Sharbano wrote:
This would be a good time to get an opinion on a show I'd seen some time ago on the History Channel, I think it was. Ever since I'd seen it I was interested in how factual it was. I believe it was called "Exodus Revealed" hosted by Simcha Jacobovici and a film director whose name I don't recall. It was interesting because they were able to explain virtually all the details and essentially give proofs of the events. They came to a conclusion on the location Mt. Sinai that is different from All other theories. A very interesting part, at the end, was an artifact that is displayed in a city across the Mediteranean, if I remember. The artifact had a resemblence of the altar, I believe, as seen from the end of the steps. Whether the facts are true or not I thought the show was at least Interesting.

Simha has done some entertaining shows. Sometimes they include a good deal of factual information. Othertimes they include a good deal of assumption. I believe Exodus Decoded is more assumption than fact.

I will simplify things a little here.

There is a difference of 163 years between traditional Jewish dating and Secular dating. The traditional Jewish date of the destruction of the First Temple is 423BCE, while the Secular date is 586BCE.

Simha proposes that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was Ahmose I and that this Exodus coincided with the Thera erruption. There are a few problems with this. First let us start with the details surrounding Moshe's life.

Moshe was born 1556BCE according to Secular dating (Sd) and 1393BCE according to Jewish dating (Jd).
Moshe was 80 years old when the Exodus occured, thus 1476BCE (Sd) or 1313BCE (Jd).
Moshe died at 120, thus 1436BCE (Sd) or 1273BCE (Jd).

Secular/Jewish
1556/1393 BCE - Birth
1476/1313 BCE - Exodus
1436/1273 BCE - Death

Ahmose I's reign is held to have started as early as 1570BCE or as late as 1550BCE, and to have ended as early as 1546BCE or as late as 1525BCE. Thus, while it is possible and maybe even probable that Ahmose I was Pharaoh during Moshe's lifetime, it is not possible (without some serious revisions in Egyptian dating) that he was the Pharaoh during the Exodus.

According to Jd, Moshe was born, led the Israelites out of Egypt, and died long after the time of Ahmose I.

However, according to what seems to be the most accepted Sd for the reign of Ahmose I, Moshe would have been born during the reign of Ahmose I's father, Seqenenre. He would have been a child during the reign of Ahmose I's brother, Kamose. Ahmose I would have reigned from the time Moshe was six years old to the time Moshe was 31. Again, this is all assuming the Egyptologists have these dates correct. And as I showed above, the start and end dates can drift about 20 years in this case depending on who you are talking to.

What is interesting about the time of Seqenenre, Kamose, and Ahmose I is that it was a time of conflict throughout Egypt. The father and brother of Ahmose I began to war against the so-called Hyksos in an effort to unite Upper and Lower Egypt, which Ahmose I took to the next level.

However, for this timeframe to work the Hyksos might have had to have initiated the mistreatment of the Israelites, as Ahmose I, his brother, and his father were Thebans (Upper Egypt), while the Israelites were centered in Goshen (Lower Egypt) which the Hyksos ruled over up until Ahmose I finally was victorious. The Theban Ahmose I, driving out the Hyksos and taking over rule of Lower Egypt and uniting it under their rule with Upper Egypt, would then have been responsible for taking the oppression of the Israelites to a whole new level.

The Israelites were in Egypt for a total of 210 years. They did not start out enslaved, however, and the back-breaking slavery lasted "only" the last 86 of those 210 years. Which means that it began approximately six years before the birth of Moshe, while the Hyksos were still entrenched as rulers in Avaris.

The growing mistreatment of the Israelites would have been carried on by four or five successive Theban kings (who by that point ruled over all Egypt) until the Exodus, which would have taken place during the time of Thutmose III and/or his mother Hatshepsut, and Thutmose III still would have ruled by the time the Israelites had entered Eretz Yisrael forty years later.

Last Edited By: Netanel Wed, 28-Jan-09 16:34:37. Edited 1 times.