Moses and the Exodus, Mythical or Real?

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Hope1960

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I’ve been posting on another thread where the OP mentions that the scholarly concensus is that Moses is a mythical figure.

Someone linked this article to the board and I don’t really know what to make of it.

It seems to me that it’s suggesting that:
  1. Despite virtually all that I’ve read, there is archaeological evidence for the Exodus but that the timeline in the Bible is incorrect
  2. The Bible has embellished certain things.
What is your opinion of this article?

If the Bible’s timeline IS off or if it embellished certain details about Moses or the Exodus, is that acceptable to us, as Catholics?

http://www.scripturescholar.com/
 
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By embellish, do mean the pejorative sense as if a deception or a flaw in inspiration?

As Catholics, we accept scriptures as inspired literature that communicates God’s saving truth, not historical or scientific papers.
 
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If Moses were fictional, why did Jesus reference him at times? Numerous times.
 
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Jesus and writers of the Old and New Testaments referenced Moses. The whole Exodus story is one of the most important events that shaped Israel and the Jewish people. He literally appeared at the Transfiguration! He was certainly real, not a mythical figure. But I accept the Bible as literal, historical fact, so what do I know. 😉

I’ll just quietly bow out now so you guys can debate it. 🤣
 
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Hope1960 said:
Shoot! I just looked at my link and it’s not what I copied and pasted. Let me try again.

The Bible vs. Archaeology, You Decide
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It’s not really an either-or proposition. The accuracy of historical dating, especially with events that are this old, can be measured in hundreds, if not thousands, of years. We try hard to build accurate time lines, but with the Exodus we’re dealing with the time before writing was common, and when calendar systems were based primarily on lunar phases. Dating was handled based on the current ruler rather than a universal system, so it’s hard to p(name removed by moderator)oint dates relative to our own.

There have been no discoveries that prevent us from believing in the Exodus. Remember, the lack of evidence is not evidence of lack. We’re talking about a 40-year journey across a desert. There is no terrain on Earth better at wiping away the historical record than the desert.
 
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ProdglArchitect said:
There have been no discoveries that prevent us from believing in the Exodus. Remember, the lack of evidence is not evidence of lack. We’re talking about a 40-year journey across a desert. There is no terrain on Earth better at wiping away the historical record than the desert.
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What about the lack of record in hieroglyphics? I’ve read that something that major surely would’ve been recorded on stone walls. Then on the other hand, I’ve read that the Egyptians may have wiped those writings out. I’d think that if that were the case, though, there would be evidence that they wiped it out. No?
 
goout said:
By embellish, do mean the pejorative sense as if a deception or a flaw in inspiration?

As Catholics, we accept scriptures as inspired literature that communicates God’s saving truth, not historical or scientific papers.
Click to expand...
I mean changing things to make them bigger than they really were.
 
joeybaggz said:
If Moses were fictional, why did Jesus reference him at times? Numerous times.
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While I believe Moses to be a historical figure have you ever used a reference to a fictional character known to your audience as if they were real?
 
Yea, but that isn’t the point here. The question is, was Moses an actual historical figure. I don’t believe that Jesus’ references to him were of an allegorical nature.
 
Let me suggest that the primary question of scripture is not “did that really happen as factual, historical, and scientific materialist fact?”
It’s good to inquire about those things, but scripture address much deeper realities than that.

If Moses didn’t really exist as a fingerprinted Israelite, how does that change your faith in God?
And how are you going to prove it anyway?
 
For the 100 billionth time, Moses existed, but it should be recognized that the Pentateuch was written within the literary conventions of its time and shaped by legendary elements. We really don’t need another one of these threads that seems to pop up every 2 weeks.
 
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goout said:
Let me suggest that the primary question of scripture is not “did that really happen as factual, historical, and scientific materialist fact?”
It’s good to inquire about those things, but scripture address much deeper realities than that.

If Moses didn’t really exist as a fingerprinted Israelite, how does that change your faith in God?
And how are you going to prove it anyway?
Click to expand...
I just would like some recent (name removed by moderator)ut from reputable scholars who believe Moses was real and that the Exodus happened. It was suggested to me on the previous thread to look on Amazon for books that were written by scholars and archaologists who support this. Someone told me she found a lot. I found few to none.
 
thephilosopher6 said:
For the 100 billionth time, Moses existed, but it should be recognized that the Pentateuch was written within the literary conventions of its time and shaped by legendary elements. We really don’t need another one of these threads that seems to pop up every 2 weeks.
Click to expand...
If you don’t like the topic of this or any other thread you’re free to ignore it.
 
Is your interest merely academic or does this issue cause skepticism to arise?
If it does, fine, let the objections arise. This happens to me a quite a bit. Dwelling on matters of faith in a materialist way (pun intended) can be corrosive to my faith.

I have to let it go, and accept that God can use poetry, allegory, metaphor, parable, etc…to communicate truth.
 
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