Biblical Hebrew Forum

[MarianneLuban AT aol.com]

In a message dated 8/29/2004 10:55:18 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
RGmyrken AT aol.com writes:


> This mythological interpretation of Horus seems the best, most 
> natural interpretation of the reference to Or in the Amenophis story IMHO.

I find this a reasonable explanation and I also gave the opinion, in my book, 
that Or represented no actual pharaoh.  But my rationale was somewhat 
different.  The 18th Dynasty of Manetho is the most horribly corrupted 
because of a 
strong belief of the Jewish and Christian copiers of Manetho in only one 
exodus 
(which Manetho obviously did not share).  So--quoting from myself "It is 
difficult to say who first equated this compromised "Sethos" with Seti I, the 
father of Ramesses the Great but it may have been Josephus, himself, the very 
reason being that the latter believed the Jews had left Egypt so long ago 
that the 
393 years that Manetho had specified between the migration and "Sethos also 
called Ramesses" had to indicate Seti in his estimation.  In fact Seti I 
lived 
and reigned 393 years after no exodus [not the one at the time of Ahmose I, 
which Josephus connected to the BOE] even though some of the ancients 
attempted 
to manipulate the numbers to make sense of what they thought Manetho was 
trying to say.  They padded the reign of Menmaare Seti I outrageously and 
tinkered 
with the 18th Dynasty, as well, striving mightily to get 393 years between 
the 
exodus of one tradition or another and Seti's rule.  Yet, unfortunately, they 
misunderstood their authority, Manetho, completely."

So Or is just a fictitious pharaoh interposed to add time.  Worse yet, Seti I 
and his son were stuck onto the 18th Dynasty--to which they did not belong, 
as Manetho would have known very well--due to all these machinations.  I 
blame 
Josephus--as he is the earliest copier known to us and all the rest followed 
him, some making little adjustments of their own.  The "Sethos" indicated by 
Manetho as coming 393 years after the exodus under "Tethmosis" is none other 
than Menmaare Ramesses XI--who did sit on the throne 393 years later.