Feb. 4] PROCEEDINGS. [1890.fixedupon 15 15 B.C. by certain astronomicalcalculationsas the year
of the death of Tahutmes II, and that the year 15 13 b.c. hasbeen'
adoptedby Eusebius andothersas the date of the Exodus.
I come nextto Mr. Burnett's theory,thatthe Exodus tookplace
in 1668 b.c, underthe last but one of the Hyksos kings. If so,
the Hebrews must have been in Palestine when Tahutmes III
conquered it, yet he did not record theirpresence there,nor they
his. Perhapsit is enough to say that a cardinal pointof this theory
is that Moses was put into the Nile in the Hyksos domains,and saved
by the daughter of the Theban king,so that, if Mr. Burnett'sview
be correct, lie must havefloateda great numberof miles up the
river,against the stream, and musthave beenaccompaniedalong
the banks by his mother and sister.
The fourth theoryI have to examine is that propoundedin the
" Theological Monthly" by Mr. Jacob Schwartz, who says that
TahutmesIII was the king, andthat 1438 b.c. was the year of the
Exodus. He bases his theory largelyupon the supposed dateof
the destructionof Troy,and upona special interpretationof Manetho's
accounts—a most unsatisfactoryfoundation—and has been led by
the latter to believe thatthe last kings of the XVIIIth dynastywere
AmenhotepIII and Horus(meaningAmenhotepIV or Khuenaten,
whom he confounds with the Osarsiph of the leper story, and
apparentlywithHoremhebi),whereasKhuenatenwas succeeded by
his sons-in-law in the following order:— 1, Ra-sa-a-ka-kheper ; 2,
Tut-ankh-amen; 3, Ai, and theyagainby Horemhebi, the four reigns
lastingmore than fifty years. Mr. Schwartz, moreover, makes
Tahutmesto be the king bothof the oppression and of the Exodus,
whereas both the Old Testament and Josephusplainlystate that
theseweretwo different kings; nevertheless Mr. Schwartz considers
that the Exodus took place in the middle of the rtign of
Tahutmes III, namely in his 27th year; but that king was
fightingin Syria and Mesopotamia duringhis 22nd, 23rd,29th,30th,
and 31st years, or, as a fragmentary inscription (translated in
"Recordsof the Past," vol. ii, p. 52) states, "commencingin his 21st
and continuing to his 32nd year';" so that if the Exodus tookplace
duringthat period, it had littleif any effect on the power of the
Egyptians. This theory is also open to the objection, already
mentioned,that the Hebrews werenot in Palestine in the earlier
yearsof Ramessu II, which theymusthavebeen if they left Egypt
in the time of Tahutmes III.
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