Abstract:
This article explores the hypothesis that the Egyptian royal woman known as Mutnofret, a daughter of Ahmose I and secondary wife of Thutmose I, is the same individual whom the Jewish historian Josephus refers to as Thermuthis, the daughter of Pharaoh who adopted Moses. By synthesizing Egyptian inscriptions, hieroglyphic transliteration patterns, biblical and Hellenistic Jewish sources, and chronological data, the article demonstrates that the identities of Mutnofret and Thermuthis are plausibly the same, forming a critical bridge between biblical tradition and Egyptian history.
1. Introduction: The Enigmatic Adoptive Mother of Moses
The story of Moses begins not with divine revelation but with royal adoption. According to Exodus 2:5–9, a daughter of Pharaoh discovers the infant Moses in the reeds of the Nile, has compassion on him, and raises him as her own. Her name, however, is never given in the biblical account. Josephus, writing in the 1st century AD, preserves a tradition that her name was Thermuthis. Egyptology, meanwhile, knows of a royal woman named Mutnofret (“Mut is beautiful”), daughter of Pharaoh Ahmose I, sister of Amenhotep I, and secondary wife of Thutmose I. This article proposes that Mutnofret and Thermuthis are the same historical person, viewed through different cultural lenses.
2. The Biblical and Josephus Account
In Exodus 2:5–9, the daughter of Pharaoh is depicted as discovering Moses while bathing in the Nile. Upon recognizing the infant as Hebrew, she arranges for his mother (Jochebed) to nurse him, adopting him into the royal household.
Josephus (Antiquities 2.9.5) provides a richer version, naming her Thermuthis and describing her as deeply moved by Moses’ beauty. When Egyptian wet nurses fail, Miriam suggests a Hebrew woman—Moses’ biological mother—whom Thermuthis unknowingly commissions to nurse him. Josephus emphasizes God’s providence and Moses’ divine favor even in infancy.
While Josephus’ narrative includes legendary elements, it may preserve older traditions from Second Temple Judaism or even Egyptian-Jewish communities in Alexandria. The key name, Thermuthis, is not found in the Hebrew Bible but appears consistently in Josephus' works.
3. Mutnofret in Egyptian History
Mutnofret, meaning "Mut is beautiful," was a royal woman of the early 18th Dynasty. She bore the titles King’s Daughter and King’s Sister, indicating she was:
Mutnofret appears in statuary and temple reliefs from Deir el-Bahari, the Ramesseum, and in Wadjmose's chapel, suggesting she remained influential during her son’s reign. Her high status and continued presence in court fit the timeframe of Moses' upbringing as described in Exodus.
4. Linguistic Analysis: Mutnofret and Thermuthis
The key to connecting these two figures lies in transliteration and phonetic structure:
Josephus' Thermuthis could plausibly be derived from t-mwt-t or mwt-t, especially if the “t” prefix was interpreted phonetically as "ther" or "ter". In Hellenistic transliterations, consonants were often modified to match Greek sounds.
This analysis shows that Mutnofret's name could naturally evolve into "Thermuthis" in Greek or Latin, preserving the root name of the goddess Mut while adjusting endings to suit new phonetic environments.
5. Biographical and Chronological Consistency
The following alignments support the identification:
|
Feature |
Mutnofret |
Thermuthis (Josephus) |
|
Daughter of Pharaoh |
Yes (Ahmose I) |
Yes |
|
Active during Moses' infancy |
Yes (in Thutmose I's court) |
Yes |
|
Alive during Thutmose II’s campaign |
Yes |
Yes (Josephus campaign version) |
|
Present during Moses’ exile |
Maybe |
Maybe |
|
Adopted a non-Egyptian child |
Not stated anywhere |
Yes (Moses) |
|
Held royal authority |
Yes (mother Thutmose II) |
Yes (Pharaoh’s Daughter) |
The biblical and Josephus accounts require the Pharaoh's daughter to be alive until Moses' exile (around age 40). Egyptian records confirm that Mutnofret was still alive during her son Thutmose II’s reign, matching the timeframe when Moses fled Egypt (Exodus 2:15).
6. Cultural Convergence and Memory Transmission
The story of Moses' adoption reflects a political reality of the 18th Dynasty: complex royal households, intra-dynastic marriages, and the presence of multiple powerful royal women. The survival of the name "Thermuthis" in Jewish-Hellenistic tradition suggests the preservation of genuine Egyptian memory, though filtered through centuries of storytelling.
Furthermore, as the name Mutnofret fell out of use, it may have been preserved phonetically among Jews living in Egypt, particularly in Alexandria, where Josephus likely accessed Egyptian-Jewish archives or oral traditions.
7. Conclusion: Mutnofret is Thermuthis
While definitive proof remains elusive, the convergence of:
Her act of defiance and mercy not only preserved the future lawgiver of Israel but also links two great civilizations in a shared memory that spans faith, politics, and scholarship.