פַּרְעֹה

From the study of Exodus 5:2

Range of meaning

From Egyptian pr-ꜥꜣ, "Great House" (the palace). From the New Kingdom (about the 15th century BC) it came to be used for the king himself, the way people say "the Crown" or "the White House". Royal names were attached to the title only from around the 10th century BC.

Against the English

English readers often take "Pharaoh" as a personal name. It is a title, and Exodus deliberately leaves the man unnamed.

How it drifted

Repeated use in English Bibles as if it were a name.

Used elsewhere in the period

The title appears in Egyptian texts of the 18th dynasty onward (for example under Thutmose III). Royal ideology called the king the son of Re and the living Horus, responsible for upholding maat, the cosmic order.

From the study of Genesis 47:20

Range of meaning

From Egyptian pr-ʿꜣ, 'Great House', first meaning the royal palace and administration. By the New Kingdom (from about the 15th century BC) it was used for the king himself. In Hebrew it works as a title, usually without a personal name.

Against the English

English readers often take 'Pharaoh' as a personal name. Genesis never names this king.

How it drifted

Capitalised and used without 'the', the word looks like a name in English.

Used elsewhere in the period

Egyptian sources from the 18th Dynasty onward refer to the king as 'Pharaoh'. Later biblical texts sometimes add a name (Pharaoh Neco, 2 Kgs 23:29; Pharaoh Hophra, Jer 44:30).

From the study of Exodus 3:11

Range of meaning

From Egyptian pr-ꜥꜣ, "Great House": first the royal palace, then by the New Kingdom period (around the 15th century BC onward) the king himself. In Hebrew it works as a title, used either alone or with a name ("Pharaoh Neco", 2 Kgs 23:29).

Against the English

English treats "Pharaoh" almost as a proper name. In Exodus he is deliberately left unnamed, while the God of Israel's name is revealed in this same chapter.

Used elsewhere in the period

Egyptian royal titles show the king as the son of the sun-god Ra and the living Horus, the mediator of cosmic order (maʿat). Genesis 46:34 says shepherds were "detestable to the Egyptians".