Sources and parallels of the Exodus

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founding myth of the Israelites.[1][a] The scholarly consensus is that the Exodus, as described in the Torah, is not historical, even though there may be a historical core behind the Biblical narrative.[2][3]

Modern archaeologists believe that the Israelites were indigenous to Canaan and were never in ancient Egypt, and if there is any historical basis to the Exodus it can apply only to a small segment of the population of Israelites at large.[4] Nevertheless, it is also commonly argued that some historical event may have inspired these traditions, even if Moses and the Exodus narrative belong to the collective cultural memory rather than history.[5] According to Avraham Faust "most scholars agree that the narrative has a historical core, and that some of the highland settlers came, one way or another, from Egypt."[6]

Egyptologist

Habiru (gangs of antisocial elements found throughout the ancient Near East), and the large-scale migrations of the Sea Peoples into "a coherent story that is fictional as to its composition but historical as to some of its components."[7]

Historical consensus

The consensus of modern scholars is that the Torah does not give an accurate account of the origins of the

Kadesh-Barnea, where the Israelites are said to have spent 38 years, was uninhabited prior to the early 12th century BCE).[9] In contrast to the absence of evidence for the Egyptian captivity and wilderness wanderings, there are ample signs of Israel's evolution within Canaan from native Canaanite roots.[10] While a few scholars continue to discuss the historicity, or at least plausibility, of the exodus story, the majority of archaeologists have abandoned it, in the phrase used by archaeologist William Dever, as "a fruitless pursuit".[11][12]

The biblical narrative contains some details which are authentically Egyptian, but such details are scant, and the story frequently does not reflect Egypt of the

Late Bronze Age or even Egypt at all (it is unlikely, for example, that a mother would place a baby in the reeds of the Nile, where it would be in danger from crocodiles).[13] Such elements of the narrative as can be fitted into the 2nd millennium could equally belong to the 1st, consistent with a 1st millennium BCE writer trying to set an old story in Egypt.[14]

A century of research by

Canaanite god El, the pottery remains are in the Canaanite tradition, and the alphabet used is early Canaanite.[17] Although some recent scholarship has argued for Egyptian influence in early Israelite culture,[18] almost the sole marker distinguishing the "Israelite" villages from Canaanite sites is an absence of pig bones, although whether even this is an ethnic marker or is due to other factors remains a matter of dispute.[17]

According to Exodus 12:37–38, the Israelites numbered "about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children", plus the

Hebrew as "600 families" rather than 600,000 men, but all such solutions have their own set of problems.[24]

Details point to a 1st millennium date for the composition of the narrative:

domestication of the camel as a herd animal is thought not to have taken place before the late 2nd millennium, after the Israelites had already emerged in Canaan,[28] and they did not become widespread in Egypt until c. 200–100 BCE.[29]

The chronology of the Exodus narrative is symbolic: for example, its culminating event, the erection of the

four-roomed houses, collar-rimmed jars, etc.) are continuations of Canaanite culture.[37] The lack of evidence has led scholars to conclude that the Exodus story does not represent a specific historical moment.[38]

The

11th Dynasty.[40]

The expulsion of the Hyksos

Ahmose slaying a Hyksos (center)

The Hyksos were a Semitic people whose arrival and departure from Ancient Egypt has sometimes been seen as broadly parallel to the biblical tale of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt.[41] Canaanite populations first appeared in Egypt towards the end of the 12th Dynasty c. 1800 BCE, and either around that time, or c. 1720 BCE, established an independent realm in the eastern Nile Delta. In about 1650 BCE, this realm was assumed by the rulers known as the Hyksos, who formed the 15th Dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs.[42][43]

It has been claimed that new revolutionary methods of warfare ensured for the Hyksos their ascendancy, in their influx into the new emporia being established in Egypt's delta and at Thebes in support of the Red Sea trade.[44][45] However, in recent years the idea of a simple Hyksos migration, with little or no war, has gained support.[46][47]

In any case, the 16th Dynasty and the 17th Dynasty continued to rule in Upper Egypt (southern Egypt) in co-existence with the Hyksos kings, perhaps as their vassals. Eventually, Seqenenre Tao, Kamose and Ahmose I waged war against the Hyksos and expelled Khamudi, their last king, from Egypt c. 1550 BCE.[42]

The saga of the Hyksos was recorded by the Egyptian historian Manetho (3rd century BCE), chief priest at the Temple of Ra in Heliopolis, and is preserved in three quotations by the 1st century CE Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus.[48] In Manetho's History of Egypt, as retold by Josephus, Manetho describes the Hyksos, their lowly origins in Asia, their invasion and dominion over Egypt, their eventual expulsion, and their subsequent exile to Judea, and their establishing the city of Jerusalem and its temple. Manetho defined the Hyksos as being the "Shepherd Kings" or "Captive Shepherds" who invaded Egypt, destroying its cities and temples and making war with the Egyptian people to "gradually destroy them to the very roots". Following a war with the Egyptians a treaty was negotiated stipulating that these Hyksos Shepherds were to exit Egypt.[49]

Josephus said that Manetho's Hyksos narrative was a reliable Egyptian account about the Israelite Exodus, and that the Hyksos were 'our people'.

Donald Redford said that the Exodus narrative is a Canaanite memory of the Hyksos' descent and occupation of Egypt.[41] Jan Assmann said the biblical narrative is more like a counterhistory: "It turns kings into slaves; an expulsion into a ban on emigration; a descent from the Egyptian throne to insignificance into an ascent from oppression to freedom as god's chosen people."[53]

There is a current scholarly consensus that if the Israelites did emerge from Egypt, it must have occurred sometime during the 13th century, because there is no archaeological evidence of any distinctive Israelite material culture before that time.[54] Nevertheless, many recent scholars have posited that the Exodus narrative may have developed from collective memories of Hyksos expulsions from Egypt, and possibly elaborated on to encourage resistance to the 7th century domination of Judah by Egypt.[55][56][57]

Minoan eruption

In her book The Parting of the Sea: How Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Plagues Shaped the Story of the Exodus, geologist Barbara J. Sivertsen explores links between the biblical Exodus narrative, the Hyksos expulsion, and the Minoan (Thera) volcanic eruption c. 1600 BCE.[58] Apocalyptic rainstorms, which devastated much of Egypt, and were described on the Tempest Stele of Ahmose I, pharaoh of the Hyksos expulsion, have been attributed to short-term climatic changes caused by the Theran eruption.[59][60][61] While it has been argued that the damage attributed to this storm may have been caused by an earthquake following the Thera Eruption, it has also been suggested that it was caused during a war with the Hyksos, and the storm reference is merely a metaphor for chaos upon which the Pharaoh was attempting to impose order.[62] Documents such as Hatshepsut's Speos Artemidos depict storms, but are clearly figurative not literal. Research indicates that the Speos Artemidos stele is a reference to her overcoming the powers of chaos and darkness.[62]

Akhenaten and the end of the Amarna period

Statue head of Akhenaten

Akhetaten or 'Horizon of Aten', was built at the site known today as Amarna.[63][64] The city was built hastily, mostly using mud bricks. After Akhenaten's death, it was abandoned. The temples, shrines, and royal statues were razed later, during the reign of Horemheb.[65]

The idea of Akhenaten as the pioneer of a monotheistic religion that later became Judaism has been considered by various scholars.[66][67] One of the first to mention this was Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in his book Moses and Monotheism.[66] Basing his arguments on a belief that the Exodus story was historical, Freud argued that Moses had been an Atenist priest forced to leave Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten's death. Freud argued that Akhenaten was striving to promote monotheism, something that the biblical Moses was able to achieve.[66]

In 1973,

Donald Redford said that there is little evidence that Akhenaten was a progenitor of Biblical monotheism. To the contrary, he has asserted that the religion of the Hebrew Bible had its own separate development beginning 500 years later.[69]

The Ramesside Period

Most scholars who accept that some sort of exodus happened date this event to the thirteenth century BCE at the time of Ramesses II, or during the twelfth century BCE at the time of Ramesses III.[6]

One text of this period which has been connected to the Exodus narrative is Papyrus Leiden 348, which refers construction works at Pi-Ramesses (Biblical

'Apiru (or Habiru) and Hebrews, so this text may provide a possible (yet uncertain) reference to some proto-Israelites doing construction work at Pi-Ramesses during this period.[71]

Another possible evidence for the presence of proto-Israelites in Egypt from this period are two four-room houses discovered at

Gary Rendsburg have pointed out that the four-room house is commonly considered to be a distinctive Israelite ethnic marker, suggesting that the settlers in those houses may have been related to the Israelites.[72]

Bietak and Rendsburg have also argued that another possible parallel to the Exodus narrative may be Papyrus Anastasi V. This papyrus, which dates to the reign of Seti II, contains a report from a frontier official referring to slaves escaping from Egypt through the cities of Succoth and Migdol (two places mentioned in the Biblical account).[73] Bitetak and Rendsburg hold that this parallel "suggests that the Israelites were using a route well traveled by fugitive slaves, somewhat akin to the “underground railroad” of American history".[74]

Biblical scholar

19th Dynasty of Egypt, suggesting a possible connection with the account of Israelite servitude to the Egyptians.[75] Ziony Zevit argues that the Bible's depiction of Israelite servitude accords with what it is known about slavery in ancient Egypt.[76]

Another scholar who places the Exodus in this period is Richard Elliott Friedman. He argues that the Tribe of Levi were the only ones to escape from Egypt in the Exodus, during the reign of either Pharaoh Ramesses II or his son, Pharaoh Merneptah bringing Yahweh to Canaan, who later merged with the Canaanite god El. Friedman is not sure where the Levites got Yahweh from, although he hypothesizes either from the Shasu deity Yhw, or potentially in Midian. He argues this was a crucial step for monotheism. Friedman also argues that most of the Levites in the story, like Moses, Aaron, and Phinehas have names that may have originated in Egypt. He also argues that the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:1-15:18) and the Song Of Deborah (Judges 5:2-5:31) are the two oldest works in the Bible. The Song of the Sea doesn't mention a number of people going out of Egypt, rather a nation led by Yahweh. He also points out the Song of Deborah doesn't mention the Levites as one of the tribes of Israel, perhaps because they were still in Egypt. Lastly, Friedman points to the similarities between the Tabernacle and the Battle Tent of Ramesses II.[77][page needed]

Egyptian and Hellenistic parallels

Several ancient non-biblical sources seem to parallel the biblical Exodus narrative or the events which occurred at the end of the eighteenth dynasty when the new religion of Akhenaten was denounced and his capital city of Amarna was abandoned. These tales often combine elements of the Hyksos expulsion.[78] For example, Hecataeus of Abdera (c. 320 BCE) tells how the Egyptians blamed a plague on foreigners and expelled them from the country, whereupon Moses, their leader, took them to Canaan.[79] There are more than a dozen versions of this story, all of them adding more detail, most of them profoundly anti-Jewish.[79] Manetho tells how 80,000 lepers and other "impure people", led by a priest named Osarseph, join forces with the former Hyksos, now living in Jerusalem, to take over Egypt. They wreak havoc until eventually the pharaoh and his son chase them out to the borders of Syria, where Osarseph gives the lepers a law-code and changes his name to Moses, although the identification of Osarseph with Moses in the second account may be a later addition.[80][81] Josephus vehemently disagreed with the claim that the Israelites were connected with Manetho's story about Osarseph and the lepers.[82] The stories told by Hecataeus and Manetho seems to be related in some way to that of the Exodus, although it is impossible to tell whether they both bear witness to historical events, or Manetho is a polemical response to the Exodus story, or the Exodus story a response to the Egyptian stories.[83]

Three interpretations have been proposed for Manetho's story of Osarseph and the lepers: the first, as a memory of the Amarna period; the second, as a memory of the Hyksos; and the third, as an anti-Jewish propaganda. Each explanation has evidence to support it: the name of the pharaoh, Amenophis, and the religious character of the conflict fit the Amarna reform of Egyptian religion; the name of Avaris and possibly the name Osarseph fit the Hyksos period; and the overall plot is an apparent inversion of the Jewish story of the Exodus casting the Jews in a bad light. No one theory, however, can explain all the elements. A proposal by Egyptologist Jan Assmann[84] suggests that the story has no single origin but rather combines numerous historical experiences, notably the Amarna and Hyksos periods, into a folk memory.[85]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Sparks 2010, p. 73.
  2. ^ Faust 2015, p.476: "While there is a consensus among scholars that the Exodus did not take place in the manner described in the Bible, surprisingly most scholars agree that the narrative has a historical core, and that some of the highland settlers came, one way or another, from Egypt..".
  3. ^ Hoffmeier 2014, p. 47.
  4. ^ Collins 2004, p. 182.
  5. ^ Meyers 2005, p. 10.
  6. ^ a b Faust 2015, p. 476.
  7. ^ Assmann 2014, p. 26.
  8. ^ Davies 2015, p. 51.
  9. ^ Finkelstein 2015, p. 41.
  10. ^ Barmash 2015, p. 4.
  11. ^ Moore & Kelle 2011, p. 89.
  12. ^ Dever 2001, p. 99.
  13. ^ Barmash 2015, p. 2.
  14. ^ Moore & Kelle 2011, pp. 88–91.
  15. ^ Meyers 2005, p. 5.
  16. ^ Shaw 2002, p. 313.
  17. ^ a b Killebrew 2005, p. 176.
  18. ^ Burke 2022, p. 537.
  19. ^ Miller 2009, p. 256.
  20. ^ a b Redford 1992, p. 408.
  21. ^ Cline 2007, p. 74.
  22. ^ Hoffmeier 2005, p. 153.
  23. ^ Dever 2003, p. 19.
  24. ^ Grisanti 2011, pp. 240–246.
  25. ^ Finkelstein 2015, p. 42.
  26. ^ a b Van Seters 1997a, pp. 255ff.
  27. ^ Soggin 1998, pp. 128–29.
  28. ^ Finkelstein & Silberman 2002, p. 334.
  29. ^ Faye 2013, p. 3.
  30. ^ Hayes & Miller 1986, p. 59.
  31. ^ Davies 1998, p. 180.
  32. ^ Killebrew 2005, p. 151.
  33. ^ Moore & Kelle 2011, p. 81.
  34. ^ Thompson 1999, p. 74.
  35. ^ Barmash 2015, p. 16, fn.10.
  36. ^ Finkelstein & Silberman 2002, pp. 77–79, 82.
  37. ^ Killebrew 2005, pp. 175–77.
  38. ^ Killebrew 2005, p. 152.
  39. ^ Hoffmeier 2005, pp. 140ff.
  40. ^ Cooper, Julien (February 2023). "The Earliest Mention of the Placename Sinai: The Journeys of Khety". The Ancient Near East Today. 11 (2).
  41. ^ a b Redford 1992, p. 412.
  42. ^ a b Ryholt & Bülow-Jacobsen 1997.
  43. ^ Lloyd 1993, p. 76.
  44. ^ Winlock 1947.
  45. ^ Breasted 2003, p. 216.
  46. ^ Booth 2005, p. 10.
  47. ^ Callender 2003, p. 157.
  48. ^ Josephus 2006, p. 1:14, 1:16, 1:26..
  49. ^ Josephus 2006, p. 1:14-15.
  50. ^ Droge 1996, pp. 121–22.
  51. ^ Josephus 2006, p. 1:26.
  52. ^ Hengstenberg 1843, p. 254.
  53. ^ Assmann 2009b, p. 59.
  54. ^ Geraty 2015, p. 58.
  55. ^ Finkelstein & Silberman 2002, p. 68-69.
  56. ^ Meyers 2005, p. 8-10.
  57. ^ Faust 2015, p. 477.
  58. ^ Sivertsen 2009.
  59. ^ Foster, Ritner & Foster 1996.
  60. ^ Davis 1990.
  61. ^ Goedicke 1995.
  62. ^ a b Wiener & Allen 1998.
  63. ^ David 1998, pp. 124–126.
  64. ^ Montserrat 2002, p. 36.
  65. ^ Stevens 2015.
  66. ^ a b c Freud 1939.
  67. ^ Montserrat 2002.
  68. ^ Albright 1973.
  69. ^ Redford 1996.
  70. ^ Bietak & Rendsburg 2021, p. 29.
  71. ^ Bietak & Rendsburg 2021, p. 30.
  72. ^ Bietak & Rendsburg 2021, p. 30–32.
  73. ^ Bietak & Rendsburg 2021, p. 38–39.
  74. ^ Bietak & Rendsburg 2021, p. 39.
  75. ^ Davies 2020, p. 152.
  76. ^ Zevit 2021, p. 406.
  77. ^ Friedman 2017.
  78. ^ Assmann 2009, p. 29.
  79. ^ a b Assmann 2009, p. 34.
  80. ^ Droge 1996, pp. 134–35.
  81. ^ Feldman 1998, p. 342.
  82. ^ Assmann 2009, pp. 30–31.
  83. ^ Gmirkin 2006, p. 170.
  84. ^ Assmann 2009.
  85. ^ Assmann 2003, p. 227.

Notes

  1. ^ The name "exodus" is from Greek ἔξοδος exodos, "going out". For "myth" see Sparks, 2010, p. 73: "Charter (i.e., foundation) myths tell the story of a society's origins, and, in doing so, provide the ideological foundations for the culture and its institutions."[1]

References

  • Albright, William F. (1973). "From the Patriarchs to Moses II. Moses out of Egypt". The Biblical Archaeologist. 36 (2): 48–76.
    S2CID 135099403
    .

Further reading
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