When did Moses live?

[queenofsheba]

Moses asked the pharaoh to let his people go, but which pharaoh was it? I know that some say Ramses II, others say it was earlier.

[smkolins]

The traditional date for his birth is 1527 BC but there is significant work by David Rohl reforming these dates (amounting to making the dates too old - by 345 years.) You can check here and here

[queenofsheba]

Traditionally, historians place him around 1250 BC, under pharaoh Ra-Moses II ("given birth by Ra"). Their arguments are very weak.
If you use the Bible dates, Moses lived around 1480 BC, 480 years before Solomon started building his temple. Although 480 can be symbolical (12x40), I believe that 1480 is approximately the date of the Exodus, with a margin of 20 years.
My interpretation, based on Egyptian and biblical history:
- until 1484: Thot-Moses II ("given birth by Thot") convicts his adopted son Moses to death for killing an Egyptian. Moses flees to the Sinai, were he marries Sippora. The Hebrew slaves are building the cities Luxor and Karnak (Ex.11.1), with the temples of Amon-Ra.
- 1484: Thot-Moses II dies. His wife Hachepsut becomes the unofficial pharaoh, because her nephew Thot-Moses III is still a child. Moses returns to Egypt and Hachepsut gives her adopted son permission to leave Egypt with his people.
- 1468: Thot-Moses III is old enough to take the throne. He sends his army after the Hebrews and removes the name Hachepsut from the official history writing.

[mee]

Moses was born in 1593 B.C.E.

[I, Brian]

There are some quite interesting arguments about a possible historical person of Moses by David Rohl in "Test of Time" - definitely makes for interesting reading, not least his criticisms of Ancient Egyptian chronology.

[mansio]

I believe most of the story of Moses is legendary as the Bible isn't an historical but a religious book.
A religious leader named Moses, somewhat connected to Egypt, hence his name, has probably existed, but all the details of his life can't be proven.
I've never heard of an Egyptian chronicle about an army and a Pharaoh supposedly wiped out by a parting of sea.
I know only about the Minepta stela that says Israel has been subdued in his own country by Pharaoh Minepta (aka Merneptah).
Btw, Minepta is the Pharaoh Muslims believe to have drowned during the parting of the sea.

[queenofsheba]

Of course a lot of things in Exodus can't be taken literally, like the splitting of the Red Sea. But still, there are such a lot of geographical details and we know that there was a Hebrew emigration somewhere in that period. I'm convinced that Moses really existed and that the Ark of the Covenant was built in the Sinai desert.
If you look at a map, you will also see that the Red Sea is very narrow between Israel and the Sinai, so maybe there were periods when the sea level was low enough to walk through it. I think the Exodus is based on true facts, but exaggerated.

[mansio]

Sheba

I agree with you that all those stories are based on facts that have been (greatly, I think) exaggerated. Semites have crossed into Egypt for food or work for centuries, and Palestine was often an Egyptian possession.
As it is impossible to distinguish between the Hebrews and the Canaanites, the Hebrews may either be a desert tribe that infiltrated Canaan under the leadership of Moses and mingled with the population, or Canaanites converted to monotheism by Moses and his disciples.