My doubts on the book of Exodus

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Is the story told in the book of Exodus a true historical event? Why is there no any archaeological evidence of thousands of people who died in the desert during the forty years? Also by the time Israelites are said to arrive in Canaan, that country was under Egyptian occupation. How could they enter?
 
Has anyone tried to find archeological evidence of this? I truly don’t know. Also, the Bible refers many times to people being buried somewhere other than where they died. Is that possible? Again, I’m just thinking aloud here - I really don’t know. Lastly, have you read the book of Judges re: how God’s people entered the promised land? They literally faced much stronger enemies over and over & when they followed God’s direction those enemies mysteriously fled or where conquered in spite of being much more powerful. Several times the enemies were quoted as basically saying “Yikes! Here come those people whose God parted the sea for them! Run for your lives before such a powerful God!!”
 
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Yes look up the Ipuwer Papyrus. Also, the Jewish nation cannot be explained theologically or historically without an Exodus.
 
Dan_Defender said:
Yes look up the Ipuwer Papyrus. Also, the Jewish nation cannot be explained theologically or historically without an Exodus.
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It can’t be theologically explained, I agree. It can be historically explained without an exodus occurring, however. And it has…basically the Canaanites never left and a group of them became the Hebrews.

Archeological digs have been done multiple times. There isn’t evidence of an exodus of a large group of people. There is evidence of continual habitation in Israel and surrounding areas and genetic evidence that Hebrews and Canaanites are the same people.

This doesn’t mean that no people left Egypt, had a journey across the desert and joined up or formed a new group in Israel that became the early Hebrews. Archeologists are just pretty sure nothing like the story in exodus happened as exodus tells it.
 
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uwekezaji said:
Is the story told in the book of Exodus a true historical event?
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The Bible should be understood as a spiritual text. While it may be based loosely on things that happened historically, the stories it tells about those events will be changed in order to more accurately portray the spiritual archetypes the events are being used to represent.

Therefore, if you’re looking for historical evidence in the physical world to confirm the stories in the Bible, you will be disappointed because you are looking in the wrong world. The Bible is not meant to educate us about the physical world. There are plenty of other, better sources for that.

That said, there may be some historical evidence for Exodus. Consider this article about the possible discovery of the historical Moses:


Senenmut was a commoner adopted by the daughter of the Pharaoh, Hatshepsut, and treated like Egyptian royalty (which was completely unheard of at the time). He lived around the time Moses was expected to live. Although he had a tomb built, he was never buried in Egypt (ostensibly because he left with the Jews). And the Egyptians attempted to erase every trace of the memory of both him and his adopted mother as a punishment right around the time the Exodus would have taken place.

So something happened in Egypt around that time that caused the Pharaoh to want to erase all memories of Hatshepsut 30 years after she had been honorably buried. Did all of the historical details coincide with Exodus? Probably not, and we shouldn’t expect them to. But there do appear to be at least some loose historical correlations.
 
The scriptures are not a history book. Understand the different tenses of Scripture
 
Pattylt said:
Archeological digs have been done multiple times. There isn’t evidence of an exodus of a large group of people. There is evidence of continual habitation in Israel and surrounding areas and genetic evidence that Hebrews and Canaanites are the same people.
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I disagree. There is archaeological evidence of an early period where people were pagans, with idols everywhere. Then, the idols gradually disappear until you have the First Temple built. Of course the evidence is not perfect, it never is, but it is good enough for me. As far as genetics, of course they would all be related if you believe that Abraham started to populate the region.
 
The Egyptians would not have written anything about their slaves humiliating them and their gods.

There are tell-tale signs in the text that it is from a source directly familiar with 14th century BC Egypt, such as calling the ruler simply “Pharaoh”…

There is no archaeological evidence for a major battle the Egyptians fought as well (though I can’t recall the name of it at present - could go find it if you want), but nobody disputes this battle’s existence (somewhere in North Africa if I recall - which, we should note, is full of sand, and full of people who salvage whatever they find in that sand). Egyptology is a brand new science…

There is good literature on this… recent stuff, too, though maybe not focused on archaeology. Give a look at Fr. White’s book on Exodus, for example.
 
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Then you want to say even the events in the four gospel did not really happen but are just crafted stories to be understood spiritually?
 
Something transformed a collection of nomadic herders into a territorial, organised, rules-based (with a rules-obsessed priestly tribe) people.

Quite what came out of Egypt will always be a matter of debate.
 
That is not what I said. I said the Scriptures were never intended by God as a history textbook.

The Church teaches us about the different languages or tenses of Scripture.

For instance, there is poetry. No person has Hinds feet. We are not literal lights. I read Psalms knowing I cannot soar in the heavens.

Christ himself used parables, or morality tales, to teach lessons. We call them parables. This manner of teaching goes back to the beginning.
 
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But Moses parted the sea, and the Israelites walked through dry-shod to the other side, while Pharaoh’s horse and chariots were cast into the deep. The record leaves little doubt of this actually happening.
 
But Judaism and Christianity are historical religions, and rooted in real historical events.
 
uwekezaji said:
Then you want to say even the events in the four gospel did not really happen but are just crafted stories to be understood spiritually?
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The Old Testament was written on the basis of secular oral traditions. It is unreasonable to expect that writings based on so old oral traditions can represent faithful accounts of what really happened. On the contrary, the Gospels were written by some apostoles (direct witnesses of the events) and by some apostoles’ disciples.
It is reasonable to believe that the Gospels are much more faithful accounts of what really happeded
 
Mmarco said:
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uwekezaji:
Then you want to say even the events in the four gospel did not really happen but are just crafted stories to be understood spiritually?
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The Old Testament was written on the basis of secular oral traditions. It is unreasonable to expect that writings based on so old oral traditions can represent faithful accounts of what really happened. On the contrary, the Gospels were written by some apostoles (direct witnesses of the events) and by some apostoles’ disciples.
It is reasonable to believe that the Gospels are much more faithful accounts of what really happeded
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Your interpretation of Sacred Scripture is what is unreasonable and unCatholic. There is an ancient heresy known as Marcionism that asserted that the God of the New Testament is a different god than the God of the Old Testament, and you’re constantly bumping up against that here.

There is no contradiction or inaccuracy in Sacred Scripture, whether it is Old or New. You just need the proper hermeneutic for interpretation.
 
Look up the Hyksos. Canaanite shepherds who settled in the eastern Nile delta in about 1800 BC and emigrated out after a civil war centuries later, who seem to have been henotheists who believed in the Canaanite storm god (Set in the Egyptian pantheon, who was also the Egyptian god of foreigners.).

What third-party history we have of them doesn’t line up exactly with the Joseph and Exodus narratives, but there are some strong parallels, too.
 
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George Washington is a real, historical person. He lived and died, he did good things and bad things, just like all of us.

When I was a kid, every child for generations knew the account of Young George Washington and the cherry tree.

St Francis was a real historical person. Everyone knows “preach the gospel always when necessary use words”.

Except neither real man did or said either of these things.
 
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