Was the Exodus real?

by SillyPatronus

Is the Exodus considered a historical event? Did Moses exist? What does Egyptian History have to say about it?

Antiquarianism

The Exodus as a narrative was written down by scribes who used earlier oral and/or written sources sometime first in the 6th century BCE but its composition became "closed" by the end of the 5th century BCE (1). It is presumably based on earlier stories because it is thought to be a type of creation-migration myth held by some of the southern Judaean people. In this understanding (2), the narrative came from a group of pastoralists in Sinai who had their own supreme being (YHWH, pronounced Yahu), and he helped them successfully migrate and "pitch their tents" in Canaan. These pastoralists who worshipped Yahu (along with his wife Asherah and other beings) would eventually settle and marry into the pre-existing population and form Judaea. In 720 BCE the Assyrians destroyed the northern Hebrew-speaking kingdom of Israel (a kingdom whose main deity was El) and those northerners flooded south, after a few generations the two deities were merged albeit with Yahu on top (as he didn't get defeated). By the end of the 600's, various Judaean kings had enforced Yahu-centrism by forcing all temples to Yahu to close except his one and only temple in Jerusalem along with purging the worship of Asherah and other beings from the main temple.

As the Judaean kingdom entered the 500's BCE some older texts and oral histories were written down but then in the mid 500's BCE the Babylonians conquer Judaea and everything is thrown into chaos. How could this happen, El had been weak but Yahu was the strongest? This required a reinterpretation, and now Yahu was so powerful that he controlled other peoples too (not just the Hebrew speaking ones). This post-exile international Yahu is the character we see in Exodus, where he directly intervenes in the free will of other nations (Egyptians) so as to help the chosen people's history unfold. Ironically, as (2) mentions, one of the forms of Yahu which was worshiped by early Judaeans was a golden calf, yet Moses here calls this idolatry, so perhaps this too is a theological influence but from the Yahu-worship-consolidation period of the 7th century BCE.

So not only has this text been theologically impacted by scribes, it was first written down by scribes as well; and certainly not written down by a single individual named Moses who lived hundreds of years before the 6th century BCE. The Pentateuch was likely not written by a single individual, but is a compilation of the work of many scribes and many sources, again, this is not good news for a historical figure named Moses. His name is most likely based on the Semitic root seen in Egyptian "ms" (mis, meaning son) and "msy" (misiy, meaning son-of) but usually these names are son-of-deity but Moses' has been shortened at some point.

And what about his actions, do they represent myths or histories? Well he is remarkably similar to Mesopotamian heroes, most famously in that Moses' birth narrative (adopted when found abandoned in a basket in a river) is the same as the birth narrative of King Sargon of Akkad, the famous founder of the Akkadian empire ca. 2300 BCE (3). And besides this detail, Moses' actions likely borrow greatly from the story of Gilgamesh. Both were wise men whose fates are ordained, both wander in the wilderness while journeying with a brother, both petition stronger figures on behalf of a suffering people are are rebuked by supernatural disasters, both travel to a good Other world (Garden of the Gods, the Promised Land), both cross impassable seas, the number 12 is significant in both stories, both include plants that give eternal life, both create fresh water on a mountain, both climb a sacred mountain and find the high god who is with animal sacrifice and offerings, both struggle for 40 days (the Mesopotamian version is between Gilgamesh and Enkidu for 40 days and 40 nights), both kill a "heavenly bull," both brothers die, both write down their stories and both narratives include the death of the author...to name just a few (4). And interestingly enough, another early great figure Abraham is said to have been born in Ur in Sumer.

A typical current view would summarize the evolution of the Pentateuch more or less as follows. The original literary units underlying the Pentateuch were single narratives about the early Hebrew tribes and their leaders. Such narratives were for the most part created, and at first transmitted, orally, some think in poetic form. In the course of time, some of them were gathered together into cycles dealing with various individuals (e.g. Abraham, Jacob) or other common subjects (e.g. the Egyptian bondage, the exodus, the conquest); the cycles were later linked together into lengthier narrative series (e.g. the patriarchal period), and later still, these series were linked into comprehensive historical epics (e.g. the history of Israel from the patriarchs through the death of Moses...).

  • (5)

So all in all, these suspicions have led many researchers to say Moses was a composite character who may have existed as an early pastoralist culture hero. But his actions and narratives as seen in texts have been fully modified by the events and changing theologies of the mid 1st millennium BCE. And yet he is thought to be at least semi-real. Scholars think he might have existed in the period of the late bronze age and early iron age, this was the Late Bronze Age Collapse ca. 1200 BCE which was precisely the time when powerful kingdoms were collapsing and pastoralists were moving and resettling themselves all around the Near East. That seems to match the pastoralist details in Moses' story, and this is an interesting point: If there is an oral history of a pastoralist culture hero in Moses then the late bronze age collapse is a good place to situate him.

But was this pastoralist culture hero leading his enslaved people out of Egypt? Well if they were in the southern Sinai perhaps they had actually been enslaved by Egyptians to work the gold mines there, just an interesting connection. But considering there's no Egyptian records of whole culture-groups being enslaved nor of peoples fleeing from them en-mass...most people have interpreted these events metaphorically. With the bronze age collapse and the final retreat of the Egyptian garrisons from Canaan, perhaps freedom from Egyptian slavery meant political independence from their vassalage (Egypt had been attempting to conquer its neighbors of southern Canaan and Nubia since soon after its formation ca. 3100 BCE). Or we could half-literally interpret these narratives such as Israel Knohl does in his recent theory (6).

He sees the narratives in these early books as stemming from different stories/groups during the late bronze age collapse. In Genesis, Proto-Hebrew speaking pastoralists were actually refugees staying in Egyptian territory during the famines and uncertainty of the late bronze age collapse, then they were abused as cheap labor by Egyptians (Genesis 41-47). But the Exodus narrative itself came from another group during this period: Egyptian records in the 1180's BCE mention a pastoralist warlord named Haru who briefly conquered Egypt with his people and mercenaries (whose beliefs/rituals clashed with Egyptian ones). Soon after, the warband was militarily defeated and expelled. Knohl thinks this expulsion of Haru and his warband, along with stories of people sheltering under Egyptian rule during a world-wide famine, were eventually combined together and became parts of the story in these early books. While this is one of many theories about how to adequately "de-mythologize" these characters and these books, figures such as Haru are good examples of actual biographies of pastoralist leaders of this period. While I appreciate the positivist interpretations of Biblical "history" by Amihai Mazar, personally I lean more towards the skeptical view of Israel Finkelstein.

I'm not a specialist in this period so please let me know if the sources I'm using or mentioning are lacking some necessary context.

1 - Struggling with God: An Introduction to the Pentateuch, by Mark McEntire, pg. 8

2 - How the Jews invented God and made him great https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-how-the-jews-invented-god-and-made-him-great-1.5392677

3 - World Folklore: The Child Cast Adrift https://ztevetevans.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/world-folklore-the-child-cast-adrift/

4 - Did Moses Exist? The Myth of the Israelite Lawgiver, ed. Murdock & Acharya, pg. 462-464

5 - Empirical Models for Biblical Criticism, ed. J. H. Tigay, pg. 22-23

6 - How the Exodus Really Happened, According to a New Theory by Israel Knohl https://web.archive.org/web/20180607104812/www.blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/exodus-really-happened-according-new-theory-israel-knohl/

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