The Pharaoh of the exodus

The common title of the native kings of Egypt in the Bible, corresponding to P-ra or Ph-ra "the sun," of the hieroglyphics. Brugsch, Ebers and other modern Egyptologists define it to mean 'the great house," which would correspond to our "the Sublime Porte." As several kings are mentioned only by the title "Pharaoh" in the Bible, it is important to endeavor to discriminate them:

The Pharoah of the exodus. (Exodus 5:1)--Either Thothmes III., as Wilkinson, or Menephthah son of Rameses II., whom Brugsch thinks was probably the Pharaoh of the exodus, who with his army pursued the Israelites and were overwhelmed in the Red Sea. "The events which form the lamentable close of his rule over Egypt are Passed over by the monuments (very naturally) with perfect silence. The dumb tumults covers the misfortune: which was suffered, for the record of these events was inseparably connected with the humiliating confession of a divine visitation, to which a patriotic writer at the court of Pharaoh would hardly have brought his mind." The table on page 186 gives some of the latest opinions.

* See other occurrences of the same term: Pharaoh.