There are at least 4 contemporary records about Moses; two mentioning his name directly, one is likely telling his name, and the other one could be alluding to him.
Jesus ascribes him to be the writer of the Beresith (Genesis/Beginning), expectedly as the contents of the book are seemed compiled by Moses from older records (e.g. toledoth), which were arranged and published by king David and then by king Solomon (cf. Luke 24:27).
Moses wrote the first edition of "Genesis" when the geographic name "Rameses" was popular as a region in the eastern part of Delta. Later editors during his and David's time identified the said Rameses as a part of Zoan (Num. 13:22, Ps. 78:12,43, Isa.30:4).
Geographically, "Rameses" was popular as the name of the capital city in Egypt and as a village or town in Syria during the days of king Rameses the Great (1279-1213 BCE).
It reached its earliest popularity as a region when Merneptah was reigning: Papyrus Anastasi III, 2:8-3:3 identified "Rameses II" as the source of the toponym "Rameses" around 1211 BCE. It was this Merneptah who officially reported about the wandering men and women of Israel in the border of Egypt in 1208 BCE. His "Wells of Mer-neptah" located in the forest are also mentioned by Joshua twice, a suggestive that they were contemporaries.
Moses was a contemporary of "Rameses." In the book of Genesis, he uses some contemporaneous toponyms "Ludim" ("Lydians"), Lubim ("Libyans"), Shalem (Gen.33:18, 14:18), Ararat (Assyrian "Uruartri"), Tarshish (Tursha), Shinar (Singar near Hamath, Isa. 11:11), and of the designation "Zephnath-Paaneah," which were popular in the 13th century BCE. Adding to this is the practice of using the word "pharaoh" (Exo. 5:5) as "the king of Egypt" (Exo. 5:4), a practice started during the time of Merneptah (1213-1210 BCE). Starting from the 19th dynasty the word "pharaoh" (" pr-ꜥꜣ ") on its own, was used as regularly as "Majesty" ( ḥm ) and used as a respectful designation for the king residing in the Great House (per-a'a).
Moses identified the pharaoh during his time as the builder of store-cities Pithom and Raamses.
The project of founding the area was started by king Seti I (1290-1279 BCE) which later was renamed after Rameses' own name when he made it as the treasure city.
The founder of "Pithom," according to Britannica Encyclopedia, was Rameses the Great, and the basis of this claim is his positive declaration "I built Pithom," from an inscription transferred from Tell el-Retabeh. The pharaoh's claim was verified when scientists discovered the store-city Pithom of Rameses the Great in Tell el-Retabeh. Archaeology affirmed Moses' report that there was a pharaoh who built store-cities, and that Raamses was a treasure or store-city, and that Semitic men worked to build Pithom. Another fact confirmed by archaeology is the lack supply of straw in some bricks made by Semitic workers in the Pithom of Rameses II. This fact verifies the report of Exodus about the shortage of straw for bricks (Exo. 5:7-21).
Unlike Avaris (Hw.t w'r.t) in the site of Tell el-Dab'a which was founded by king Amenemhat I (1991-1962 BCE) and after a century was usurped by Hyksos and later made it their capital, Rameses city was founded on a virgin soil by the same pharaoh who founded Pithom, clearly telling us that neither Amenemhat nor the Hyksos built Pithom. Exodus 1:8 says that the pharaoh during the time of Rameses did not know Joseph (Exo.12:37).
"Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses." -Exodus 1:11
Anti-Moses writers rejected that it was Moses who wrote about "Rameses." According to their feeling-based opinion, "Rameses" in Torah is an anachronism and it was a "future" scribe who wrote it. When asked who were those scribes who changed the name Avaris into "Rameses," they could not give a name or biblical basis of their imagination. Besides, Rameses city is 2 kilometers distant from Avaris. The founder of Avaris was not the founder of Pithom.
Pithom was built in the 13th century BCE, and its founder (Rameses II, c.1303-1213 BCE) was near to the time of Joseph (1486-1376 BCE) as what we can discern from Exodus 1: 5-8.
Avaris is mentioned in the Bible in the form of
"Pihahiroth,"
a Hebrized toponym derived from
"pr hwt-hrt,"
that is, "Precinct of Hwt-w'rt ("Avaris")." This "Precinct-of-Avaris" was known only during the time of Merneptah, probably as the center of the mouth of the canals of Avaris, hence was Hebrized into "Pi-Hahiroth" and adopted by Egyptian scribe, the way scribes Egyptianized the Hebrew word "Succoth." Egyptians recognized that foreigners were living in Succoth as they wrote it in hieroglyphics with a "throw stick" determinative.
While anti-Moses writers could not present evidence of their claim, the Bible, on the other hand, has positively identified Moses as the writer of these "Rameses" and "Pi-Hahiroth." (Numbers 33:2-8).
Needless to say, Moses is accurate down to the intricate and minute details of his report, but antagonists rejected his accuracy, because his accuracy does not fit in their feeling-based opinions.
This also means that Moses was contemporary of the pharaoh who built Pithom and Raamses, namely, Rameses the Great (1279-1213 BCE).
1) ADMONITIONS OF IPUWER
During the time of king Rameses II, Ipuwer, a 19th Dynasty (1292-1189 BCE) scribe wrote a series of sentiments and rebuke about the disastrous events brought by nature and people who plundered them in the Late Bronze Age (LBA) Collapse, which were mishandled by the supreme authority of Egypt, Caphtor, and Byblos. His essays were probably collected; it started its story about the miserable things that happened during the days of a powerful man (most likely Rameses II), and was probably published during the time of Ramesses III (1155 BCE) and now known the "Admonitions of the Sage" (Papyrus Leiden I 344 recto). The language and letters he used to write it were those of the days of king Rameses II, not earlier than 1250 BCE. The composition can be dated based on the description that "indeed none shall sail northward to Byblos today as far as Caphtor... gold is lacking ...the palace is despoiled" (Ipuwer 3:3-5) as this was the incident when king Rameses II gave some of the palace's treasure to Moses (officially recorded in the Stele of Mose) and the incident when YHWH by Moses freed the Peleset from Caphtor during the exodus of Israel (Amos 9:7), which as a result Egyptians could hardly sail to Byblos and Alashiya (Cyprus, the island of Caphtor), as corroborated also by Wenamun.
King Ramesses III (1155 BCE) enlightens us why Egyptians lost control overseas.
"Hear ye that I may inform you ... The land belonging to Egypt abroad was abandoned and disloyalty was in every man for they had
no chief mouth
for many years at the start [ Rameses II ] until the times of others
[Merneptah and Seti II]
when the land belonging to Egypt was formerly under our mayors and city-rulers; one killed another
[Amenmeses],
and his replacement [Siptah] was a dignitary of wretches. Another
[Queen Tausert]
of the family after him was in
empty years,
when
Su,
a Kharu,
with them acted as outsider chief, making the entire land serving on him only. He united his companions in plundering their properties, and he treated gods as just like humans, that no man was presenting offerings inside the temples."
- Rameses III, Papyrus Harris I, column 75, lines 2 - 6
The reason why Egyptians lost their control on their territory abroad was because of the leader of Horites in Seir, namely Yar-su (Yar-mesu/ Moses), who according to Deuteronomy 33:2-5 had converted 10,000s men of Kodesh in Seir. YHWH freed Peleset of Caphtor during the Israelite exodus (1228-1189 BCE), and Moses allowed them to inhabit Gaza (Amos 9:7, Deut. 2:19,23). This difficult accessibility is understood when Wenamun reported the abhorrence of people of Byblos and Alashiya (Cyprus) against Egyptians. Both Ipuwer, Moses, Ramesses III, Wenamun, and Amos are corroborating each other, and this gives us the timeline of Admonitions of the Sage to the LBA Collapse.
The composition was from the latter time of king Rameses II till of Ramesses III (1186-1155 BCE). Ipuwer's descriptions of chaotic events are corroborated by Moses (Torah), Rameses II (famine, etc.), Merneptah, Bakenkhonsu, king Setnakhte, Rameses III, Wenamun, Manetho, the Late Bronze Age Collapse history, and archaeological findings. No other copy of the Admonitions of Ipuwer is found till this day.
One of the sentiments of Ipuwer is how the strong man (e.g. pharaoh) of the land fell miserably because of one man, the man who poured water on the ground.
This suggests that Moses, being alluded in the said event, made his act on front of many viewers, officials and citizens alike, that even Ipuwer had witnessed it, saying:
"Look, Egypt is fallen to pouring of water, and he who poured water on the ground has carried off the strong man in misery" (chapter 7)
This was one of the three major instructions to Moses when he started to show sign to the pharaoh of Rameses.
"And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land." -Exodus 4:9
Moses did this with a possible denotation.
"Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water." -Deuteronomy 15:23
Pouring of blood upon the ground as water, as in when an offering has had blood. This seems that the pharaoh or Egypt was used symbolically as an offering, and their water as the blood, and their offered blood would avert disaster to Moses and Israel (cf. Exo. 12:13).
Blood during Moses' days did not necessarily mean "only" human blood. Genesis 49:11, also Deuteronomy 32:14, mentions "-dam anabim" ("blood of grapes") after its appearance and color. In Joel 2:31 moon shall turn into blood, which means the color will become bloody.
Ipuwer expresses also what he might have seen:
"Plague is throughout the land.
Blood is everywhere.
The river is blood." -Ipuwer 2:5,6,10
This phenomenon which was observed during the reign of Rameses the Great was also reported by Moses.
Rameses was one of the Egyptian gods being worshipped after he celebrated his heb sed (jubilee festival). Every after 3 years or 3rd year after his 30th year on throne, the pharaoh was holding the feast. He was serious about his ritual function as a god, and made his then firstborn son, crown prince Rameses B junior, to sit upon his throne to function as the pharaoh in his behalf.
Moses was at his advance age, 80, when he met this acting pharaoh (Exo. 7:7).
A senior Moses met the real pharaoh on front of a giant statue in Pi-Rameses around 1229 BCE.
2) ESTELA HILDESHEIM I 374
The direct evidence of this meeting of senior Moses and king Rameses II is officially recorded in the document "Stele of Mose" (aka Stela Hildesheim I 374), now housed at Roemer-und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim (nr 374) in Germany.
In this document, king Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE) is depicted emerging out of the temple to the front of his own colossal statue outside the palace, facing publicly the whole army at Pi-Rameses. Why all of a sudden he called the then ordinary "soldier" for an extraordinary occasion?
Rameses was wanting to ask favor both from the whole army and Moses, his childhood classmate in military training perhaps. He was indirectly asking loyalty from them.
"Look," Rameses said, "the soldier Moses has done what (I as) His Majesty asks favor for. How excellent is he has done for (me). So great!"
The soldiers in their military garb with pointed aprons threw up their arms in celebration, and enthusiastically cheered the king, shouting "You are Ra..., we live under your sight."
Rameses, by using the phrase "mery-Atum" ("beloved of Atum"), identified the origin of Moses as "Atum," the deified "Adamu" ("Adam"), and he gave Moses silver and some treasure of the palace. The soldiers received gifts too from the king, and they celebrated Moses.
Moses became famous on front of the servants of the pharaoh after receiving a great honor from no less than king Rameses the Great, who that time was seeking a guaranteed peace and order - that Moses would not lead the army against the king's favor.
Moses partly corroborated this report when he testified the same incident and suggests that it happened in the year that the firstborn son of Rameses died (1229 BCE).
Exodus 11:2-6
"Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of
silver
and of gold. And YHWH gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man
Moses was very great
in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.
And Moses said, Thus says YHWH, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the pharaoh's firstborn sitting upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of animals. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more." -Exodus 11:2-6
The crown prince, Rameses B junior, the then de facto pharaoh (Exo. 10:28-29) had no idea that his last encounter with Moses was ultimately the last, because he died in 1228 BCE while sitting upon the throne of his father.
This untoward incident probably brought the king Rameses to erase the records of Moses. He ordered the tampering of the monumental record of Mohy (Mehy), the soldier behind the successes of his father (Seti I), and likewise the "Stele of Mose" was partly erased. If Moses was not considered having done bad thing against the pharaoh, then there would be no valid reason for his servants to try to erase Moses' stele.
In the Stele of Mose, Rameses is depicted giving gifts to Moses, and allows him to have dominion on certain group of people, symbolized by the rod which Moses is holding on. This seems that Moses' status is almost identical to pharaoh's power to lead an army.
3) SATIRICAL LETTER: PAPYRUS ANASTASI I
Egyptian army scribe, Hori (fl. 1230- c.1160 BCE), likely named him as Maher, and even used Moses' name as a substitute for the pharaoh's name.
And this is another contemporary record which apparently brings out Moses' name. Hori (fl. 1230- c.1160 BCE) was describing Moses as a good judge and likely the best Maher (soldier who guides the army to a dangerous military campaign). A Maher, according to Hori, is "skilled in the deeds of the brave" and "is found (able) to march at the head of an army," shouting "O Mariannu, forward to shoot!" This indeed is what being described in the inscription of the battle of Kadesh above the head of one such Mariannu scout. Maher is a Messenger, who could be also referred to in Exodus as a malakh (angel), with cryptic name "Yah-Mose" ("Moses of Yah") or "Kush-meshusha" ("From Kush," "Born of Yah").
"Behold, I send a
מַלְאָךְ֙ [Malakh]
Angel
before you, to keep you in the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for My name is in him. For mine
Malakh [Messenger/Angel]
shall go before you, and bring you in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites [Kweans], and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off." -Exodus 23:20-21,23
King Ramesses III (1186-1155 BCE) reported that it was "Yar-su" ("Yar-mesu") who subdued land abroad formerly belonged to Egypt, including to these territories are Kwe, Canaan, Hittite territory, Amorite (Lebanon), and so on.
The malakh (Messenger) being described in Exodus 23:20-23 is identical to what is the opposite of a bad Maher being discussed by Hori in the Satirical Letter (Papyrus Anastasi I).
"Long is the march before us!" But I say: "What it means, that there is no bread at all? Our night-quarters are far off! What means, good sir, this scourging of us? Nay, but thou art a clever scribe! Approach to give the food!
An hour becomes a day without the scribe from the Ruler. (What means) thy being brought to punish us? This is not good; let
Mose
hear (of it), and
he will send to destroy thee!" -Hori (fl. 1207- c.1160 BCE), Papyrus Anastasi I, 18.2
Hori here is likely alluding Moses as a leader of the army who could provide military rationing despite of the impossibility and who could distribute adequately their necessities even in a long journey, and a man very acquainted with the journey from Egypt to Lebanon, and therefore a judge who could render righteous judgement because of his expertise, even that would mean destruction of the offender. Mose was the opposite of Amenemope being criticized by Hori.
Hori uses the name of "Mose" (Moses) here in lieu of the pharaoh. To distinguish the king from this "Mose," Hori called the pharaoh by the nickname "Sesy," meaning "Vanquisher," referring to king Rameses II. The nickname "Sessy" ("Sese") was later Grecized into "Sesos," which Herodotus transcribed into "Sesostris."
It is this Hori also who verified the report of Moses and Joshua that there are giant Sheshai of Arba, one of the tribes and known descendants of the Anakim, i.e. people of Anak, inhabiting in Hebron.
According to Hori (Papyrus Anastasi I, 20-23), these giant Shasu were on a narrow mountain pass above a ravine if you are from Joffa going to Hebron (Arba) or north of Debir. These giant Shasu were 7 to 9 feet tall, waiting for an ambush on the rough road tangled with vegetation.
"Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and
taller than we;
the cities are great and walled up to sky; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim [people of Anak] there." -Deuteronomy 1:28
"And the name of Hebron before was City of Arba; which Arba was a great man among the Anakim [people of Anak]..." -Joshua 14:15
"And they ascended by Negeb, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman [brother portion of]
Sheshai,
and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built 7 years before Zoan in Egypt.) And there we saw the giants, ... who come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." -Numbers 13:22,33
Hori being chronologically Joshua's contemporary corroborated that there were giant Sheshai in Arba (Hebron). And the giant Sheshai is specifically identified as "Ahiman Sheshai" or a portion of the brother of Sheshai.
The suffix "-i" in Sheshai is what the plural suffix "-s" in English or "-u" in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Hori has "Shasu" for Sheshai. King Rameses II confirmed that there was a place called "sh-sw w-r-b-r" ("Shasu of Arbar").
Not only in historical inscription, Rameses even depicted the size of giant Shasu he had captured during the Battle of Kadesh.
These three witnesses strengthen the historical fact of their reports about giant Shasu.
Hori described that these giants were dangerous and fierce. Likewise, the 10 scouts (sans Joshua and Caleb), reported the frightening size and activity of these giants, and in fact, the discouragement they brought in Israel caused the reason why Moses ordered them to stay 40 years in the wilderness.
Nevertheless, both Israelites and Egyptians were afraid of these giants, but Rameses and Moses were not.
Consequently, Moses is accurate in his report about these giants during the time of Rameses.
This accuracy is ready to be rejected by anti-Bible thinkers if it would mean 'during the time of Rameses.' For them, "Rameses" in the Bible is not accurate if connected to Moses.
But such rejection is useless because no less than three persons (Hori, Joshua's companions, and king Rameses II) corroborated each other that there were giants during their time. We have a tight historical fact now that brings Moses, Joshua and Israel in to the timeline of king Rameses the Great. Adding to the weight of this truth is the fact that the people of Yahweh who built Joshua's altar in Mt. Ebal had buried scarabs released by king Rameses II in 1245-1220 BCE.
4) PAPYRUS HARRIS I
The direct evidence for Moses is the official declaration of Ramesses III (1186-1155 BCE) that
Yar-su,
"Great" or chief of Kharu (Horite state) of the Seirites, is acting as the ruler of the entire land of Egypt reaching even to abroad, started during the time of king Rameses II and ended when a female became pharaoh and conspired with Yar-su (derogatoric form for the name "Yar-mesu" - "Drew out of river water," Hebrized [Exodus 2:10] as "Moseh," that is "Moses"), and that this Yar-su plundered [Exo. 12:35-37] the entire land where he has gathered his companions, and taught them that the Egyptian gods are only just like humans [Exo.7:1] so that people do not need to bring offerings to their temples. For the first time in history, many men around Mediterranean who joined to Yar-su's confederation were freed from their temple obligation. This practice was spread out not only abroad but even in many parts of Egypt that priest Bakenkhonsu complained about the obliterations did to Egyptian idols and images and that king Setnakhte and Ramesses III said temples were neglected because of the troops of Yar-su (Moses).
"The land belonging to Egypt abroad was abandoned and disloyalty was in every man for they had
no chief mouth
for many years at the start [ Rameses II ] until the times of others
[Merneptah and Seti II]
when the land belonging to Egypt was formerly under our mayors and city-rulers; one killed another
[Amenmeses],
and his replacement [Siptah] was a dignitary of wretches. Another
[Queen Tausert]
of the family after him was in
empty years, when
Su,
a Kharu,
with them acted as outsider
wer ["Great" chief],
making the entire land serving on him only. He united his companions in plundering their properties, and he treated gods as just like humans, that no man was presenting offerings inside the temples."
- Rameses III, Papyrus Harris I, column 75, lines 2 - 6
Moses became known as the "ur" (literally, "Great", e.g. "chief") of the entire land - Egypt to Mediterranean territories - by usurpation, hence the pharaoh derogatorically shortened his name into "Yar-su" or "Su" to mean no Egyptian god who chose him but "he made himself " or he plundered his rulership. Joshua in publishing the law of Moses corroborated some of it, singing:
"And he said, YHWH came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with 10,000s of Kodesh [saints]: from His right hand went a fiery law for them.
Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And
he was
king
in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together." -Deuteronomy 33:2,4-5
There WAS a time that Moses became "king" of the Asherites-Peleset or Jeshurun, and it was when he convened the confederation of the heads of the Mediterranean people and the tribes of Israel, that is, during his latter years. He became known as the ruler of the myriads Seirites (Kharu), although after his death king Rameses III has claimed of destroying Seirites. King Ramesses III (with his son, Ramesses IV) used the term
"ur" ("Great"),
likely a translation of Luwian adjective
"ura" ("great"),
which was used as part of a personal name during the Early Iron Age.
In a way, "ura-" could be the way "Mesu" (Moses) had been described by Luwian speaking people from Lydia and Kwe (Cilicia), intendedly exchanging the prefix
"yar" (" ir-")
in his Egyptian name "Yar-su" ("Yar-mesu").
Moses in Hittite is "Meshusha," which could be "Mu-ku-sa" in another way of calling him. Xanthus, an ancient Lydian historian, reported that Muksus (Moxos/Moses) was a leader of Lydians who had his operations in Phoenicia (Asher).
Ramesses III, and eventually Rameses IV, is suggesting that the disturbances made by Yar-su (Yah-Moses) had started since the latter part of king Rameses II (c.1230 BCE) and ceased when Queen Tausert died in 1189 BCE. If Rameses III was in fact employing "ura-" of the Lydians, then he was in effect identifying Moses as an usurper of kingship or rulership expressing dominion over the land abroad formerly belonged to Egypt. In Moses' last year/s, he convened the tribes of Israel and the heads of the Mediterranean people known in the Bible as "Jeshurun."
The name "Yar-mesu" may have been altered into "ura-Meshusha" ("Great [king] Moses"). What is certain is that king Rameses III identified
Yar-su (Ir-su)
with the title
"ur" ("Great"), to mean chief of the entire land belonging to Egypt or chief of the Mediterranean territories. Hence, the Mediterranean Ocean was once called "yam Kharu" ("sea of Horite Seirites").
King Ramesses III was around 27 years old when Yar-su (Moses) died in 1189 BCE, the death that is implied by the servants of king Setnakhte. Egyptian historian Manetho positively identified Ramesses III as one of the pharaohs during the time of Moses. The kings of Egypt in Moses' days, according to Manetho's attestation derived from Egyptian sacred writings and recorded in Αἰγυπτιακά (Aegyptiaca, History of Egypt), were
Rhampses (Rameses II),
Amenephthis (Merneptah),
Sethos (Seti II), and
Rameses (Ramesses III).
Without the permission of the deceased Manetho, using Aegyptiaca, Josephus coerced Thummosis or Tethmosis (Thutmose) to be the pharaoh of exodus and inserted in the scene of the 1579 BCE Hyksos' repulsion, 393 years before the flight of Danaus (Dan) to Argos in 1186 BCE (Against Apion 2.2). Josephus misunderstood Manetho's report about the involvement of Tethtmosis (Thutmose III) when the sons of Israel went out of Egypt to Canaan (Gen. 45:17,21,25) after the pharaoh asked them to go out 25 years & 4 months before Thutmose III died on March 11, 1425 BCE.
“When this people or shepherds were gone out of Egypt, to Jerusalem, Tethtmosis, the King of Egypt, who drove them out, reigned afterward twenty five years, and four months, and then died." - Against Apion, i.15 (Josephus)
Manetho, the Bible and Egyptian archaeological findings are in one accord, but most of the rest of modern religious writers thought that Josephus is more accurate than Moses, Manetho, and Egyptian archaeological findings.
///He [Amenephthis] also sent his son Sethos, who was also named Ramesses, from his father Rampses, being but 5 years old, to a friend of his. He then passed on with the rest of the Egyptians: being 300,000 of the most warlike of them against the enemy; who met them. Yet did he not join battle with them: but thinking that would be to fight against the gods, he returned back, and came to Memphis. Where he took Apis, and the other sacred animals, which he had sent for to him, and presently marched into Kush: together with his whole army, and multitude of Egyptians. For the King of Kush was under an obligation to him. On which account he received him, and took care of all the multitude that was with him: while the country supplied all that was necessary for the food of the men; he also allotted cities and villages for this exile, that was to be from its beginning during those fatally determined 13 years. Moreover, he pitched a camp for his Kushite army, as a guard to king Amenephthis, upon the borders of Egypt. And this was the state of things in Kush. But for the people of Jerusalem, when they came down together with the polluted Egyptians, they treated the men in such a barbarous manner, that those who saw how they subdued the forementioned country, and the horrid wickednesses they were guilty of, thought it a most dreadful thing. For they did not only set the cities and villages on fire; but were not satisfied till they had been guilty of sacrilege; and
destroyed the images of the gods,
and used them in roasting those sacred animals, that used to be worshipped; and forced the priests and prophets to be the executioners and murderers of those animals; and then ejected them naked out of the country. It was also reported, that the priest who ordained their polity, and their laws, was by birth of Heliopolis (On), and his name Osarseph, from Osyris who was the god of Heliopolis: but that when he was gone over to these people, his name was changed, and he was called Moses.” /// -Against Apion i.26
The Kush (translated as "Ethiopia") mentioned here near Jerusalem was what king Merneptah (Amenephthis) published and reported in Victory Stele
"Kharu" (Horite state in Seir in Edom)
near the vagabond tribe Israel in 1208 BCE at the border of Egypt. Since Edomites were used as messengers of Merneptah, it was expected that they were obliged to take care the pharaoh during his presence in Edom and his absence in Memphis. The king of Edom was hostile to Moses (Yar-su) and Israel (Num. 20:16-18).
Manetho positively identified whose troops were involved in the execution of the images of gods or idols, and they were those under Moses. The evidence of this claim is found in Athika (Timna Valley) in Edom when Kenite Midianites obliterated very carefully the hieroglyphics and the pharaohs' image and idols in circa 1190 BCE. The next evidence is the mutilation of the pharaohs' images and of the idols in Hazor around 1200 or 1180's BCE.
Manetho claims that Moses was born at Heliopolis. This could be the high probability because Joseph the Dreamer lived at Heliopolis with his wife Asenath (Gen. 41:45,50). Heliopolis was near Goshen.
1) ADMONITIONS OF IPUWER
2) ESTELA HELDESHEIM I 374
3) SATIRICAL LETTER: PAPYRUS ANASTASI I
4) PAPYRUS HARRIS I
1) "The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage' is written by a 19th Egyptian Dynasty (1292-1189 BCE) scribe, Ipuwer, using an ancient Egyptian hieratic not earlier than 1250 BCE, and it has no other copy and now held in the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Netherlands.
The Admonitions of Ipuwer or Ipuwer Papyrus is officially called "Papyrus Leiden I 344 recto."
The poet writer Ipuwer gives some glimpses about the reasons why and the details what happened in Egypt during the Late Bronze Age Collapse, most importantly how a one man, described as one who poured water, ruined the last years of the advance aged strong man (pharaoh) of the land that even sailing to Byblos and Caphtor became impossible without difficulty, a situation that happened to Egyptians during the time of Yar-su (Moses) or Kush-Meshusha in Cyprus. The strong man being mentioned could be what the then laymen called "Sessy," the Vanquisher, named "Sesostris" by Herodotus. According to Herodotus, Sesostris has monumental reliefs at the Nahr al-Kalb (Lebanon), just north of modern Beirut, which he personally saw and we can also visit them to see. Two of the three reliefs, though badly damaged, have survived and they are inscriptions commemorating the campaigns and victories of king Rameses II (1279-1213 BCE).
"Thus doing he traversed the continent, until at last he passed over to Europe from Asia and subdued the Scythians and also the Thracians [e.g. Tursha or Truwisha]. These, I am of opinion, were the furthest people to which the Egyptian army came, for in their country the pillars are found to have been set up, but in the land beyond this they are no longer found. [....]
The pillars which Sesostris of Egypt set up in the various countries are for the most part no longer to be seen extant; but in Syria Palestine I myself saw them existing with the inscription upon them which I have mentioned and the emblem..." - Herodotus, The Histories 2.103,106
This gives glimpse who was the pharaoh very popularly known as the strong man or vanquisher during his lifetime and after his death.
2) Estela Hildesheim I 374 or Stele of Mose, according to Kenneth A. Kitchen (Ramesside Inscriptions, Translated and Annotated Translations: Ramesses II, His Contemporaries [Ramesside Inscriptions Translations] [Volume III] Wiley-Blackwell. pp 187-188, 2001 ISBN 978-0631184287), comes originally in Qantir (Pi-Rameses). In the stela we can read that because king Rameses the Great was "pleased with the speech of his mouth," he personally "gives silver and all good things of the king's house" to Moses. The pharaoh did these for a favor, he wanted the loyalty of the army and senior soldier Moses, and asking them to do what the king loves them to do (Christine Raedler: Rank and Favour at the Early Ramesside Court, in: R. Gundlach, J. H. Taylor [editors], Egyptian Royal Residences, 4th Symposium on Egyptian Royal Ideology, KSG 4,1, Wiesbaden, 2009 ISBN 978-3447058889, p.144). The limestone stela is 2feet 2.6 inches in height and inscribed in around 1230 BCE formerly erected at Pi-Rameses and now held at Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim (nr 374) in Germany.
3) The Satirical Letter: Papyrus Anastasi I (officially designated papyrus BM 10247) sheet 6. A personal letter of Egyptian army scribe (royal official) Hori to fellow scribe Amen-em-Opet, who was compared to "m-h-r" (Maher) or "Mose." The papyrus was originally purchased by British Museum from Giovanni Anastasi in 1839.
4) Papyrus Harris I or The Great Harris Papyrus (Papyrus British Museum EA 9999). This 41-meter long papyrus was found in a tomb near Medinet Habu, across the Nile river from Luxor, Egypt, and purchased by collector Anthony Charles Harris in 1855; it entered the collection of the British Museum in 1872. Inscribed with hieratic text, king Ramesses III reported that his father king Setnakhte brought back order in Egypt after expelling the Asiatic followers of Yar-su (Yar-mesu), the Great Chief of Kharu (Horite state of Seir) who subdued the Egyptian territories abroad.
