DrZoidberg

I'm trying to get a handle on when it was that Moses was supposed to have done his stuff. There's plenty of references in the Bible to things and people that really existed, so I wouldn't think it'd be that hard to figure out.

I'm talking actual academic scholarly educated guesses, and not whacky religious holding-the-Bible-upside-down-summing-up-all-odd-numbers kinds of interpretations.

I'm just curious.

Clivedurdle

He didn't exist.

Bible Unearthed (or via: amazon.co.uk).

DrZoidberg

Do you mean that the real world references in the Bible are so contradictory that it is impossible to place him in any age, or are you just making a statement of faith?

steve_bnk

google 'moses bible timeline' There are numerous sites showing estimated chronologies.

Clivedurdle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bible_Unearthed

ziffel

Thread moved from ABR to BC&H

Toto

PBS "Walking the Bible" Timeline gives c. 1280 - 1240 BCE.

A few bible study sites give 1446 or 1447 BC for the Exodus. Answers In Genesis gives 1491 BC

I don't think that anyone has ever been able to sync up the Exodus with any source in Egyptian history, so these must be based on the Bible itself - counting up generations, ages at death.

Littlejohn

From what I guessed by my researches, he probably lived in the fourteenth century BC, at the time of Pharaoh Akhenaten.

Almost certainly was the High Priest Moses (see the Egyptian historian Manetho, quoted by Josephus) who led the hasty flight from the Egypt (see Exodus), to escape the wrath of Pharaoh against all those who opposed to his reform monotheistic (or 'monolatric'), and 'in primis' of the religious caste of the god Amen/Amon (ie that of Moses )(*), that with the reform desired by Akhenaten you was seen deprive of any privilege. The rest can be deduced from the Bible, with a minimum of 'grano salis'.

Greetings


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Note:

(*) - At the times of Akhenaten's father (ie Amenophi III), this religious caste was able to earn large space of power, exploiting the derogations of the Pharaoh, more interested in pomps and artistic monuments, celebrating the glory of the Pharaonic house, rather that at government of the State. Probably it was the will to regain power lost by the royal house, which led Akhenaten (probably because advised by some officials stayed loyal to the previous Pharaoh) to promulgate the edict in favor of the 'monolatrico' cult (single idolatry: the one of the god Aten/Aton) and to close all the temples relative to the other gods, and forbid their worship. The religious caste of the god Amen/Amon was so cut off from the levers of power and hence the consequent and desperate reaction in attempting to oppose the Pharaoh, exploiting the use of military forces remained loyal to the priests of Amon. However, the fate of the caste was already marked and the defeat, almost 'announced', forced the survivors to a hasty flight from the Egypt (Exodus), in order not to be the victims of the revenge of Akhenaten.

Littlejohn

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spin

It's difficult to give a reasoned date working from references in Exodus and assuming for the exercise that Moses was a real person. An inscription circa 1200 BCE by Merneptah, son of Ramses II, talks of activities against a tribal group called Israel. Exodus 1:11 says that Moses was alive when the city of Raamses (named after Ramses II -- Pi-Ramesses) was already built. Ramses ruled a long time (well over 60 years), so if we assume that the city was so named at the beginning of his reign, Moses might have been alive from during the reign of Ramses II and Israel entered Canaan at the end of the reign. That means we would be looking at say 1280-1215 BCE for the time of Moses. At the same time in Exodus as Raamses was another city called Pithom, which was apparently built by Necho II around 600 BCE. The shortened form of the name Pi-Raamses, ie Raamses ("Pi" meant house and indicated a palace, here the "palace of Ramses"), was used in the 1st millenium. What this suggests is that if the tradition of Moses is early, then it was certainly worked on during the first millennium BCE.


spin

andrewcriddle

1 Kings 6 v1 dates the Exodus 480 years before Solomon began building the temple c 970 BCE This would date the Exodus c 1450 CE.

This date is difficult to reconcile with our knowledge of Late Bronze Age Egypt and Palestine. Attempts to reconcile the Biblical account with archaeology usually date the Exodus between 1300 and 1200 BCE.

Andrew Criddle