The approximate size of the Thera eruption has been revised from 39 cubic km to 100 cubic km of ejecta. The approximate time of the eruption has been revised from 1500 bc to 1625 bc.
Current Egyptological estimates of the time of the 15th (Hyksos) dynasty are from around 1650 bc to 1550 bc, putting the beginning of the Hyksos dynasty near the time of the eruption of Thera.
The Ipuwer papyrus is thought to be a 19th dynasty copy of an older original. The date of creation of the original and the date(s) of the events described are uncertain. In the Admonitions of Ipuwer, Gardiner says that Sethe believed that the plagues and disasters described by Ipuwer were a description of events leading up to and during the Hyksos dynasty.
[archive.org]
“The text tells both of civil war and of an Asiatic occupation of the Delta. There are two periods which might possibly answer the requirements of the case: the one is the dark age that separates the sixth from the eleventh dynasty; the other is the Hyksos period. Sethe inclines to the view that it is the invasion of the Hyksos to which our papyrus alludes. Much may be said in favour of this alternative. Though the tombs of Siut give us a glimpse of the internal disruption of Egypt during the ninth and tenth dynasties, the monuments are silent upon the subject of Asiatic aggression at that date. Hence if the text be thought to refer to the earlier period, an historical fact of great importance must be postulated. There is no such difficulty in the view preferred by Sethe. A small point that might be thought to lend support to this hypothesis is the use of the word 'pestilence' or 'plague' in 2, 5; this is the identical word that is employed of the Hyksos in the first Sallier papyrus. On the other hand certain considerations may be urged in favour of the earlier date. The text belongs to a group of compositions that we are accustomed, as we thought on good grounds, to associate with the Middle Kingdom. In particular there are curious points of contact both with the Lebensmude and the Instructions of Amenemmes I. Though, as we have seen, no definite deductions as to date can be based on these connections, still it is difficult not to feel that they point towards a pre-Hyksos period.”
The Tempest Stela is attributed to Ahmose I, who is thought to have expelled the Hyksos.
[en.wikipedia.org]
The Tempest Stela promises restoration of lands and monuments that had been destroyed. Questions about the Stela include whether the destruction was from a tempest or from the Hyksos occupation, whether the tempest was caused by the Thera eruption, and whether the destruction described was contemporary with the stela, or whether the destruction was earlier, but could not be restored earlier because of the Hyksos occupation.
Velikovsky and others have observed the similarities between the descriptions of plagues in the Ipuwer papyrus and the descriptions of plagues in Exodus. Josephus attributes the following quotes to Manetho:
[archive.org]
“Tutimaeus. In his reign, I know not why, a blast of God’s displeasure broke upon us. A people of ignoble origin from the east, whose coming was unforeseen, had the audacity to invade the country, which they mastered by main force without difficulty or even a battle...Their race bore the generic name of Hycsos, which means ‘king-shepherds.’ For hyc in the sacred language denotes ‘king,’ and sos in the common dialect means ‘shepherd’ or ‘shepherds’; the combined words form Hycsos. Some say that they were Arabians.”
Was Thera God’s blast of displeasure?
“Then the kings of the Thebaid and of the rest of Egypt rose in revolt against the shepherds, and a great war broke out, which was of long duration. Under a king named Misphragmouthosis, the shepherds were defeated, driven out of all the rest of Egypt, and confined in a place called Auaris, containing ten thousand arourae. Thoummosis invested the walls with an army of 480,000 men, and endeavoured to reduce them to submission by siege. Despairing of achieving his object, he concluded a treaty, under which they were all to evacuate Egypt and go whither they would unmolested. Upon these terms no fewer than two hundred and forty thousand, entire households with their possessions, left Egypt and traversed the desert to Syria. Then, terrified by the might of the Assyrians, who at that time were masters of Asia, they built a city in the country now called Judaea, capable of accommodating their vast company, and gave it the name of Jerusalem.”
Although this Josephus quote of Manetho suggests that Exodus may have been the same thing as the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt, Josephus believed that this part of Manetho’s history was corrupted and that Exodus occurred at the same time as the beginning of the Hyksos occupation.
Josephus also believed that the scriptural statements of 480 years from Exodus to the founding of Solomon’s temple, or, from elsewhere in the scriptures, 40 years in the desert plus 400 years for Judges equals 440 years from Exodus to the founding of the temple, were both misstated, and by adding the given lengths of leaders from Exodus, through Judges, to the founding of the temple, Josephus arrived at 612 years. Since the temple is thought to have been founded around 1000 bc, this would also put Exodus in close proximity to Thera.
The scriptures give Pi-Ramesses as the place of departure in Exodus, but during the Hyksos occupation the site of Pi-Ramesses was the site of the Hyksos capital of Avaris. Exodus has been dated by some to the reign of Ramesses, in part because of the statement of departure from Pi-Ramesses, but this may be a statement of the name of the place when the scripture was written, rather than the name of the place at the time of Exodus.
Josephus also gives another long quote from Manetho, beginning on p. 259, stating that Moses led a revolt against Egypt a long time after the Hyksos expulsion, in the time of Ramesses, and that Moses and his followers were subsequently chased out of Egypt with much slaughter, but Josephus entirely rejects this part of Manetho’s narrative.
Here is an interesting article from Smithsonian (2020), with analysis of skeletal remains indicating that the Hyksos dynasty was an immigrant uprising rather than an invasion.
[www.smithsonianmag.com]
Current Egyptological estimates of the time of the 15th (Hyksos) dynasty are from around 1650 bc to 1550 bc, putting the beginning of the Hyksos dynasty near the time of the eruption of Thera.
The Ipuwer papyrus is thought to be a 19th dynasty copy of an older original. The date of creation of the original and the date(s) of the events described are uncertain. In the Admonitions of Ipuwer, Gardiner says that Sethe believed that the plagues and disasters described by Ipuwer were a description of events leading up to and during the Hyksos dynasty.
[archive.org]
“The text tells both of civil war and of an Asiatic occupation of the Delta. There are two periods which might possibly answer the requirements of the case: the one is the dark age that separates the sixth from the eleventh dynasty; the other is the Hyksos period. Sethe inclines to the view that it is the invasion of the Hyksos to which our papyrus alludes. Much may be said in favour of this alternative. Though the tombs of Siut give us a glimpse of the internal disruption of Egypt during the ninth and tenth dynasties, the monuments are silent upon the subject of Asiatic aggression at that date. Hence if the text be thought to refer to the earlier period, an historical fact of great importance must be postulated. There is no such difficulty in the view preferred by Sethe. A small point that might be thought to lend support to this hypothesis is the use of the word 'pestilence' or 'plague' in 2, 5; this is the identical word that is employed of the Hyksos in the first Sallier papyrus. On the other hand certain considerations may be urged in favour of the earlier date. The text belongs to a group of compositions that we are accustomed, as we thought on good grounds, to associate with the Middle Kingdom. In particular there are curious points of contact both with the Lebensmude and the Instructions of Amenemmes I. Though, as we have seen, no definite deductions as to date can be based on these connections, still it is difficult not to feel that they point towards a pre-Hyksos period.”
The Tempest Stela is attributed to Ahmose I, who is thought to have expelled the Hyksos.
[en.wikipedia.org]
The Tempest Stela promises restoration of lands and monuments that had been destroyed. Questions about the Stela include whether the destruction was from a tempest or from the Hyksos occupation, whether the tempest was caused by the Thera eruption, and whether the destruction described was contemporary with the stela, or whether the destruction was earlier, but could not be restored earlier because of the Hyksos occupation.
Velikovsky and others have observed the similarities between the descriptions of plagues in the Ipuwer papyrus and the descriptions of plagues in Exodus. Josephus attributes the following quotes to Manetho:
[archive.org]
“Tutimaeus. In his reign, I know not why, a blast of God’s displeasure broke upon us. A people of ignoble origin from the east, whose coming was unforeseen, had the audacity to invade the country, which they mastered by main force without difficulty or even a battle...Their race bore the generic name of Hycsos, which means ‘king-shepherds.’ For hyc in the sacred language denotes ‘king,’ and sos in the common dialect means ‘shepherd’ or ‘shepherds’; the combined words form Hycsos. Some say that they were Arabians.”
Was Thera God’s blast of displeasure?
“Then the kings of the Thebaid and of the rest of Egypt rose in revolt against the shepherds, and a great war broke out, which was of long duration. Under a king named Misphragmouthosis, the shepherds were defeated, driven out of all the rest of Egypt, and confined in a place called Auaris, containing ten thousand arourae. Thoummosis invested the walls with an army of 480,000 men, and endeavoured to reduce them to submission by siege. Despairing of achieving his object, he concluded a treaty, under which they were all to evacuate Egypt and go whither they would unmolested. Upon these terms no fewer than two hundred and forty thousand, entire households with their possessions, left Egypt and traversed the desert to Syria. Then, terrified by the might of the Assyrians, who at that time were masters of Asia, they built a city in the country now called Judaea, capable of accommodating their vast company, and gave it the name of Jerusalem.”
Although this Josephus quote of Manetho suggests that Exodus may have been the same thing as the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt, Josephus believed that this part of Manetho’s history was corrupted and that Exodus occurred at the same time as the beginning of the Hyksos occupation.
Josephus also believed that the scriptural statements of 480 years from Exodus to the founding of Solomon’s temple, or, from elsewhere in the scriptures, 40 years in the desert plus 400 years for Judges equals 440 years from Exodus to the founding of the temple, were both misstated, and by adding the given lengths of leaders from Exodus, through Judges, to the founding of the temple, Josephus arrived at 612 years. Since the temple is thought to have been founded around 1000 bc, this would also put Exodus in close proximity to Thera.
The scriptures give Pi-Ramesses as the place of departure in Exodus, but during the Hyksos occupation the site of Pi-Ramesses was the site of the Hyksos capital of Avaris. Exodus has been dated by some to the reign of Ramesses, in part because of the statement of departure from Pi-Ramesses, but this may be a statement of the name of the place when the scripture was written, rather than the name of the place at the time of Exodus.
Josephus also gives another long quote from Manetho, beginning on p. 259, stating that Moses led a revolt against Egypt a long time after the Hyksos expulsion, in the time of Ramesses, and that Moses and his followers were subsequently chased out of Egypt with much slaughter, but Josephus entirely rejects this part of Manetho’s narrative.
Here is an interesting article from Smithsonian (2020), with analysis of skeletal remains indicating that the Hyksos dynasty was an immigrant uprising rather than an invasion.
[www.smithsonianmag.com]