According to The Bible, the Israelites were clearly slaves and not free-agent workers for the Egyptians. This is most strongly demonstrated by the supposed unwillingness of the pharoah to allow the Israelites to leave. However, nowhere in the many highly detailed Egyptian accounts of their daily life, that have survived and been translated by scholars, is there any evidence for the presence of the Israelites in Egypt. And there are many puzzling discrepancies between the archaeological evidence and the biblical stories. Israel Finkelstein says that over ninety per cent of scholars do not believe that the Exodus happened as described in the Bible.
According to the Bible, the Israelites began in Egypt as honourable freemen, but were enslaved later. So, from a biblical point of view, the answer is 'both', at different times.
From a historical point of view, the answer would seem to be 'neither'. There is no evidence of Israelite slaves in the Egyptian records, nor of Joseph or any other outsider being vizier or ruler of Egypt, subject only to the pharaoh. There is no record of the plagues or any economic distress, and the archaeological record is strongly against there ever having been an Exodus from Egypt.
The theory that they were workers and not slaves was proven when they discovered the tombs and homes of the tomb and pyramid builder's .
The Egyptians made a final attempt because they were trying to get the Israelites as their slaves again, and he destroyed them so they couldn't follow the Israelites because they were his people.
Pharaoh would not release the Israelites from Egypt. The Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians and God commanded Moses to free them.
The Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The Pharaoh mostly.
Pharaoh and the Egyptians forced their Israelite slaves to produce bricks and to work on various construction projects, such as building cities and monuments. The Israelites were subjected to hard labor and harsh conditions under Pharaoh's rule.
The angel of God and the pillar of cloud came between the Israelites and the Egyptians.
they were slaves that built the pyramid. or prisoners of warAnswerArchaeologists have recently found the graves of some workers who built the pyramids. They were buried reverentially, and with some goods to help them in the afterlife. It is clear that the workers were not slaves, but paid workers who were treated well by the standards of their time.
I'm assuming that the complete question is: In view of the fact that only the Israelites lived in the region of Goshen,how was it posssible for them to live right next to the Egyptians so that there was a need to mark their houses for the Passover?The answer is that in Goshen there were many Israelites, but there may also have been some Egyptians. And some of the Israelites lived outside of Goshen among the Egyptians, as is implicit in Exodus 1:7.
A:According to the Book of Exodus, the Israelites, who had previously been free settlers in Egypt, were enslaved because the pharaoh became alarmed at their growing number and the risk that the Israelites might one day seek to overthrow the Egyptian rule.On the other hand, Ze'ev Herzog (Ha'aretz Magazine, 29 October, 1999) says that what archaeologists have learned from their excavations in the Land of Israel is that the Israelites were never in Egypt, did not wander in the desert, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did not pass it on to the twelve tribes of Israel. He says the many Egyptian documents that we have make no mention of the Israelites' presence in Egypt and are also silent about the events of the Exodus. If the Israelites were never in Egypt, then of course they were never slaves for the pharaoh.
The problem presented at the outset of the exodus from Egypt by Israel was their enslavement and oppression by the Egyptians. The Israelites were forced to work as slaves under harsh conditions, and they cried out to God for deliverance.
The children of Israel were at first prosperous in Egypt because the Lord blessed all their endeavors, including their crops and animals. However, the Egyptians became afraid of the successes of the Israelites and they made Israelites their slaves.
The lower class Egyptians were made up of Slaves, peasants, and workers people such as farmers and scribes.