The atheist answer is: It's a story. It's not fact. While the Israelites wrote it into their book, long after the fact, the Egyptians have no record of the event. Because it's a story. If one starts getting specific about the real world details of myth, then people can check out real world records. read more
He was The Pharaoh, believed to be the incarnate of a god. To refer to the current Pharaoh by a name would imply that there could be more than one Pharaoh and needed differentiating. That would have been unacceptable in that milieu.That the Torah does not name the Pharaoh is in harmony with the usage of the time it was written. read more
Since the Pharaoh was typically just known as ‘the pharaoh’ in the written story, and has no personal name in any oral traditions - and also since we don’t know exactly when the Exodus occurred (within a range of a few hundred years) AND since the dynastic and reign dates of the pharoahs are also somewhat slippery - there really IS no ‘current best guess’. read more
After the Book of Genesis the much kinder Pharaoh died. In the beginning of the Book of Exodus a new king came to power in Egypt. The Pharaoh of Exodus did not know about Joseph or his good deeds. Instead he treated the Israelites that were Joesph's people like slaves. So thus the Jews were kept in slavery for many years. read more