What evidence is there that Moses existed?

Answer 1

There is no evidence. There is only a story, which for all intents and purposes

was probably metaphorical rather than something to have any relation to a real

person, hence why the Pharaoh is never given a name. He is only referred to

by his title.

This hypothesis is also demonstrated by the complete lack of any record in

Egyptian history as ever having had Hebrew slaves, despite the large amount

of information we have about the period in Egyptian history during which the

exodus should have happened.

I suppose it should be stipulated that this only means no evidence has been

found yet; however, it should also be noted that it is very unlikely that any will

ever be found.

Answer:

The evidence is the national, unbroken chain of tradition of the Israelite

people. We possess the names of those who handed down our traditions,

all the way back to Abraham without a single break. And it's recorded in

the Torah. No Hebrew copy of the Torah has ever been found to contradict

the precise Masoretic (traditional) text.

Answer 2

A:The proof of Moses' existence should be in the numerous Egyptian records that have been found by archaeologists, yet no such proof has been found. It is inconceivable that the Egyptians could have sufferred the great plagues that Moses brought upon them, yet leave no written record that even hinted of economic or social hardship. It is inconceivable that the Egyptains could lose millions of slaves, much of their jewellery, gold and silver, then an entire army in pursuit of the Israelites, then only leave records that demonstrated continued, uninterupted prosperity and power.

The Moses of The Bible never existed. Scholars do accept the possibility that a slave of that name could have escaped from Egypt and travelled through Midian, where he learnt of their storm god, YHW, and then continued north until he joined up with the Hebrew tribes already living in Judah. The great majority of scholars no longer accept that Moses led a great migration of Israelites out of Egypt, as described in the Bible.

Answer 3

The evidence is the national, unbroken chain of tradition of the Israelite people. We possess the names of those who handed down our traditions, all the way back to Abraham without a single break. And it's recorded in the Torah. No Hebrew copy of the Torah has ever been found to contradict the precise Masoretic (traditional) text.

Answer 4

The story of Moses is absolutely central to Judaism. Moses spoke to God and followed his commands. He led the people out of Egypt and witnessed many miracles in the wilderness. Moses built the Ark of the Covenant as God commanded and received the ten commandments. But we have no historical or archaeological evidence for the Exodus from Egypt, and therefore no evidence that Moses ever existed.

Exodus 12:40-41 says that the Hebrews spent 430 years in Egypt. And according to Genesis, Moses' grandfather, Kohath, was alive at the time of the migration to Egypt and lived 133 years, while Moses' father, Amran, lived 137 years. So, Moses must have been born sometime between 15 years and 270 years after the arrival in Egypt. Even assuming the patriarchs really lived to improbably great ages, Moses died, aged 120 years, at least 40 years before the Exodus. Some say even the Bible itself proves that the story of Moses, who led the people out of Egypt, could not be true. The biblical authors had no computers to check their work, but could rely on most people of their time being even less able to check.

In fact, almost all scholars now believe that the Israelites did not really conquer the land of the Canaanites, but were themselves rural Canaanites who left the region of the rich coastal cities and settled peacefully in the hitherto sparsely populated hinterland (7). This being the case, they were not descended from the Israelite tribes who fled with Moses out of Egypt. We have no need for the biblical Moses but perhaps there was an escaping slave called Moses, who fled north to join the Hebrew settlements that he found in Judah.

For more information, please see: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/moses-in-history-and-tradition

Answer 5

Moses existed, and lived 3300 years ago. This Jewish tradition has been handed down for over 3,000 years by the entire Jewish nation, and accepted by Christians and Muslims as well. Moses is mentioned many times in the Torah and Rabbinic literature. He is also mentioned by ancient non-Jewish writers going back over 2,300 years, including Hecataeus, Strabo, Alexander Polyhistor, Manetho, Apion, Chaeremon, Tacitus, and Porphyry. Non-religious ancient Jewish sources mention him too, such as Artapanus, Eupolemus, Josephus and Philo.

See also:

http://www.academia.edu/1651319/Is_the_Exodus_Story_Possible

http://www.biblicalchronologist.org/answers/exodus_egypt.php

And the wider picture. Archaeology in general:

http://judaism.answers.com/hebrew/does-archaeology-support-the-hebrew-bible

http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2008/05/01/Did-the-Israelites-Conquer-Jericho-A-New-Look-at-the-Archaeological-Evidence.aspx#Article

Answer 6

No, it is untrue. The life of Abraham is more attested to than that of George Washington. Billions of people all over the world know that Abraham was a real person, and Jews have an unbroken 3800-year tradition to that effect. Archaeologists have corroborated hundreds of details in the Biblical account, including customs, beliefs, and so on. Abraham's biography is in the Book of Genesis (ch.11-25); and his gravesite is known to this day, in the Machpelah at Hebron, Israel. His name is mentioned by several ancient non-Jewish historians as far back as 2,300 years ago. These include Berosus, Alexander Polyhistor, Melo, Eupolemus, Artapanus, Hecateus, and Nicolaus Damascenus.For more:

Abraham's world

A biography of Abraham

Archaeology and the Hebrew Bible

Debunking the Bible-critics

Answer 7

Yes. It is true that there is no evidence that Abraham ever existed.
Genesis gives two parallel stories of Abraham where he got tangled up in his deviousness. First he told the Pharaoh that his wife Sarah was his sister, for fear that the Pharaoh would kill him in order to have sex with her, only to be found out and banished from Egypt. Later, for the same reason, he told the king of Gerar that his by now quite elderly wife (Sarah was now over 90 years old and stricken with age) really was his sister. If Abraham had such close relations with the two great kings, it can be expected that they would have written of him, if only to record his banishment. Yet, archaeologists have been unable to find any reference in Egyptian or other records to any such man.

Not only is there no evidence, the archaeological record is strongly against the biblical account of Abraham. For example, the Philistines only settled in Palestine around 1200 BCE. At the time when Abraham was supposed to have lived, they were still inhabitants of small islands in the Mediterranean, not residents of southern Palestine as described in the Bible.

A vague legend or folk memory was fleshed out in the seventh century BCE, or perhaps later, into a detailed history of the Hebrew people, but the biblical Abraham, ancestor of the Hebrew and Arabian peoples, never existed. And because he did not exist, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah did not occur, Lot's wife was not turned into a pillar of salt, and the promise of all the land of Canaan was not made.