@maxdancona,
maxdancona wrote:I keep seeing the story of Moses, particularly the exodus from Egypt, presented as historical fact. In truth this story is neither historical nor factual.
After hundreds of years of research by people who really wanted to prove this story true, it is completely clear that this story could not have possibly happened. There is no evidence Jews were never enslaved in Egypt. There are no records, no archaeological evidence. There is a remarkable lack of signs that any large number of people traipsed through the desert for 40 years. There is no fire remains or trash.
Now that we have the ability to study genetics, we are getting an even better picture of the history of the people now living around Israel. They simply started out as the same people with the same ancestors.
But this story, from the slavery in Egypt to the Killing of the firstborn to the parting of the Red Sea to the 40 years wandering in the desert is all just a myth.
Poor logic there. "Proving that a huge migration didn't take place" does not prove that there was no slave escape at all. It just disproves a slave escape of a certain size.
Textual analysis indicates that the oldest part of the Bible is the story about the slaves escaping across the Red Sea.
Further, Egyptian records place a deity named YHW in the region where the story says Moses went up the mountainside and conversed with the burning bush.
While a massive exodus probably didn't happen, there is no reason to think that a small group of slaves couldn't have escaped due to extremely good fortune and then "found religion" on their way home.
Add in the fact that Bronze Age society had collapsed right about that time and people were looking for something new to believe in, and it is easy to see how their new religion would find fertile ground once they got back home, especially when it was supported by their inspiring tale about how they had escaped from slavery.
