Where was Israel at the time of King Tutankhamun's reign?

Answer 1

Going by The Bible story, the Jews had still not reached present-day Israel by that time. Where they lived then is uncertain. It is highly improbable that they lived in Egypt at the time. The Bible story about Moses, the slavery in Egypt and the flight from Egypt that also first mentioned Israel as 'the promised land' is not supported by a single shred of historical evidence, physical or otherwise. It is moreover inconceivable that the Egyptians who were meticulous record-keepers through the ages, would not with a single word have mentioned the works of a viceroy called Moses, the mass exodus, the plagues and the drowning of a whole Egyptian army in a miracle opening and closing of the Red Sea. But the fact is they didn't.

The general opinion among today's historians is that the story was invented to give the later-generation Jews a sense of common heritage, identity and destination; and that 'Jews' in the days of King Tut consisted of a number of semi-nomadic Semitic tribes living at the western edges of the Babylonian Empire.

Answer 2

There are at least four opinions among academic scholars as to how to date the Egyptian dynasties, with differences among the opinions varying by up to five hundred years. Therefore, no answer can be definitive. According to the majority academic dating system, Tut reigned in about 1332 to 1323 BCE. At that time, according to Jewish tradition, the Israelites were still in Egyptian slavery.

After the Israelites left, Egypt was in turmoil for decades. Though Israel was later harassed (Judges ch.3,6 and 10) by its smaller neighbors (Ammon, Moab, Midian), not a peep was heard from Egypt for four hundred years.

Egypt's turmoil is borne out by the Ipuwer papyri (Professor John van Seters, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology no. 50). The plagues were also described by ancient historians, including Herodotus and Diodorus. The Exodus is mentioned by Strabo, Berosus, Artapanus, Numenius, Justin, and Tacitus.

See also:

Jewish timeline

Was Moses a real person?

Archaeology and the Hebrew Bible

Debunking the Bible-critics