Roland

According to the Bible, well over 2 million Hebrew men, women and children (that's roughly equivalent to the population of contemporary Chicago) lived and died in the Sinai Desert for a period of 40 years. This does not include the millions of animals that would have been there as well.

My question is should we expect there to be at least some physical evidence of their presence there after all these years? And wouldn't they have constructed at least some structures that might still be present in some form over a 40-year time period?

The lack of any such physical evidence has always struck me as one of the strongest arguments against the historicity of many of the key events in the OT. But I don't know enough about archaeology to state confidently exactly what we SHOULD find if the story were true.

Thanks for the input.

Kosh

Yes.

Also, keep in mind that despite the mis-conception of some of our nefarious past apologists here at the IIDB, the Sanai desert does not resemble the Sahara (large dunes of shifting sands).

Have you read "The Bible Unearthed" ??

WishboneDawn

Assuming a literal truth I don't think I would expect any structures from their 40 years. They wandered, implying they a nomadic life for those 40 years and nomads aren't known for building permanent, fixed structures. I wouldn't expect to find much of anything to back that up.

That said, I tend to think the exodus is likely legendary with some core of truth but lots of layers of storytelling built on it. Maybe at some point a pharoah let a couple of tribe go for some reason and this got expanded in to the exodus.

Sven

I recommend the thread "The ten plagues and the Exodus" in which it is explained why we should find evidence - just ignore the posts by bnfiii, then the thread becomes readable.

WishboneDawn

Thanks Sven, I'll check that out.

Haran

It is likely that the numbers were either corrupted by transmission over time, were symbolic, or were exaggerated. Many scholars have commented that the numbers are unbelievable taken literally. The land of Goshen could not have supported that many people. That many people would have vastly outnumbered most of the population of Egypt at the time. That many people would also have vastly outnumbered those in Canaan at the time. There are several theories to account for the large numbers, symbolic being my current favorite.

Johnny Skeptic

Even if there was an Exodus, so what? If there was an Exodus, we still need to know WHY there was an Exodus. Because of the ten plagues? Well, I would sure like to see Christians reasonably prove that there were ten plagues as described in the Bible. The key words are "as described in the Bible". In addition, I would like to see Christians reasonably prove that Moses was in Egypt when the plagues supposedly occurred.

WishboneDawn

If there was an exodus it may have been for different reasons that were later attributed to plagues...or maybe there was some famine or disaster that was later attributed to God. If Moses was real, he's a legendary firgue by the time his stories were being written down and those stories probably bear little resemblence to any figure that inspired them.

gregor

It is equally likely that the entire story is a post-exilic invention.

Haran

I do not believe this is very likely. The reason it is not likely is because of the many ancient customs, names, detail in the stories, etc., that would have been hard to reproduce in such volume in Josiah's time and do not lend themselves well to being fiction.