My internship required me to research and write a history of Egypt. While doing this I came across the fact that there is no evidence (other than what's in the Bible) for the Biblical tales of Jews in Egypt. Another reason I started researching this is earnest was a
roommate’s claims that some guy had found Noah’s Ark, the Red Sea Crossing, and
a whole lot of other biblical sites. The problem with Ron Wyatt is he was not
an archaeologist and could make no real claims to substantiate his finds. He’s
been denounced by scientific communities as well as most religious groups.
Evangelical Christians love this guy, which explains why that particular
roommate was so excited.
The reason this belief has been accepted as true comes from
a book called Against Apion by
Josephus Flavius.[1] In
this book he cites a passage from the book Aegyptica
by Manetho,[2]
who was a historian during the Ptolemaic Dynasty, talking about the Hyksos.
Josephus mistranslated Hyksos to “shepherd kings,” (which I guess is a
reference to Jews) it actually means “rulers of foreign land.”
The Hyksos came in during the Second Intermediate Period
(1664–1555 BCE)[3] of Egyptian history, ruled for a little over 100 years, and
were the 13-15th Dynasties.[4]
They were invaders from a foreign land and managed to conquer most of Egypt. By
the end of the 15th Dynasty the Hyksos were defeated by the 17th
Dynasty (made up of Theban Egyptians) and were allowed to retreat.[5]
This retreat could possibly be interpreted as The Exodus if the dates weren't
off. The Exodus is dated to be around 1440 BCE,[6]
or 1200-1250 BCE.[7] The
Hyksos were around from 1664–1555 BCE.
If new evidence comes around and proves it cool, I will add a disclaimer to this post. As it currently stands the
historicity of this section of the Bible is laughable.
Footnotes do not transition between Word and Blogger too well, sorry.
[1] Josephus, The Life. Against Apion (Loeb Classical Library), Harvard University Press, 1976.
[2]
Unfortunately there are no surviving copies of this book. Against Apion cites it, and there are fragments left.
[5] Ibid.
[6]
This is according to Rabbinic Judaism.
[7] By
Biblical scholar William F. Albright
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