Feb. 4] PROCEEDINGS. [1890.
(translatedin "Records of the Past," vol. x, p. 31) intimates thathe
was elected or selected as heir apparent,but not without opposition;
whichagrees withwhat I have suggestedas to a contest between
him and Mosesfor the succession. It is known thatHoremhebi
restoredthe worship of Amen and his destroyed sanctuaries,and
repressed the disc heresy; there is monumental evidence of his
21st year.
We next hearof the marriage of Moses in Midian, whereit is
statedthathe remained fortyyears,but it is generally agreedthat
the biblical periodsof forty yearsare not necessarily to be taken
literally,and the episode of the circumcision of his son while on the
way back to Egypt seemsto indicate a much shorterresidencethere
—say twenty years. Whetherthe return of Moses to Egypt took
placein the latter yearsof Horemhebi, or on the accession of his
successor,RamessuI, the founder of the XlXth dynasty,I am not
quitepreparedto say ; yet upon this dependswhichof the two I
shallsuggestto have beenthe kingof the Exodus ; but the statement
that that kinghad but just receivedthe government, seemsto point
to Ramessu I, who reignedless than two years.
I have nowto consider the chronological sideof the matter. In
the book of Kings it is stated thatthe foundation of the temple took
place 480 years afterthe Exodus, but Josephus says 592 years,and
the events recordedas occurring in the interval mightbe stretched
out to fill up 700 yearswithoutdifficulty; but of these eventsor
periodsfourhaveno duration stated,elevenare .round or doubtful
numbersof forty, or eighty, or twenty years,andonlyelevenhave
what may be called a definite duration given. Lepsius, having
fixed a date for the Exodus 318 years beforethe accession of
Solomon, took the definite, or, as he called them,the historical
periods, as he found them, and found that the remaining years
allowedan average of twelve for the indeterminate periods,which
seems to me to be too short an allowance. Theperiodwhich I
suggestfor the Exoduswouldgiveanothercenturyor more, thus
allowing an average of nearly twentyyearsfor the indeterminate
periods. But thisagain dependsuponwhatviewis taken of the
chronologyas a whole ; it is generally consideredthat Ramessu II
was succeeded by his son Mer-en-ptah in 1322 B.C., the date accepted
by Lepsius, but we are now told by Mr. Schwartzand othersthat
1322 b.c. was not the date of the accession of Mer-en-ptah but of his
grandfatherSeti,in which casethe 3r8 years allowedby Lepsius for
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