Dating the reigns of Egyptian pharaohs is extremely challenging with few archaeologists agreeing with each other on suggested dates. Though movies of the Exodus have traditionally pointed to Pharaoh Ramses (1303 BC to 1213 BC) as the Exodus pharaoh, there is agreement among Bible scholars that it definitely wasn’t him because the Exodus took place much earlier than that date. Perhaps the best evidence of this is the Merneptah Stele. Discovered in Egypt by Sir Finders Petrie in 1896, it contains the earliest known reference to Israel outside the Bible. It was erected by Pharaoh Merneptah (1213 BC to 1203 BC), the 13th son of Ramses, around 1208 BC. On the ten-foot victory stele, he describes his great, somewhat exaggerated, victory over Israel: “Israel is wasted, its seed is not; And Hurru [Canaan] is become a widow because of Egypt.” As many have pointed out, if the Exodus is dated to the reign of his father, Ramses, as some have suggested, there would not have been enough time for Israel to have developed into a nation. After …