Taking into account the additional forty years that the Israelites spent in the desert after leaving Egypt, this dates the Exodus to between 14BC. Similarly, Jephthah (who ‘judged’ Israel from 1108 – 1102BC) told the King of the Amorites that it was 300 years since the Israelites occupied Moab (see Judges 11:26). This would place the Exodus in 1447 BC, 168 years before the ‘traditional’ start of Ramesses’s reign. This, however, does not correspond to the dates suggested in the Old Testament where Solomon’s Temple (reliably known to have been built between 967/968BC and 961/960BC), is said to have been started 480 years after the Exodus from Egypt (see 1 Kings 6:1). The reign of Ramesses II, using the nineteenth century dating system, is traditionally dated as 1279 – 1213BC, and events once thought to be within his reign, including the Exodus, are therefore traditionally dated during this period. In the same way, an English writer might refer today to the early history of London, Chester or Bath, not to the history of Londinium, Deva or Aquae Sulis, as most contemporary readers would be unaware of the earlier names of these cities. It follows that the city referred to in the Bible as Raamses had an earlier name, and the Hebrew writer was either unaware of this or simply referred to the city using the name by which it was known at the time he wrote. This traditional identification, however, does not take into account more recent archaoeological evidence uncovered since the 1970s which shows clearly that it was the earlier city of Avaris, built on the same site as the later city of Ramesses, that was constructed by the Hebrew slaves in the Bible. Traditionally, the Pharaoh of the Exodus is identified as the 19 th dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II because the Hebrew slaves were forced to build the Egyptian store-city named in the Bible as Raamses or Ramesses and associated therefore with the great Egyptian city builder, Ramesses II (see Exodus 1:11). This 200-300 year inaccuracy in the traditional (Victorian) dating system is absolutely crucial when trying to identify un-named pharaohs in the Old Testament. As a result, it is highly likely that - by adding these reigns 'end-to-end' - the traditional dating system has artificially extended the length of the 21 st and 22 nd dynasties by up to around 300 years, and has resulted in earlier pharaohs and dynasties being dated two or three hundred years too far back in history. Some of them also spent part of their reign as ‘regents’ or co-rulers while their fathers were still ruling.
Traditionally, the years of each individual pharaoh’s reign have been added up and the combined totals projected backwards into history to determine the dates of earlier dynasties.īut it is now widely acknowledged that many of these pharaohs were rival pharaohs reigning at the same time in different parts of Egypt. In particular, the dates traditionally assigned to the pharaohs of the 21 st and 22 nd dynasties are grossly inaccurate. Unfortunately, however, the traditional dating method created over a hundred and fifty years ago is based on very flimsy evidence, and has been shown by contemporary archaeologists (such as Peter James in his book Centuries of Darkness and David Rohl in his book A Test of Time) to contain serious mistakes and inaccuracies. In order to identify these pharaohs, Biblical scholars have tended to rely on the dates traditionally assigned to the Egyptian pharaohs by archaeologists in the nineteenth century. This is because a number of Egyptian pharaohs mentioned in the Old Testament are not named in the text. Statue of King Shalmaneser III of AssyriaĪt the Istanbul Museum ( Bjørn Christian Tørrissen )Ī further problem arises when trying to harmonise events that affected both Israel and Egypt. Any date before 853BC is uncertain and may be hotly disputed. This date is the earliest Old Testament date that can be corroborated from a non-Biblical source. in the period before 853BC), assigning precise dates to particular people or events in the Old Testament is fraught with difficulties. A round-topped stone stela, which can be seen in the British Museum in London, records King Ahab of Israel and King Adad-idri (Ben-Hadad) of Aram taking part in a joint venture against King Shalmaneser III of Assyria at the Battle of Karkar in 853BC. Precise dating of the pharaohs (kings) of Egypt is very difficult.īefore the coming of the Israelite kings whose reigns are reliably dated in the annals of Assyria (i.e.