A Discussion of Biblical Egyptology

The question in regards to the likely existence of evidence in support of the Biblical Exodus was covered exhaustively in this program.  When I underwent theological training 30 yrs. ago, I had been taught that there was absolutely zero proof outside from the Bible supporting the Exodus.  That was the main view among scholars with the time, but Dr. Federspiel has done a good job of updating my know-how on a subject, and I have felt convinced to agree with him that there's indeed substantial proof supporting parts in the Biblical account.  He did not give unquestionable proof of the Exodus, but there exists certainly an overwhelming amount of proof that one thing approximating the Biblical story happened nearly three thousand five hundred years ago.

Even though I had been told that there was no extra Biblical proof supporting the Exodus, I accepted the existence of it as both a matter of faith and aided by the expertise the Bible had not been written as being a fictional account but was trying to be factual and was accepted as unbelievably serious by Jews, Muslims, along with Christians.  Though I had been preivously told that the initial eleven chapters of Genesis had been basically tribal myth and wasn't to thought of literally, from Abraham forward, there was empirical Biblical support as well as the findings from archeologists, has supported the facts very well.  Numbers may perhaps have been exaggerated, but there has been empirical findings for the existence of the individuals and the locations made mention of inside the text.

Because the Exodus was made reference to within the section in the Bible talking about the history and was believed by the Hebrew men and women as truthful, I have at all times been accepted that the basic facts of the story are.  That does not mean that I have accepted every one of the events as literally true, as they have been recollections of folks carried throughout the centuries, describing a heroic past.  We in the modern times frequently exaggerate the exploits of our ancestors, and I expected no less of the Children of Israel, however from the basic facts, I always thought there has got to be a general reality, that would include their arrival in Egypt several hundred years before the Exodus, and also the leadership of a person by the name of Moses to take a group of Semitic folks out of that land.  It did not have to seem like the Hollywood version in the story to be generally true genuine.  There may possibly have been a seemingly small number of Jews leaving Egypt and settling contained in Palestine with the story to have gotten genuine contained in my thoughts.  Dr. Federspiel has convinced me that the assumption I made was indeed correct along with something indeed happened.  Furthermore, although it gives the appearance that a great deal of Egyptian history was lost as a result of internal squabbling, fighting, wars, along with normal disasters, plenty of circumstantial empirical proof is there to support the existence of quite a large number of Semites in Egypt who showed up in Jerusalem.

I became interested to find out that a staff was found in Jordan of Tuthmoses IV ?Moses II, with writing of Egyptian hieroglyphic symbols and, at the time, Graham Phillips guessed that it belonged to Moses.   Though it is not proof, it is an intriguing hypothesis which I have the feeling needs more examination.  Certainly, it lends proof that Egyptian along with Semitic individuals were in contact together with one another within the area of modern day Israel .

1 matter that seems certain was that Moses was a living individual.  He was referenced by both the name ?Manetho? along with the name ?Artapanus?.  Manetho stated the Egyptians were "troubled by calamities, in order that the divine wrath may be averted, expelled the foreigners?their leader stated to have been Moses."  If a pagan Egyptian priest living 300 yrs. prior to the Common Era had a record of a particular person by the name of Moses who was kicked out of Egypt to appease the gods, Moses likely did exist.   Moses is actually a popular Egyptian first name, not a Hebrew one.  It really is not very likely that the Hebrew writers of the story would?ve invented the name from thin air.  Just the fact that they ended up being able to come up with an Egyptian name for their hero implies at least a little knowledge about Egypt.  To have an Egyptian pagan priest agree with the basic facts in the accounting is much more than an ?interesting? happenstance.  It suggests the basic events of the story really occurred and acquired a significant impact on Egypt.

Please recall that Manetho was re-telling about an event that occurred more than a thousand years prior to his time.  We do not recall unimportant things that happened long ago.  Something important must?ve happened.  As a by-the-by, with all the evidence of an Egyptian priest, I?m convinced the Exodus was far more significant an event than I?d originally thought.  My expectations about the Exodus had been small.  I figured that a relatively few number of men and women fled Egypt then became settled Palestine.  I really thought little of it in my mind, the onset of the plagues, having been the recipient of the liberal theological education.  After studying the empirical proof shared by Dr. Federspiel, I have been nudged into becing accepting of the possibility that even the plagues along with the proclaimed miracles may have have happened.   If the plagues had been recorded and remembered for over a thousand years in Egypt, they must have occurred, and Moses should be given credit for those things.

Furthermore, it seems very likely that the military defeat within the "Red Sea" might have occurred also, as that would be a significant reason the people remembered Moses.

It really is a shame that a fire decimated the Alexandria Library and that the anti-pagan fervor during the Christian timeframe lead to the destruction of so much material contained in Egypt.   It truly is also too bad that early European Archeologists who were collecting artifacts from ancient Egypt ended up being so unprofessional that they ruined priceless papyri codices as well as fragments.  Because so much material has been eternally lost, we will never have the complete picture of Moses and the Exodus. However, to say there is certainly no proof that survives today appears to be far from reality.  We have a very large amount of circumstantial evidence kept safe by Josephus and Eusebius.  In addition to that, there is possible archeological proof being unearthed to this day, though our comprehension of the hieroglyphs makes it extremely difficult to interpret.  With time as well as further work on interpreting of Egyptian Hieroglyphs, it seems a certainty the existence of Moses will likely be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.