Pharaoh

Name

"Pharaoh" derives from the ancient Egyptian per-aa ("great house," that is, the royal palace). The term originally referred to the palace and later became a title for the king himself. In Korean, the New Korean Revised Version renders the word as Baro, while the Korean Common Translation and general historical works usually use Parao. The Bible's references to Pharaoh do not concern a single individual, and most of the pharaohs it mentions are not identified by personal name.

Biblical Accounts

• The time of Abraham: When Abraham went down to Egypt during a famine, Pharaoh took his wife Sarai into his palace and was struck with plagues (Genesis 12:10-20).
• The time of Joseph: After having dreams and hearing Joseph's interpretation, Pharaoh made him his chief minister (Genesis 41). He also permitted Jacob's family to settle in the land of Goshen (Genesis 47).
• The period of oppression: A "new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph" (Exodus 1:8) subjected the Israelites to forced labor and ordered that their male infants be thrown into the Nile. During this time Pharaoh's daughter drew the infant Moses out of the water and raised him (Exodus 1–2).
• The pharaoh of the Exodus: He refused the demand delivered by Moses and Aaron, "Let my people go" (Exodus 5:1). He then endured the ten plagues and, after the death of the firstborn, let the people leave. He later pursued them with his army, however, and his army was drowned in the Red Sea (Exodus 5–14).
• The period of the monarchy: Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter (1 Kings 3:1). Pharaoh Necho killed Josiah at Megiddo (2 Kings 23:29). Pharaoh Hophra appears in Jeremiah 44:30, and Ezekiel 29–32 contains prophecies of judgment against Pharaoh.

Significance Within the Bible

In Exodus, Pharaoh represents a power that was revered as divine. His defiance is portrayed as the occasion through which God's power and name are made known (Exodus 9:16). In the New Testament, Stephen refers in his sermon to the pharaohs of the times of Joseph and Moses (Acts 7). Paul quotes Exodus 9:16 in Romans 9:17. Hebrews 11:24 records that Moses "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter."

Interpretations and Debates

• The hardening of the heart: The text contains both statements that God would harden Pharaoh's heart, making it stubborn and unyielding (Exodus 4:21; 7:3), and statements that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exodus 8:15). The Calvinist tradition, reading these passages together with Romans 9, understands this as God's sovereign decree. Arminianism and Wesleyan theology hold that Pharaoh first refused of his own accord and that God's hardening was a judgment upon that choice. This discussion is connected to the question of predestination and free will.
• The identity of the pharaoh of the Exodus: The Bible does not give his name. One view, based on the "four hundred and eightieth year" in 1 Kings 6:1, identifies him as a king of the fifteenth century BC; another, based on "Raamses" in Exodus 1:11, identifies him as Ramesses II of the thirteenth century BC. No scholarly consensus has yet been reached.
• Extrabiblical embellishments: Depictions in films and other media of Moses and Pharaoh growing up together like brothers have no basis in the Bible. Exodus 14 states only that the army was destroyed. As to whether Pharaoh himself died, interpretations differ: some, citing Psalm 136:15, hold that he perished with his army, while others hold that he did not.

In the Korean Church

In Sunday school and Vacation Bible School, the ten plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea are taught as the central stories of the Exodus. In preaching, "Pharaoh's hardened heart" is frequently cited as an example of a heart that refuses to turn back even after hearing warnings. Sermons that interpret Egypt and Pharaoh as figures of bondage to sin and to worldly powers are also common.