by
Damien F. Mackey
The first
Oppressor Pharaoh
The dynastic
founding Pharaoh who began the persecution of the Israelites in Egypt, the “new
king” of Exodus 1:8, was Teti of the Sixth Dynasty, was Amenemes
of the Twelfth Dynasty.
The
Jewish-Hellenistic
writer, Artapanus, called him “Palmanothes”, in which name can be discerned the
element Amen, of Amenemes (Amenemhat), but, more especially, the element
Othoes, for Teti (Manetho):
Egyptian Pharaohs : Old
Kingdom : Dynasty 6 : Teti
Teti
and Amenemes connect together nicely, sharing the throne name, Sehetepibre
(‘He who satisfies the Heart of Re’) and the exact same Horus name, Sehetep-tawy (‘Horus, who
pacifies the Two Lands’), as well as being the dynastic founder.
A further likely connection is that death came
through assassination.
Artapanus
tells, in his book Concerning the Jews, that “Palmanothes
succeeded to the sovereignty. This king behaved badly to the Jews; and first he
built Kessa, and founded the temple therein, and then built the temple in
Heliopolis”.
What was this
“Kessa”?
It is
explained in an Exodus context as follows:
8. THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE
LIFE OF MOSES
“By
implication, he is identified by Artapanus as the oppressive Pharaoh of Exodus
1. 11. In the Bible this particular Pharaoh is said to have built, by Hebrew
slave-labor, “Raamses,” i.e. Rameses, and Pithom. The Biblical Rameses
corresponds to “Kessa” in Artapanus, which is said similarly to have been built
by Palmanothes. “Kessa” and “Gesse” are alternative forms of the Biblical name
Goshen. The “land of Goshen” and the “land of Rameses” are synonyms in Genesis
(Gen. 47. 6 and 11). Faqus, near Tell el-Dab’a, the Greek Phakousa, according
to an early church source c. AD 385, was the Biblical Goshen (Gesse) and the
capital of the so-called “Arabian nome” (cf. Arabs = Hyksos in Manetho). The
proximity of Faqus to Tell el-Dab’a (Avaris) tends to confirm the traditional
identification. The names Goshen and Rameses are used in the Bible to designate
the district inhabited by the Israelites …. That was the district whose capital
at the time was Avaris”.
Egyptian foster mother of
Moses, “Merris”
Artapanus
continues on, telling of “Palmanothes” that:
“He begat a
daughter Merris, whom he betrothed to a certain Chenephres, king of the regions
above Memphis … and she being barren took a supposititious child from one of
the Jews, and called him … (Moses) ….
Fittingly,
the name of the wife of the (Sixth) dynastic founding king’s
successor, Pepi, was Ankhesenmerire, or Meresankh, Greek “Merris” (Meres-ankh).
{The pair, Meresankh
and “Chenephres” (Khafre/Chephren), are also to be found in the Fourth
Dynasty, but here we are keeping it simple by focussing upon the Sixth and
Twelfth}.
The second
Oppressor Pharaoh
It follows
from this that Pepi, Neferkare, was the “Chenephres” of
Artapanus.
Neferkare = Khaneferre
(Greek “Chenephres”).
In terms of
the Twelfth Dynasty, Pepi Neferkare was Sesostris Neferkare.
“[Sesostris
I]. Having revived [sic] the Heliopolitan tradition of taking Neferkare as his
coronation name …”. (N. Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell
1994, p. 164).
As later with
King Saul and David, there was a recurring tension between the envious
“Chenephres” and the successful Moses.
Artapanus
again, no doubt exaggerating the situation to some extent, tells:
“And this
Moses … when grown up he taught mankind many useful things. For he was the
inventor of ships, and machines for laying stones, and Egyptian arms, and
engines for drawing water and for war, and invented philosophy. Further he
divided the State into thirty-six Nomes, and. appointed the god to be
worshipped by each Nome, and the sacred writing for the priests, and their gods
were cats, and dogs, and ibises: he also apportioned an especial district for
the priests.
“All these
things he did for the sake of keeping the sovereignty firm and safe for
Chenephres. For previously the multitudes, being under no order, now expelled
and now set up kings, often the same persons, but sometimes others.
“For these
reasons then Moses was beloved by the multitudes, and being deemed by the
priests worthy to be honoured like a god, was named Hermes, because of his
interpretation of the Hieroglyphics.
“But when
Chenephres perceived the excellence of Moses he envied him, and sought to slay
him on some plausible pretext. And so when the Aethiopians invaded Egypt,
Chenephres supposed that he had found a convenient opportunity, and sent Moses
in command of a force against them, and enrolled the body of husbandmen for
him, supposing that through the weakness of his troops he would easily be
destroyed by the enemy”. ….
Who,
then, was Moses?
As I wrote
in my article:
‘Chenephres’
drives Moses out of Egypt
(6) ‘Chenephres’
drives Moses out of Egypt
…. Between Teti, the “new king” of Exodus
1:8, and Pepi (“Chenephres”), we have pharaoh Userkare, who I believe was
Moses.
Most interestingly, as
an indication of the tension that existed between Moses (Userkare) and
“Chenephres” (Pepi), pharaoh Userkare was most likely erased by Pepi in a damnatio
memoriæ.
Of further interest,
Pepi had the word “desert” (to where Moses fled) inserted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Userkare
Userkare (also Woserkare,
meaning "Powerful is the soul of Ra"; died c. 2332 BC) [sic] was
the second king of
the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, reigning
briefly, 1 to 5 years …. Userkare's relation to his predecessor Teti and successor Pepi … is unknown and his reign remains enigmatic.
Although he is attested in some historical sources,
Userkare is completely absent from the tomb of the Egyptian officials who lived
during his reign and usually report the names of the kings whom they served.
Furthermore, the figures of some high officials of the period have been
deliberately chiselled out in their tombs and their titles altered, for
instance the word "king" being replaced by that of
"desert". Egyptologists thus suspect a possible Damnatio memoriae on Pepi
I's behalf against Userkare. ….
This Userkare was the great Moses!
The famous Story
of Sinuhe preserves a semi-mythological account of the flight of Moses from
the Egyptian pharaoh Sesostris I (my “Chenephres”). In the name, Sinuhe
(or Sanehat), we may perhaps find the Egyptian name “Moses”: Sa
(Son) Nu (Water), “Son of the Water”, or “Water baby”. The average
Egyptian would not have known about the origins of the name and, so, may have
had trouble properly representing it.
Moses, having
abdicated after a short reign as pharaoh Userkare, dutifully served Egypt in
many brilliant facets, thereby underlining the lofty description of him as
given by Artapanus.
For one, he
was Egypt’s Vizier and Chief Judge.
Exodus 2:14:
‘Who made you ruler (Vizier) and (Chief) judge over us?’
These two offices
were held in the Sixth Dynasty by the highly literate Weni,
and in the Twelfth Dynasty, by the official of many titles, Mentuhotep
– alter egos of Moses (my reconstructions).
Weni (var. Uni) may be
a nickname. It recurs in various of my alter egos for Moses. Thus see my
article:
Ini,
Weni, Iny, Moses
Moses, also
a successful general, was likely Nysumontu of the Twelfth Dynasty,
a name that may combine the theophoric, Montu (Mentuhotep) with
the name of Moses, Nysu (Sa Nu).
Moses was
also a man of literature and writer of Instructions.
As such, he
was Kagemni-Memi, a philosopher, but also, like Weni and Mentuhotep,
“Chief Justice and Vizier”:
The Mastaba Tomb Of
Kagemni Also Known As Memi
“In … the
reign of Teti, first king of the 6th Dynasty (c. 2321-2290 B.C.) [sic], an
official named Kagemni-Memi was appointed to the rank of Chief Justice and
Vizier, the highest post in the bureaucracy of Old Kingdom Egypt”.
Exodus
11:3:
“… the man
Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants,
and in the sight of the people”.
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