By: Roy B. Blizzard, Jr.
Posted: June 08 2009
The material in this article is some of the most difficult material in the entire Old Testament. In this study, the children of Israel have been settled for many years in the fertile delta area of the Nile known as the land of Goshen. Life was good and the conditions favorable to the degree that the children of Israel increased to such numbers that they became a perceived threat to Pharaoh and the Egyptian empire. As a result, the Pharaoh issued a decree that all female children were to be spared but all of the male children were to be killed.
During this time, a Levite man by the name of Amran took a Levite woman by the name of Yokheved for a wife. She bore a son and hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she placed him in a basket made of reeds lined with pitch and placed him in a thicket by the river bank while his sister, Miriam, stood at a distance to see what would happen to the child. Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the river to bathe and saw the basket in the thicket and sent her slave girl to fetch it even though Pharaoh’s daughter knew it was a Hebrew baby.
Miriam told the Pharaoh’s daughter she knew of a woman that would nurse him for her and thus it was that for approximately the first five years of his life, Moses was raised by his own mother. After being weaned, the boy was brought to Pharaoh’s daughter, became her son and she named him Moses.
Moses’ life is divided into a series of three periods of 40 years each:
- The first from his birth to 40 years of age. For the first five or six years he lived with his parents and was raised in a Hebrew environment. The second portion of this period, from six to forty, he lived in the palace of the Pharaoh and received a royal education as an Egyptian nobleman. He killed an Egyptian overseer who was abusing a Hebrew slave and was forced to flee from Egypt.
- The second period of time, from 40 to 80 years old, he fled to the land of Midian and became a tender of the flocks of Jethro who was a priest of the land of Midian. There he married Tzipporah, the daughter of Jethro. At approximately 80 years of age he was called by God to return to Egypt, appear before Pharaoh and declare to Pharaoh to “Let my people go.”
- From 80 to 120 years of age, he returned to Egypt with his brother Aaron, appeared before Pharaoh and requested he let the Hebrew people depart. Pharaoh refused. Ten severe plagues devastated the land of Egypt before Pharaoh relented. The Hebrew people were allowed to leave, the miracle at the Sea of Reeds occurred and the Egyptian hosts were drowned. Moses received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.
More space is given in the Torah to Moses and the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan than to any other topic or person. One would think that because of all of the details mentioned in this lengthy account that it would be a relatively simple thing to reconstruct the history; i.e., where the children of Israel lived, the name of the Pharaoh’s daughter, the name of the Pharaoh, the time the Exodus took place, the journey of the children of Israel across the Sea of Reeds and into the Sinai peninsula, the location of the mountain upon which Moses received the Law, their wanderings in the wilderness and the various stopping places along the way. However, such is not the case.
As surprising as it may be, there is no undisputed archaeological evidence that the Hebrew people were ever in Egypt. There is no inscriptional evidence of Joseph or Moses or any of the events mentioned in the Biblical text.
There are actually two different dates suggested for these events. One is an early date of 1447 BCE for the Exodus and 1407 BCE for the beginning of the conquest of Canaan. The late date suggested is the middle part of the 13th century around 1250 BCE for their entrance into the Promised Land. There are many other problems as well. In Israel there is little archaeological evidence for an Israelite occupation at many of the sites mentioned in the Biblical text until the middle of the 13th century BCE. It should be remembered that the Egyptians kept exceptionally good records of their history; i.e., names of Pharaohs, battles, accomplishments, in addition to numerous literary texts all written on stone, papyrus or parchment. In none of the hundreds of extant texts is there specific mention of the Hebrew people, Joseph, Moses and the Exodus, etc.
According to the Biblical text, some 600,000 men, not including women and children, began the journey to the Promised Land. That would mean there were as many as 1.2 million to perhaps as many as 2 million people including women and children. Two million people would be equivalent to more than half of the total Egyptian population of approximately 3-6 million. A loss of that magnitude would wreak havoc on the Egyptians’ economy yet no such evidence has been found. Two to 2.5 million people marching ten abreast would form a line 150 miles long not including the vast numbers of livestock.
The Hebrew word “elef” translated “thousands” in Exodus 12:37 can also mean military unit or captain. The Hebrew word “aluf” is used in Hebrew today as a general in the army. If we translate the word “elef” as 600 captains or heads of a military unit, then the number of exiting men would be between 5-6,000, which would mean a total population of somewhere around 20,000. That would be well within the range of possibility.
As strange as it may seem, there is no reference in the Biblical text to the name of the Pharaoh during the time of Joseph, nor the Pharaoh’s daughter, nor the Pharaoh of the Exodus. The names and the reigns of all possible Pharaohs are known to us from Egyptian records.
If the date of the Exodus could be definitely established, then we would know the name of the Pharaohs from Joseph to the end of the Exodus. It is interesting that the mummies of those who have been considered the most likely Pharaohs have been found and are on display in Egypt. Today, one can stand and look into the face of the Pharaoh who was possibly the Pharaoh before whom Moses appeared.
Note: Student assignment – for further information and discussion on the subject, you may read the article “Exodus” in Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia on the Internet. (see link below)
According to the Biblical text, the children of Israel entered the Sinai across the Reed Sea, the location of which remains a mystery. There are over 21 different sites that have been suggested for Mt. Sinai, the place where Moses received the Law. The traditional location of Jebel Musa, as it is known today, is at the southern end of the Sinai Peninsula. The monastery of St. Catherine’s was built by order of the Emperor Justinian between 527 and 656 CE. The monastery is under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem. The tradition for Mt. Sinai being the site where Moses received the Ten Commandments has been frequently disputed. It has been pointed that out in the New Testament book of Galatians 4:24-25 that Mt. Sinai is mentioned as being in Arabia.
If one pays careful attention to the Biblical text, it may not be surprising that there is such a paucity of evidence relative to the Hebrews stay in Egypt or their Exodus. Although Egypt is extremely rich in archaeological finds, monuments, inscriptions, texts by the thousands, almost nothing comes from the fertile delta area known in Bible times as the land of Goshen. Very little archaeological work has been done in this area due to the level of the water table. The delta area is very low lying in many areas, quite swampy, with the water table only a few feet beneath the surface. Such a condition makes excavation in this area extremely difficult if not impossible. As a result, although we know this area is very rich in potential archaeological finds yet it has been almost impossible to undertake significant archaeological exploration.
Another fact that cannot be overlooked is that although the Pharaohs went to great lengths to record the significant events of their reign, very little was ever mentioned of their defeats - conquests, yes; defeats, seldom if ever.
Finally, there are hundreds of archaeological sites in both Egypt and Israel that have not had a single spade full of dirt turned on that site by a competent archaeologist. Therefore, there is still much to be learned. Hopefully more information will be forthcoming to illuminate this significant event mentioned so prominently in the Biblical text.
Reference Linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses
