Pharaoh of Exodus

The following information is based on events in *The Fallen Angel* and contain spoilers.

The term "Pharaoh of Exodus" has not been confirmed by official sources and is merely conjecture or a fan invention.

The **Pharaoh of Exodus**, usually called **the Pharaoh** or simply **Pharaoh**, was the pharaoh who, according to the Book of Exodus of the Hebrew Bible, ruled over Ancient Egypt in the time that the Hebrews migrated from Egypt, lead by Moses, who himself had grown up in the Egyptian royal family along with the Pharaoh, when the Pharaoh was prince. There is still much debate as to which pharaoh, Exodus spoke of. The Pharaoh was the son of the former Pharaoh, who enslaved the Hebrews who had settled in Egypt with permission from the pharoah before him.

## History

### According to the Bible

#### Before the birth of the Pharaoh

The Israelites had settled in the land of Goshen in Egypt when Joseph and Jacob (who at this time had been given the name Israel) was alive. They had been given permission to live there by Joseph, who had become the vizier of that time's pharaoh, and by pharaoh himself. Twelve of Jacob's sons became the ancestors and patriarchs of the Israelites, and the people grew. The phaoh who had given the people permission to live in Goshen died and a pharaoh, who did "not know Joseph" came into power. By then the Israelites had become so many that there were more of them than the Egyptians, and the new pharaoh feared that they would revolt and usurp him, so he enslaved the people and ordered that all newborn sons of the Israelites were to be thrown into the Nile river. At this point a Levite son was born to hnis father, Amram, who had come to Egypt with the house of Jacob, and his mother Jochebed. In order to save the son, she put him into a basket and hid the basket among the reeds at the bank of the Nile. Moses' sister, Miriam, and his brother, Aaron, witnessed this. The daughter of the pharaoh, the princess of Egypt, was out bathing then, and she found the baby and adopted him. She gave the child the name "Moses" (*Moshe* in Hebrew), because she "pulled him out of the water". Moses then grew up in the Egyptian royal family, without knowing that he was in fact a Hebrew.

#### God's orders to Moses

When Moses was an adult, he found out that he was Hebrew. He then killed an Egyptian slave master because he was beating a Hebrew slave, and to avoid the death pentalty of the paraoh, he fled out into the desert and across the Red Sea, where he came to Midian. Here he married Zipporah, the daughter of the Midianite high priest Jethro. One day, while Moses was passing his family's goats, Moses found a burning bush, and through it God spoke to Moses. When Moses asked God his name, God responded: "I am who I am" (or "I am that I am" depending on Bible translations), and that his name is "Yahweh" or "Jehovah", which Moses would henceforth refer to God as. God asked Moses to return to Egypt and demand that the Pharaoh release his people and that he lead the Hebrews into Canaan, the land that had been promised to Abraham. God gave Moses a staff to bring along that he could perform the miracles of God through.

#### Ten plagues of Egypt

When Moses returned to Egypt to convince the Pharaoh of letting the Israelites go, it was a new Pharaoh he met. It was the prince that he'd grown up with, the son of the pharaoh who had enslaved Moses' people. When Moses demanded to have his people released, the Pharaoh refused, because God had hardened his heart to demonstrate his power. The Pharaoh even said that he did not know Moses' God, Jehovah. For refusing the Israelites' release and for blaspheming God by not acknowledging him, God demonstrated his power further by sending ten horrible plagues to Egypt: first Moses and his brother Aaron, whom Moses had met in the village, in the pressence of the Pharaoh, turned all of the water in the Nile, in the ponds and lakes to blood with their staffs, by order from God. This first plague lasted seven days, without the Egyptians being able to drink their water. The remaining plagues were hordes of frogs, mosquitos, locusts, plague, boils, hail alongside lightning and thunder and fire balls raining from the sky, grass hoppers, darkness and finally, after the tenth plague, in which all first-born children and animals of the Egyptians died, the Pharaoh was willing to let the Israelites go. The Israelites journeyed into the desert, led by Moses.

#### Crossing of the Red Sea

The Phraoh meanwhile regretted his action, and in a desperate attempt he and his army follow the Israelites into the desert and reaches them by the Red Sea. The Israelites were trapped between the sea and the Egyptian army. God, who had led the Hebrews to the sea in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night, moves behind the Hebrews, in the form of the fire pillar, barring the way of the Egyptians. God asked Moses to raise his staff over the sea and part it, and when he did this God made the sea move back by sending a powerful eastern wind out across throughout the entire night, so that the sea became dry earth and the water had miraculously been parted. The Hebrews walked to the middle of the dry seabed. When they were almost across to the other side, God hardened the Pharaoh's heart once more, causing him to order his soldiers to follow the Hebrews. At last, the Hebrews came to the other side, and then God asked Moses to lift the staff over the sea again and close it. Moses did as he was told, and the Pharaoh and his soldiers were enclosed by the sea. Many of them died, but the Pharaoh himself survived.

### Aftermath

After the death of the Pharaoh, it is unknown whether he came to Paradise or Hell or an afterlife that suited his beliefs. The ancient Egyptian religion had an underworld for deceased humans. When Moses died, he came to Paradise, but the things that the Pharaoh had done because God hardened his heart, and the things that God had made Moses do, including letting all the first-born of the Egyptians die and causing the Egyptians soldiers to drown to their deaths in the Red Sea, had made Moses hold a grudge against God. Because of this, Moses settled in the mountains at Paradise's eastern border, close to the white gate, so that he could be as far away from God as possible.

When Philip Engel and Satina Dargue was brought to Moses' house by the angel of the Lord, who saved them from the insane angel of death, Moses told them part of the story of how he led the Hebrews out of Egypt, including the story of the plagues and the Pharaoh. He explained to them that the Pharaoh only did what he did because God intentionally harded his heart.

## Religious background

The Pharaoh is part of both the Jewish, Christian and Islamic beliefs.

Three pharaohs are mentioned in the Pentateuch, the books said to be written by Moses, specifically in the Book of Genesis and the Book of Exodus - the pharaoh who invited Joseph, and then Jacob into Egypt and allowed the Israelites to settle in the land of Goshen; the following pharaoh who "did not know Joseph" and began the oppression of the Israelites; and his successor, the Pharaoh of Exodus. None of them are given names. Reading chronologically, it is clear the the Pharaoh of Exodus is the apparent successor of the pharaoh who began oppressing the Hebrews; this creates some issues with the chronology, as Moses was born during the oppression, who at this time is old enough to have a daughter finds and adpts the baby; when Moses later stands before this pharaoh's successor, he is 80 years old, which means that the Pharaoh of Exodus had a father who ruled Egypt for more than 80 years. This is not true for almost any known pharaohs.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Book of Exodus, the Hebrew Bible
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Fallen Angel*. (Publication House) Month #, 2020. (Original Danish version published September 15, 2015 by Høst & Søn)