Let My People Go!: Using historical synchronisms to identify the Pharaoh of the Exodus

Historians and Bible scholars have a long history of speculation about the identity of the pharaoh at the time of the Israelite Exodus from Egypt. Indeed, we cannot help but wonder to which of Egypt's great kings Moses said, "Let my people go!" Some believe that the answer lies in comparing a selected biblical Exodus chronology (early or late) with a particular version of the Egyptian chronology (high, middle or low), thereby locating the Pharaoh of the Exodus at a point of chronological correlation. But this approach has always proved inadequate from a historiographical perspective. This detailed study reveals that the Exodus events as described in the Bible do, in fact, fit with precision into a corresponding segment of ancient Near Eastern history when sources from Egypt, Hatti, Mittani, Assyria, the Levant, and the biblical narratives are properly understood and superimposed.