Moses is one of the Bible’s most famous figures, yet no confirmed Egyptian record of him has ever been discovered.
Now, a report from the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology claims the prophet may have been hiding in plain sight as Senenmut, a mysterious commoner who became one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful courtiers.
Using biblical chronology, proponents argued that Senenmut lived during the period attributed to Moses, whose birth they placed around 1526 BC.
They identified Hatshepsut, the daughter of Pharaoh Thutmose I who later became one of Egypt’s most powerful female rulers, as the princess who rescued Moses from the Nile and brought him into the royal court.
The report cited Senenmut’s accumulation of nearly 90 titles and reported military service in Ethiopia, drawing comparisons with later accounts of Moses commanding an Egyptian campaign there.
Most strikingly, Senenmut vanished from the historical record around the year the biblical timeline indicates Moses turned 40, killed an Egyptian taskmaster and fled into exile.
Senenmut left behind two unfinished tombs, a shattered sarcophagus and no known resting place. Some of his names and portraits were also deliberately damaged, which proponents suggest reflects the condemnation Moses would have faced after fleeing the pharaoh’s wrath.
However, no inscription directly connects Senenmut to Moses or identifies him as Hebrew, and the theory rests on a disputed Exodus chronology and circumstantial parallels rather than definitive archaeological evidence.
A report claims Moses may have been hiding in plain sight as Senenmut (pictured), a mysterious commoner who became one of ancient Egypt ’s most powerful courtiers
‘Let’s cut to the quick. Senenmut, favored courtier to Pharaoh Hatshepsut, is the very same man we know as Moses,’ investigative journalist Scott Alan Roberts declared in his 2014 book The Exodus Reality, which features prominently in the 2024 report.
According to the Bible’s Book of Exodus, an unnamed pharaoh ordered that newborn Hebrew boys be killed, prompting Moses’ mother to conceal him for three months before placing him inside a basket among the reeds.
The pharaoh’s daughter discovered the infant and raised him as her son, while the New Testament states that Moses was educated in ‘all the wisdom of the Egyptians.’
The report, written by archaeologist Christopher Eames, placed these events during Hatshepsut’s youth and argued that her character fits that of the compassionate princess described in the Bible.
One inscription attributed to Hatshepsut states that her ‘spirits inclined toward foreign people,’ while another describes a ‘heart full of love.’
Advocates of the theory believe those sentiments support the possibility that she would have defied the pharaoh’s decree and adopted a foreign Hebrew child.
Egyptian records show Senenmut was born outside the royal family to parents named Ramose and Hatnofer, neither of whom appears to have held an important administrative or religious position.
Despite those humble origins, he rose dramatically after Hatshepsut became queen and later assumed the full powers of a pharaoh.
Researchers noted how both Moses and Senenmut came from humble beginnings and rose through the ranks, becoming very close with the Royal family
Senenmut became her chief steward, royal architect and one of her most trusted advisers, earning dozens of titles that placed him among Egypt’s elite.
He was also appointed tutor to Hatshepsut’s daughter Neferure and was depicted holding and embracing the young princess in several statues.
Such contact was extraordinary because Egyptian artistic conventions generally prohibited nonroyal figures from touching members of the ruling family.
The number of surviving statues depicting Senenmut is itself unusual, with scholars noting that the size of his collection is rivaled only by those belonging to royalty.
The report argued that Senenmut’s extraordinary access could be explained if he had been adopted into the royal household, as the Bible says Moses was.
Senenmut’s military career forms another part of the proposed identification.
He is believed to have participated in campaigns in Kush, an ancient kingdom covering parts of modern Sudan and Ethiopia, during the reign of Thutmose I and may have attained the rank of brigade commander.
The Bible does not describe Moses leading an Ethiopian campaign, but later Jewish writers do.
The first-century historian Josephus devoted a chapter of Antiquities of the Jews to Moses’ alleged military victories in Ethiopia, while a similar tradition was recorded centuries earlier by Artapanus.
The Bible also states that Moses married a Cushite woman, although that marriage occurred after he left Egypt.
Senenmut later became closely associated with construction, apparently overseeing work on Hatshepsut’s monumental mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari.
The report compared his position as royal architect with Moses’ later supervision of the tabernacle and another pillared complex described in Exodus.
It also noted that Senenmut had no known wife or children during his documented years at court, matching the biblical account in which Moses married only after escaping to Midian.
A copy of the Story of Sinuhe was found among writings associated with Senenmut’s tomb. The ancient Egyptian tale follows a court official who flees the pharaoh’s wrath, escapes into the Levant, lives among Bedouins and marries a chieftain’s daughter.
Proponents argue that the sequence resembles Moses’ escape to Midian, where he married Zipporah and lived as a shepherd after killing an Egyptian.
Senenmut’s last securely dated appearance occurred around 1486 BC under the chronology used in the report.
Work on his two tombs, Tomb 71 and Tomb 353, ceased before either was finished, with one chamber reportedly sealed while still containing excavation debris and workers’ tools.
His quartzite sarcophagus was left incomplete and later found smashed into fragments, while no burial site containing his remains has been identified.
Some of his monuments were also vandalized, although other inscriptions and statues survived intact.
Egyptologist Alan Schulman wrote that Senenmut appeared to have become ‘the victim of someone’s implacable hatred,’ but scholars have not established who damaged the monuments or why.
Proponents also argue that the absence of the name Moses from Egyptian records can be explained by the use of multiple court names and titles.
Roberts translated Senenmut as ‘mother’s brother,’ proposing that Hatshepsut bestowed it to elevate an adopted son to a status approaching her own.
Under the theory, Senenmut was the name used inside the Egyptian court, while Moses was the identity remembered by the Israelites.
Another surviving inscription described Senenmut as having ‘come forth from the flood’ and being given control over ‘even the Nile,’ language proponents connect to the biblical account of Moses being drawn from the river. Yet none of those similarities amounts to proof.
