Clivedurdle

But the whole point of manna is that it is such heavenly perfect food it produces no waste products, and the fire by night burnt everything up they left behind!

Amaleq13

Even evidence of the fires, themselves!!

Sai

Wasnt there like a pillar of fire at night, and dust or smoke in the day, that they were supposed to follow? That probably doubled as the directional beacon and sanitation engineering.

Ktotwf

I honestly think that the fact that we are now rather certain that the Exodus is fictional is actually the strongest evidence against the truth of Judaism/Christianity/Islam that we have.

semiopen

Anat's point is very important.

There does appear to be an underlying Egyptian tradition, although you are probably correct that the Exodus didn't happen (at least with more than say a few thousand slaves) it would be a mistake to ignore the Egyptian connection.

Ktotwf

But, as far as I read, the fact that the Egyptians don't have even the slightest record of holding Jewish slaves is just as damning as the lack of archaeological evidence for the Exodus and the concurrent evidence that the Jews already lived in the "Holy Land."

Anat

I am certain an Exodus as described in the Bible did not take place. But I am curious as how the story came to be. When and how did the Jews or their tribal ancestors (no point in calling pre-exilic groups 'Jews') come to believe themselves the descendants of slaves who escaped Egypt? Is this not a more productive way to occupy one's mind than repeating the arguments against the historicity of the Exodus account in its literal form?

Joan of Bark

There is the possibility that a few (probably less than a hundred) slaves escaped from Egypt, settled in the Palestinian hill country, and passed on their story to to their co-settlers, who thought the whole thing inspiring enough to incorporate into their 'history'. Can't say where the conquest of Canaan comes into this, though.

Ktotwf

It is just as possible that the story was completely made up...no good reason it could not have been.

Anat

Even if a story is just made up, there is a reason it is appealing to people in some place and time, and this tells us something about the culture of those people. It had been argued that the story of the exodus must be true because nobody would want to be seen as an escaped slave if they could help it, but that only reflects the sensibilities of the people who used the argument, not those of Iron Age Judahites.