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Hatshepsut, the Hyksos, and the Exodus

Posted By: Charles Pope
Date: Friday, 13 September 2002, at 8:43 a.m.

In Response To: Re: Jerubbaal vs Ishbaal (REBrammer)

Many people believe that the Exodus occurred at the beginning of the 18th Dynasty and that it was associated with the "expulsion of the Hyksos." This is a view that finds support in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus. The archetypal Exodus had already taken place. However, at least one royal person of the early Egyptian New Kingdom did consider the New Kingdom history to be a repetition of the great Middle Kingdom Exodus. That person was Hatshepsut.

Hatshepsut modeled herself after Queen Sobeknofru, who was the last ruler of the 12th Dynasty. In Chapter 8 of my book, I show that the first Exodus occurred at this time. Amenemhet III was pharaoh of the Exodus, but his daughter Sobeknofru was Queen. In the aftermath of the devastating floods and mass Exodus that brought down the dynasty, Sobeknofru ruled for a short time as a pharaoh (prenomen Sobek-ka-re).

In identification with Sobeknofru, Hatshepsut assumed the prenomen of Maat-ka-re. Another basis that Hatshepsut used to justify her pharaonic status was the claim of chasing off an exodus party. She left a very revealing inscription. Quoting from a book called Distant Secrets (p 128) by Robert Schiller, "As [Egyptologist] Goedicke translates the text, it tells of a people called the Amu (an Egyptian term for Canaanites), among whom was a group of aliens called the shemau (semites?), who had enjoyed special privileges which Hatshepsut had annulled, and had 'disregarded the tasks assigned to them.' After she allowed these 'abominations of the gods' to depart, the 'father of fathers (who Goedicke identifies with the primeval water god Nun) came unexpectedly' and 'the earth swallowed their footsteps.' To Goedicke, this is nothing less than an Egyptian version of the Exodus ..."

I agree that Hatshepsut was providing justification for the expulsion of "Asiatics," that is Babylonian ministers of all kinds, and the extermination/dispersion of troublesome population groups. This was later referred to generically as the "expulsion of the Hyksos." It was actually a consequence of the power struggle associated with the founding of the New Kingdom (see Chapters 10-12). As the family "Godfather," Tao I (Apophis I) orchestrated the house-cleaning. He was not satisfied with the cooperation he received from either Tao II or Kamose. Both of these co-regents were killed and replaced by Thutmose I, a man who didn't flinch in shedding blood. Hatshepsut was the leading daughter of Thutmose I, and shared in her father's brutal success.

Shortly after the death of Thutmose I, there was a power struggle between Hatshepsut and Thutmose III (son of Thutmose I). Thutmose III prevailed and Hatshepsut was killed. For this reason, Thutmose III was seen as an avenging Joshua figure. After the first Exodus, the first Hyksos king Joshua (Salitis, Patriarch Reu) reunited the empire and was succeeded by the Hyksos King Yakub-hor (Patriarch Serug). Likewise, in the New Kingdom, Thutmose III (a repetition of Joshua) was succeeded by Amenhotep II (Patriarch Jacob).

At some point during the New Kingdom, there was a change in guiding philosophy. It likely occurred toward the end of the reign of Thutmose III or during the early reign of Amenhotep II. The legitimacy of the role of Hatshepsut as a repetition of Queen/Pharaoh Sobeknofru, the "Queen of the Exodus," was rejected. Her statues and memory were literally buried. Thereafter, Amenhotep II was not considered to be a repetition of the Hyksos king Jacob (Yakub-Hor), but the Jacob of the Middle Kingdom, Senusret II. Likewise, Thutmose III was looked upon more as a repetition of the great Middle Kingdom conqueror Senusret III rather than as Joshua/Salitis of the Hyksos Period. This meant that the New Kingdom Exodus was still yet unfulfilled.

In Year 17 of Akhenaten, Queen Tiye became convinced that the time for the New Kingdom Exodus had finally come. With her consent, Akhenaten was deposed by senior members of the royal family and forced to lead an Exodus of diseased Egyptians/Israelites. Queen Tiye probably did not assume pharaonic titles, but she was referred to by the epithet of Maat-ka-re. This again was done in identification with Hatshepsut and the earlier Sobeknofru.

-Charles

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