"Scholarly consensus" sees Moses as a mythical figure?

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In a papyrus called the Onomasticon Amenope the Lakes of Pithom are listed by their semitic, not egyptian, name. This is consistent with the existence of a significant semitic-speaking population living in that region.
 
Arguing is fruitless…you either have faith or you don’t.

While I enjoy the concept of CAF, it drives me nuts that people cannot wrap their heads around the concept that not everyone thinks as they do, and those who do not are not de-facto heretics!
 
If Moses is fictional, as some scholars do claim, then there is no inspired Lawgiver, and if that is the case, then Judaism is a fraudulent religion and so is Christianity. From the Jewish perspective (mine at least), it is as simple as that. Anyone here ready to convert to Hinduism or Buddhism?
 
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Intrestingly, there does seem to be DNA evidence to support the existence of Moses and his brother Aaron. The existence of this seems to show many ethnic Jews can trace their ancestry to a common ancestor, Aaron and the Levites descended from him. Look up the Kohanim or Cohanim genetic marker. NOVA online has an interesting article about it.
 
thephilosopher6 said:
Most moderns scholars do hold the story of the Exodus to be mythological and have followed in the footsteps of scholars in the likes Mark S. Smith for example. This isn’t to say there is no core historicity behind the narrative, I certainly believe there is and so does the Church. But it doesn’t have to be taken literal in every detail I suppose. As said, the Revised Kenite hypothesis that I cited seems to be the most favored hypothesis about Israelite origins and I think it fits best with the Biblical narrative historically wise. Don’t worry over this, because God certainly knows.
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Does the Church allow us to not take every detail literally?
 
So this idea of a fictional Moses is not a generally held belief of today’s Jewish people?
In other words, most Jewish people believe there was a real Moses who generally did the stuff in the holy books, even though some of the details might be “legendary” rather than literal?
I couldn’t tell from the articles and I don’t currently know enough observant Jewish people to take a decent poll.
 
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Conversion is not necessary. Reinterpretation is. And it has been done many times before.
 
The answer is definitely yes. Moses as a myth, legend, or whatever is not acceptable for observant Jews and even many non-observant Jews. It would be the equivalent of saying (and some have and still do) that Jesus is a myth for Christians or that Muhammad is a myth for Muslims.
 
But not reinterpretation of the existence of the most important prophet in Judaism. That is unthinkable for without Moses, there is no Law (Torah), no legitimate Judaism, and thus no legitimate Christianity.
 
How is that possible? What then was Jesus talking about when He said He came not to change the Law but to fulfill it? How could the Law be the Word of G-d if it was not written by Moses who was inspired by G-d? Is it not the case that the whole edifice of CHRISTIANITY (let alone Judaism) tumbles if the Torah is not the inspired Word of G-d?
 
Hope1960 said:
Most moderns scholars do hold the story of the Exodus to be mythological and have followed in the footsteps of scholars in the likes Mark S. Smith for example. This isn’t to say there is no core historicity behind the narrative, I certainly believe there is and so does the Church. But it doesn’t have to be taken literal in every detail I suppose. As said, the Revised Kenite hypothesis that I cited seems to be the most favored hypothesis about Israelite origins and I think it fits best with the Biblical narrative historically wise. Don’t worry over this, because God certainly knows.

Does the Church allow us to not take every detail literally?
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Does it???
 
I like the Santa Claus reference earlier because it is very apt. Yes, there was a St. Nicholas who was an actual person. But various attributes have grown up about St. Nicholas that have turned him into “Santa Claus.” Is “Santa Claus” real? Yes and no.

But rather than debate Santa Claus, let’s go back to Moses. We know that there was a Hyksos invasion of Egypt that put an end to the Middle Kingdom. We know the Hyksos were from the East, and they were, among other things, shepherds. Could they have been the Jews? Yes–no proof of course, but certainly it fits. After the rise of the New Kingdom and the fall of the Hyksos, could some of the Hyksos have been enslaved (i.e., prisoners of war)? Yes. We know that the building of certain cities, Memphis, for example, was mostly done by slave labor. So all this fits the Biblical story in broad stokes. If these slaves did leave Egypt, would they have had a leader? Of course. Would “Moses” (an Egyptian name) have been their leader? Well, the leader had to have had a name. Whether it was Moses or Joe Blow doesn’t really matter, does it?

Then let’s take a look at the time between Moses and the first books of the Bible. Let’s put Moses at c. 1200 BC; I believe the first books of the Bible were probably written c. 538-605 BC. So roughly 600 years difference. So let’s say that today we were writing about something that happened in 1418 (600 years ago), and we didn’t really have any written records, just oral accounts. How accurate would we be? And, frankly, does it matter?
 
KevinK said:
Any more hilarious than Joshua stopping the sun from moving across the sky?
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Kevin,
Psalm 1 rebukes mockers, so be careful. It is very reasonable for a day to be long if you recognize what happened see http://www.scripturescholar.com/JoshuasLongDay.htm. Essentially that day in November was very much like we experience when we climb on a plane in Israel and fly to the west coast of the US during the day, a very long day.
Grace and peace,
Bruce
 
Legitimate Christianity rests on the resurrection and the grace of God, not the Law.
 
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The Torah is the inspired word of God, that doesn’t mean it was literally written by Moses. The Torah no where claims this, and actually at the end of Deuteronomy Moses dies. How could Moses record his own death? Joshua wrote it? Seems like a cop out answer. Scholars believe the Torah was composed from the 7th-4th centuries B.C. by the Deuteronomist and the Jahwehist-Elohist and the Priestly writers. It’s pretty much established fact in the scholarly community and there are many faithful Jews and Christians among these scholars.
 
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