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January 3, 2026

The Pharaoh’s Name, part 1

His name is Rameses II, according to the classic 1956 movie, The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as the pharaoh. In fact, movies, documentaries and history books almost universally concur. But there are massive problems with this view. Let’s take a deeper dive.

Egyptian history is arranged into a series of dynasties, and for reference I’ll refer to a chart of the reigns of the pharaohs given in the first edition of Cambridge Ancient History, a respected secular source. The biblical date for the exodus is 1446 B.C., according to 1 Kings 6:1, but most secular historians date it to around 1270-1250 B.C. The biblical date falls into the period of the eighteenth dynasty (1570-1320) and the later date falls into the period of the nineteenth dynasty (1320-1223).

To begin our hunt for the pharaoh of the exodus we must remember that Moses fled Egypt under one pharaoh and returned forty years later only after that pharaoh died (Exodus 4:19), so we’re looking for a pharaoh in either one of the two dynasties who reigned for at least forty years. Turns out that there are only two—Thutmose III (1504-1450) and Rameses II (1304-1236). Aha! There’s the name Rameses! But wait! Thutmose III and Rameses II are the only two possibilities for the “oppression” pharaoh from whom Moses fled. The “exodus” pharaoh is not the “oppression” pharaoh whose death prompted Moses’ return to Egypt. The “exodus” pharaoh succeeded the “oppression” pharaoh. Therefore, the “exodus” pharaoh must be either Amenhotep II (1450-1425) or Merneptah (1236-1223). The “exodus” pharaoh cannot be Rameses II, for he would have died before Moses returned! I’d say that’s a pretty good reason to eliminate Rameses II from the running.

Three other quick points can be made in favor of Amenhotep II. First, most of the pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty generally resided in Thebes, far south of the land of Goshen in the Egyptian Delta where the Israelites were enslaved, but Amenhotep II reigned regularly from Memphis (only around 75 miles from Goshen) and would have been readily accessible to Moses and Aaron.

Second, Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, records the words of Manetho, a third-century B.C. historian, who wrote a history of his native Egypt in the Greek language, based on his study of ancient Egyptian records. Although Manetho’s works didn’t survive, Josephus refers to them, noting that Manetho gave the name of the pharaoh of the exodus as Amenophis, the Greek spelling of Amenhotep.

Third, Amenhotep II’s successor to the throne was not his firstborn son, but rather a younger son named Thutmose IV, which gives credence to the biblical account of the premature death of the exodus pharaoh’s firstborn son. We’ll look at this pharaoh and his boy next time in a post that you simply won’t want to miss!

Daniel McCabe

Trivia

Which Israeli city is considered one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world?