The Egyptian Pharaohs
- stephenstrent7
- 3 hours ago
- 8 min read
It appears that someone forgot to tell the Egyptians that there was a Global Flood in 2348 BC and that they all died. According to their own, more-or-less continuous, historical records, the succession of pharaohs is listed from around 2649 BC to 1186 BC. Of course, if we allow an error margin of around + 300-400 years, then the pharaonic record starts after the flood, which had killed everyone off and one wonders who there was for the pharaohs to rule over.
Genesis 10:6, 13-14 states, “And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan…And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.” Nothing is stated there, or anywhere else in the Bible, that Mizraim was the ancestor of the Egyptians. However, according to the Bible Dictionary, Mizraim was the Hebrew name for Egypt. Apparently, according to Bible Hub, most places in the Old Testament where the Hebrew word “Mizraim” (or Mitsrayim) appears, it has been translated in, for example, the King James Version, to “Egypt”. For example, we read in Genesis 12:10, “And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.” According to Bible Hub, the original word, translated in the KJV as “Egypt”, was מִצְרַ֙יְמָה֙ (miṣ·ray·māh). However, the Bible never states that Mizraim founded Egypt, or that the Egyptians were descended from Mizraim. Indeed, it may be that Mizraim was so named in the Bible because, after the flood, he went to Egypt, which already existed.
However, Josephus boldly filled in the gaps not covered by the Bible, “Now they were the grandchildren of Noah, in honor of whom names were imposed on the nations by those that first seized upon them…The memory also of the Mesraites is preserved in their name; for all we who inhabit this country [of Judea] called Egypt Mestre, and the Egyptians Mestreans…Now all the children of Mesraim, being eight in number, possessed the country from Gaza to Egypt…”1 Josephus says that Mestre was what “we who inhabit this country [of Judea] called Egypt”. He didn’t say whether or not the Egyptians agreed with or approved of such a name. Indeed, the Egyptians referred to Ancient Egypt as Kemet, which means “the beloved land” or “black land,” referring to the fertile, black soil of the Nile River Valley.2 Although it is clear from his writings that Josephus was familiar with at least some Egyptian history, there is no evidence that he could actually read Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Although the Rosetta Stone was produced in 196 BC, it is highly unlikely that Josephus was aware of it or any other such translator. The Rosetta Stone was discovered in July 1799 near the town of Rosetta (modern Rashid), on the Nile delta, as some of Napoleon’s French troops were renovating Fort Julien, where the engraved stone had been used as common building material.3
Another stele fragment, the Palermo Stone, made of black basalt, was probably created during the Fifth Dynasty of the Egyptian Old Kingdom shortly before 2422 BC, and probably stood in Heliopolis. Its actual modern discovery date is unclear, but “…it was donated to the Archeological Museum in Palermo on 19 October 1877, where it was registered under the museum number of 10285…This fragment can be regarded as the earliest Egyptian royal inscription, because its faces preserve the earliest royal annals. Its royal annals…comprised royal names from the Early [Third] Dynasty to the Fifth Dynasty and the principal events of that particular year.”4
Shih-Wei Hsu said of the stone, “The significance of the Palermo Stone [PS] lies in the fact that it preserves the inscriptions known as the ‘Royal Annals’ of the Old Kingdom in Ancient Egypt. The ‘Royal Annals’ is a historical document recording the names of the rulers, the lengths of their reigns and their activities. The ‘Royal Annals’ of the PS begin with the predynastic kings, i.e., the kings ruling in the period before the union of the North and the South (ca. 2707 B.C.) and continue into the dynastic age up until the middle of the Fifth Dynasty: the recto-side (hereinafter r) presents the annals of the Early to the Fourth Dynasties and the verso-side (hereinafter v) presents the annals of the late Fourth and early Fifth Dynasties. Thanks to the Royal Annals of the PS, we can obtain information about the king’s name, the regnal length, the names given to the years, and the height of the Nile flood.”5
The Abydos king list was engraved around 1290-1279 BC on a wall in the Mortuary Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Egypt. As part of the transition from this life into the next, the pharaoh invoked the spirits of his ancestors. The names of past monarchs not deemed worthy were excluded. As a result, the list is actually shorter than the historic reigns of Egyptian pharaohs.6
The most historically accurate King List is the Turin Canon, an ancient Egyptian papyrus apparently dating from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II (r. 1279–1213 BC), now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. It is the most extensive extant list of pharaohs compiled by the ancient Egyptians, and is the basis for most Egyptian chronologies. There may have been as many as 223 names on the original list, of which 126 have survived (sometimes only partially).7
It is almost certain that Josephus never saw any of those Egyptian King Lists, and the King Lists never mentioned either Noah’s grandchildren or a global flood, even though Noah’s flood (2348 BC) took place during the time of Pharoah Isesi (ca. 2381–2353 BC; from the list below; Djedkare Isesi, known in Greek as Tancheres, who died c. 2375 BC) and/or Unis (ca. 2353–2323 BC; from the list below) and the King List included nearly annual Nile floods. Unis, or Unas, (Hellenized form of Oenas or Onnos), ninth and last Egyptian king of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt in the Old Kingdom, reigned for around 30 years in the mid-24th century BC (c. 2375–c. 2345 BC), succeeding Djedkare Isesi, who might have been his father.8
The following List of Rulers of Ancient Egypt and Nubia (to the beginning of the First Intermediate Period, 2150 BC) is from the Metropolitan Museum. “It is to this structure of dynasties and listed kings that we now attempt to link an absolute chronology of dates in terms of our own calendrical system. The process is made difficult by the fragmentary condition of the king lists and by differences in the calendrical years used at various times. Some astronomical observations from the ancient Egyptians have survived, allowing us to calculate absolute dates within a margin of error. Synchronisms with the other civilizations of the ancient world are also of limited use.”9
Old Kingdom ca. 2649–2150 B.C.
Dynasty 3 ca. 2649–2575 B.C.
Zanakht ca. 2649–2630 B.C.
Djoser ca. 2630–2611 B.C.
Sekhemkhet ca. 2611–2605 B.C.
Khaba ca. 2605–2599 B.C.
Huni ca. 2599–2575 B.C.
Dynasty 4 ca. 2575–2465 B.C.
Snefru ca. 2575–2551 B.C.
Khufu ca. 2551–2528 B.C.
Djedefre ca. 2528–2520 B.C.
Khafre ca. 2520–2494 B.C.
Nebka II ca. 2494–2490 B.C.
Menkaure ca. 2490–2472 B.C.
Shepseskaf ca. 2472–2467 B.C.
Thamphthis ca. 2467–2465 B.C.
Dynasty 5 ca. 2465–2323 B.C.
Userkaf ca. 2465–2458 B.C.
Sahure ca. 2458–2446 B.C.
Neferirkare ca. 2446–2438 B.C.
Shepseskare ca. 2438–2431 B.C.
Neferefre ca. 2431–2420 B.C.
Niuserre ca. 2420–2389 B.C.
Menkauhor ca. 2389–2381 B.C.
Isesi ca. 2381–2353 B.C.
Unis ca. 2353–2323 B.C.
Dynasty 6 ca. 2323–2150 B.C.
Teti ca. 2323–2291 B.C.
Userkare ca. 2291–2289 B.C.
Pepi I ca. 2289–2255 B.C.
Merenre I ca. 2255–2246 B.C.
Pepi II ca. 2246–2152 B.C.
Merenre II ca. 2152–2152 B.C.
Netjerkare Siptah ca. 2152–2150 B.C.
First Intermediate Period ca. 2150–2030 B.C.
The bottom line here is that, even though there are variations in the King List dates, there is no gigantic gap in the King List, which would have lasted for hundreds of years if all the Egyptians had died in a global flood. Is the King List some sort of an evil conspiracy to sew disbelief in the Bible narrative? Or, is it possible that people have been misinterpreting the Bible flood narrative, which is a perfectly good faith-promoting story without the flood being global and wiping out all the Egyptians in 2348 BC, just before the dawn of the Sixth Dynasty? And do those same people, insist that there is an unseen gap in the King List, which you must accept on faith in order to keep from being labeled unfaithful or, even worse, evil?
And another point: How well does radiometric dating fit the Egyptian King List? Michael Dee and colleagues stated in 2013, “Here, we produce an absolute chronology for Early Egypt by combining radiocarbon and archaeological evidence within a Bayesian paradigm [a statistical framework that uses probability to represent uncertainty and update beliefs based on evidence]…our analysis generates a chronometric date for the foundation of Egypt (accession of king Aha) of 3111–3045 BCE (68% hpd range; median 3085 BCE) [hpd: highest posterior density] or 3218–3035 BCE (95% hpd range).” This study, using advanced radiocarbon dating, produced a precise timeline for early Egyptian rulers such as Pharoah Djet (also known as Horjet), the fourth ruler in Egypt’s First Dynasty (reigned around 2980 BC), accurate to within 32 years.10
According to Josephus, Mesraim (Mizraim) had eight children,11 which seems quite reasonable. In around 100 years, that person could have anywhere from a few hundred to as many as 1,000 descendants. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Samuel S. Mast, of the US, who had 11 children, had 824 living descendants at the time of his death in 1992, at age 96.12
The Pyramid of Khufu, apparently the oldest Egyptian pyramid, was built between approximately 2600 and 2500 BC, though some estimates place its completion around 2550 or 2575 BC. While older accounts suggest a massive workforce of over 100,000; modern Egyptologists estimate the labor force was closer to 10,000 to 20,000 workers, composed of skilled laborers and seasonal workers, rather than enslaved people.13 Let’s say, however, for the sake of discussion, that the Khufu pyramid was not built that early, but was built right after the Flood. If Mizraim founded Egypt, after the Flood, with his one thousand or so descendants, where did all the people come from who built that pyramid, and all the other 117 pyramids built shortly thereafter?
Trent Dee Stephens, PhD
References
1. Josephus Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, chapter 6, paragraph 1, 2; penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-1.html
2. Egypt in its African context: proceedings of the conference held at the Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, 2–4 October 2009, Archaeopress, Oxford 2011, pp. 7–9.
3. Bierbrier, M. L., The acquisition by the British Museum of antiquities discovered during the French invasion of Egypt, In Davies, W. V (ed.), Studies in Egyptian Antiquities, British Museum Publications, 1999
4. Hsu, Shih-Wei, The Palermo Stone: the Earliest Royal Inscription from Ancient Egypt, Altoriental. Forsch., Akademie Verlag, 37:68–89, 2010
5. Ibid
6. The Abydos King List; American Research Center in Egypt; arce.org/abydos-king-list
8. Ibid
10. Dee M, Wengrow D, Shortland A, Stevenson A, Brock F, Girdland Flink L, Bronk Ramsey C, An absolute chronology for early Egypt using radiocarbon dating and Bayesian statistical modelling, Proc Math Phys Eng Sci, 469:20130395, 2013
11. Josephus
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