did the exodus really happen? explain in a paragraph?

Answer 1

No
A large group of people living in the desert for forty years (very unlikely) would leave a LOAD of archaeological evidence. There is none.
If the pharaoh Ramses had a brother who betrayed him and ran off with all of his slaves, you had better bet that there would be a lot of people writing about it all over Egypt and the world. We have yet to find a scrap of evidence of this or even that Moses existed. Not even a mention of the Pharaoh having a brother.
There are no records, or evidence of any kind that there was a large workforce of enslaved Jews in Egypt. Most likely, they were paid workers, in which case, the exodus story falls apart entirely.
So...
No, there was no exodus.

You need to remember that the bible is not a historical record, it is religious mythology. The bible cannot be cited as concrete evidence of anything. It can only be used to cite support for hard facts due to it's nature as a collection of stories that were originally orally transmitted.
For instance, paul bunion was a real person, but you can bet that he wasn't 50 feet tall with a pet blue ox.

Answer 2

The way to verify a written account is to have several sources relaying the same information. For instance, The Romans say there was a war with Carthage, without examining one battle field we find that Greek and Macedonian sources same the same, and we have Hannibal's battle plan. Therefore the war is proven to have happened without ever turning over a stone.

The Bible, specifically Genesis through 2 Kings, is suspect on this basis. For the exodus, there is no account by the Egyptians of those events happening at the time of the supposed incident. There are Egyptians records which indicate the ten plagues however. These have been dated back to the Santarini eruption which wiped out the Minoans(1649 BCE approx. 200 years before the Hebrews arrive on the scene). But the same thing happened in Niger in 1984 except the catalyst to their plagues was caused by an earthquake, not an eruption so there was no period of darkness.
The bible would place the Hebrews at the head of Global politics in the ancient world, but all other sources seem to forget they ever existed. You would think that if a civilization mentioned the existence of peoples so obscure that we have yet to find their remains, then a mighty political leader like Solomon or an event like the exodus would have made the papyrus (Assyrian/Babylonian conquest & Persian release not withstanding - of course those take place after 2 kings).

Answer 3

You have to realize you cannot ask this question. You're going to get answers from biblical fundamentalists who believe that everything in the Bible is 'real' and 'historical.' They are not scholars. They don't even know much about history.

The fact of the matter is we have no evidence other than the Bible to support the story of an Exodus, thus, the answer is 'we don't know.' Nobody knows, so don't bother trying to find the answer to something like that.

The only thing we know is that Semitic peoples did live in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, but they were defeated and expelled by Ahmose, Kamose, and Seqenenre-Tao. There were no 'plagues' and there was no 'Exodus.'

Ok, that's not remotely true Heather D. There have not been chariots and men found at the bottom of the Red Sea. That poster is trying to sabotage this question based on biblical fundamentalism. First of all, there was no crossing of the Red Sea, the Tanakh (the actual Jewish Old Testament) doesn't say 'Red Sea,' it says 'Sea of Reeds.' The Christians mistranslated it. Second of all, I don't care how many 'bible sites' you post, none of it is accurate.

Answer 4

Absolutely no record of it in Egyptian history as written in their temples.
I think the Egyptians might have noticed if the Red Sea had been parted then swallowed their army.
Also the timing is all wrong. There is absolutely no reason why it should take 40 years to get from the Red Sea to Palestine. Anyone could walk it easily in four weeks.
Navigation in the desert is simple as the nights are clear so you go by the stars or during the day by the position of the sun.

Answer 5

Something approximating the exodus possibly occurred, in so far as Pharaoh, certainly had labor problems from time to time and we know there was a volcanic disturbance about 1680BC with the destruction of Santorini, off the coast of Egypt which both destroyed Minoan civilization as well as caused many conditions which definitely could have been interpreted as wrath of God, including having the sun blotted out, fire and brimestone, freak waves and red-tides and other extremes of circumstance which would definitely affected the residents of the Northern Nile and may have impacted the whole of the greater Mediterranean as well.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_eruption)

Answer 6

Geeeez, Must be getting all A's as the nice members of Yahoo Answers completes your homework for you so you can take just one quick toke off of that water bong.
Let me ask you a question while we are here.
How do you think all the smart people that are here day in and day out go to be so smart? How do they become so capable of giving such caring and educated help to those who truly need it? Could it be that once upon a time in their lives they actually did their homework. Frankly my dear, sounds to me as though you have come to rely on the kindness of strangers.
Be live me how nice it will feel as get a bit smarter every day. ? Just a few pennies for your fountain!

Answer 7

Yes it did. The Bible provides the historic narrative, archeology validates the account. Modern research techniques have proven that the only possible geographic location that matches all the biblical details is the site of a shallow "land bridge" connecting the Sinai Peninsula to Saudi Arabia. On the sea floor at this site are the remains of chariots, men, and horses that have been dated to about 3500 years ago matching both the biblical timeline and previously known Egyptian artifacts of that time period. For hundreds of years, Jews and Christians have believed the story of the Exodus by faith in the veracity of the scriptures, and now it is validated by the evidence. Check my source list for some great pictures.

Answer 8

Yes, the exodus really happened. The history of the Hebrew nation is carefully documented in the Old Testament, and verified in the New Testament. History books and encyclopedias will verify it as well. The occupation of the Jewish people in a certain specified territory is also clearly documented. Read the Bible and you will find plenty of historical evidence there. The Jewish people still follow many of the worship and dietary practices according to the commands of God given in the Old Testament. If you study the Scriptures with a good concordance and Bible reference books, you will discover a wealth of information that will astonish you.

Answer 9

Unfortunately, Egyptian chronology is still controversial among Egyptologists and Biblical archaeologists. Various schools of thought favor different identifications of this new Pharaohs before and after this one. Until such arguments are settled, there is no need to attempt a precise correlation of the uncertain Egyptian histories with the divinely inspired and trustworthy Biblical records.

Answer 10

Do yo mean the one in the Bible?
Yes!