I thought surely I had done at least a third post in this series! Life got pretty crazy in October, and we haven’t done much of our history reading. Right now, Esther is on her way home from America, and I’m a couple of chapters ahead of her. Time to do a bit of serious reading, Esther! I’ll share my notes up to where she has read. For the first two installments of notes on Unwrapping the Pharoahs, go here and here.
Chapter 15 talks about Thutmosis I. He was an extremely rich, powerful king. It is likely that he is the Pharoah whose daughter Solomon married, and the father of Hatshepsut. One bit of supporting evidence is that none of his records mention invading the hill country of Israel, although he did invade Syria. He erected the first obelisks.
Chapter 16 is about Hatshepsut. She became regent for her stepson Thutmosis III at the age of 15 when her husband died. Seven years later, she proclaimed herself Pharoah, at age 22, and ruled for 22 years. She was likely the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon. She left inscriptions describing a trip to the “Land of Punt”. Egyptian inscriptions refer to the Land of Punt as being in Palestine. Jesus mentions the Queen of the South coming to visit Solomon, and Daniel refers to the king of the South being from Egypt. She would have been going to visit her sister, who married Solomon.
Chapter 17. Thutmosis III conquered many cities, making them tributaries. He is more than likely the “Shishak” who looted Jerusalem in Rehoboam’s day. He seems to have been friendly toward Hatshepsut, who usurped his rule at first, until late in his reign when he destroyed all her inscriptions.
Chapter 18. Amenhotep II, son of Thutmosis III, wanted to imitate his father’s victories. He took immense amounts of booty and prisoners in his second campaign, but a subsequent one was different. They went no farther than south/central Palestine and only 2 horses, 1 chariot, and some bows and arrows returned. Was this the battle in which God miraculously defeated the “Ethiopians” for Asa?
Chapter 19. Thutmosis IV became Pharoah even though he had 2 older brothers. He claimed that the Sphinx told him that if he removed the sand covering it he would become the next Pharoah. He died young of a wasting disease.
Chapter 20. Amenhotep III had over a thousand wives. His favorite was the daughter of commoners. He had many statues made of himself. His 38-year reign was peaceful. His huge statues were made of layers of stone rather than one huge one, so they weren’t repurposed for other uses.
Chapter 21. Akhenaten tried to change the worship in Egypt to the sun disc Aten rather than the sun god Amun. By the revised chronology, he was contemporary with Ahab king of Samaria, meaning that neither Moses nor David could have copied him, as they are accused of doing. His wife Nefertiti was a beautiful woman, and they had six daughters.
Chapter 22. Tutankhamen was insignificant as a Pharoah; he is only famous because his tomb was left intact. He married his sister (who had been married to their father); she had 2 stillborn children.
Chapter 23. Soon after Tutankhamen’s death, the 18th Dynasty ended. Rameses I became Pharoah, but only for a year. His son Sethi I accomplished a lot, including an invasion of Syria and Palestine.
(The link in this post is an affiliate link for Esther’s website, and if you purchase the book through this link it will help her website. I would have linked directly to the review on her site, but the website is down right now and will be till Esther gets home to work on it.)