Noggin

Asha'man

Thanks for the book ref. I think I will try to do more research. Why isn't this horn tooted across the world by opposing religions? Are the origins based on dubious premises? One would think that if there were solid ground for dismisal of the book of Exodus, there would be an uprising. To date, I have not heard this information and I consider myself fairly steeped in religion (though, admittedly, one sided of course). I don't have much time to chase red herrings (not saying your sign post pointing the way is a red herring, but...).

I find it amazing that the Exodus maybe did not happen at all... or as another poster emailed me... that there even is a line of thought that the builders of the pyramids weren't Israelites at all rather were egyptians.

The pottery, the writings, the scrolls, the heiroglyphics, the historiography disputes that Israel was held captive by egyptians?

My head is spinning. I want to jump in and do more reading, but something tells me this is not adding up. If there is proof for enslaved Israelites, then we go to talking about bloody niles, parted red seas and plagues. If there is no record of enslaved Israelites...indeed ample evidence that it never happened at all, then, what gives with the massive following of the Old Testament?

I never questioned the Old Testament. I am 36 and now am beginning that journey for the first time.

Mike

Amaleq13

If you use "Exodus" as a keyword in a search of thread titles, you will find several earlier discussions.

This one includes links to many related sub-topics:

Need Help! Evidence against the Exodus and Jewish slaves building the pyramid

Godless Dave

I don't even think the Bible says the pyramids were built by Israelites. That's a detail that some people just started assuming. Right there is an example of how things get added to stories.

andrewcriddle

The pyramids were built c 2,500 BCE ie 4,500 years ago.

Taking the Bible literally the Israelites were in Egypt sometime during the 2nd millenium BCE 3,200-3,900 years ago long after the building of the pyramids.

As Dave says the Bible never suggests the Israelites built the pyramids though it does have them building the cities Pithon and Raamses in the Nile Delta.

Andrew Criddle

Philos Epikoureios

If the events detailed in Exodus were true (taking out the contradictions), it would have been imposible for the Egyptians to cover them up. If the amazing natural disasters and killing of all elder children in every household would have happened, their neighbors would have noticed them surely!

hinduwoman

I watched a BBC documentary where it argued that Moses belonged to a younger branch of Egyptian royal house who tried a palace coup and had to escape with his followers when it failed.
It also suggested that the ‘firstborn of egypt’ does not refer to all the eldest children, but is a title of the eldest son of pharaoh --- Moses murdered him

robto

I'll second the recommendation for The Bible Unearthed by Finkelstein and Silberman. I wonder if they're being a little TOO sceptical, tho.

Their basic argument is that there's just no archaeological evidence for a new population being introduced into Palestine in the required time period. Also, the Israelite culture seems to have grown up locally in continuity with older cultures. OK, fine, I have to accept that. And I doubt that details of the story like plagues, pillars of fire, and first-born have any real historical referent. They seem more like legendary accretions. But I wonder about the basic story. We know that the Egyptians DID capture and enslave people, so it's not inherently unlikely that some of those slaves were from Palestine and that at some point some of them escaped. It also seems possible that the 40 years in the desert may be a memory of a nomadic period in Israelite history.

Philos Epikoureios

Fascinating! But it may well share the same status of Exodus: unsubstantiated if not backed by historical evidence (convergent statements from different independent document sources and/or material evidence, and positive comparison to previous scientific findings).