This is a post I created in another forum with a similar thread topic, and it covers a particular set of contradictions regarding the Exodus myth. As you'll see, regardless of whether it was a "reed sea" or a "Red sea," the results are the same. There were significant amounts of reeds growing in marshes in Lower Egypt (which is the northern portion of the country) in the Delta.
The Biblical Claim
The claim is, in a nutshell, this: 600,000 "children of Israel" escaped from Egypt where they were the slaves of the pharaoh. These Israelites were chased by the pharaoh's armies who were unable to catch them. The entire band of 600,000 former slaves "wandered" the desert, camping at various locations, encountering various peoples and kingdoms, and finally settled to form a new nation. All of this occurred, ostensibly, in the 13th century BCE. We "know" this because
I Kings 6:1 tells us Solomon's temple was constructed in the 4th year of his rule, 480 years
after Exodus. 966 BCE + 480 years = 1446 BCE.
Exodus 1:11 mentions two cities of Egypt: Pi-Ramesses and Pithom as forced labor projects of the Israelites. The first pharaoh named Ramesses is the son of Seti I and reigns in the year 1320 BCE, so even the 480 years of I Kings doesn't work. Pi-Ramesses was built in the Nile Delta during the reign of Ramesses II (1279-1213 BCE) and Egyptian records indicate Semites were used in its construction.
Who Were the Hyksos?
Often in discussions of Exodus and Israelites in Egypt, the Hyksos come into the picture. This is because the Hyksos were Semite in origin, specifically Canaanite. The same progenitor peoples of the modern day Israelites and Palestinians. The Nile Delta, a.k.a. Lower Egypt, was frequently inhabited by migrating peoples and nomads who sought to find refuge in the relatively stable delta ecology, particularly in times of drought and famine. From about 1668 - 1565 BCE, Canaanites occupied the Delta and ruled Lower Egypt. Manethos referred to the them as
heku-shoswet, and, Hellenized, it became "Hyksos," which means
rulers of a foreign land. This later became a general Egyptian term for Asiatic foreigners.
The Hyksos had a distinctive Canaanite pottery and architecture, which is present in the archaeological record and, according to the Turin Papyrus, they ruled Lower Egypt for 108 years. One of the most prominent of their rulers was Apophis and their capital was Avaris, known today as the archaeological site Tell Daba'a.
Pharaoh Ahmose I (18th Dynasty) sacked Avaris and chased the Hyksos to southern Canaan to their fortress, Sharuhen near modern day Gaza. Ahmose laid siege to the fortress for three years before he stormed it.
From that point, the Egyptians maintained tight control of the border between Eastern Egypt and Canaan.
For those that are quick to pick up on the similarities of the Hyksos and the Exodus tale, it's important to note that the dates also don't line up with the I Kings account and the difference is more than 130 years. Moreover, there is no "Ramesses" for whom a city can be named at this point. Though, the correlation is one to not be quickly dismissed.
What if the Exodus Story Were Concocted?
What if, indeed? Why concoct such a tale and how would we know it was either concocted or true. Believers in Christianity assign varying degrees of trust in Old Testament mythology: some willing to accept it as myth at one extreme; others taking great umbrage to the use of the term "myth" at the other.
But if we hypothesize for a moment that the Exodus narrative (I'll stick to this term) is one that was
invented by the authors of Genesis, then what might we expect to find to corroborate the hypothesis?
First, we might expect that narrative be limited to only what the authors knew. Assuming that they didn't have Iron Age archaeologists excavating sites, we can assume that their knowledge was limited to the geography and politics of their time.
Second, if the narrative is an invented one, we would fail to see corroboration in Egyptian texts of it.
Third, if, indeed, this is a narrative invented by a much later author or set of authors, we would not expect to find archaeological evidence that supports it.
Guess What?
The sites mentioned in Exodus
are real. This is something that Ice brings up all the time. He's said (and I'm paraphrasing), "if the bible is false, then why do all the sites exist?"
The problem is this: the sites mentioned were sparsely populated by a few pastoralists or otherwise completely unoccupied during the alleged period that Exodus occurred in the Late Bronze Age (13th century BCE). A few were well-known and occupied much earlier and certainly much later than the Late Bronze Age, but during the Exodus period, nada. They were unoccupied
at precisely the time they were reported to be by Exodus.
Not only that, but Egyptian texts don't mention "Israelites" at all. If 600,000 slaves escaped the pharaoh, they were so stealthy they slipped past all the border stations that were put into place following the Hyksos expulsion, snuck past each of the fortifications used to supply soldiers along the "Ways of Horus," the 250 km route between Egypt and Gaza. And they successfully eluded Egyptian soldiers that were already present in Canaan, which was controlled by Egypt from the 13th through the 7th centuries BCE. The only mention of "Israel" is on the Merneptah Stele where Merneptah (1213-1203 BCE) boasts that "Isrir lies in waste its seed no more." The lack of a country determinative in the hieroglyphs clearly indicates Merneptah was referring to a
people not a
country and the depiction of the Israelites on the stele was consistent with Canaanite hair style.
Addressing the third point above, regarding archaeological evidence, our friend Ice is so frequently pointing out that biblical mythology has been the reason behind much of the archaeology in the Levant. This, too, is something that Ice has said which is true (the other being that places in the bible exist). There has been
extensive work done in archaeology in the Levant, particularly in the Sinai desert where the "children of Israel" (all 600,000 of them) were said to "wander."
Let's put the number into perspective. Fresno and Mission Viejo, both in California have populations of 500,000. Bakersfield is only 250,000. Vancouver, Canada has a population of 600,000.
Not a single archaeological expedition, and there have been a great many, has discovered evidence of any substantial group of people subsisting off of the land in the Sinai desert or in or near any of the sites mentioned in Exodus. According to the biblical narrative, the equivalent of the population of Vancouver was moving around and camping in the desert for 40 years. Not only were they stealthy (not encountering the Egyptian armies who recorded even encounters with a few nomadic pastoralists tending their flocks); but they were frugal! Not a single pot sherd has been found!
Not a single campsite or site of occupation has been found with the exception of the well-documented coastal forts and stations of the Egyptian army for the period of Ramesses II or for any of his immediate predecessors or successors. There have been repeated archaeological excavations at the site of
St. Catherine's Monastary in the Sinai, where Moses is supposed to have spoken to a burning bush, but the results have always been negative evidence. Not a single sherd or indication that the site was occupied in the Late Bronze Age. Modern archaeological techniques can trace the remains of hunter-gather and pastoral nomads all over the world, but cannot find a population the size of that of Vancouver in a barren desert! Indeed, the activity of a small population of pastoralists is present in the 3rd millennium (2000-3000) BCE, as well as in the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods. But the evidence is NON-EXISTENT for the Late Bronze Age.
Tell Arad
East of Beersheba there is the remains of a great Early Bronze Age city that spans about 25 acres. A "tell" is a mound of past human habitation that has since eroded from mud bricks to a pile of dirt, often built upon again and again over many generations. This tell also became an Iron Age fort, but there are no remains for the Late Bronze Age when Exodus is alleged to have happened.
This directly contradicts the biblical narrative since the king of Arad "who dwelt in the Negeb" attacked the Israelites who appealed for divine intervention to destroy the Canaanite cities (Num. 21:1-3). There's no evidence of Arad
anywhere in the Beersheba valley (Negeb).
Tell Heshban
The wandering Jews supposedly did battle here with the Ammorite king, Sihon, who tried to block there passage (Num. 21:21-25). Excavations here reveal NO Bronze Age city. Not even a village.
Eddom and Ammon were alleged to be full-fledge states ruled by kings on the Transjordan plateau, yet the evidence shows that the plateau was sparsely inhabited by pastoralist populations in the Bronze Age. Not a single sedentary population is evident in the archaeological record.
Conclusion
Clearly, Exodus was a story written by authors in the 7th century, or possibly as late as the 6th century, BCE. The place names mentioned above existed in by the 7th century but not in the Bronze Age. Iron Age authors would have known of the many public works created by the Saite Dynasty in Egypt's 26th Dynasty, who employed the largest numbers of foreign settlers. A large community of immigrants from Judah was present from the 7th through the 6th centuries.
Pithom, mentioned in Exodus 1:11, was built in the 7th century.
Migdol, mentioned in Exodus 14:2, was built in the 7th century.
Exodus did not happen in the period or in the manner in which it is portrayed in biblical mythology.
Useful References:
Beitak, M. (1996).
Avaris the capital of the Hyksos: recent excavations of Tell el-Daba. London
Finkelstein, I. & Silberman, N.A. (2001). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and The Origin of its Sacred Texts. New York
Oren, E.D. (1987). The "Ways of Horus" in North Sinai. In Rainey, A.F. (editor), Egypt, Israel, Sinai: Archaeological and Historical Relationships in the Biblical Period. Tel-Aviv
Redford, D.B. (1992). Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton
Redford, D.B. (1987) An Egyptological perspective on the Exodus narrative. In: Rainey, A.F. (editor), Egypt, Israel, Sinai: Archaeological and Historical Relationships in the Biblical Period. Tel-Aviv
Redford, D.B. (1973). Studies in Relations between Palestine and Egypt during the First Millennium B. C.: II. The Twenty-Second Dynasty Journal of the American Oriental Society, 93(1), pp. 3-17.
) please re-read the question in my last post.