Is the flight of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt as written in the Bible historically correct?

Answer 1

Another answer from our community:

Not Historical:

• The Israelite population went from 70 (or 75) to several million in just a few generations. Exodus 1:5,7, 12:37, 38:26
• Several millions of people, with their flocks and herds, with borrowed jewelry and raiment, with unleavened dough in kneading troughs bound in their clothes upon their shoulders, in one night commenced their journey for the land of promise. We are not told how they were informed of the precise time to start. With all the modern appliances, it would require months of time to inform, several millions of people of any fact. And yet They were able to leave Egypt in one day (selfsame day). Exodus 12:51
• They had with them their flocks and herds, and the sheep were so numerous that the Israelites sacrificed, at one time, more than one hundred and fifty thousand first-born lambs. How were these flocks supported? What did they eat? Where were meadows and pastures for them? There was no grass, no forests ....To support these flocks, several hundreds of thousands of acres of pasture would have been required.
• When it was told Pharaoh that the people had fled, he made ready and took six hundred chosen chariots of Egypt, and pursued after the children of Israel, overtaking them by the sea. As all the animals had long before that time been destroyed, we are not informed where Pharaoh obtained the horses for his chariots.
• The same clothes and shoes (sandals?)lasted them for forty years, during the entire journey from Egypt to the Holy Land. Little boys starting out with their first pants, grew as they traveled, and their clothes grew with them.
• In the thirtieth chapter of Exodus, we are told that the people, when numbered, must give each one a half shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary (Exodus 30:13). At that time no such money existed, and consequently the account could not, by any possibility, have been written until after there was a shekel of the sanctuary, and there was no such thing until long after the death of Moses.

Answer 2

Yes. Professor John van Seters (Journal of Egyptian Archaeology no. 50) points out that there is evidence of the Exodus. The Ipuwer papyrus describes Egypt's experiencing the Plagues: "Pestilence is throughout the land....the river is blood, death is not scarce...there is no food...neither fruit nor herbs can be found...barley has perished...all is ruin...the statues are burned."

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The plagues were also described by ancient historians, including Herodotus and Diodorus. The Exodus is mentioned by Strabo, Berosus, Artapanus, Numenius, Justin, and Tacitus.

• Link: Evidence of the Exodus
  

But in any case, few nations are content to record embarrassing setbacks honestly. Even today, British and American textbooks describe the American Revolution in very different ways.

An example of the above principle:

The destruction of Sennacherib's army at the walls of Jerusalem was denied by secular theorists, because the Assyrians made no mention of it. But then it was found that Berosus and Herodotus both state that Sennacherib's military campaign in Judea ended in plague and defeat. It should not surprise us that the Assyrians themselves didn't record their own losses.

It is only the Hebrew Bible, because of its Divine origin, that exposes the faults of its own people and even magnifies them.

In no other religious text can one find such openness. None of the Israelites were immune to strong criticism: Abraham (Genesis 16:5), Reuben (Gen.ch.35), Simeon and Levi (Gen.ch.34 and 49), Judah (Gen.ch.38), Joseph's brothers (Gen.ch.37), Moses (Numbers ch.20), Aaron (Exodus 32:2-4), Samson (Judges 14:1-3), Eli's sons (1 Samuel 2:12), Samuel's sons (1 Samuel 8:1-3), Saul (1 Samuel ch.15), David (2 Samuel ch.11-12), Solomon (1 Kings ch.11), and many others.

See also the Related Links.

Link: Is the Hebrew Bible accurate?

Link: Moses was a real person

Answer 3

Lester L Grabbe (Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?) says that despite the efforts of some fundamentalist arguments, there is no way to salvage the biblical text as a description of a historical event.