The Exodus confirmed..

by Crazyguy 27 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Crazyguy

  For those of you that don't research this stuff I will give a little back story. We all know about the Moses Exodus, but history and archeology didn't seem to confirm this event. The only exodus out of Egypt ever recorded was that of a group of Asiatic tribes that had taken over Egypt for a bit over 100 years called the Hyksos and the followers of the Pharaoh Akhenaten who perpetuated a monotheistic idea of worshiping only one deity the Aten.

  Back to the Hyksos, these were pushed out of Egypt by a king named Ahmose but this was never taken to seriously as the Moses Exodus because it happen several hundred years before the Moses exodus was thought to have taken place and the bible mentions a city the Israelites were supposed to have built under forced labor called Pi-Ramesses after the great Pharaoh Ramesses II.

  But this is where things become interesting, if on looks at the older bible translation called the Septuagint, in this bible the Patriarchs are listed as being older then the more popular bible translation used today the Masoretic. When one lines up the dates using this Septuagint bible it lines up the Exodus very closely to that of the Hyksos. What's also interesting is the original name for the city the Israelites supposedly built was not Pi-Ramesses but Avaris, which was the capital city of the Hyksos. Its also worth noting that several ancient historians state that these Hyksos were in fact the ones the Exodus story in the bible were taking about. Most of these historians stated they were driven out and that a plague had something to do with it. Also this was happening around the same time as a major volcano was erupting in the Mediterranean sea called Mt. Santorini. Maybe some of the ten plagues had something to do with this eruption? Under Avaris they found the remains of dead bodies mostly children under the age of two. Was this do to a plague or the city being under siege by Ahmose and his Egyptian army is unclear. In the end these people were allowed to leave and move east to resettle, Monetho stated that they settled in a city called Jerusalem. These dates also line up with the destruction of the city of Jericho, which may have been attacked and burned by theses Hyksos as they made their way east. Its also worth noting that in the Septuagint translation it the Reed Sea not the Red Sea

  So it looks as though the bible story of an exodus did actually take place, but the retelling of the story by the losers turned in to a legend where they did not loose after all but were the victors, slaves not oppressors.

  A very good article is written here, http://ancientneareast.org//?s=exodus%3A+fact+or+fiction&search=Go
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  TheOldHippie

  It is way more interesting to read the books and web site of David Rohl and associates, dealing with "The New Chronology". What you refer to, seems to be a spin off from that.
  
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  Crazyguy

  Part of my text was cut off but I wanted to add that in the Septuagint translation its the Reed Sea the Israelites crossed not the Red Sea. This Reed sea is just to the north of Avaris and is part of the marshy delta.
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  Diogenesister

  I had heard some years ago that it was the Reed sea rarther than the red - don't know where but I do remember something about the likelyhood that some kind of tsunmi type event may have happened due to the eruption you mentioned. The water of the Reed sea being dragged back out to the Ocean, leaving a dry sea bed, before returning in the form of a huge 'Tsunami'type wave. Although I gathered the Reed sea was more of a small river ?

  I guess this tit bit I heard was related to the research u guys are telling us about no?

  Thanks, v interesting , will check it out, love a bit of biblical archeology despite my atheism!
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  Saintbertholdt

  The article refers to Bob Brier and he has always maintained it was the Reed Sea. He's a great archaeologist.

  So the article mainly argues for Ramses II's successor as the Pharaoh during the exodus.

  I have no particular opinion on this.

  Anyone?
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  Crazyguy

  What I don't like about guys like Rohl is they seem to concentrate so much on one idea or study that they fail to look out side the box. One case in point. He thinks the garden of Eden is in Azerbaijan, probably using just the bible texts to come up with this idea. Where if he would have studied ancient Sumerian writings where the garden of Eden idea comes from in the first place he would know he was completely in the wrong place.
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  Crazyguy

  Saintbertholdt , If that's what you took from the article then the article is wrong on that point. Ahmose I is the pharaoh that drove out the Hyksos many years before the reign of Ramesses II. As for it being the Reed sea it was just a mistranslation of the word in the Masoretic text.
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  Dunedain

  Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing.
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  Witness 007

  Regardless of where the story came from all evidence tells us that israel came from the cannanites and never left the area. They became the dominant tribe and Jerusalem was never as big as the bible said. There is no evidence of a huge lavish temple etc. Old testament was written in the 6th century bce.
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  Saintbertholdt

  Ahmose I is the pharaoh that drove out the Hyksos many years before the reign of Ramesses II.

  I get that the writer argues that its a conflagration/distorted memory of historical events that conspire to make up the mythology of the exodus. However I also got the gist that a specific exodus of sorts occurred... Or am I wrong?

  Although the Hyksos were not the Hebrews, and in fact lived a very long time before the earliest Hebrews, they were nonetheless Semitic peoples. They were violently expelled from Egypt around 1550 BCE by Ahmose I, but this itself could’ve been a distorted memory of Semitic peoples fleeing Egypt.
  

  ...The fact is, as I intimated earlier, we can find no evidence for the existence of Israel prior to the end of the Bronze Age (c. 1200 BCE). For this we can turn to the king called Baenre-merynetjeru Merneptah hotep-her-maat (1212-1201 BCE), the son and successor of Ramesses II. Merneptah was the first Egyptian pharaoh to drive out incursions of the Sea Peoples, with their Libyan allies.

  ...This earliest mention of Israel, by the way, has led some scholars to argue that Merneptah was the pharaoh of Exodus. They represent a minority, however: most still argue in favor of Ramesses II.