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  • From: "Walter R. Mattfeld" <mattfeld12 AT charter.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] The Exodus Mention in Egyptian Annals ?
  • Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 20:32:47 -0400

Russell Gmirkin wrote :

"I wouldn't put much stock in Manetho's account as historical, especially his second story (as there appears no historical evidence for a Ramesside return of Hyksos to Avaris!)."

Dear Russell,

I suspect that Manetho's Osar-Siph, who is identified with Moses, is actually a garbled Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten). It was the latter who closed Egyptian temples for 13 years, diverting their funds to Aten temples while he retired southwards towards Nubia to Akhet-aten, just as Amenophis retires to Nubia. Some have suggested Manetho's Amenophis is but a Greek form of Egyptian Amenhotep, I suspect their right, and that Amenhotep IV is being recalled with this name.

We know from the Amarna letters that Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem requested permision to abandon Jerusalem if Akhenaten/Amenhotep IV wasn't going to send an army to put down the Apiru revolt in Canaan, and that he wanted to settle in Egypt. So Manetho's statement about Asistics from Jerusalem settling in Egypt is not that far-fetched We also have wall reliefs from the time of Horemheb when he was a general under Tutankhamun, showing Asistics requesting asylum in Egypt, reporting that their towns have been destroyed and they are starving. So perhaps these two late 18th Dynasty events are being "recalled" in Manetho's statement that Asiatics have entered Egypt.

The problem is that we don't where Akhenaten or Tutankhamun (or 'Generalisimo' Horemhab) settled them, "_if_ they allowed" their entry. We also know that Amenhotep IV DID eventually send an army into Canaan to put down the Apiru revolt, but Breasted judged the enterprise to have been largely ineffective. Perhaps Manetho's statement about Amenophis sending an Army to put down rebelling Asiatic recalls this event ? Another interesting sttaement by Manetho is that upon the initial outbreak of the 13 year revolt at Avaris by Asiatics, Amenophis withdrew his army and waited till the end of the period to attack. This mirrors somewhat an Amarna letter from Akhenaten to a rebel chieftian, warning him that pharaoh does NOT want to have to send an army into Canaan, devasting it, and that he had better mend his ways "or else". Evidently this "reluctance/forbearance" on Akhenaten's part, only encouraged more open rebellion amongst the Apiru. So, I do see "possible" real events being recalled in a somewhat garbled manner by Manetho of Amenhotep IV's mishandling of the Apiru rebellion in Syria, Phoenicia and Canaan. Of interest about Manetho's understanding that the rebellion is going on within Egypt, is the rhethoric of some earlier pharaohs like Thutmoses III who declared they were "extending the borders of Egypt" in conquering Asia (Canaan, Syria and Phoenicia). Could perhaps Egypt's Amarna border have been visualized as in Syria and hence the Apiru revolt was misconstrued by Manetho as being within Egypt proper (the Delta) ?

Manetho never utters a word about Amenhotep IV's introduction of the ONE god, the Aten/Aton. He only mentions Osar-Siph of Heliopolis desecrating Egyptian gods and temples. To a degree, we cannot fault Manetho- he apparently was NOT aware that Horemheb and his Ramesside successors, the 19th Dynasty, had officially "corrupted" Egyptian history by excising the Atenist pharoahs from the official records. A wall mural in one Ramesside tomb shows Amenhotep III (father of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten), then Horemheb, then Rameses I, the intervening Atenist pharaohs, Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun and Ay are all missing in the scene. The official Ramesside annals also skip the Atenist names as well.

I find it all rather amazing that Manetho was able to present what he did of the events leading up to the birth of 19th Dynasty and its Ramesside pharaohs, considering the "deliberately falsified texts" he was working with.

I am unaware of any evidence that Asiatics from Jerusalem were admitted and settled at Avaris (Tell ed-Daba or Qantir). The earliest known name at Dab'a is of Pharaoh Horemheb on a lintel from a temple he dedicated to the god Seth. Now if "General" Horemheb allowed the Asiatics asking for admittance to Egypt in his wall relief (cf. his so-called General's tomb) to settle at Dab'a, maybe this event was recalled by Manetho ? Did Horemheb use Asiatics to build the Seth temple ? Amenophis' son, Rameses "might" be Manetho's confusion, caused by the Ramesside records, that skip the Atenist pharaohs ?

Quite clearly, if Osar-Siph is but a garbled aspect or "alter-ego" (Dr Jekyl and Mr. Hyde) of Amenhotep IV/Akenaten, then he isn't Moses. Moses was famed for "re-introducing" Monothesim to the Hebrews. Yet Manetho knows nothing of Akhenaten's (Amenophis) similar efforts at One god worship. Obviously the Ramessides had done a "through job" on eliminating from the records available to Manetho, the Atenist experiment.

What is of interest regarding the "Osar-Siph-is-Moses-tale," is that it is set in the period of the Apiru reconquest of Amarna era Canaan. A loyal Byblos mayor had warned Akhenaten that the grand design of the Apiru was to take ALL of Syria-Canaan to the border of Egypt, and make it free of Egyptian overlordship. I note that Yahweh had promised this same general area to Abraham the Hebrew. And for those scholars arguing a Conquest of Canaan ca. 1406 BCE, the Hebrews were probably in Shechem, a city accused of Apiru activity under its leader Labayu.

I have noted earlier, that Judges 3:5-6 stated that Israel married the Canaanites and worshipped their gods. If Israel is at Shechem during the Apiru wars, then perhaps she is intermarried with Apirus. That is to say the Conquest of Canaan in the Bible is recalling the Apiru conquest, the Canaanite mothers and fathers telling these stories to their Israelite sons and daughters in Iron IB and early Iron II ?

Regards, Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, M.A. Ed.
mattfeld12 AT charter.net
www.bibleorigins.net








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