Why is the Pharaoh in Exodus never named?

[Norbert L]

It seems that at a certain point in history they get named and before that point they don't. How does this affect the dating of the book?

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

Pharoah means Great House, or the Palace. It is an example of metonymy, using a related concept to describe something else - such as when someone speaks of the White House but means the President or the US executive branch.

It only came into use in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, but not as a title for a person (approximately 16-15th century BC). It was more a stand-in for the Royal dynasty here, before evolving into an actual title of the King by the New Kingdom (13th century BC). It became far more dominant by the late period though.

So either Exodus was written late, or a later redactor added it in. Alternately, it might originally have been written or understood less personably, but implied more in essence 'The Egyptian Government had its heart hardened' or 'the Royal Dynasty' instead of as an individual. This would be in keeping with Egyptian thought anyway, as each Pharoah was the embodiment of Horus - thus a sort of perpetual ruler.

Depends what you take the semantics to be here, therefore. It does seem to argue for a later composition, though anything after the 12th century BC or so, still remains possible.

Why is the Pharoah never named with Moses, Abraham or Joseph? I think because it didn't matter, and we are dealing here with cultural legends - names often fall away, or are telescoped together. It is similar to how mediaeval writers often just speak of the Great Khan; or later writers of the Great Turk or Sultan, without referencing the specific current holder of the office (Or how the NT often just says Caesar, without mentioning this is specifically Tiberius we are dealing with). They are all caricatured together, and more differentiation is not necessary to convey the story - in fact, we are probably meeting a literary trope here, in all probability.

 

[joshua 1 9]

It seems that at a certain point in history they get named and before that point they don't. How does this affect the dating of the book?

Pharaoh is used 268 times in the Bible to represent the Reysh, the highest or head person that spoke for Egypt and watched over Egypt. His job was to draw attention to and serve the country, not himself. The Bible works off of Archetypes and if they were to name the individuals that would distract from the story.

People would be to busy trying to impeach him for having private conversations with Moses or something along a political line if we allowed him to become personified into an actual person.

 

[joshua 1 9]

This would be in keeping with Egyptian thought anyway, as each Pharoah was the embodiment of Horus - thus a sort of perpetual ruler.

Was that the same as the serpent was a manifestation of Satan in the Garden?

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

Was that the same as the serpent was a manifestation of Satan in the Garden?

Not exactly. For instance, in Art, except for the Amarna period, you can't differentiate one Pharoah from another. They are all represented in a stylised Idealised form. The only clue is the cartouche bearing the specific name.

When someone became Pharoah, he became the living embodiment of Horus - at death, he became Osiris. The idea of an Individual is not at play here. It is hard for us to fathom in our post-Enlightenment world with a Self and a separate external world that is not-Self, but each Pharoah was Horus while alive, and at death Osiris - not even in a corporate sense. It isn't the god indwelling the man, but the man subsumed into the god's Ma'at or universal order, as gods' activity and man aren't wholely differentiated. You can see it in other spheres of Egyptian paganism, where the difference between Seth or Thoth say, and their attributes, and those attributes enacted in man, are non-existent. Differentiation of these things is a later conception. The gods of fear or madness or other factors we would consider internal or emotive, acted through you, while still being 'you' in a real sense to their conception. For example, this is how a god of war could send panic amongst the enemy, while still individuals that were afraid, as there was a link between the object inducing fear, the fear as concept (conceived as the god), and the experience thereof; which we later separated.

Horus was Rulership say, but the concept of Rule and the god it embodied, was not differentiated in any way.

 

[joshua 1 9]

you can't differentiate one Pharoah from another.

Moses was raised by Pharaoh's daughter even though Pharaoh had 40 or 50 daughters. Still Moses would have received the same education that any of the Pharaoh's themselves received. This is why he was able to approach the Pharaoh anytime he wanted because he belonged to a class of people that had those privileges. Amazing how God planned all of that even from Moses birth.

 

[Crosstian]

It seems that at a certain point in history they get named and before that point they don't. How does this affect the dating of the book?

Several people in scripture are not directly named, such as Alexander III the Great, though he is the King of Greecia in Daniel 2 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 11.; and Nabonidus the son of Nebuchadnezzar and father to Belshazzar, though he is mentioned by implication, as Belshazzar says that Daniel would be made third ruler i the kingdom, with Belshazzar being the second, and Nabonidus the first (though he was away). There are as many others, also. The daughter of Herodias, Salome is never mentioned by name either, though in Josephus, she is.

The Pharaoh of the Exodus (representing Satan in type) may be studied here:

 

[Daniel Marsh]

It seems that at a certain point in history they get named and before that point they don't. How does this affect the dating of the book?

Author's bias

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

It seems that at a certain point in history they get named and before that point they don't. How does this affect the dating of the book?

I think it only affects traditions of men, and not the true dates when Yahuweh Breathed/ Inspired His Word/ TORAH/ SCRIPTURE.

 

[pinacled]

Perhaps his name was blotted out.

 

[straykat]

I think the works started early, but were edited at different points. So it's difficult to determine exact dates just on face value. Even the Bible itself indicates these confusing conditions. Such as when the Torah was lost for a time and rediscovered much later by Josiah. Few understood it by that point and it all had to be retaught and Israel underwent a religious revival - 2 Kings 22.

This is why I find it silly when scholars (or Hollywood) date the Exodus so late, just because it mentions the city of Ramesses (as in Ramesses II, of the 12th century BC). They're being too literal. This could have easily been edited for a contemporary audience when Israel was already settled and knew of cities like Ramesses. It doesn't mean that was the name of the city in Moses' own time (in the traditional early dating, the city would have been named Avaris.. and it's difficult to tell who was the Pharaoh at the time).