharaoh of The Exodus the main verse that's used for the late date is Exodus 111 and here we have the Israelites under slave masters who build a store city named ramsy and so the idea is that this city named ramsy is connected to the Pharaoh ramse II and therefore The Exodus must date to his time avarus was established in the 12th Dynasty but in the 19th Dynasty to the
• 13:30 - 14:00 north a new city and Palace emerged called P Ramsey now in the book of Exodus we see that one of the store cities that's built is called ramsy some have explained this as scribal updating later on but there's a possibility that this area was also called Ramsay during the 18th Dynasty now it's important to understand that Exodus 111 is not in
• 14:00 - 14:30 conflict with the early date so even if the name ramsy is a late name for the city it's still not a problem for the early date because sometimes the Bible uses later names for cities in place of earlier ones a good example of this is the city of Dan in judges 18 we have the danites capture and rebuild a city and then they name it Dan after their ancest though it had formerly been called Le uh then we can go back in time all the way back to Genesis 14:14 which tells us
• 14:30 - 15:00 that Abram went as far as Dan so here we have a clear example of the later name for the city Dan replacing the earlier name Le uh and this is done because the Israelites were more familiar with the name Dan and so this is what may be going on in Exodus 111 where we have possibly the later name for the city Ramses being used instead of the earlier name just as we wouldn't date Abram using the name of the city Dan in
• 15:00 - 15:30 Genesis 14:14 so we shouldn't date The Exodus by the name of the city ramsy in Exodus 111 the main verse as we've already covered for the early date is First Kings 61 this is a real problem for the late date and so the way that they uh argue against First Kings 61 is they say that the 480 years that's mentioned there uh shouldn't be taken literally it's not a literal number uh what this is really talking about they argue is 12 Generations of 40 years but
• 15:30 - 16:00 then they say 40 years is too long for a generation it really should be 25 years well 12 * 25 is 300 years so if you reduce 480 years in first king 61 down to 300 years then you've moved uh the whole chronology 180 years later in time and then it fits the reign of ramsy II before the late date Theory came along nobody read 1 Kings 61 and and read 480
• 16:00 - 16:30 years and said oh I I get it that really means 300 years this is a reinterpretation of this verse and it's agenda driven so what's the agenda the agenda is to make Ramsey II the Pharaoh of The Exodus now there's another problem with the late date with judges 11:26 so in judges 11:26 we have jetha who says for 300 years Israel has occupied the land east of the Jordan this took place around 1100 BC when you
• 16:30 - 17:00 add 300 years to 1100 BC you get 1,400 BC add the 40 Years of wilderness wandering and then you get this mid 15th century BC date for The Exodus which is an agreement with the mid 15th century date of The Exodus from first king 61 so since judges 11:26 also gives a 15th century BC date for The Exodus then the late date Scholars have to present their arguments against it so what they say is
• 17:00 - 17:30 that jeffa is uh unreliable and the reason that they give is that he calls in verse 24 the name of the ammonite God kamos whereas later in the Bible for example in uh First Kings 115 the name of the ammonite God is given as mik so jeffa can't be trusted he gives the wrong name of the god of the ammonites and so therefore in verse 26 when he says this 300 years you can't trust that 300 years is being accurate
• 17:30 - 18:00 well this is this is actually from jeffa a very important information about the ammonites he's telling us that earlier in their history they worshiped the god kamos which makes sense because that's the god that the moabites worship and the ammonites and the moabites are brother Nations uh that come from lot and so um they worshiped uh early in their history commotion then later they changed and adopted for whatever reason the worship of the Amorite god mik well
• 18:00 - 18:30 historically Nations sometimes change their gods few examples of this is Babylon Babylon changed their God Nebuchadnezzar worshiped Marduk and then nabonidus led the people to worship the god sin Egypt changed its God during the reign of aatan and the Israelite prophets are almost constantly rebuking the Israelites for changing their God right because they've forsaken their God who delivered them out of Egypt and are
• 18:30 - 19:00 worshiping these other gods so this is not any kind of proof uh that that uh jeffa is being unreliable when he gives us the number 300 and again these two uh verses First Kings 61 and judges 11:26 complement each other they confirm each other it's very powerful evidence and this is the same argument that these Scholars use against Acts chapter 7 and the testimony of Step unreliable he's
• 19:00 - 19:30 untrustworthy they need to say this because Steven gives information uh that contradicts ramsy's II is being the Pharaoh of The Exodus because he says that Moses returns to Egypt after 40 years had passed which means that the predecessor as we've looked at already uh of The Exodus Pharaoh needs to have reigned for more than 40 years and the predecessor for Ramsey the second only reigned for 11 years so they say the same thing well Steven's testimony is unrel reliable it can't be trusted and
• 19:30 - 20:00 that's just simply not the case so manetto is a big problem for the late date uh because he doesn't name ramsy as the Pharaoh of The Exodus he names amen hotep uh so guess what the late dat Scholars say about manetto you guessed it he's unreliable uh and so the argument that they use against him is that uh there's these variants now of course uh for many ancients sources and ancient text
• 20:00 - 20:30 there's later variant um that's why we have textual criticism uh which is identifying those varant and trying to get as close as possible to the original the general understanding for ancient text is the earlier texts are usually considered more reliable than the later ones and so of all the historians that quote manetto by far the earliest is Josephus and everything that we've covered comes directly out of Josephus
• 20:30 - 21:00 uh the other problem with manetto being unreliable is that um to this day the framework for uh for the history laying out the history of ancient Egypt with these 30 dynasties that ruled over Egypt uh that all comes from manetto and so it really doesn't work just to write manetto off as being unreliable and in addition to all of this we have the archaeology from Averys which shows that the 18 Dynasty Palace came to an end
• 21:00 - 21:30 during the reign of Aman hotep II uh the Palace of the 19th Dynasty and P Ramsey uh didn't start with Ramsey II nor did it end after his Reign really uh the reality is is that the evidence for the date and the Pharaoh of The Exodus is stacked on the early date side this is the mummy of alond hot kep thei and the evidence is clear that he
• 21:30 - 22:00 was the Pharaoh of The Exodus what is the archaeological evidence for the Exodus well here's something uh The Mummy of Aman hotep II according to the evidence when you're looking at the mummy of Amen hotep II you're looking at the very man who dealt with Moses who hardened his heart and wouldn't let God's people go who went through the 10 plagues this is is the Pharaoh whom God
• 22:00 - 22:30 delivered his people from so don't forget to hit that subscribe button I'll leave a link in the description where you can order a copy of my book uh you can watch other videos that we produced here and thanks for watching I'll catch you next time