Appendix B

Ahmed Osman presents evidence that it was Thutmose III who was the Pharaoh that married Abram's wife, Sarai (Genesis 12:10-20),⁽¹⁾ and that his reign was the right time for Melchizedek, "a priest of the most high God," to be officiating at Salem (Jerusalem).⁽²⁾ When the lives of Thutmose and Amenhotep were projected into a later time frame as the Biblical characters David and Solomon, the marriage between Thutmose III and Sarah was recycled as the story of David and Bathsheba (who was the wife of Ur-iah, a code name for Abraham.⁽³⁾).⁽⁴⁾ Because we are told that Abram and Sarai's names were Egyptianized (to Abraham and Sarah),⁽⁵⁾ and that they were presented with an Egyptian "slave woman"⁽⁶⁾ as well as other suspicious events regarding the "miraculous" birth of Isaac, it is reasonable to deduce that the authors of the Bible were trying to make it as obvious as possible that Isaac was actually the son of the Pharaoh and the source of the original connection between Egypt and Israel.

Abraham was promised by "the Lord," i.e., the Pharaoh, that if he would raise Isaac as his own son, then he would be richly blessed, which of course he was. Abraham did as he was commanded, but not always happily. The story of the sacrifice of Isaac symbolizes Abraham's resentment⁽⁷⁾ and desire to return Isaac to his real father. Abraham also requested of "the Lord" that his own son through the Egyptian woman Hagar be blessed in lieu of Isaac (Genesis 17:20,21). However, the covenant was to be exclusively through Isaac. Moreover, Isaac's twin sons Esau and Jacob were far from identical. Esau inherited traditional Semitic features, but we are told that Jacob's skin was smooth, or in other words, that he inherited Egyptian features (and an Egyptian outlook as well).

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