by
Damien F. Mackey
As, I think, Noah and the Genesis Flood enable for a radical revision of
the Geological (Ice) and Stone Ages, so will the long life of Moses,
who carefully presents himself as “a new Noah” (see I. Kikawada and A. Quinn’s Before Abraham Was. The Unity of Genesis 1-11, 1985), enable for
a stringent tightening up of what are thought to have been some very powerful Egyptian dynasties, stretched out, in Procrustean fashion, over the ‘bed’
of supposedly two separate Egyptian kingdoms.
Introduction
“Merris” - the Egyptian foster-mother of Moses, and wife of “Chenephres” (Eusebius/ Artapanus) - the “Pharaoh’s daughter” (Hebrews 11:24), can be as a golden thread for us, tying together Egypt’s dynasties, as Meresankh (Merris + ankh), Fourth Dynasty and Fifth Dynasty, and as Ankhesenmerire, Sixth Dynasty.
“Chenephres” (Kanefer[r]e), in turn, ties up, all at once, Khafra/Khafre (Chephren), Fourth Dynasty, Pepi Neferkare, Sixth Dynasty, Sesostris Neferkare, Twelfth Dynasty, and, perhaps, Sobekhotep (IV) Khanefer[r]e, Thirteenth Dynasty.
The Thirteenth Dynasty pairing of Amenemhet (so-called VII) and Sobekhotep (Khanefer[r]e?) recalls Moses’s two pharaohs in the Twelfth Dynasty, Amenemhet and Sesostris Neferkare, adding a Sobek (Crocodile) name to the latter to accord with his female successor’s Crocodile name of Sobek-neferure.
The woman, Sobekneferure (Twelfth Dynasty), may provide us with another thread, as this very rare moment of having a briefly-reigning female is to be found again at the end of the Fourth and Fifth dynasties, in Khentkaus. (“Khentkaus I, also known as Khentkawes, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the ninth [sic] and final ruler of the Fourth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period”): https://althistory.fandom.com/wiki/Khentkaus_I_(Pharaonic_Survival), and at the end of the Sixth Dynasty, in so-called “Nitocris”.
Moses, biblically a ‘ruler and judge’ (Exodus 2:14), can well connect with Kagemni, “Chief Justice and Vizier” of the Fourth/Sixth dynasties, with Ptahhotep-Akhethotep, “Chief Justice and Vizier” of the Fifth Dynasty, with Weni, Vizier and Chief Judge of the Sixth Dynasty, and with Mentuhotep, likewise Vizier and Chief Judge, of the Twelfth Dynasty.
These multiple golden threads may serve to disqualify, as historical candidates for the biblical Joseph, Ptahhotep (Fifth Dynasty) - Dr. Ernest L. Martin - or, alternatively, Mentuhotep (Twelfth Dynasty), as favoured by Dr. Donovan Courville.
According to my view, Moses was Ptahhotep (Akhethotep) - Mentuhotep.
Can the Fifth and Twelfth dynasties be fused?
Some of the following may need to be reconsidered, as Fifth Dynasty in Twelfth.
(Taken entirely from Nicolas Grimal’s A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell 1994):
P. 79:
“The attribution of the Maxims to Ptahhotep does not necessarily mean that he was the actual author: the oldest versions date to the Middle Kingdom, and there is no proof that they were originally composed in the Old Kingdom, or, more specifically, at the end of the Fifth Dynasty. The question, moreover, is of no great importance”.
P. 159:
[Ammenemes I]. Like his predecessors [sic] in the Fifth Dynasty, the new ruler used literature to publicize the proofs of his legitimacy. He turned to the genre of prophecy: a premonitory recital placed in the mouth of Neferti, a Heliopolitan sage who bears certain similarities to the magician Djedi in Papyrus Westcar. Like Djedi, Neferti is summoned to the court of King Snofru, in whose reign the story is supposed to have taken place”.
P. 164:
“[Sesostris I]. Having revived the Heliopolitan tradition of taking Neferkare as his coronation name …”.
P. 171:
“Ammenemes IV reigned for a little less than ten years and by the time he died the country was once more moving into a decline. The reasons were similar to those that conspired to end the Old Kingdom”.
Pp. 178-179:
“The tradition of the Old Kingdom continued to influence Middle Kingdom royal statuary …”.
P. 180:
“The diversity of styles was accompanied by a general return to the royal tradition, which was expressed in the form of a variety of statues representing kings from past times, such as those of Sahure, Neuserre [Fifth Dynasty], Inyotef and Djoser created during the reign of Sesostris II”.
P. 181:
“A comparable set of statures represents Ammenemes III (Cairo, Egyptian Museum CG 385 from Hawara) … showing the king kneeling to present wine vessels, a type previously encountered at the end of the Old Kingdom (Cairo, Egyptian Museum CG 42013 …) …".
The following description of the Fifth Dynasty expansion by Nicolas Grimal could just as well have been written of the Sixth, the Twelfth, Egyptian dynasties. It is apparently all one and the same.
P. 76
During the fifth Dynasty Egypt seems to have been opened up to the outside world, both northwards and southwards. The reliefs in the mortuary temple built by …. Sahure, include the usual … conquered countries ….
To which Grimal adds: “… (belonging more to rhetoric than to historical evidence)”.
This is another observation that we frequently encounter in ancient history, a failure to believe a straightforward record only because the limited knowledge of historians prevents them from grasping the bigger picture.
However, as Grimal then goes on to tell:
… but they also show the return [sic] of a maritime trading expedition probably from Byblos, as well as forays into the Syrian hinterland; if the references to bears in these region are to be believed. A campaign against the Libyans has also been dated to Sahure’s reign ….
Grimal then becomes negative again, adding: “… although there is some doubt surrounding this “.
Re trade to Byblos, we find M. Bernal (Black Athena, p. 149) mentioning three Old Kingdom names in connection with it, all of whom are “new king” alter egos of mine: “… the names of Menkauḥōr and Izozi [= Isesi … as well as that of Sahureˁ …”.
Sahure’s trade and exploits read like Snofru again, as well as others:
… primarily economic: the exploitation of mines in the Sinai, diorite quarrying to the west of Aswan and an expedition to Punt, which is mentioned in the Palermo Stone and perhaps also depicted on the reliefs in Sahure’s mortuary temple.
In one of Sahure’s names, Sephris (Manetho), I think that we might come close to Cheops’ name of Suphis (Manetho):
http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/pharaoh/dynasties/dyn04/02khufu.html
Just as in the case of the mighty and long-reigning Khufu (Cheops), one may find it very hard to imagine that a ruler of the significance of Djedkare Isesi (Assa), whose reign may have been as long as forty years - a figure that we have already found connected with the reign of Snofru - has only one image of which to boast: https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/djedkare/
“The only image of the king is from a temple to Osiris …”.
N. Grimal tells:
P. 79
[Djedkare’s] reign was long: Manetho suggests that it lasted about forty years, but this figure is not confirmed by the Turin Canon, which suggests a reign of only twenty-eight years.
I am now of the view that Djedkare, too, is an alter ego of the (now most substantial) “new king” of Exodus 1:8.
Fittingly (with Djedkare as an alter ego, I think, of 4th dynasty names), we find Djedkare Isesi adhering to “the Heliopolitan dogma”.
P. 78
[Isesi] … without … moving away from the Heliopolitan dogma. He chose the name Djedkare – ‘The Ka of Ra is Stable’ – as his nsw-bity (king of Upper and Lower Egypt) title, thus placing himself under the protection of Ra ….
Grimal proceeds to add here, “… but he did not build a sun temple …”.
Neuserre, though, upon whom I have only briefly touched, and who “is remembered mainly for his sun temple at Abu Ghurob”, may be an alter ego of Djedkare.
At: https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/djedkare/ a connection is made between Neuserre (Niuserre) and Menkauhor (a previous alter ego):
“[Djedkare] may have been the son of his predecessor Menkauhor, but there is no positive evidence of this and it is also proposed by some that he was the son of Niuserre”.
More likely, I think, Djedkare was Menkauhor, was Neuserre.
The Turin Canon’s estimation of Djedkare’s reign length, “twenty-eight years”, comes close to Neuserre’s estimated (p. 77), “about twenty-five years”.
Djedkare can remind one also of the previously discussed Sahure – the latter’s Horus and Nebty names, respectively, Neb-khau and Neb-khau-nebty, are replaced by just the one element (Djed) in Djedkare’s corresponding names, Djed-khau and Djed-khau-nebty.
Grimal makes this comparison between Sahure and Djedkare Isesi:
P. 79
Like Sahure, [Isesi] pursued a vigorous foreign policy that led him in similar directions [also, again, like Snofru]: to the Sinai, where two expeditions at ten-year intervals are recorded at Wadi Maghara; to the diorite quarries west of Abu Simbel; and further afield to Byblos and the land of Punt.
….
P. 79
The acquisition of greater powers by officials continued during Isesi’s reign, leading to the development of a virtual feudal system.
Likewise, with suggested alter ego Menkauhor:
P. 78
It was during this period that the provincial governors and court officials gained greater power and independence, creating an unstoppable movement which essentially threatened the central authority.
Likewise, with suggested alter ego Teti:
P. 80
Thus ensconced in the legitimate royal line, [Teti] pursued a policy of co-operation with the nobles ….
P. 81: “Clearly, Teti’s policy of pacifying the nobles bore fruit”.
Likewise, with suggested alter ego Amenemes I:
P. 160
… he allowed those nomarchs who had supported his cause … to retain their power … he reinforced their authority by reviving [?] ancient rites.
Nor is one now surprised to read (p. 80): “… there were a good number of officials who served under Djedkare and Wenis as well as Teti …”, because this historical period in my revision … encompasses only two successive reigns.
Correspondingly, we find in Auguste Mariette’s (https://pharaoh.se/library-vol-9)
Note on a fragment of the Royal Papyrus and the Sixth Dynasty of Manetho
the sequence … Tet [Teti], Unas [Wenis]
….
They read: 1. Menkeher 2. Tet 3. Unas.
