Many Jews and Christians believe the Pentateuch, (Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), was not only written by Moses, but
also, that it provides an accurate historical record of the origins of
the Israelites. "
A major component of this anthology is the exodus, which Shanks (1981)
claims is, "…an actual historical event that occurred in 1477 B.C." (p.
42) The exodus and the subsequent forty-years wandering in the
wilderness, outlines many of the major developments in the Israelites
evolving relationship with, and worship of, one particular deity,
Yahweh, "the Lord." The objective of this essay is to briefly examine
some of the claims made in the Exodus narrative with a view to
examining their possible validity.
The foundations for this particular saga are to be found in Genesis;
there we find the story of Jacob, and his family, which comprised
either [a] seventy individuals, (Exodus 1:5; Deuteronomy 10:22), or [b]
sixty-six, "…not counting his sons' wives," (Genesis 46:26-27), who
travelled to, and settled in the Delta region of the Nile,
"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor, and he went down to Egypt and
lived there as a foreigner with a household few in number…"
(Deuteronomy 26:5)
Then, after either, [a] Ten generations, (430 years, Exodus 12:40), [b]
Four hundred years, (Genesis 15:13), or, [c] Four generations, (Genesis
15:16), their numbers had increased greatly. Later an unnamed Egyptian
"king," who believed that, in time of war, the Israelites might ally
themselves with Egypt's enemies, sought to reduce their numbers by
placing them in bondage, "Therefore they did set over them taskmasters
to afflict them with their burdens." (Exodus 1:11). Yet, despite this,
the Israelite population continued to increase until finally, in an
effort to drastically control their numbers, the king decreed that all
new-born male Israelites should be killed.
Into this dysfunctional environment is born a great hero, Moses, who,
after being hidden at home for three months, (Exodus 2:2), was placed
in a waterproofed papyrus reed basket and left, "...among the reeds at
the river's brink." (Exodus 2:3). There, he was found and adopted by an
Egyptian princess. As Frazer (1923) observed, Moses is central to the
Exodus saga, and, "…from the beginning to the end of his life is
represented as set apart for a great mission…" (p. 264).
As with many ancient "hero-myths," Moses is depicted as a lowly-born
individual, who, nevertheless, is destined to overcome many difficult
challenges, then, as an adult, with the help of supernatural forces, to
succeed in a great quest. In this instance, Moses is chosen by the Lord
to lead the Israelites out of their Egyptian bondage to the "promised
land" of Canaan; so, is the Exodus saga fact or fiction?
With so many fantastic events featured as essential components, the
entire saga reads more like a fairy-tale than an actual historical
narrative. Indeed, like many fairy-tales, the Exodus saga relies
heavily upon a plot device, known as deus ex machina, where some
implausible solution appears to enable the hero to overcome difficult,
almost impossible, challenges. Just as this device is a common feature
of stories from primitive cultures, which accept miraculous events as
"normal" reality, so too the Exodus narrative is based upon a naive
assumption that arcane concepts, such as magic, the power of curses
(e.g. Deuteronomy 27), and supernatural powers, exist and operate at
both a human and divine level.
Belief in magic has long been a part of Jewish tradition; thus, the
claim that Moses, "…was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,"
(Acts 7:22), meant not only that he possessed normal human "wisdom,"
but also that he was skilled in all the magical secrets of the
Egyptians. As Josephus commented,
"…the Egyptians soon repented that the Hebrews were gone; and the King
also was mightily concerned that this had been procured by the magick
arts of Moses." (Josephus, 2014, Antiquities of the Jews, Book II,
Chapter 15:3).
In those times magical powers were believed to be real, and, just as
Moses could turn his staff into a snake the Egyptian magicians could do
the same thing, using their "secret arts," (Exodus 7:11).
Traditionally, it was believed that Moses shepherd's staff (Exodus
4:17), was actually a magician's "magic wand" which possessed great
powers, (See Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, Chapter 12:3). The
staffs of both Moses, (called the "staff of God" Exodus 4:20; 17:9),
and that of Aaron, feature frequently as the source of miraculous
events. Moses' staff turns into a snake, (Exodus 4:3), as did Aaron's,
(Exodus 7:10), Aaron's staff turns the waters of the Nile to blood,
(Exodus 7:19-20), and while he produces a plague of frogs (Exodus 8:6),
the Egyptian magicians too, "…by their secret arts; they also made
frogs come up on the land of Egypt." (Exodus 8:7). In an act of
"Spontaneous Generation," Aaron creates a plague of gnats, (KJ version,
"lice"), from the "dust of the ground" (Exodus 8:17). Moses staff opens
a path through the waters of the "Red Sea," produces water from a rock,
(Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11), and, when held aloft, enables the
Israelites to prevail over the Amelekites, (Exodus 17:11). Magically
Aaron's rod, "…sprouted, blossomed, and produced almonds!" (Numbers
17:8); all of these implausible events provide examples of the
generally fantastic tone of the exodus saga, some of which will now be
examined in greater detail.
DATE OF THE "EXODUS"
Many attempts have been made to determine the date of the exodus as
well as the name of the reigning king, (pharaoh), to date these facts
still remain unknown. Dyer (1983), noted that current views on the
actual date are divided between an "early date," (circa 1445 BCE), or a
"late date," (circa 1290 BCE). (p. 225).
In, Antiquities of the Jews; (Book 8.3.1), Josephus dates the exodus at
592 years before the erection of Solomon's Temple; since the
construction of the temple occurred, in or about the fourth year of
Solomon's reign, (circa 966 BCE), this would place the exodus at circa
1,558 BCE. However, in Against Apion, Josephus claimed that Solomon's
temple was built, "…six hundred and twelve years after the Jews came
out of Egypt." (Book 2.2), which would date the exodus at circa 1,578
BCE. Both of these dates, fall within the Second Intermediate Period,
(circa 1650-1550 BCE), when Egypt was divided between the Egyptian and
Hyksos kings. From 1783 – 1550 BCE the Hyksos kings ruled the
north-eastern part of the Nile Delta. Now, since the Israelites were
said to reside in the Land of Goshen, which was located in the eastern
region of the delta, then they would have been in bondage to the Hyksos
kings, not, as Exodus 1 clearly indicates, to the ruler of Egypt!
Further confusing the issue, we are told in 1 Kings 6:1, that the
fourth year of Solomon's reign, when construction of the temple
commenced, was, "… four hundred and eightieth year after the people of
Israel came out of the land of Egypt," If this figure is correct, this
would clarify the issue and definitely date the exodus to circa 1446
BCE; however, it is not quite that simple. As both Humphreys (2003) and
Farbridge (2000) indicated, the number forty appears frequently in the
Bible, e.g. Genesis 25:20; 26:34; Moses visited his own people when he,
"…was forty years old" (Acts 7:23); the Israelites spent forty years in
the wilderness, (also see 1 Samuel 17:16; Ezekiel 29:11-13, etc.),
"…in particular forty years often means a generation. So a
possible interpretation of 480 years is that this refers to twelve
generations each of a nominal forty years instead of a literal 480
years." (Humphreys, 2003, p. 33)
So, nowhere within the text can we find either a specific date, or the
name of the reigning Egyptian ruler. In particular, the omission of the
pharaoh's name suggests that, whoever later wrote the saga down, did
not know who the "actual" pharaoh was. This is quite bizarre for, if
the events were actually historical, one would have expected the
ruler's name to be known, and triumphantly proclaimed as the powerful
Egyptian ruler who had been so decisively overcome by their god.
Nevertheless, Bible advocates persist in seeking an actual date for the
Exodus; in 1654 Bishop Usher gave 1571 BCE as the birth date of Moses,
and "established" that the exodus had taken place in April of 1491 BCE.
(Keyes, 1962, p. 27) Others, such as Goedicke (1995), dated it at 1477
BCE, while by correlating regnal dates of Israelite kings with Egyptian
and Assyrian sources, Finkelstein and Silberman, (2002), suggested 1440
BCE was the most likely date; (p. 56). However, there are some problems
with locating the exodus in the 15th century BCE, since this was a time
when Egypt was recovering from a decline in power.
During the 18th century BCE the diminishing power of the 13th Dynasty,
(1803 – 1649 BCE), had enabled Canaanites, who had begun to settle in
the Nile Delta circa 1800 BCE to establish an independent territory.
Then, during a period of internal dysfunction within Egypt, lasting
from 1786-1575 BCE, (Starr, 1991, p. 88, possibly due to famine and
plague), another group of invaders, the Hyksos, (heqa khasut, "ruler(s)
of the foreign countries"), possibly from Western Asia, either by
invasion, or gradual infiltration, entered Egypt circa 1650 BCE and
established their own independent kingdom ruling over much of the
northern area of the Nile Delta. Still relatively weak, and lacking the
power to dislodge them, the Egyptian rulers were grudgingly forced to
make peaceful concessions with them.
However, as Egypt began to recover her former power her new rulers
sought to recover the lost territories. Circa 1560 BCE King Seqenenre
Tao waged war against the Hyksos, then his son, King Kamose
(1555-1550 BCE), gained several significant victories over them and
they were finally defeated by his brother, King Ahmose I, (1549-1524
BCE), and, once again, the north and south were again reunited circa
1535 BCE, (Bryan, 2004, p. 207).
Some, like Finkelstein and Silberman, (2002), have suggested that the
exodus narrative may actually have been a confabulation of distant
memories of the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt, to which later
Jewish authors added many anachronistic geographical and political
data. One of the earliest to make this connection between the Hyksos
and the Israelites was Josephus; quoting Manetho, (an Egyptian priest
who lived at the time of the Ptolemies), he tells how the Hyksos, after
concluding a treaty with Thoummosis,
"…no fewer than two hundred and forty thousand, entire households with
their possessions, left Egypt and traversed the desert to Syria. … they
built a city in the country now called Judaea, capable of accommodating
their vast company, and gave it the name of Jerusalem." (Josephus,
1926, p. 199)
Ahmose I's reign ushered in the period known as the New Kingdom, (circa
1549-1069 BCE), when Egypt regained her prosperity and power, becoming,
"...the dominant power in the world." (Finkelstein and Silberman, 2002,
p. 60) During the reigns of Thutmose I, (circa 1506-1493 BCE), and
Thutmose III, (circa 1479-1425 BCE), Egypt achieved its greatest
territorial expansion. Its large and powerful army controlled Canaan
and Syria, as far north as the Euphrates and Cilicia, and as far south
as Nubia. From 1550-1400 BCE Canaan, which Gardiner (1920) defined as,
"…the maritime plain where the Philistines later settled," (p. 100),
was actually an Egyptian vassal state, and remained essentially so
until 1178 BCE, when Egyptian power in the Levant declined. As Propp
(2006) pointed out,
By the Bible's own chronology, the year of the Exodus fell during
Egypt's heyday under the Eighteenth Dynasty, indeed during the imperium
of the puissant Thutmosis III (c. 1490-1436 B.C.E.) It is simply
"impossible" — so many have said — that the Hebrew slaves attained
liberation at the very apex of Egyptian power. (p. 738)
In contrast, those who favour the "late date" suggest the exodus
occurred during the 13th century BCE, e.g. the Jewish Encyclopedia
places the date at approximately 1200 BCE. Based upon this time-frame,
attempts have been made to connect the exodus to the reign of Rameses
II, (1279-1213 BCE), however, this creates some difficulties. During
the fourth year of his reign, (1275 BCE), Rameses was campaigning in
the Levant, battling a rebellious Canaanite prince as well as the
Amurru and their Hittite allies. After his defeat at the Battle of
Kadesh, (Qadesh) In 1274 BCE, the Hittites gained control of Syria, and
left Egyptian control in the Levant concentrated in Canaan. Circa 1272
BCE Rameses returned and campaigned successfully in Syria, eventually
conquering territory as far north as Tunip in western Syria. So, with
ongoing warfare, and a powerful Egyptian army located in Canaan, it
would hardly have been a suitable time for the Israelites to leave
Egypt for Canaan.
THE ISRAELITES
Genesis and Exodus purport to outline the development of the Israelites
as a nation, they tell how Jacob took his family to live in the Nile
Delta, and how their population increased, "…the LORD your God has made
you as numerous as the stars in the sky." (Deuteronomy 10:22), and how,
after leaving Egypt en masse, they invaded and conquered Canaan;
however, as Dever (2003) noted,
"We must confront the fact that the external material evidence supports
almost nothing of the biblical account of a large-scale concerted
Israel military invasion of Canaan." (p. 71).
A much more rational explanation is that, rather than coming out of
Egypt, the Israelites were actually indigenous to the Levant, possibly
originating as highland clans, who, over time, as their numbers
increased, became powerful enough to invade Canaan. Indeed, Finkelstein
and Silberman (2001), even suggested they were actually Canaanites who
had, over time, evolved into a separate culture. (p. 118) Certainly, as
Propp (2006) noted,
"…the new highland settlements of the thirteenth-twelfth centuries
B.C.E. show little connection with Egyptian material culture …
Competent archaeologists consider these villages to be natural
outgrowths from Canaanite culture… Similarly, the Hebrew language is a
purely Canaanite dialect …" (p. 739).
For eons the Levant had been a fertile region with large herds of
animals grazing on large areas of grasslands, then, some 12,900 years
ago, during the Younger Dryas, the climate suddenly cooled, resulting
in reduced rainfall in the Levant. A century long drought followed
which drastically reduced herd numbers, forcing many of the nomadic
hunter-gatherers to settle permanently alongside rivers, and to adapt
to a more sedentary life-style dependent upon cereal crops. One of the
first to adapt were the Natufians, who would later found Jericho.
Although they continued to hunt as they cleared and planted more land,
they were soon able to grow more than enough food to feed them through
the lean winter months, they became ever more dependant upon their
agrarian life style. It also appears that they began to domesticate
animals; Zeder (2008) suggests that circa 9,000-8,500 BCE, (or possibly
earlier), they began to keep herds of sheep and goats in south-eastern
Anatolia. The practice appears to have spread quickly throughout the
Levant and Arabia, and, as the population increased, some individuals
began to adopt a semi-nomadic life utilizing the large areas of
semi-arid wilderness not suited for farming, but ideal for grazing
herds of sheep and goats. Some of these nomadic herdsmen were probably
the proto-Israelites, and the words, "We have been livestock breeders
from our youth, as our ancestors have been for many generations"
(Genesis 46:34) possibly reflects a distant memory of their indigenous
nomadic predecessors. Indeed, as Redmount (1998) noted, the Merneptah
stele, (circa 1213 - 1203 BCE), clearly indicated the Israelites were
nomadic herdsmen;
"The hieroglyphs with which Israel was written include instead the
determinative sign usually reserved for foreign peoples: a throw stick
plus a man and a woman over the three vertical plural lines. This sign
is typically used by the Egyptians to signify nomadic groups or peoples
without a fixed city-state home, thus implying a semi nomadic or rural
status for "Israel" at that time." (p. 72)
The farmers of the Levant depended upon suitable weather conditions to
sustain their crops, and when severe droughts occurred, many were
forced to seek food elsewhere. Although not immune to famine, because
the Nile normally provided Egypt with a regular bountiful harvests, it
was often the favoured destination of those fleeing droughts in the
Levant, and, as Ryholt (1997) indicated, from circa 1800 BCE, and for
long afterwards, Canaanites, and other groups, regularly migrated to
Egypt for this reason, e.g. "We have come to live here in Egypt, for
there is no pasture for our flocks in Canaan …" (Genesis 47:4).
While there is archaeological and textual evidence of foreign
immigrations into Egypt, there is none to support the claims in Exodus
that the Israelite settlers comprised, "...a large nation, and they
filled the land of Goshen." (Exodus 1:7). As Moore and Kelle (2011),
noted, "…no clear extrabiblical evidence exists for any aspect of the
Egyptian sojourn, exodus or wilderness wanderings." (p. 81). This lack
of evidence is certainly not due to a lack of effort by archaeologists,
for, as Meyers (2005) observed,
"After more than a century of research and the massive efforts of
generations of archaeologists and Egyptologists, nothing has been
recovered that relates directly to the account in Exodus of an Egyptian
sojourn and escape of a large-scale migration through Sinai." (p. 5)
The most likely explanation for this complete lack of substantiating
evidence is simply that the events claimed in the exodus saga never
actually occurred. Although some, such as McNutt (1999), continue to
believe, "...there might be a historical core, or some kind of vague
historical memory, in the Moses traditions," (p. 42), most authorities
now believe, like Propp (2006), that, "…the story of Israel's journeys
from Canaan to Egypt and back again resembles a heroic fairy
tale…" (p. 736),
Certainly, the "heroic myth" of Moses, the fabulous tales of the
exodus, and the forty-years wandering in the wilderness, appears to be
more folklore than historical fact, part of an Israelite
"foundation-myth" which, beginning with Abraham, "explained" their
emergence as a nation, the origins of their religious rituals, and
provided a justification for their "conquest" of Canaan.
Their humble origins lost in the mists of time, most ancient cultures
created fantastic tales of glorious origins, and the Exodus saga is
simply an example of this tradition. Rather than the reality of their
very mundane ordinary origins as nomadic herdsmen, the Exodus myth
depicts the Israelites as special people, and that, just as Yahweh had
divinely guided the "creation" of the cosmos, so too, he had chosen,
and divinely guided, the Israelites.
ANACHRONISTIC LOCATIONS
"…virtually all of the toponyms (place names) mentioned in the exodus
account, including the Land of Goshen, the store cities of Pithom and
Rameses, the Red (or Reed) Sea, and even Sinai itself (for which as
many as sixteen different possibilities been proposed) escape positive
identification despite the best effort of generations of explorers."
(Meyers, 2005, p. 6)
The Exodus saga refers to a number of places which did not exist at the
claimed time(s); probably the most significant is, "…the land of
Goshen," in the Nile Delta, where it is claimed, the Israelites
originally settled. (Genesis 45:10; 46:28; 46:34; 47:1; 47:4; Exodus
8:22). "So the people of Israel settled in the land of Goshen in
Egypt…" (Genesis 47:27); however, as Finkelstein and Silberman (2002)
pointed out, the name "Goshen" was not applied to this area until much
later, in the 6th-5th centuries BCE. (pp. 66-67), by an Arabic group,
who dominated this area.
Exodus 1:11 claims, "…the Egyptians…forced them to build the cities of
Pithom and Rameses," Described in some texts as "treasure cities,"
(Exodus 1:11), as Blacklock (1963) pointed out, "The 'treasure cities'
of Exodus 1:11 were arsenals and depots for provisions …" (p. 868).
Normally army supply depots were located near the frontier of the
empire, however as Van Seters (2001) pointed out, at that time, the
actual frontier was far to the north in Syria, a long way from the Nile
Delta. An additional problem with this is that, as Finkelstein and
Silberman (2002) pointed out, archaeological evidence dates Pithom to
the XXVI Dynasty, (664 - 525 BCE), far too late for the exodus." Pithom
in fact, as MacDonald (1980) indicated, was actually established by
Necho II, (610-595 BCE) as the administrative centre of a project to
construct a canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.
Furthermore, the name Rameses was, according to Propp (2006), "… a
royal name only in the thirteenth-twelfth centuries B.C.E." (p. 738,
[1,299 - 1,100 BCE]) This actually refers to the city of Pi-Rameses,
(House of Rameses) which was built by Rameses II, (1279-1213 BCE), near
the ancient Hyksos location of Avaris; rather than being a supply depot
it was the location of summer palace for Seti I, (1290-1279 BCE), and
served as the capital of Egypt until the 10th century BCE. As Van
Setters (2001) notes only long after its original role as a royal city
had been forgotten could it have been described as a fortress.
Ezion-Geber, (Numbers 33:15), a place where the Israelites are said to
have stopped during their forty year sojourn, did not exist at the
claimed time. As Pratico (1985) pointed out, excavations at what is now
Tell el-Kheleifeh, date the existence of Ezion-Geber to between the 8th
– 6th centuries BCE, placing it far outside the time-frame of the
claimed exodus.
There is also problems with the claim that, "…God did not lead them
through the land of the Philistines." (Exodus 13:17), for, as Grabbe,
(2008) indicated, the Philistines first settled in the Levant in around
Year 8 of the reign of Rameses III, (1186-1155 BCE, p. 47), so, before
that time, there was no "land of the Philistines."
ISRAELITE "SLAVERY"
Exodus 1:11 claims that, "…the Egyptians made the Israelites their
slaves…" however, as Tyldesley (2000) pointed out, it has been known
since 1888, when the villages of the actual Egyptian builders were
discovered, that the various Egyptian cities and great structures were
not built by Hebrew slaves. One such village was Set Maat, ("the place
of truth," now Deir el-Medina) in western Thebes which, "…was built
early in the 18th Dynasty to house the craftsmen who would build and
decorate the royal tombs." (Bryan, 2004, p. 213) The workers were a
mixture of Egyptian, Nubians and Asiatics, (Edwards, Gadd, Hammond and
Sollberger, pp. 379-380); further evidence that these workers were not
Israelite slaves comes from the fact that Amenhotep I, and his mother,
Ahmose-Nefertari, were the patron-deities of the village and many of
the worker's homes contained shrines dedicated to them. (Bryan, 2004,
p. 213)
Further contradicting the claims that the Israelites were slaves is the
claim that Aaron was able to leave Goshen, to travel to Mount Horeb,
meet with Moses and then return with him to Egypt, (Exodus 4:27).
Although the actual location of Mount Horeb is unknown, Exodus 3:1,
suggests it was in the land of Midian, on the Arabian peninsula east of
the Gulf of Aqaba, some 500 km. (310 miles) from Goshen. This would
suggest a return journey of at least twenty days, so, one must ask,
what sort of bondage allowed slaves to take a leave of absence, and to
come and go with such ease?
Exodus 10:24 claims the pharaoh requested that Moses, "…let your flocks
and herds stay here." However, because the animals were required for
sacrifices, Moses argues, "Our livestock too must go with us; not a
hoof is to be left behind" (Exodus 10:26). There are a number of
references in Genesis, e.g. 45:10, which indicate that when the
Israelites first settled in Egypt they owned "flocks and herds," while
Exodus 12:38, tells us they left Egypt with, "...many flocks and
herds." In ancient times ownership of large herds of animals were
usually restricted to the wealthy, or to individual clans, so, again,
one must ask, what type of slaves would be permitted to own large herds
of cattle and accumulate personal wealth? Perhaps that, just as the
Egyptians surrendered their jewellery, (Exodus 12:36), they also meekly
handed over their herds to the Israelites?
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