The Exodus: Fact or Fiction?
Evidence of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt
Dated to c. 1219 B.C.E., the Merneptah Stele is the earliest extrabiblical record of a people group called Israel. Set up by Pharaoh Merneptah to commemorate his military victories, the stele proclaims, “Ashkelon is carried off, and Gezer is captured. Yeno’am is made into nonexistence; Israel is wasted, its seed is not.” Ashkelon, Gezer and Yeno’am are followed by an Egyptian hieroglyph that designates a town. Israel is followed by a hieroglyph that means a people. Photo: Maryl Levine.
Is the biblical Exodus fact or fiction?
This is a loaded question. Although biblical scholars and archaeologists argue about various aspects of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, many of them agree that the Exodus occurred in some form or another.
The question “Did the Exodus happen” then becomes “When did the Exodus happen?” This is another heated question. Although there is much debate, most people settle into two camps: They argue for either a 15th-century B.C.E. or 13th-century B.C.E. date for Israel’s Exodus from Egypt.
The article “Exodus Evidence: An Egyptologist Looks at Biblical History” from the May/June 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review1 wrestles with both of these questions—“Did the Exodus happen?” and “When did the Exodus happen?” In the article, evidence is presented that generally supports a 13th-century B.C.E. Exodus during the Ramesside Period, when Egypt’s 19th Dynasty ruled.
The article examines Egyptian texts, artifacts and archaeological sites, which demonstrate that the Bible recounts accurate memories from the 13th century B.C.E. For instance, the names of three places that appear in the biblical account of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt correspond to Egyptian place names from the Ramesside Period (13th–11th centuries B.C.E.). The Bible recounts that, as slaves, the Israelites were forced to build the store-cities of Pithom and Ramses. After the ten plagues, the Israelites left Egypt and famously crossed the Yam Suph (translated Red Sea or Reed Sea), whose waters were miraculously parted for them. The biblical names Pithom, Ramses and Yam Suph (Red Sea or Reed Sea) correspond to the Egyptian place names Pi-Ramesse, Pi-Atum and (Pa-)Tjuf. These three place names appear together in Egyptian texts only from the Ramesside Period. The name Pi-Ramesse went out of use by the beginning of Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period, which began around 1085 B.C.E., and does not reappear until much later.
FREE ebook: Ancient Israel in Egypt and the Exodus.
These specific place names recorded in the biblical text demonstrate that the memory of the biblical authors for these traditions predates Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period. This supports a 13th-century Exodus during the Ramesside Period because it is only during the Ramesside Period that the place names Pi-Ramesse, Pi-Atum and (Pa-)Tjuf (Red Sea or Reed Sea) are all in use.
A worker’s house from western Thebes also seems to support a 13th-century Exodus. In the 1930s, archaeologists at the University of Chicago were excavating the mortuary Temple of Aya and Horemheb, the last two pharaohs of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, in western Thebes. The temple was first built by Aya in the 14th-century B.C.E., but Horemheb usurped and expanded the temple when he became pharaoh. (He ruled from the late 14th century through the early 13th century B.C.E.) Horemheb chiseled out every place where Aya’s name had been and replaced it with his own. Later—during the reign of Ramses IV (12th century B.C.E.)—the Temple of Aya and Horemheb was demolished.
During their excavations, the University of Chicago uncovered a house and part of another house belonging to the workers who were given the task of demolishing the temple. The plan of the complete house is the same as that of the four-room house characteristic of Israelite dwellings during the Iron Age. However, unlike the Israelite models that were usually constructed of stone, the Theban house was made of wattle and daub. It is significant that this house was built in Egypt at the same time that Israelites were constructing four-room houses in Canaan. The similarities between the two have caused some to speculate that the builders of the Theban house were either proto-Israelites or a group closely related to the Israelites.
Is this a proto-Israelite house? This plan shows the 12th-century B.C.E. worker’s house in western Thebes next to the Temple of Aya and Horemheb. The house is undoubtedly a four-room house. In Canaan, the four-room house is considered an ethnic marker for the presence of Israelites during the Iron Age. Is the Biblical Exodus fact or fiction? This favors “fact,” so the question becomes, “When did the Exodus happen?” The presence of such a house in Egypt during the 12th century B.C.E. seems to support an Exodus during the Ramesside Period. Photo: Courtesy of Manfred Bietak.
A third piece of evidence for the Exodus is the Onomasticon Amenope. The Onomasticon Amenope is a list of categorized words from Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period. Written in hieratic, the papyrus includes the Semitic place name b-r-k.t, which refers to the Lakes of Pithom. Even in Egyptian sources, the Semitic name for the Lakes of Pithom was used instead of the original Egyptian name. It is likely that a Semitic-speaking population lived in the region long enough that their name eventually supplanted the original.
Watch full-length lectures from the Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination conference, which addressed some of the most challenging issues in Exodus scholarship. The international conference was hosted by Calit2’s Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego in San Diego, CA.
Another compelling piece of evidence for the Exodus is found in the biblical text itself. A history of enslavement is likely to be true. The article explains:
The storyline of the Exodus, of a people fleeing from a humiliating slavery, suggests elements that are historically credible. Normally, it is only tales of glory and victory that are preserved in narratives from one generation to the next. A history of being slaves is likely to bear elements of truth.
Exodus: Fact or fiction? This four-room house from Izbet Sartah, Israel, shares many similarities with the 12th-century B.C.E. worker’s house uncovered in western Thebes. Photo: Israel Finkelstein/Tel Aviv University.
So, is the biblical Exodus fact or fiction? Scholars and people of many faiths line up on either side of the equation, and some say both. Archaeological discoveries have verified that parts of the biblical Exodus are historically accurate, but archaeology can’t tell us everything. Although archaeology can illuminate aspects of the past and bring parts of history to life, it has its limits.
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It certainly is exciting when the archaeological record matches with the biblical account—as with the examples described here. However, while this evidence certainly adds weight to the historical accuracy of elements of the biblical account, it can’t be used to “prove” that every detail of the Exodus story in the Bible is true.
To learn more about evidence for Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, read the full article “Exodus Evidence: An Egyptologist Looks at Biblical History” in the May/June 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Subscribers: Read the full article “Exodus Evidence: An Egyptologist Looks at Biblical History” in the May/June 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
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This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on April 10, 2016.
Notes
1. This BAR article is a free abstract from Manfred Bietak’s article “On the Historicity of the Exodus: What Egyptology Today Can Contribute to Assessing the Biblical Account of the Sojourn in Egypt” in Thomas E. Levy, Thomas Schneider and William H.C. Propp, eds., Israel’s Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective: Text, Archaeology, Culture and Geoscience (Cham: Springer, 2015). In Bietak’s article, the scholarly debate about the archaeological remains and the onomastic data of Wadi Tumilat is more elaborately treated.
Related reading in Bible History Daily
Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination
All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library
The Exodus and the Crossing of the Red Sea, According to Hans Goedicke
Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.
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Biblical Archaeology has yet to come to its literary history senses, and is filled with such political correctness nonsense of rear end kissing atheism, that it has no clue as to what the historical facts are or how to again and again come to a same right conclusion.
The Greeks who existed before Cyrus I conquering Babylon in circa 539 B.C., reckoned their years upon a 10-month or ca. 305-day calendar (Theophilus to Autolycus, 3.27). It was NOT a annual calendar based on seasons, it was a mathematical calendar. It was with Cyrus I in Babylon, that the Greeks reckoned a 48-month cycle for each Olympiad in place of the 40-month cycle (Julias Africanus, Fragment 13 -.3). –Post-539 B.C., we are to calculate against a 12-month calendar.
According to Herodotus, by his era, the Greek calendar became reckoned as 12 months of 30 days, with every other year being given an extra inter-calculated month of 30 days — Year 1 being 360 days, and Year 2 being 390 days, and then repeating itself thereafter (Herodotus, Histories, 1.33).
— From 539 B.C. to 46 B.C., the average Macedonian / Greek year appears to have become tabulated on average of 375 days long: being 360 days 1 year, then 390 the next. So this era of 46-539 B.C. is the point of the greatest trouble in calculating actual years in Greek reckonings. In 46 B.C., the Greeks adopted the standard Roman or Julian calendar of 365 days. In that particular year, adjustments were made, and 46 B.C appears to have been 445 days long.
raditionally, the first Olympiad is thought to have occurred around 776 B.C. In reality, the early Olympiads, which contained 4 years of 10 months each, first started when Ahaz reigned in his first year in Jerusalem, in 741 B.C. (Julius Africanus, Fragment 15).
Therefore, any year before 741 B.C. is pre-Olympic history to the Greeks. By being able to balance proper Biblical Chronology early on, we can more properly reckon the older dates of both Greek and Hebrew Histories as presented in Patristics.
It is entirely important that we know that 741 B.C., like the Diaspora of 586 B.C., be a fixed year and immutable. Once such a year is fixed firmly, such as the Bible does do for us, we can then springboard with greater accuracy as to what the testimony of the past really is.
One example of using the Patristic reckoning of Greek history is found in the dating of Homer, the author of many Greek myths and false deities. But in order to date Homer, we also need to date the fall of Troy.
During the times of the 62nd Olympiad, Heraclitus wrote that the Trojan War and the First Olympiad were separated by 407 [10-month] years (Clement, Miscellanies, 1.21).
By that reckoning, the Trojan War ends in 1071 B.C. But Clement also cites the Greek historian Eratosthenes, who appears to “phrase” an oversight to historians.
a) From the capture of Troy to the descent (or expedition) of the Heraclidae: are 80 [10-month] years
b) From the Heraclidae to the founding of Ionia: are 60 [10-month] years
c) From the Heraclidae to the protectorate of Lycurgus: are 159 [10-month] years
d) From the protectorate of Lycurgus to the First Olympiad: are 108 [10-month] years
First Assumption ——————————- Actual Testimony
1070 B.C. — The fall of Troy —————— 1032 B.C.
1005 B.C.— The descent of Heraclidae ————957 B.C.
957 B.C.—- Ionia is founded — —————–909 B.C.
828 B.C.— The “Protectorate of Lycurgus” ——- 828 B.C.
741 B.C. —- The First Olympiad —————– 741 B.C.
In the above, we find that the testimony hinges on a double reckoning from the descent of Heraclidae. Once this ‘double reckoning’ is established as being the ‘actual intent’ of the Greek historian: it is then corrected, and the Greek reckoning falls in line with the biblical testimony.
It also casts a light of importance on the ‘double reckoning’ as well, because to Eratosthenes, the descent of the Heraclidae is a major calculable event in Greek history. Therefore, prior to the Olympics, the Greeks must have used this as an event year from which to reckon from for about 216 years actual, or about 256 years on their calendars.
In analyzing this period, we find that the late Second Century A.D. scholar of Alexandria, Egypt, — Clement of Alexandria — cites Homer as having been an Egyptian, and not a Greek.
Like Herodotus, Clement lists all sorts of dates that various ancient Greeks have speculated through the centuries on the man called Homer. The most reliable of these historians, tells us that Homer died 90 years before the first Olympiad (Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 1.15, 1.21).
Taken after the percentage of what a 10-month year is to a 12-month year, we then calculate 90 years times that fraction to achieve a death of Homer in 814 B.C. (the calculation being now about 73 years prior to the First Olympiad).
His birth, according to Philochorus, was 180 years after the Trojan War (Clement, Miscellanies, 1.21). After the calculation of 180 years times the inter-calculatory fraction, the Greek percentage of a 10-month versus the later 12-month calendar, we find that Homer was born in 886 B.C. Therefore, by reckoning Greek history from fixed dates, we find that Homer died in his 71st or 72nd year of life. No more, and no less.
In short, if we use the reckoning of the Exodus using the Greek Historical Calendar left us by Patristics, we will find that the parallel reckoning of the Exodus must place the event between 1545 to 1570 B.C. And using Josephus with a new understanding that he applies this same 10 month calendar prior to Cyrus I, and knowing how to properly date the Bible by taking its annual reckonings literally, we will see the Bible reckon the actual Exodus date as 1551 B.C., vetted by Josephus and by the Greeks as cited by Early Christian Church writers.
The biblical narrative holds up when it is recognized that there is a wide divergence (about 350 years) between the biblical and standard timelines at the time of the Exodus. The Exodus had to have taken place near the end of the 12th Dynasty. The Hyksos were able to enter Egypt easily shortly after the Exodus because of the devastation that the 10 plagues caused and the Ipuwer Manuscript describes this time. The ancestor (Jacob) of the Children of Israel entered Egypt originally in the 3rd Dynasty; Joseph was Imhotep as can be shown through probability; the divergence of the two timelines is about 1000 years at that time. The numbers of the Children of Israel were far smaller than is generally believed, because the word “eleph” only came to mean 1000 in classical Greek times. I could go on and on. I have researched and published on this subject for some time. My papers and other writings are referenced from my web site [Broken URL removed by site admin]. I welcome private correspondence on these issues.
The calculation of the last year of the Trojan War is affirmed in the ancient witnesses utilized by the Church Fathers: as being about 1031 – 1034 B.C. Now 1031 – 1032 B.C. is the 4th year of Solomon’s reign — making both King Solomon, and his father David, as of an older date than modern “Intellectuals” will lead you to believe.
Using a separate Jewish calendar,
Josephus: reckons a total of 477 years and 6 months between the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and the building of Jerusalem by King David (Josephus, Wars of the Jews 6.10.).
This places David in Jerusalem in ca. January-February of 1063 B.C.
But in his Antiquities of the Jews, 8.3.1. Josephus uses the reckoning of the familiar Greek calendar (of his Roman audiences) to state that Solomon built the Temple 592 years after the Hebrew Exodus, before switching gears and reverting to the Jewish calendar of reckoning again.
Josephus knows the Scriptures use 480 years, as according to Hebrew reckoning, in I Kings 6:1.
The Greek calendar years of 592 times our inter-calculatory fraction of the pre-Cyrus I Greek Calendar of 10 months and 305 days is about 480.05 …or rounded off, 480 years. Josephus uses this methodology for preservation of Jewish history, when mentioning the Greek calendar, in Caesar’s library.
In Antiquities of the Jews, 20.10.1, in discussing the lineage of the high priests from Moses to the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem; Josephus gives a similar length of time (612 short years). When calculated against our inter-calculatory fraction, we are given a new insight into Biblical History.
Josephus cites a rule of the high priesthood for the last 16 years of the 40 years in the wilderness, when Moses was 104 – 120 years old. This was followed, again, by a 480-year gap between the entry into the Promised Land by Joshua, and the Temple of Solomon’s dedication. There were only 13 high priests ruling in all that time. 480 divided by 13 is about 37 years per high priest’s tenure. Contrast this with the 28 appointed high priests in the 107 years from Herod I to Titus’ conquest, in which the average high priest served for a little less than 4 years because of robbery and political corruption of the office.
The testimony of the Galilean Israelite, Josephus, is that he agrees with the Greek reckoning that puts King David, in Jerusalem and building it, in circa 1060 to 1063 B.C.!
It appears that a few years elapsed before the actual major construction began. Thus, David’s reign is calculated to have begun no more recent or later than 1075 to 1070 B.C David reigned in Jerusalem for 33 years, and based on Josephus’ calculations, until ca. 1037 to 1036 B.C. (I Kings 2:11).
Therefore, for Solomon to dedicate the Temple in the fourth year of his reign (2 Kings 6:1), and for it to be 480 years after coming into the land from the Exodus: the Exodus entry into Canaan must date to ca. 1512 – 1511 B.C.
In I Kings 6:1, the literal reading show us that “…it was 480 years from the lasa’ah of the children of Israel from the Land of Egypt.” That is, it was the finishing moment, the end destination, the conclusion to — leaving Egypt, being the end of 40 years in the wilderness, and the feet of all Israelites touching both sides of the Jordan. This makes the entry a certainty at 1511-1512 B.C.
Upon closer examination of Manetho’s 3rd Century B.C. Histories of Egypt, we find that A-mosis is really both Ahmose, and Tethmosis (Thummosis) – the son of Alisphragmuthosis. Under his leadership, says Josephus in Against Apion 1.14, while citing Manetho, 480,000 Egyptians rallied around the city of Avaris, and expelled the Hyksos families of those who perished in the Red Sea with their king, Assiss (Asehre Khamudi). These families were expelled along the northern route out of the country, and settled in Judea. Since the Hyksos had giantism and are linked to the same clans of the Anakim that the Jews saw both in what later was called Egypt and in what was later called Judea, the literary historical is there for all to see, but with book sales and political correctness that rewards unbelief, in an environment bent on grants and fund-raising and not offending donors or those who cut your paycheck or salary to you, even Biblical Archaeologists and others are just too illiterate to see it.
In Egyptology, we find that there is a relief that celebrates Raameses victory at Kadesh in 1180 B.C. This same victory is recorded in Judges 13:1, which the biblical record of successions tells us, is 331 years AFTER THE EXODUS. Therefore, this Pharaoh is not the one who died in the Red Sea during the Hebrew Exodus in the era of the Hebrew Judges of Israel, who judged IN ISRAEL.
Kadesh: 31 years earlier. In Judges 11:26, Jephthaa speaks of 300 years having passed from the entry of the Hebrews into Israel, to his time. The Judges, like Jephthaa, are more so contemporaneous with the Tell El-Amarna tablets, than is the Exodus to its contents. The tablets, dated by some to ca. 1375 – 1358 B.C., calls for Egypt to deliver the Philistine Lords from their ‘apiru” or ‘habiru’ oppressors.
Archer, Gleason L. “A Survey of Old Testament Introduction,” Chicago: Moody Press, ©1964, p. 164, (1974 edition.); cf. pp.241,289-295 (1994 edition.)
In 1422 B.C., Amenophis ruled Egypt, until 1391 B.C. Osiris is known as the deity of Heliopolis. In the reign of Amenophis, there were ambassadors “sent out to those shepherds driven out of the land (of Egypt) by Tethmosis, to the city of Jerusalem, whereby he informed them of his own affairs…” (Josephus, Against Apion. 1.26.). The result of this communication forges an alliance between the Rephaims and Philistines with Egypt, against the local Israeli Hebrew population.
If this is the case, this supports the validity for and the era of the Tel Amarna tablets. These Babylonian linguistic tablets from the Philistines to Egypt are to be dated to circa 1384 B.C., when: 1) Ehud, the son of Gera, of the tribe of Benjamin, delivers the Israelites from Eglon (Judges 3:16 -20); and 2) Shamgar, the son of Anath, kills 600 Palestinian men with an ox goad the same year (Judges 3:31).
The Hyksos, former masters in Egypt, only 167 years after their concurrent Exodus through the northern Sinai, were servants of Egypt in Israel. In Canaan/Israel, the once oppressive Hyksos were, in turn, afflicted by the Hebrews: and resorted to asking Egyptians (who their ancestors despised as weak), for archers as protection against the Hebrew judges and a popular uprising. The Hyksos were also related to the Anakims (Numbers 13:33) or “Nephilims”. Nephilims are translated as giants, but literally, it means “the fallen ones”, and is a direct reference to those who died in the Red Sea while pursuing Israel.
In 1391 B.C., Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis was upon the throne. Isis, says Clement of Alexandria, in Miscellanies 1.21. will be deified in what we may reckon as somewhere near 1271 B.C.
The Romans over a thousand years later, will worship her as Demeter: the deity of the fruitful and bountiful earth, and the “protector of marriage”. Her son, Horus, also is — centuries later — remembered by the Greeks, and thought of as a deity: Apollo. His sister, Acenchres (called “Nefertiti”), is Artemis and Diana. She ruled from 1354 B.C. until 1342 B.C. through Ikhnaton (Amenhotep IV). Her successor from 1342 to 1333 B.C. was Rathotis (a.k.a., Tutankhamen). Thus, the Tell Amarna tablets become a type of formula for prayers or requests to the fabricated deities Apollo (Horus) and Diana (Acenchres), for deliverance from the Jews, and the One True Faith in GOD, the GOD of Israel.
In the Tell El-Amarna tablets, the Philistine lords or city-kings, communicate to Egypt in the Babylonian language…not in Egyptian. Why? One tablet speaks of Gezer having fallen, along with Ashkelon and Lachish. In Joshua 16:10, 21:21; and Judges 1:29; we find that Gezer was portioned as half-Jewish priests with their families and half-Canaanite. The Babylonian language entered the land with distinction in ca. 1450 B.C. with the invasion of Chushanrishathamin (Judges 3:8) , and remained the language of trade from 1450 B.C. until ca. 1211 B.C., some 239 years later. This example we see again with the Hellenization of the region and the influence of the Greek language over 1,000 years later.
In Isaiah 52:4, we find the Jewish history that those who oppressed the Jews in Egypt before the Exodus were not Egyptian at all: they were Syrian or Assyrian. In other words, the only peoples that fit this description within Egypt during the era in question: are the Hyksos, who came out of Syria-Assyria and into Egypt, because the Hittites were too strong for them to defend against at the time. This brings into Egypt the language of Aram, which is later characterized as Syriac-Babylonian.
Therefore, the language of Moses and of the Hyksos was a separation of distinctions or dialect of the same general mother tongue. To not be immersed and familiar with the characterizations and recent slang might cause one to stammer and stutter in conversing with those who use certain unfamiliar idioms regularly. This is perhaps what Moses meant in his asking GOD for, and receiving, a helper in Exodus 4:10-16. This insight appears to be lost in the discussion regarding a proper dating of the Exodus.
Then where are the missing Jews? Where did they go?
Let me also present another proof by offering a timeline in which we use the 1180 B.C. Battle of Kadesh as a marker, taking into account the inter-calculatory reckoning of years on the shortened Greek calendar of 10 months or 305 days, as stated earlier existing pre Cyrus I, and showing how that Josephus, Patristics, and the Bible can be shown to be explaining the same accurate parallel history one with another regarding these years in question.
The Clementine Stromata Book 1, Chapter 21 with Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews (AoJ) and the Bible, presents us a clear outline.
1551 – 1486 B.C.
Joshua 24:29 ; Judges 2:8 — “And Joshua the son of Nun…died, being a 110 years old.”
Clement: “As the book of Joshua relates, the above mentioned man was the successor of Moses 27 [ actual 25] years”
Clement: “After the close of Moses’s life, Joshua succeeded to the leadership of the people, and he, after warring for 65 years, rested in the good land other 25.” [Corrected by Josephus]
Josephus, Antiquities, 5.1.29: “So Joshua, when he had thus discoursed to them, died, having lived a 110 years; 40 of which he lived with Moses, … He also became their commander after his death for 25 years.”
Hence: 1551 B.C – 65 years = 1486 B.C.
—————————————————————
1511 B.C. – 1471 B.C.
Judges 3:11 – “ And the land had rest 40 years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.”
Clement: “Gothoniel [ Othniel]. the younger brother of Caleb, of the tribe of Judah, who, having slain the king of Mesopotamia, ruled over the people 40 years in succession.”
This section is the only one that I have found where the addition of years seems to infer one meaning while being translated as another, and likely is the one that throws most chronologists off the trail. I believe that the proper interpretation may be that Othoniel co-ruled with Joshua (as his general and then as his chief administrator) for 40 years. The notion that the Land had rest, may imply the East Bank lands of 2 1/2 tribes enjoyed the Shabbat, as did any lands the Hebrews immediately conquered. Unfortunately, this is a tenuous interpretation forced by the circumstance of all the other years of the chronology add up and correspond. Since Scripture is inerrant, I must therefore view the Scripture in the chronology it makes available for me to interpret from, using the information that it provides.
———————————————————————-
1486-1471 B.C.
[Unknown 8 year tributary period at any time in this 15 year period]
Judges 3:8 — “the children of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim 8 years.”
Clement: “Then the Hebrews having sinned, were delivered to Chusachar [ Chushan-rishathaim] king of Mesopotamia for 8 years.”
——————————————————————
1477 -1459 B.C.
Judges 3:12 — “and the L-RD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel.”
Clement: “ And… were delivered into the hands of Æglom [ Eglon] king of the Moabites for 18 years.”
Josephus AoJ 5.4.1.: “Eglon, king of the Moabites…reduced [the Israelites] to poverty for 18 years.”
—————————————————————————
1441 – 1361 B.C.
Judges 3:30 — “So Moab was subdued …and the land had rest 80 years.”
Clement: “ But on their repentance, Aod, [ Ehud.] … was their leader for 80 years.”
Josephus AoJ 5.4.3: “Ehud…died after he had held the government 80 years.”
————————————————————–
1361-1341 B.C.
–[actual “Jabin”, king of Canaan]
Judges 4:3 — [Jabin for ] “20 years … mightily oppressed the children of Israel”.
Clement: “On the death of Aod [Ehud]… were delivered into the hand of Jabim,…20 years.”
Josephus AoJ 5.5.1-2 – Israel subdued by Sisera to Jabin’s control, 20 years.
——————————————————————–
1341-1301 B.C.
Clement: “Deborah ruled, judging the people 40 years”
Josephus AoJ 5.5.3-4 – Israel delivered to Deborah administration and commander Barak.
————————————————————————-
{A Kadesh in May, 1300 BC would have encountered a simultaneous Midianite bid for control of the plains and farmlands of the Hebrews.}
1301 – 1294 B.C.
Clement: “On her death, the people … were delivered into the hands of the Midianites 7 years.”
Josephus AoJ 5.6.1: “For about 3 years the Israelites fought off the Midianites and Arabians, then retired to the mountains, and endured famine.”
———————————————————————
1294-1254 B.C.
Clement: “Gideon, of the tribe of Manasseh …ruled 40 years.”
Josephus AoJ 5.6.7 – “Gideon ruled over the government 40 years.”
——————————————————————
1254-1251 B.C.
Clement: “The son of Ahimelech, 3 years.”
———————————————————————-
1251-1229 B.C.
Clement: An Israelite judge [obscured by Clement]…“of the tribe of Ephraim, who ruled 23 years”
Josephus AoJ 5.7.6.: “Jair the Gileadite of the tribe of Manasseh…22 years.”
—————————————————————————–
1229 – 1211 B.C.
Clement: “The people having sinned again, were delivered to the Ammonites 18 years”
—————————————————————–
1211-1205 B.C.
Judges 11:26 – [And Jepthaah inquired] – “While Israel dwelt in …all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, 300 years; wherefore did ye not recover them within that time?”
1511 B.C. – 300 years = 1211 B.C. We have a chronological marker for accuracy in Judges 11;26.
Clement: “Jephtha the Gileadite, of the tribe of Manasseh… ruled 6 years ”
—————————————————————-
1205 – 1198 B.C.
Clement: “Abatthan. of Bethlehem, of the tribe of Juda, ruled 7 years.”Cf. Judges 12:7,9
—————————————————————
Clement: 1198 – 1190 B.C.
Clement: “Then Ebron the Zebulonite, 8 years”
Scripture: 1198 – 1188 B.C. Judges 12:11
————————————————————–
Clement: 1190 – 1182 B.C.
Scripture: 1188 – 1180 B.C.
Judges 12:13-14 “And after him Abdon… judged Israel…8 years.”
Clement: “Then Eglom of Ephraim, 8 years”
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A Kadesh battle in 1180 B.C. regarding Rameses and the Hittites would have left a vacuum of power in Israel that is quickly filled by the Cretan based Philistines. That is exactly what appears to have happened.
Clement: 1182 – 1142 B.C.
Scripture 1180-1140 B.C.
Judges 13: 1 And the children of Israel …into the hand of the Philistines 40 years.”
Clement: “Under the power of the foreigners, the Philistines, for 40 years” [Cretan based]
Anne and Brian — esp the latter — are quite devoted to a particular point of view. The explanations presented here are very detailed and obviously done by spending much time piecing things together and using their calculators. I have heard reputable evangelical Egyptologists defend the 13th century BC dating for the Exodus of the Bible and say that the evidence that does exist converted them from their earlier 15th century BC. POV. And yes, I saw (and bought) the movie “Patterns of Evidence.” Well done movie though heavily critiqued by some. The article in BAR is excellent.
“Egyptologists” do NOT acknowledge the exodus as a real event. There’s no need to date fictional events in science.
The Exodus wasn’t during the reign of Ramses the Great. There is ample evidence for an Exodus in the 15th century BC. Amenhotep III is the Pharaoh who wouldn’t let the Israelites go free. His son Thutmose was the first born and he mysteriously disappears from the Egyptian records and is said by scholars to have predeceased his father. Manetho even wrote about him, The story depicts Osarseph [Moses] as a renegade Egyptian priest who leads an army of lepers and other unclean people against a pharaoh named Amenophis [Amenhotep]; the pharaoh is driven out of the country and the leper-army, in alliance with the Hyksos (whose story is also told by Manetho) ravage Egypt, committing many sacrileges against the gods, before Amenophis returns and expels them. Towards the end of the story Osarseph changes his name to Moses.” Probably the best evidence for the Exodus at this time is the fact that when Akhenaten came to power he immediately forsook the Egyptian gods and the Egyptian capital of Thebes and he went and built his own capital in the desert, a completely new city with temples dedicated to the sun god Aten. In conclusion Amenhotep III is the Pharaoh of the Exodus, Thutmose III is the Pharaoh who was reigning when Moses was born c.1472 BC and his daughter took him in, possibly Beketamun. Moses fled towards the end of Thutmose’s reign c.1432 BC. The Exodus was c.1391 BC.
You can’t use evidence from the bible to prove itself. It’s fiction.
Brian:
Book 3, Chapter 27’s context, is the Roman calendar. We still use this numbering in Sept., Oct., Nov. Dec. The calendar consisted of 304 days. The days from the end of Dec. to the beginning of March, were not assigned to any month at all. But they still were there, and were considered, and noted.
Using 304 days, with no days considered in between? In three years, December would be starting in July.
The Romans, would have noticed.
The Calendars were set up, to count time; and, specifically, to recognize the days for the beginnings of the religious festivals, which all have their origin in the cycle of planting, growth, harvest, and dormancy. The mythologies of all peoples, are rooted within the cycle of the seasons, for the most part. Persephone, Demeter, and Hades; Sukkot, are specific examples, of the purpose of the calendar.
No ancient calendar is detached from the cycle of the seasons, no matter how accurate, or inaccurate, it is.
Any consideration of ancient calendrical systems, must recognize why they were created in the first place, and what they are based upon. The time of planting, is the most important to calculate, especially in areas of more meager rainfall. And every planting, is definitely a new year, to every ancient culture.
You can count whichever way you want, still won’t provide evidence of 2 million Jews wandering the desert without a trace…it just won’t.
Date of the Exodus is very difficult to fix with certainty. Different historians have assigned it to the period of the (a) Hyksos (b) Amarna Age (c) Ramses and Merneptah (d) 20th Egyptian Dynasty.(b) and (c)are much more probably true than (a) and (d). The Biblical tradition should be assumed as valid;i.e.that the Pharaoh of the oppression was Ramses II and that of the Exodus, his successor Merneptah. Ex. 1:11 and 2:23-24. Clues: (a) if the period of the Hyksos should be agreed upon, although very unlikely, then the date of the Exodus should be c1550. (b) if the Hibaru of the Armana Tablet could be identified with the Hebrews and the wars fought by them in Palestine were the wars under Joshua, then the date of the Exodus was c1450B.C. (c) Exodus Exodus 1:11 if this points to the Pharaoh of the Ramses dynasty, this would put the Exodus to 1234- 1214B.C. There is evidence in Egyptian Records of Semetic labour during the reign of Merneptah II(1229B.C.) (d) I Kings 6:1 says Temple began 480 years after the Exodus. Date of Solomon’s reign is c 970B.C. Therefore c970 480=c1450B.C.(c) Exodus 12:40 gives 430years as period of sojourn. If the Hebrews reached Egypt immediately the Hyksos gained power in Egypt, I.e. c1800, then the date of the Exodus is 1800– 430= 1370, or if immediately after their expulsion 1580– 430=1150B.C. We may therefore conclude that our earlier date is probably not later than the early part of the 15th century B.C. but we can not say more than that if it probably took place between the middle of the 16th and the 13th Century B C. As regards the crossing of the Red Sea it is a mistranslation of Sea of Reeds as Red Sea from Bible commentaries. There are Bibles with maps of the Exodus and none of them show a transition of the Red Sea. From time immemorial there had been a highway between Africa and Asia along which Moses took the Israelites the same highway that Napoleon almost drowned with his horse when he reached its end at the gulf !!!
The problem I have with BAR is that they want to be a scholarly publication yet asks ridiculous tease questions such as “Exodus Fact of Fiction?” It is hopelessly fictional. To even pose such a question, leads anyone of an scholarly integrity to ignore the publication.