Bithiah Moses Royal Pharaonic Genealogy

We have for many years argued our incontrovertible view that Moses was born ca. 1700 BC, that his life history is found in the Egyptian monuments and that there was even a Tomb of Moses . We are now able to add much more analysis to this topic, which appears further below highlighted and in part marked in red. Here is what Chris Bennett has written:

"Nevertheless, there does appear to be a prima facie case here for an Egyptian princess with descendants amongst the Judahites."

Various postings from soc.genealogy.medieval regarding the genealogy of the Pharaonic Royal Family have been compiled by F.A. Doria under the title: A 4000–Year Old Descent from Antiquity: From the 12th Egyptian Dynasty to the Capetians and Beyond, 1995–1998, Analysis of the descent by Chris Bennett, Comments and discussion by C. Settipani and N. Taylor, May 2001.
See http://erwan.gil.free.fr/modules/freepages/pharaons/ramses_II.pdf

We reproduce the relevant part of that .pdf below since it definitely supports our view that the Biblical version of the early life of Moses is found in the Pharaonic genealogy of the 12th Dynasty and the Intermediate Period. Moses lived during that era.

The article begins below with a Pharaonic genealogical "descent from antiquity" (DFA).

Note especially that what Steiner writes in Footnote 1 is wrong insofar as he incorrectly and artificially seeks Moses in the reign of Ramses II even though there is no evidence anywhere that Moses lived in that era. Important is what Bennett writes in Footnote 1 regarding a possible Jewish "hereditary princess" somewhere in the Pharaonic genealogy, which, as we show in the course of our discussion, meshes perfectly with the 12th Dynasty and Intermediate Period.

The material in brackets and/or in red has been added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog:

__________________start of the quoted article

"1 The descent

The line goes as follows: [Footnote 1]

12th dynasty

1. Sen–Wosret, ancestor of the 12th Dynasty. Son:
2. Amenemhat I, d. 1962 b.C., first king, 12th Dynasty. Son:
3. Sen–Wosret I, co–regent and then sole ruler for 45 years. Son:
4. Amenemhet II, buried at Dahshur. Son:
5. Sen–Wosret II, built pyramid at Illahun. Son:
6. Sen–Wosret III fought in Palestine and Nubia. Father of:
7. NN. Father of:
8. Amenemhet III, d. 1797 b.C., ruled for 46 years. Father of:
• NN. Follows.
• NN. Father of:
– Amenemhet IV, ruled for a brief time. Father of Queen Sebeknefru,
last of the 12th Dynasty.
9. NN. Child:
10. NN. Child:

Intermediate period

11. Kemi, a daughter,[Footnote 2] who married Ha–Ankhef, God’s Father; parents of Ha–Ankhef were Nehi and Senebtisi. Son: [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog]
12. Khaneferre Sebekhotep IV, king c. 1737–1727. M. Queen Tjani. Child: [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, Khaneferre was the name of the king under whom Moses was born, according to Artapanus]
13. Sebekhotep, hereditary princess.[Footnote 3] [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, this was Bithiah, the "hereditary" Jewish daughter of the pharaoh, who adopted Moses at the urging of Moses' sister Miriam, Exodus 2:4-8 ] M. Senebhanef, vizier under (probably) Mernerferre Ay, king of all Egypt c. 1713–1690 [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, MER-nfr is Biblical Mered, and the husband of Bithiah, called Jehudiah, the Jewess, in the Bible at 1 Chronicles 4:18, who bore three sons, Jered, Gedor and Jekuthiel. Mered also had three brothers, Jether, Epher, and Jalon, 1 Chronicles 4:17 ].[Footnote 4] Child:
14. Mentuhotep. Died during the reign of her husband.[Footnote 5] Husband, king Sekhemre–sementawi Djehuti, c. 1660 BC; reigned 3y ears. Parents of: [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog: No, the three brothers are either the 3 sons of Mered and Bithiah or the 3 brothers of Mered - it looks as if they are one and the same - the Footnote forebodingly says the parentage is certain - why that necessity of statement?- and exactly the opposite is true]
15. One of three brothers: [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog: a battle for succession between brothers and/or sons?]
either Sekhemre–se’ankhtawi Neferhotep III (who
reigned 1 year?), or Sekhemre–seusertawi Sebekhotep VIII (reigned for 16
years?—a 4th year is known inscriptionally) or even Se’ankhenre Mentuhotep
VII (formerly VI) (reigned for a single year?).[Footnote 6] One of them is
the father [Footnote 7] of: [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, this statement is false, as Footnote 7 suggests]
16. Sekhemre-shedtawi Sebekemsaf I (formerly II) [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, this is Moses], whose tomb was desecrated by 20th dynasty tomb robbers. M. Queen Nubkhas. Parents of:
17. Nubkheperre Inyotef VII (formerly V) [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog: The Biblical name of the wife of Moses is Ziporrah and this is Nubhkeperre, with ZI incorrectly read by the Egyptologists as Nubkhe. This is the WIFE of Moses. The hieroglyph is the symbol used for precious metals and the word is Indo-European, as e.g. Russian Serebro or German Silber "silver". Ziporrah is the daughter of Jethro, a Midianite i.e. a Palestinian.], king for at least 3y ears (probably much more) c. 1600 b.C.[Footnote 8] M. Queen Sebekemsaf, almost certainly the daughter of Horhorkhuwaytef, governor of Edfu, and Sebeknakht, a king’s daughter. Which king? Se’ankhenre Mentuhotep VII (see 15. above) or one of the other two candidates;[Footnote 9] mother is Queen Satmut, known to be wife of a Theban king Mentuhotep of this period. Parents of:
18. Sekhenre–wahkhau Rahotep (or, less likely, Sekhenre–wadjkhau Sebekemsaf II (formerly I), his predecessor).[Footnote 10] [emphasis by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, this is Biblical Nun ]

17th dynasty

M. Tetisheri.[Footnote 11] Tetisheri was the daughter of Cenna (Tenna), m. to Neferu; XVII Dynasty.[Footnote 12]

[ __________footnotes to the article ]

[Footnote 1]
From an early 2000 post to the gen–med list by Chris Bennett [link added by LexiLine]:
“I have recently come across an article which may be of interest (R. C. Steiner, “Bitte–Ya, daughter of Pharaoh, and Bint(i)–’Anat daughter of Ramses II,” Biblica 79:3 (1998) 394—Biblica is now available online at http://www.bsw.org/project/biblica/index.htm [Ancient Egypt Weblog note: no longer available at that link, abstract at http://www.bsw.org/?l=7179 ], but this particular article is the only article omitted from the 1998 online collection [Ancient Egypt Weblog note: it is still omitted as of this date]). Steiner discusses a certain Bithiah, daughter of pharaoh, mentioned as the wife of Mered in a collection of genealogies of the tribe of Judah. He argues that the name Bithiah disguises an original “Bint–Anath,” known as a daughter of Ramses II. [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, Ramses II - who we claim is King Solomon - had at least a hundred children and seeking some artificial name similarity to one of them is absurd] Noting that the ancestor of the line discussed, Ezra, is in some way a relative of Caleb, who was a companion of Joshua, and that Mered’s grandsons were named as founders of the cities of Gedor, Socor and Zanoah, he argues that Mered must be dated to the 12/11th centuries BC. On this basis, he suggests that Bithiah was a D20 (20th Dynasty) princess Bint–Anath, perhaps a [grand]daughter of Ramses III.

FWIW there is at least one known case of an Egyptian princess, Nebetia daughter of the king’s son SiAtum, who was almost certainly a king’s granddaughter (likely, of Amenhotep III), bearing the title s3t nsw—“king’s daughter”—probably indicating that she was born in the lifetime of her grandfather. However I see no reason the Judahites would have conformed to this nicety of Egyptian practice, I think they would have been happy to accord the title to any descendant of a pharaoh.

Anyway, I’ve just been checking what Chronicles actually has to say about her. Its not much. The relevant text is as follows (KJV, King James Version):

(17) And the sons of Ezra were, Jether, and Mered, and Epher, and Jalon: and she bare Miriam, and Shammai, and Ishbah the father of Eshtemoa. (18) And his wife Jehudijah bare Jered the father of Gedor, and Heber the father of Socho, and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah. And these are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, which Mered took. (19) And the sons of his wife Hodiah the sister of Naham , the father of Keilah the Garmite , and Eshtemoa the Maachathite .

It is clear that she was a mother of Mered’s sons, but the wording is unclear (at least in the KJV and to me) as to exactly who they are, it rather looks like they have been elided at some point. However, one online interpretation I found suggests that Bithiah is the ”she” of verse 17, and certainly this works if you assume the genealogies are constructed according to a nesting principle. OTOH , Steiner clearly regards the descendants of Ishbah listed in verse 18 as descendants of a second wife of Mered, presumably Hodiah. Whatever, these genealogies are totally outside my expertise to evaluate and I present them solely FWIW.

Nevertheless, there does appear to be a prima facie case here for an Egyptian princess with descendants amongst the Judahites.

Link her up to the line of David somehow, and the problem of an Egyptian DFA becomes reduced to that of a Davidic DFA. Whether we’re better off or not is up to you to judge!” [End of Footnote 1, emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog]

[Footnote 2]
There is a JAMS article by C. Bennett where he presents a suggestion, based on the Westcar Papyrus, that Kemi may have been descended from Amenemhat III of the 12th dynasty. C. Bennett (CB, in the next footnotes) regards this as an interesting speculation rather than a serious case. [emphasis added by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, yes, Kemi was the daughter of Amenemhet]

[Footnote 3]
A hereditary princess was not necessarily a king’s daughter, but there are instances of this period where known king’s daughters are only described by this title. Paternity of Sebekhotep depends on this supposition plus some chronological dead reckoning. Tjani was his wife but not necessarily the mother of Sebekhotep (CB). [emphasis added the Ancient Egypt Weblog]

[Footnote 4]
Probably identical with Senebhanef, controller of the hall, son of Yauyebi, vizier under (probably) Wahibre Yauyebi, king c. 1723-1713 and Renressonb, certainly daughter of Id, Herald of Adhur-nakht (CB).

[Footnote 5]
The connection to parents given here is virtually certain (CB). [emphasis by the Ancient Egypt Weblog, the connection is in fact quite uncertain]

[Footnote 6]
Brotherhood is supposed because of naming patterns and other genealogical indications in the later dynasty (CB).

[Footnote 7]
The next step on this line is based on the pattern of prenomens and the theory that the succession system in this dynasty was fratrilineal (CB).

[Footnote 8]
Almost certainly the brother of Sekhemre–wepma’et Inyotef V (formerly VI) (“the Elder”), who was certainly the son of a king (CB).

[Footnote 9] The proposed identify of her father is based on chronological plausibility and a known association with Edfu.

[Footnote 10]
These kings, and their predecessors back to about 1660 b.C., ruled in Upper Egypt only. There is reason to believe that his principal wife was a queen Sebekemsaf-Haanhkes, king’s wife, king’s sister and king’s daughter. Art–historical and collateral genealogical data place him in this period. Juggling the possibilities, we arrive as this as the most likely step (CB).

[Footnote 11]
The theory that Tetisheri married Ta’o I, although of very long standing, is a pure guess, based solely on the facts that Ta’o I was probably Ta’o II’s immediate predecessor and that Tetisheri, the daughter of commoners, married a king. The only solid indicator of Ta’o’s position is that he was called Ta’o–o, meaning “Ta’o the Elder” (though one respected expert, Claude Vandersleyen, disputes the evidence that he was called Ta’o at all—hypercritically). By analogy with a slightly earlier king Inyotef “the Elder,” who was elder brother of a king Inyotef, Ta’o I was probably brother to Ta’o II. It is a well–documented, if confusing, custom of the period to give many children the same name. But, Teti-sheri did marry a king. Who, we don’t know. Here is the best guess (CB).

[Footnote 12]
Tetisheri’s name (“little Teti”) suggests that she was related to a noble family of this period where the name Teti is prominent. Tetihemet, nurse of Queen Ahmes–Nefertari, the queen being Tetisheri’s granddaughter, also came from this family. While only fragments of the family’s genealogy are traceable, we can trace it from Teti son of Minhotep, an opponent of King Nubkheperre Inyotef. (CB)."

_______end of our quote of the quoted article ,
although the article is much longer than this, so take a look here for the original