Friday, May 22, 2015

Nefrubity and Solomon

I've expressed before my theory that Nefrubity is probably the Daughter of Pharoh whom Solomon married, since the Pharaoh at the start of reign was Tuthmosis I.  I'm not the only one to come to that conclusion.

Mainstream Egyptologists assume her vanishing from the Egyptian records means she died young.

Skeptics of The Bible see a problem here regardless of chronology, there is seemingly no documentation from Egyptian records of any Egyptian Princess ever being married to a foreign ruler.  And they add to that absence of evidence as evidence of absence logic, Amenhotep II and Amenhotep III.

The king of the Mitanni had asked Amenhotep II for his daughter's hand in order to cement a political alliance. Amenhotep refused, offended by the suggestion that an Egyptian princess be submitted for that ridicule of being married off to a foreign leader.

There is a written account that the King of Babylon sent a princess to King Amenhotep III to marry and requested an Egyptian Princess be sent to Babylon to marry him. Amenhotep III turned down the request replying, "That since the days of old no Egyptian king’s daughter has been given to anyone."

It amazes how determined secular scholars are to discredit The Bible.  Since clearly these two Amenhoteps were offended by the suggestion, they would not have been honest about it if there was any prior precedent for it.  Politicians frequently lie about the history of their country.

In fact if Egypt during the later 18th Dynasty decided they fond the idea offensive, they probably would have sought to destroy all documentation of past examples.  We know many cases in Egyptian history where trying to erase their past history was something they wanted to do, like the entire existence of Akhneton.

Egypt during the reign of Tuthmosis I was not in the same position as the reign of Amenhotep III or II, who were both post Tuthmosis III (Shishak).  The early 18th Dynasty Pharaoh's were still trying to secure and establish Egypt's independence in the wake of throwing out the Hycsos/Amalekites.  It was primarily under Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III that Egypt regained their old Hegemony and became a World Superpower again.

So Tuthmosis I seeking such a move to secure an alliance with Solomon is perfectly plausible.  But after Shishak's conquests the game changed, and now they only took and never gave.

At the very least, Nefrubity being married to a foreign leader and some later Pharaohs wanting to erase that fact is at least an equally likely explanation for her disappearance then that she just died but was seemingly never buried or mourned.

It is absurd to think Amenhotep III's stubbornness on this subject could be maintained at other times in history when Egypt didn't hold old the bargaining chips.   And in conventional chronology, the time of Siamun was one such time, his dynasty was about to die.

As I read the Amarna exchange between Amenhotep III and Kadashman-Enlil (EA 1-5).  Kadash seems quite incredulous of the absoluteness of Amenhotep's claim in EA#4.  What really confused me however is, EA#2 has Kadash seemingly saying his wife was Amenhotep III's sister.

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