This article is about a very unique pharaoh in the history of Egypt. But first, let's look at the continuation of the historical and biblical chronologies (refer to previous articles since Adam):
year 2210 (1550 BCE): in Egypt, beginning of the 18th dynasty with Pharaoh Ahmose I
year 2228 (1532 BCE): Ahmose expels the Hyksos and unifies Lower and Upper Egypt
year 2229 (1531 BCE): Joseph becomes viceroy of Egypt, start of 7 years of abundance
year 2235 (1525 BCE): death of Ahmose, regency of Nefertari
year 2236 (1524 BCE): start of 7 years of famine
year 2238 (1522 BCE): Jacob and his clan descend to Egypt
year 2255 (1506 BCE): death of Jacob in Egypt, at the age of 147
(1480 BCE): regency of Hatshepsut, widow of Thutmose II
(1458 BCE): death of Hatshepsut, reign of her son Thutmose III
year 2304 (1451 BCE): death of Joseph "Ineni"
(1401 BCE): reign of the usurper Thutmose IV, who had not known Joseph (Exodus 1:8)
(1391 BCE): reign of Amenhotep III
year 2374 (1386 BCE): birth of Moses, adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (Exodus 2:10)
(1353 BCE): reign of Amenhotep IV; Moses is thus his cousin by adoption
(1348 BCE): Amenhotep IV becomes Akhenaten; Amarna period
There is much to be said about this early period of the 18th Egyptian dynasty, including the enslavement of the Hebrews by a new king who arose over Egypt (Exodus 1:8), namely the usurper Thutmose IV, but we confine ourselves here to the historical and archaeological sources that corroborate the biblical account. And so this takes us to the time of the reign of Akhenaten.
During the fifth year of his reign, Amenhotep IV decided to change his religion and adopt the faith in a single God, Aten, represented by the solar disk, symbol of perfection. It was like a new birth for the young pharaoh, in not fortuitous parallel to the birth of Moses during the fifth year of the previous reign. There is no doubt that Moses, who had grown up next to the future pharaoh in the palace, and was de facto his first cousin by adoption, must have had an influence on this sudden and unique change in the history of ancient Egypt. Amenhotep IV radically changed everything when he adopted the new monotheistic religion. He changed his name to Akhenaten and also moved his capital from Memphis to Amarna as if his life in the city of Memphis, which was built with many temples dedicated to Egyptian pagan deity Amun, would have become impure for him.
From his capital Amarna, Akhenaten maintained official correspondence with his vassal city-states in Canaan, which, surprisingly, was not written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, but in cuneiform script as used in Mesopotamia. This also tends to show that the Canaanites probably did not have their own writing but used the dominant Asian script, cuneiform, inherited from their past as vassals of the Hittite empire. It was Pharaoh Thutmose III, nicknamed the Napoleon of Egypt, who conquered Canaan.
These "letters" from Amarna were written on clay tablets. They include those of a ruler called Abdi-Heba (or perhaps Ebed-Nob), probably placed in power by Akhenaten himself, who asked him for urgent military support with interesting arguments from the past history of Canaan:
May the [kin]g know (that) all the lands are [at] peace (with one another), but I am at war. May the king provide for his land. Consider the lands of Gazru [Gaza], Ašqaluna [Ashkelon], and L[akis] [Lachish]. They have given them [my enemies] food, oils, and any other requirement. So may the king provide for archers and send these archers against men that commit crimes against the king, my lord. If this year there are archers, then the lands and the hazzanu [vassals] will belong to the king, my lord. But if there are no archers, then the ki[ng] will have neither lands nor hazzanu.
Consider Urusalim [Jerusalem]! This neither my father nor m[y] mother gave to me. The [str]ong hand : zu-ru-uh (arm) [of the king] gave to me.
Consider the deed! This is the deed of Milkilu [Melki] and the deed of the sons [=cohorts] of Lab'ayu, who have given the land of the king (to) the 'Apiru.
Consider, O king, my lord! I am right! (Amarna Letter EA 287, published on Wikipedia)
This letter is interesting for more than one reason:
Urusalim: The letter refers to city-states in Canaan aiding the "enemies" of the ruler of Urusalim, which was "given" by Pharaoh to the author of the letter; so Pharaoh should come to the aid of his vassal to maintain this city; Urusalim is the ancient Egyptian name of what will become Jerusalem; the Bible also names this city "Salem" (Genesis 14:18) and the addition "Uru" in Old Egyptian language simply means domain or kingdom; Uru-salim therefore means "the kingdom of Salem"; this letter is therefore an archaeological proof and a historical mention of the origin of the name "Jerusalem".
Milkilu: it is clear that, according to Genesis 14:18, this city of Salem belonged to the descendants of Eber because its leader was a certain Melki-Tzédek from the time of Abraham, called Milkilu in this letter; This character was none other than Shem, son of Noah, and he would have bequeathed to the descendants of Eber (his own descendants too) his domain of Urusalim before a pharaoh (probably Thutmose III) conquered it and that, later, Akhenaten gave this domain to the author of the letter.
Apiru: they are the declared enemies of the author of the letter; many historians have associated the term Apiru (also written Abiru) with the "Hebrews", and this people is mentioned by other Mesopotamian chronicles of this period. But in fact, as explained previously, the term did not apply only to the Biblical Hebrews (who were then slaves in Egypt at the time of this letter) but to all the Semitic descendants of the patriarch Eber who is the origin of the name "Hebrew". From then on, we understand better that the Apiru are the enemies of the author of this letter because they were probably trying to retake their territory inherited from Melki-Tzedek / Milkilu.
The sons of Labaia: the author of the letter also uses the argument of another "act" relating to the Apiru, namely the case of the city of Shechem, because Labaia had been the lord of this city-state. In this case, it was the sons of Labaia who ceded (or wanted to cede) Shechem to the Apiru, a general term for the descendants of Eber who can be understood here as the Hebrews themselves at the time of the clan of Jacob during their establishment in Canaan. Now this rather tragic episode of Shechem, since it was a question of the rape of Dinah, sister of the sons of Jacob, is well recounted in the Bible (Genesis chapter 34). It resulted in a massacre committed on Shechem by the sons of Jacob following this rape. This episode must have marked the minds of the time in Canaan and we understand well that the author of this letter mentioned it to warn the Pharaoh against any weakness of attitude towards the Apiru, his own enemies...
Akhenaten's heresy is unique in Egyptian history. He took it with him to his tomb around 1335 BCE and it did not survive him. His son Tutankhaten, still young, was influenced to return to the cult of Amun and to restore Memphis to its status as capital. He changed its name to Tutankhamun. The cult of Aten and the capital Amarna were forgotten.
It was at this time, when the return to Amun's faith took place, that Moses was accused of having beaten an Egyptian foreman to death. It was probably an ambush because all of Akhenaten's entourage was to disappear, including his wife Nefertiti whose death remains mysterious and whose tomb has never been found. The biblical story tells us that Moses then fled to the mountains of Midian (the Sinai Peninsula). It was not until many years later that God spoke to him in these words:
"Go, return to Egypt; all the men who sought your life are dead." (Exodus 4:19)
I hope that this article on the theme "the Bible is true" was of interest to you. Do not hesitate to send me your comments, while waiting for a next biblical episode proven by history and archaeology.
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Albert Benhamou
Private tour guide in Israel
February 2025
