[b-hebrew] Raamses

Read, James C K0434995 at kingston.ac.uk
Sun Sep 18 07:35:11 EDT 2005


Dear Yitzhak,
 
Raamses II is accredited to being of the 13th century. His name means begotten of Ra (the son god) i.e. Ra's son. It was believed that he was the pharoah of the exodus based on inscriptions claiming that he built the city of 
the same name by use of slavery. However, this assumption is weak because the city he built (per-ramses)  
was described as the capital city of his time and as such should not be connected with the mere storage place 
of the biblical ramses. Furthermore, the exodus (circa 1513) happened 200 -300 years before his reign and so 
the exodus could not have started from a city which had not even been built yet.
 
D.B Redford comments 'Biblical Raamses and the capital Pr R'-ms-sw, apart from the personal name, seem 
to have nothing in common. In the lack of corroborative evidence it is absolutely essential to exercise caution 
in equating the two' (Vetus Testamentum, Leiden, page 410, 1963

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