Thutmose II is a name that means “Born of Thoth”. He was noted as the fourth ruler of Egypt during the 18th dynasty. He also built some monuments and led two other campaigns. Other than that, he did little during his reign as he was largely influenced by Hatshepsut, his wife. Thutmose II reigned during 1493 to 1479 BC, which is where he can be located on the Bible Timeline Poster. His body was found in the Deir el-Bahri Cache, and now can be viewed in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.
Background Thutmose II was considered as the lesser son of Thutmose I because his mother was a minor named Mutnofret. However, he was married to Hatshepsut, who was the royal half-sister of Thutmose II, which helped maintain his kingship in the land. He was also able to end several rebellions held in Nubia, and he led an army that defeated nomadic groups of the Bedouins. However, these campaigns were only headed by the generals of the king and not by Thutmose II. Hence, this proved that he was indeed a minor even though he was pharaoh.
Thutmose II and Hatshepsut There were archaeologists who claimed that Hatshepsut was indeed the actual force behind Thutmose II during the time of his rule. The evidence behind this claim included the similarities in the foreign and domestic policies that were implemented under his kingship. Moreover, there were various relief scenes made from the Karmak gateway, and these presented the reign of Thutmose II along with his wife.
Thutmose II and His Period of Reign
There were some debates whether Thutmose II was indeed the king of Egypt during the period of Exodus. For instance, there were researchers who claimed that Thutmose II reigned for 13 years, although newer scholars believed he only ruled for 3 to 4 years. Because of a lack in the number of monuments and scarabs made under Thutmose II.
In Exodus 4:19, God commanded Moses to go back to Egypt as all the men who wanted to kill him were already dead. The ruler of the land at that time was believed to Thutmose II, who was also referred to as Gardiner. Historians considered him as a weak and lesser king, and he was greatly dominated by his wife Hatshepsut during his reign.
Based on the chronology of Pharaohs that ruled Egypt, it appeared that Thutmose II was the only possible candidate to have been the leader during the time of Exodus. For instance, there were claims that his body was recovered after his supposed drowning in the Red Sea. Although in Exodus 14:30, it was mentioned that the people of Israel discovered that the Egyptians died upon the seashore.
However, there are some uncertainties with the identities of the Egyptian Royal mummies and their time of rule. This was caused by the re-interment and re-labelling made during the 21st dynasty. Hence, there are still divided beliefs when it comes to the actual year of the reign of Thutmose II, or if he was indeed the actual Pharaoh that ruled during the Exodus narrated in the Bible.
http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-date-1440bc.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatshepsut#mediaviewer/File:Hatshepsut.jpg
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Moses is better known for the Lord was with him.
How could Thutmose 2 be the pharaoh of the exodus if his only son, Thutmose 3, survived and became Pharaoh?
The king survived the exodus and
had a child with a lesser wife and bore a son.
How is that so? Could you explain your comment please David? I’m a wee bit confused.
Confused because none of this twisted crap makes sense historically. Give it back to its cosmological, Kemetic origin and it will make plenty of sense. Trying to turn the mythos into human history will always leave you stuck in the middle of nowhere.
I have been studying the archeological evidence and the history of the pharaoh Hatshepsut for more than ten years. I am fully convinced that Thutmose II is the pharaoh of Exodus. I believe that Hatshepsut, his half sister and wife, was the daughter of the pharaoh who “found” Moses in the Nile River. Many of the numerical details in Exodus have been exaggerated in the retelling of the epic. But the story of Moses has its basis in reality.
My hope is to author a historical novel that would revolutionize thinking about the historicity of the Bible.
Well it’s said Thutmose II fits chronologically and His very Name is telling as Thutmose is sometimes referred to as Thutmoses and hence the name of Moses, considering it was said to be Pharaohs Daughter who found and raised Him, came from.
The two Kings mentioned in Exodus, the first that seeking to kill Moses must have a Daughter with the Pharaoh who succeeded Him having a firstborn Son who died. Not going to help much I know. The Pharaohs that have been suspects as the Reigning Pharaoh during the Exodus are: Thutmose II, Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, Amehoptep III Dedimus I, Dedimus II respectively.
I leave out the commonly portrayed and somewhat accepted Pharaoh of Exodus is Ramses II who ironically as it happens, can be with confidence, ruled out as the Pharaoh of the Exodus as His reign and activities is probably the best known and documented of all in any of The Dynasties and their Kings that ruled Ancient Egypt.
Egypt under His long & celebrated reign and His Military Activities were the most successful of any documented King and under His Reign, Egypt did nothing but prosper hence His alternate Title of Ramses the Great.
I have no idea which, if any, are correct or even if they really do fall into the desired timeline and Dynasty.
Correction to spelling. Above I spelled the Pharaoh Dusimus, It’s actually spelled Dedumose.
Pharaoh Djedneferre Dedumose of the 16th Dynasty (yet this is disputed.)
“I have been studying the archeological evidence and the history of the pharaoh Hatshepsut for more than ten years. I am fully convinced that Thutmose II is the pharaoh of Exodus.”
Egypt under Thutmose II hardly saw a more prosperous era. He isn’t designated the title of Warrior King because His almost unmatched number of Military Campaigns ended in failure as I would call it catastrophic failure had Thutmose lost the entire Egyptian Army in the Red or Reed Sea! He did have a firstborn Son that predeceased him yes, but so do many Pharaohs.
Amenhotep II was His choice as the Son who would take over as Pharaoh and I’d say He is more likely a suspect as the Exodus Pharaoh than His Father.
But if any of them are that Pharaoh, I would say Dudemose II is the most likely as that Pharaoh because during His reign the Hyksos quite literally walked in & took Egypt.
The sworn enemy of Egypt simply took over the Country without resistance. No defence or battle with the Egyptians. Egypt and it’s Pharaohs would defend their Boarders with their lives & their sworn enemy the Hyksos would never be allowed to take the Country with no difficulty or resistance, not unless Egypt literally had no defense or army to stop them because that army was wiped out en mass!
His wife took his place after his death. Thutmose III was not necessarily his first born son.
read the bible Son!
Thutmose III wasn’t first born, and was a STEP son. The 17th – 18th dynasty lines up, right down to the Hyksos deportation. We have to remember there are atleast 3, (maybe 4) pharoahs in Exodus.
16th Dynasty – Abraham in Egypt.
17th Dynasty — Joseph in Egypt. Egyptians tell of a semitic people (Hyksos) coming into positions of power bringing several hundred thousand of their closest family to the Nile Delta. Bible talks of Joseph coming into power, and bringing several hundred thousand closest family into the Nile Detla.
Then came a pharoah that “Knew not Joseph” (Exodus 1;8), not just a change in pharaoh, but a change in whole dynasty. Ahmose and Kamose start the overthrow of Hyksos.
Then comes Pharoah’s daughter seeing the baby Moses, which means the above would be old enough to be Moses’s grandfather’s age. Amenhotep I.
40 something Moses rises in power around the same time as Thutmose I. Kills the egyptian, goes into hiding.
“After a long time, Pharoah died” — Exodus 2:23, new pharoah, weaker than the first. This would be Thutmoses II.
Thutmose III — stronger pharoah, militaristic, invades Canaan to avenge his step daddy. This is the “wilderness” pharoah. It makes total sense to stay in hiding 40 years when you are a fugitive.
Thutmose III WAS pharaoh at the time of the Exodus but it was his firstborn son and heir, Crown Prince Amenemhat that pursued the Israelites and who perished in the Red Sea at Sharm el Sheik (Strait of Tiran). His younger brother suceeded to the throne upon the death of Thutmose III 25 years later.
Please see YouTube videos of David Rohl, an Egyptologist… with great understanding of biblical timeline. His video of ‘Biblical Exodus’ is excellent.
There is an interesting documentary on Hatshepsut on the Ancient World tv series. It seems that she, Thutmose II and Thutmose III all had strange skin lesions. They concluded that it must have been hereditary, but could it have been a consequence of the plague that caused painful boils?
I generally accept that Thutmose II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, but there are 2 questions that need answers.
(1) Exodus says that the Israelites were making mud bricks with straw but what were they building ? The only large project built with mud-bricks is, apparently, Amarna, which is 194 miles south of Cairo.
(2) Exodus 1:11 clearly declares that the Israelites built the cities Pithom and Raamses. How is it possible that there was a city named Raamses built by the Israelites in the time of Moses and Thutmose II ? Raamses II (the Great) began to reign about 1280 BC, approximately 200 years after the beginning of the reign of Thutmoses II.
I believe Avaris was constructed from mud bricks, and was probably referred to as Rameses in Exodus 1:11. The mummies of Thutmose I, II and Hatshepsut have apparently been found with pock marks all over their bodies. Secular scholars attribute them to a hereditary condition, but could it really have been a plague of boils?
Im really hopeing amenhotep 2 is pharoh of the exodus. Tutmosis 3 goes on to be napoleón of egypt with campains syria paleatine. And it woundt been much victory for the isrelites. Egypt conquest ends in 1400 bc . Slavery ends 1100bc. In egypt.
An ancient historian was quoted as having actually written a name of Pharaoh’s daughter, Meris. The only name that has been found that even remotely resembles it is Ahmose-Tumerisy. She was daughter to Seqenenre Tao. If this is correct he would have surely been the one to order the death of the male infants and Moses’s 80 year timeline fits almost perfectly with Thutmose II as King of the Exodus. Moses would have fled Egypt under Amenhotep I. Not only did T II have scars and lesions “consistent” with boils but so did Hat., T III as well as Hat’s nurse. Dispelling the belief that it was family malady because the nurse was not known as a member of the royal family. An inscription by Hat. after she took the throne gives rise that both the Hyksos and the Israelites were gone. T III also has an inscription that points to that possibility.
1. Kamose (c. 1554-1549)
2. Ahmose I (c. 1549-1525); his sister named Ahmose-Nefertari – the daughter of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao II (c. 1558-54) and Queen Ahhotep. She later became the Great Royal Wife of her brother. Ahmose-Tumerisy (MERIS?) was also a sister of Ahmose I and a daughter of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao II.
3. Amenhotep I: son of Ahmose I and Ahmose-Nefertari; he reigned from around 1525-1506; his sister and second wife Ahmose-Meritamun held the titles of “Great Royal Wife” and “God’s Wife of Amun,
4. Thutmose I, son of Amenhotep I and Queen Ahmose, reigned from around 1506 to 1492 BCE. He was the father of Thutmose II. Wives: Queen Ahmose AND Mutnofret; Thutmose I can be born at the time of Moses.
5. Thutmose II (c. 1492-1479 BC): he was married to Queen Hatshepsut, who was also his half-sister.
Moses left the palace around 1487; Queen Hatshepsut died around 1457 BC.
6. Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC): A prominent 8th pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, he is known for his military campaigns and expansion of the Egyptian empire. Thutmose III was the son of Thutmose II and Iset; he was a stepson of Queen Hatshepsut.
Moses likely got out of EGYPT with the Israelites in 1447 BC, according to the Hebrew Bible.
I think it is a likely scenario.
If Hatshepsut was a young woman (even possibly a child), she cannot have been around at the time of the Exodus. She only lived to about 50 years old. Moses was 80 at the time of the exodus. Her husband, Thutmose II died to begin her reign. This would make Thutmose III (her regent and replacement) the cruelest pharaoh of the dynasty, the pharoah who died for Moses to Return. The Pharaoh of the Exodus would then be Amenhotep the 1st.
Segundo o arqueólogo Dr. Douglas Petrovich, ele fala com todas as letras, que o faraó do êxodo foi Amenhotep II e o faraó durante a opressão dos israelita era o faraó Tutmoses III e ele mesmo queria matar Moisés e Moisés fugiu, lembrando que as três etapas da vida de Moisés de quando ele nasceu até chegar os 40 anos de idade ele vivia na corte egípcia recebe a melhor educação dos egípcios, e chegando nessa idade dos 40 anos ele mata um egípcio e quem era que estava no reinando era Tutmoses III que ele reinou por mais de 40 anos e após sua morte subiu ao trono foi Amenhotep II, pois foi esse faraó que Moisés encontrou no Egito e que não queria deixar o povo de Israel partir e ele tbm teve seu filho primogênito morto, chamado Amenhotep que compartilha o mesmo nome do pai dele.