Power In His Presence

WHO IS THE NEW KING OF EXODUS 1:8 WHO CAME TO POWER IN EGYPT AND WHO DOESN’T KNOW JOSEPH?

This pharaoh in Exo 1:8 is dubbed the Pharaoh of oppression. The expressions in this verse are special and emphatic. “A new king” is a phrase not found elsewhere. It is understood by most commentators to imply that he did not succeed his predecessor in the natural order of descent and inheritance. He “arose up over Egypt,” occupying the land, as it would seem, on different terms from the king whose place he took, either by usurpation or conquest.

The fact that he knew not Joseph implies a complete separation from the traditions of Lower Egypt. At present the generality of Egyptian scholars identify this Pharaoh with Rameses Miamun, also called Rameses Miamun the great. Through the research I made, I came to understand that this Pharaoh is believed to be the same as Rameses II.

Now there arose up a new king over Egypt … Stephen calls him another king, Act_7:18 one of another family, according to Josephus. This Pharaoh is believed not to be a progeny of the royal seed-family, it is believed that this king is taken to be one of the ancient royal family, whose name was Rameses Miamun; and gives us a succession of the Egyptian kings from the time of Joseph’s going into Egypt to this king: the name of that Pharaoh that reigned when Joseph was in Egypt, and whose dreams he interpreted, was Mephramuthosis; after him reigned Thmosis, Amenophis, and Orus; and in the reign of the last of these Joseph died, and after Orus reigned Acenehres a daughter of his, then Rathotis a brother of Acenechres, after him Acencheres a son of Rathotis, then another Acencheres, after him Armais, then Rameses I, who was succeeded by Ramesses Miamun or Rameses II, here called the new king, because, as the Jews say, new decrees were made in his time.

About sixty years after the death of Joseph a revolution took place – by which the old dynasty was overthrown, and upper and lower Egypt were united into one kingdom. Assuming that the king formerly reigned in Thebes, it is probable that he would know nothing about the Hebrews; and that, as foreigners and shepherds, the new government would, from the first, regard them with dislike and scorn.

In throwing more light on this point, I allude or accentuate here that the new king’s not knowing Joseph, his disapproving of that system of government which Joseph had established, as well as his haughtily refusing to acknowledge the obligations under which the whole land of Egypt was laid to this eminent prime minister of one of his predecessors.

Ramess II (also known as Ramesses the Great and alternatively transcribed as Rameses Miamun) was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as Egypt’s greatest and most powerful pharaoh. He was born c. 1303 BC, the exact date being unknown (it has been said that he was born on February 22; this is disputed, but in Egypt, many official sources mention this date as Ramesses’ birthday). At age fourteen, Ramesses was appointed Prince Regent by his father Seti I. He is believed to have taken the throne in his early 20s and to have ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC for a total of 66 years and 2 months, according to a great scholar called Manetho.

He was once said to have lived to be 99 years old, but it is more likely that he died in his 90th or 91st year. Ancient Greek writers such as Herodotus attributed his accomplishments to the semi-mythical Sesostris, and he is traditionally believed to have been the Pharaoh of oppression and the Exodus due to a tradition started by Eusebius of Caesarea. If he became king in 1279 BC as most Egyptologists today believe, he would have assumed the throne on May 31, 1279 BC based on his known accession date of III Shemu day 27. Ramesses II would celebrate an unprecedented total of 14 Said festivals during his reign–more than any other pharaoh.

Ramesses Miamun became the Pharaoh of Oppression and the Exodus shortly after the deciphment of hieroplyphics by Champollion c 1825. This was because of the many surviving monuments to Rameses II (Miamun) still evident in Egypt and viewed by the early European visitors. They thought here was the Pharaoh of Oppression and Exodus. That the Bible names the town Pi Ramesses and the Land of Ramesse clinched it. Ramesses II were the Pharaoh of Exodus, and Oppression. Science had little to do with it.

In 1826, Champollion discovered and translated the name Jerusalem from a text describing the campainge of Shoshenq I. On this basis Shoshenq I became the Biblical Pharaoh Shishak who sacked Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple (2nd Chronicles 12:1-4) With this new information scholars (not the common folk to whom even in this day Ramesses II is the Pharaoh of Oppression and Exodus) where able to date backwards 521 years ( obtained from the 41 years from the sacking in year 5 of Rehoboam to year 4 of his father Solomon. 1st Kings 6:1 tells us that from this date yr. 4 it was 480 years from Exodus. So you add 480 to 41 and get 521) from Shoshenq’s assault to the Exodus.

RESOURCES:

James Putnan, An introduction to Egyptology, 1990

J. von Beckerath, Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten, Mainz, (1997), pp. 108 and 190

Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992) pp.250-253

Joyce Tyldesley, Ramesses: Egypt’s Greatest Pharaoh, Viking/Penguin Books (2000),

pp.53

Tyldesley, Ramesses, p.68

Tyldesley, Ramesses, pp.70-71

Kitchen, Kenneth Anderson. 1982. Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King of Egypt.