Ohene

Interestingly enough, but not suprisngly, you completely sidestepped the fact that DECADES of digs in the areas mentioned in OT have yielded nothing...no evidence of this 'great' nation, a 40 year sojourn in the dessert, thousands of slain soldiers from all of these so called wars, ruins of vast cities or towns, burial sites, writings....NOTHING. Your entire position is based on something written 2000 years after the fact...unless you can present evidence of anything other then an ORAL TRADITION that shows a collection of Hebrew writings before the Septaugint 'translation'.

Ohene

Actually, Egyptians were very familiar with the Creator. They imagined him long before they ever came into conact with Hebrews. Contrary to mainstream television, ancient Egypt religion was actually Henothesim. Belief in a supreme being who created everything...including other gods. Here is an example of Egyptian writings that predate Hebrew:

• God is One and alone, none other existeth with Him; God is the One, the One Who hath made all things.
• God is a spirit, a hidden spirit, the spirit of spirits, the great spirit of the Egyptians, the divine spirit.
• God is from the beginning, and He hath been from the beginning, and He hath been from the beginning; He hath existed from of old and was when nothing else had being. He existed when nothing else existed, and what existeth He created after He had come into being. He is the father of beginnings.
• God is the eternal One, He is eternal and infinite; and endureth for ever and aye; He hath endured for countless ages, and He shall endure to all eternity.
• God is the hidden Being, and none hath known his form. No man that been able to seek out His likeness; He is hidden from gods and men, and he is a mystery unto His creatures.
• No man knoweth how to know him. His name remaineth hidden; His name is a mystery unto His children. His names are innumerable, they are manifold and none knoweth their number.
• God is truth, and he liveth by truth, and He feedeth thereon. He is the King of truth, he resteth upon truth, He fashioneth truth, and He executeth truth throughout all the world.
• God is life and through him only man liveth. He giveth life to man, and he breatheth the breath of life into his nostrils.
• God is the father and mother, father of fathers, and the mother of mothers. He begetteth, but was never begotten; He produced Himself. He createth, be was never createth: He is the maker of His own form, and the fashioner of His own body.
• God Himself is existence, He liveth in all thing, and liveth upon all things. He endureth without increase or diminution, He mutiplieth Himself millions of times, he possesseth multitudes of forms and multitudes and members.
• God had made the universe, and he hath created all that is therein: He is the Creator of what is in this world, or what was, of what is, and of what shall be. He is the Creator of the world, and it was He Who fashioned it with His hands before there was any beginning; and He established it which went forth from him. He is the Creator of the heavens, and the earth, and the deep; the Creator of the heavens and the earth and the deep and the waters, and the mountains. God stretcheth out the heavens and founded the earth. What his heart conceived came to pass straightway, and when He had spoken His word came to pass, and it shall endure for ever.
• God is the father of gods, and the father of the father of all deities. He made his voice to sound, and the deities came into being, and the gods sprangs into existence after He had spoken with his mouth.

re: Wallis Budge and H. Brugsch

Minimalist

Sadly for you, two hundred years of archaeological work in Egypt has not brought forth a single shred of evidence for an exodus. Moreover, extensive excavation in Palestine has shown that there was no conquest by Joshua or any other heavenly stormtrooper, either. Some scholars are still arguing about a United Monarchy under "David" but that also seems to be falling by the wayside.

I suggest you read some modern archaeology and put the bible away. It is not helping you.

IamJoseph

Which other war between Egypt in that period is evidential?

There was no country called Palestine when Joshua entered canaan. And there is no question the Israelites were in Canaan till 586 BCE, as a sovereign state, and after a displacement for 70 years via babylon, a soveriegn state again till 70 CE.

Except for stone ethchings, proofs become very scarce for all of history pre-3000 years ago, and compoundingly so for each century before that time.

I am only discussing archeological back-up for anything in any scriptures. I do read them. You have disregarded a host of archeological evidences and zoomed into what no archeological evidence exists for almost all areas pre-3,200 years ago.


There may not be proof for Moses - but there is more evidence of him than even Jesus or Mohammed. There also evidence for Abraham, who predates Israel - his great grand son Joseph was a viceroy in Egypt, and we have the burial of Abraham and his wife, with two generations down all in Hebron today. We also have the burial sites of Aaron and Miriam [Moses' bilogical brother and sister], and of Joseph - who asked that his bones be taken to his own land. The dead sea scrolls package cntains al the Mosaic books, which is backed by subsequent prophetic books which allign with the entire history of Israel in periodical 100 year blocks apart for 3000 years. I know of no other area where such a host of evidences exist.

IamJoseph

IMHO< all humans are aware of the Creator, as well as all life forms - it is an inherent trait, and not limited to any one group. It appears that in ancient times, the very quest of re-connecting with the Creator, after a period of absence post-adam, the people started to make their own representations, via deities and reflections of nations, derived from storms, thunder and earthquakes [Egypt, Babylon, Greece] - which were seen as angry and happy Gods. Many nations exploited this trait by proclaiming humans as divine - as with Egypt and Rome, and enslaved others and made them subserviant; sorcery and occultism also flourished by such exploitation.


Metaphorically, the Tower of babel, and that man climbs mountain peaks for nothing - are marks of this re-connection syndrome.

IamJoseph

More interesting is whether the oral or written laws have merit for humanity, in comparison of other laws. Ultimately, that is all that matters.

Ohene

Re-connecting? And what evidence do you have outside of the bible of this initial connection? Other then the my book is better then all the rest rhetoric. What is your proof of Adam's existence and how EXACTLY do you date him. Secondly, you know nothing about Egypt, Babylon and Greece if you believe thier theology was based upon reflections derived from storms, thunder and earthquakes! In fact, Hebrew theology borrows MUCH from Egypt and Babylon. You are severly lacking in any real knowledge outside of hebrew 'history'. Sorcery and occultism flourished due to exploitation?? HUH?
Look, the bottom line is, contrary to what you believe, Hebrews did not introduce the Divine Creator/God to anyone outside of Europe...not the Myans, the Akan (of ghana, west africa), the Hindis etc...

Ohene

Many if not most cultures have laws that 'have merit for humanity' that are not derived in any way, shape or form from Hebrew laws :huh:

Doug Shaver

Name two.

And identify the publications in which they made that claim.

semiopen

My friend Joseph may be right about this, unless you are disputing the semantics of the statement, like "loads" and "mythical".

This link might even be on this site:

http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/david.html

My understanding of the current state of things is that David has a better than 50% chance of being a real guy, maybe a local war lord, while Solomon's existence appears to be more dubious.