Exodus 13-14: Examples, Part I

 I am into the 2600s on my posts. I recommend a deep drive. I blog my life and thoughts in depth and breadth, and there is a lot here, on almost every subject (not genetics or nuclear physics, of course....)

Opening Thoughts:

Does extra-Biblical history verify the dramatic story of the Exodus/Deliverance?

Yes and No. From some research: Too many people expect the historical record to verify the movies or popular conceptions more than the Biblical text. Ramses is the example here; Pharaoh is not named that. On the other hand, the cities that are mentioned in the text have been found. Relatedly, people don't generally understand archaeology, again because of movies. It's slow, painstaking, sometimes inexact at first, and the study has only been around since the very late 1700s and Napoleon's time. 

Second, there are written text in Egypt (which are limited by our standards) where details of the plagues are mentioned. 

Third, standards of ancient historical records are not the same as ours. The phrase "history is written by the winners" was the standard then. Historical records were to exalt the king or country, not tell the truth. The Egyptians were unlikely to record this kind of defeat. One reason we don't have to question the Bible is that they make the Israelites and their kings look very, very bad in contrast to always giving them adulation. 

Fourth, the big debate is really over "when" versus "if?" for conservative scholars who generally accept the Biblical records. That gets complicated, but it was either the 1400s BCE or the 1200s BCE. (I use BCE because Jesus was not born in year zero.) I tend to say an earlier date because of later dates in the Bible, but that's me. 

Fifth, another point of contention is the actual amount of Israelites. Many scholars, not even all liberal, don't accept the  600,000 men and therefore 2 million altogether. I get their point here. That's really a lot of people and it would have taken an extremely long time just to get out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. Numbers and Deuteronomy and Joshua repeat them. I wonder if it's a "potential number" based on Israel's population at a later time, but that's really reading into the text. 

Sixth, liberal scholars would argue that there were no bones of those 2 million people found in the Sinai. That seems a bit of a stretch. The Sinai is large, so where are they looking? and it's been like 3400 (or at least 3200) years in the harshest of climates. Plus, it overlooks how over those millenium the geography has shifted due to winds and heat and other sources.

Finally, back to archaeology, there is physical evidence of Israeli-type houses made of wattle and daub (mud and straw brick) rather than stone in parts of Egypt. 

There are plenty of sources on the Internet about this, but the Biblical Archaeology site is probably the best starting point. 

To keep these from being ridiculously long (I of all people know that we do not read on screens like we do in books), I'll return tomorrow with the exposition.