Within the final phase of the civil war — Queen Tewosre’s conflict with Setnakhte — we would thus have to search for another individual labelled by the two sides of the conflict, Osarsēph, “Osiris is in his appearance!” and Tisithén, “The enemy from the cliff”. While this interpretation is clearly speculative at this point, it may vindicate historiographically extra-Biblical traditions about Moses: whereas the Biblical story does not allow to pinpoint a precise historical context for the exodus event, the tradition preserved by Manetho and Chairemon might provide precisely that nexus. If so, Setnakhte’s “cleansing” of Egypt of enemies from Canaan could indeed be regarded as evidence of an actual exodus – reflected in the Biblical exodus account – in Setnakhte’s 2nd year, 1198 BCE.This is quite an interesting argument. But I am skeptical. There are a lot of "could be"s in the essay. And using Manetho and Chairemon, as filtered through Josephus, to reconstruct an actual Exodus sounds speculative.
That said, I am not an Egyptologist. I don't have the training to evaluate the case properly. I look forward to hearing the reaction of Egyptologists to the formal publication. It is scheduled to come out next year.
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