Ramesses II

Life

Ramesses II was the son of Seti I of Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty. He is known to have taken part from a young age, alongside his father, in governing the kingdom and in military campaigns. He reigned for about 66 years, generally dated from about 1279 to about 1213 BC, although the chronology of ancient Egypt varies by several years depending on the scholar. His principal queen was Nefertari, and he is known to have fathered more than 100 children. He was succeeded by his son Merneptah. His mummy was discovered in 1881 in the royal mummy cache at Deir el-Bahari, on the west bank at Thebes, and is now preserved in a museum in Cairo.

Achievements

• Battle of Kadesh: Around 1274 BC he fought the Hittites (an Anatolian kingdom sometimes linked with the Hittites of the Bible) at Kadesh in Syria. Ramesses II recorded the battle as a victory in his inscriptions, but many scholars hold that the outcome was indecisive.
• Peace treaty: Around 1259 BC he concluded a treaty with the Hittite king Hattusili III. It is regarded as one of the oldest peace treaties whose text survives.
• Building projects: He built the temples at Abu Simbel and the Ramesseum, his mortuary temple (a temple dedicated to the memory of the deceased king), and enlarged the temples at Karnak and Luxor. In the eastern Nile Delta he built a new capital, Pi-Ramesses.

Relation to the Bible and the Korean Church

The Bible does not name the pharaoh of the Exodus period. However, Exodus 1:11 states that the Israelites built the store cities Pithom and Raamses, and Exodus 12:37 names Rameses as the starting point of the Exodus. Many scholars identify this Raamses with Pi-Ramesses.

There are two main views regarding the date of the Exodus.

• The late-date view places the Exodus in the thirteenth century BC and regards Ramesses II as either the pharaoh of the oppression or the pharaoh of the Exodus. Egyptologists and some evangelical scholars support this view.
• The early-date view takes the "four hundred and eightieth year" of 1 Kings 6:1 literally, dates the Exodus to the mid-fifteenth century BC, and places it in the reign of Thutmose III or Amenhotep II. Pointing out that Genesis 47:11 already uses the name "the land of Rameses" in the time of Joseph, proponents of this view explain Raamses as a later, more familiar place name substituted for an earlier one. Many conservative scholars hold this view.

Some critical scholars question the historicity of the Exodus narrative itself.

Many Korean Christians reportedly know Ramesses II as the king who opposed Moses, owing to the influence of the film The Ten Commandments (1956) and the animated film The Prince of Egypt (1998), both of which portray him as the pharaoh of the Exodus. The temples he built are also frequently featured on pilgrimage tours to Egypt. No denomination is known to have adopted an official position on the date of the Exodus.

Assessment

In Egyptian history he is regarded as one of the most powerful and longest-reigning pharaohs. He has also been criticized for exaggerating the results of his wars in his inscriptions and for carving his own name onto the monuments of earlier kings. Within the church, the extent to which he is connected with the biblical narrative depends on how one dates the Exodus.