What evidence is there that any substantial number of Israelites were ever held enslaved in Egypt? Or wandered in the desert for forty years? Is the Exodus story just cultural legend?
The Australian aborigines lived in their desert ten thousand years ago, and you can still see plenty of evidence of their camps - especially the remains on campfires. If a host of Israelites were in the Sinai desert, why are there no campfires - along with discarded bones, hardware, etc.?
Every time two peoples live in close proximity for a while, linguists can see evidence of intermingling of languages. No such interaction can be found in the study of ancient languages of the Israelites and the Egyptians. Could these two peoples have lived together in a master-slave relationship without sharing some language? I don't think so.
The story of Moses is a transparent knock-off of the Babylonian story of King Sargon of Akkadia, learned while the Israelites were captive there and became literate.
2007-03-11 04:14:54 · 12 answers · asked by fra59e 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
Absorption of one culture's religious ideas into another culture applies to all cultures. It proves nothing. Christianity includes a lot of concepts cribbed from Persian Zoroastrianism. That does not prove that Jesus and the Apostles and Paul were ever in Iran. All cultures around the Mediterranean acquired ideas from ancient Egypt, not just the Hebrew culture but also the cultures of Turkey and Greece and Syria. That fact doesn't imply that the Turks were slaves in Egypt.
2007-03-11 05:15:29 · update #1
Sandstorms uncover things as well as cover up things. If any Israelites died in the Sinai over those alleged forty years, where are the bones? Where are all the objects they are supposed to have taken away with them after borrowing them from their trusting neighbors? The desert should be littered with old toasters and blenders and stuff.
2007-03-11 05:49:20 · update #2
Ancient Egyptian manuscripts and monuments hold no evidence. No where is this mentioned. The Exodus is only found in the 3 holy books.
2007-03-13 22:41:46 · answer #1 · answered by Sahar 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why ask the question, since you've already formed your own answer?
I can't address all of the points you make, which may or may not be legitimate in this particular instance.
However, you don't find bones/hardware, etc. because the Israelites, while living in the desert, were not living the normal life of a nomadic tribe. They did not eat meat - in fact, there only source of food was supplied by God. So, I would imagine the usual traces used to detect human presence is not as applicable in the case of this story.
Furthermore, I don't think the Australian desert and the deserts of North Africa are very comparable (other than the obvious). If you've been to North Africa, you've seen entire houses covered by shifting sand dunes. In Iraq, humvees have been completely buried in sand. My understanding is that it would be difficult for that desert to perfectly preserve evidence of a group of people who lived there for about 40 years a thousand plus years ago.
2007-03-11 11:22:40 · answer #2 · answered by Wondering 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
from what i understand theres alot of sandstorms and stuff in that region of the world ... it may be tough to find old evidence from that period when the egyptians were the world superpower ... the first known one that was thousands of years ago .. any way ive never ben excavating in the sinai desert have you ... also .. just an uneducated guess ... but i doubt that in that time period that written language and knowledge were shared with slaves and was probably reserved for the elite ... but anyway .. i see no reason to cast doubt on somthing unless u spend some years in the field actually researching it on-site ..
2007-03-11 11:24:51 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
It seemed that the part of the mountain in Sinai that Moses went to collect the ten commandments were found some ten years back.
2007-03-11 11:20:53 · answer #4 · answered by Man_Hat_Tan 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Israelites absorbed quite a bit of the Egyptian's religious beliefs.
2007-03-11 11:17:09 · answer #5 · answered by S K 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Recent archeological findings do suggest that they were in Egypt, but not entirely as portrayed in the Bible.
2007-03-11 12:39:16 · answer #6 · answered by David G 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you read the Bible yes they were in Egypt
2007-03-16 04:49:52 · answer #7 · answered by apreston60 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
A lot of the Bible is plagiarized, ripped off. The sad part is that it is very badly written, unclear, vague and subject to multiple interpretations except when it comes to giving money to the religious leaders. The code of Hammurabi is a much more useful document.
2007-03-11 11:23:10 · answer #8 · answered by valcus43 6 · 2⤊ 5⤋
yes they were in egypt during the famine in the time of joseph.
2007-03-11 11:27:59 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Yes they were in Egypt.
2007-03-11 13:00:15 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋