THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT-DID IT HAPPEN?

This past week, I led the first of the four Bible seminars on the Book of Exodus for  the faculty and staff at Framingham State University in the greater Boston area, where I teach Ethics. I decided to concentrate on Exodus, because I consider it to be one of the most fascinating stories in the Hebrew Bible as well as one of the most important narrative in the history of the Jewish people.

The biblical Book of Exodus has four major sections:

1.     The story of the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt and their liberation (ch.1-15);

2.     The journey of the Israelites to the Sinai desert (ch.16-18)

3.     The covenant with God and the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai (ch.19-24)

4.     The building of the portable sanctuary (ch. 25-40).

The major problem we encounter in the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt is its historicity, because there are no references in any of the contemporary Egyptian sources, or in other ancient Middle Eastern texts, to the sojourn in and departure of a group of people called the Israelites from the land of Egypt. The only mention of the Israelites in Egyptian texts is found in the victory hymn of Merneptah over the people of Israel in Canaan (13th cent. BCE), when the king states, “Israel is laid waste; his seed is not” (ANET, p. 378).

There is no knowledge in Egyptian literature of an Israelite leader who went by the name of Moses. In the Hebrew Bible, the name of the Pharaoh, who is involved in the Exodus, is not identified. We do not know when, if ever, the event took place. We also do not know where the crossing occurred. Was it through the “Red Sea” or “the Reed Sea”? And, where is it? (See my article, “Did the Israelites Escape though the Sea”? (In Did Moses Have Horns, 2009, 70 ff). There are also so many generalizations in the Bible about this event that makes it unbelievable. For example, the Hebrew text tells us that the Israelites numbered 70 when they came down to Egypt (Ex.1:5), and, in three generations (Ex.6: 16-20), they left with “about 600,000 men on foot, plus children” (Ex. 12: 37-38), bringing the total to more than one million! All of these assertions make the Hebrew text highly speculative and, at best, legendary. No wonder why so many scholars deny its reliability as an historical event.

Yet, I consider the Exodus a foundational story in the history of the Jews. Over and over again we are told that we were “slaves/strangers in the land of Egypt” (Ex.13: 3; 22.20, Lev. 19:34 Deut. 15:15). Furthermore, as Michael Coogan points out, there are a number of “indisputably Egyptian elements in the account of the Exodus” like, the names of Moses, Aaron, Phinehas and others (The Old Testament, 2006, p. 97) ,which point to an Egyptian origin. Israelites have carried the memory of this fascinating event for centuries, which makes is plausible that it occurred, even if only its kernel is historically correct. Maybe the real event occurred differently and various legends emerged in time; maybe, as some modern scholars now argue, only  a few departing tribes joined up with others already living in Canaan, thus creating a loose confederation of tribes called “Israel” (See, the discussion in my Modern Judaism, 2013, p. 3).

The enslavement and liberation of the Israelites from Egypt have become a symbolic model for all those who are struggling to become free in the modern world. And that is worth noting and even celebrating, as Jews do at every Passover. 

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

Feb. 2, 2020

SONSINO’S BLOG, rsonsino.blogspot.com
Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Beth Shalom, Needham. MA. USA
Framingham State University, Dept. of Psych. and Philosophy