TRANSPONDER wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:36 amI have a theory……that the writers of Exodus (and Genesis) in Babylon during the exile, trying to invent an origin for themselves and using a lot of Babylonian material, may have used a record of Ahmose I driving the Hyksos out of Egypt into Canaan and recast it as Moses leading his people into Canaan, combined with (as I say) the actual spread into the plains from the N.East. much later on – oh yes, and using the Tale of Sargon of Akkad found in the Bulrushes as an origin story for Moses. The rest of the stuff relating to the imposition of the books of Law and the rites of the tribal god that didn’t appear until later is (I argue) anachronistic material.
Most scholars also believe the Exodus account was written during the Babylonian captivity and the Exodus account was fictional/legendary.
“The majority of Biblical scholars believe that the written books were a product of the Babylonian captivity (c. 600 BCE)”
https://time.graphics/period/347781
If it was fictional, then there should be no archaeological evidence to support the story. But, I do not believe that to be the case and there does exist archaeological evidence. Though it won’t prove the Biblical accounts to be true, it does give it plausibility. The Bible could’ve been redacted in the Babylonian exile, but I think it would’ve been minor and not on the scale of making up the entire Exodus account.
The Bible says the Israelites settled in the land of Goshen.
Gen 45:8-10 (KJV)
8 So now [it was] not you [that] sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
9 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not:
10 And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:
In 1885 Édouard Naville identified Goshen as the 20th nome of Egypt, located in the eastern Delta, and known as “Gesem” or “Kesem” during the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt (672–525 BC). It covered the western end of the Wadi Tumilat, the eastern end being the district of Succoth, which had Pithom as its main town, extended north as far as the ruins of Pi-Ramesses (the “land of Rameses”), and included both crop land and grazing land
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_Goshen
The archaeological site Tell El-Dab’a is located in the land of Goshen.
Tell el-Dab’a is an archaeological site in the Nile Delta region of Egypt where Avaris, the capital city of the Hyksos, once stood. Avaris was occupied by Asiatics from the end of the 12th through the 13th Dynasty (early second millennium BC).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_El-Dab%27a
Though the residents cannot be directly traced as “Israelites”, they can be linked as Canaanites.
“Excavations have discovered buildings, namely residences, tombs, and temples, that combine Egyptian and Canaanite architectural styles.”
“The tomb styles and methods used to bury the dead in Tell el-Dab’a were Canaanite.”
“Excavations at Tell el-Dab’a have uncovered temples that date to the Hyksos period. The temples exhibit Egyptian and Canaanite styles.”
https://debatingchristianity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1068789#p1068789