Exodus *

Published June 7, 2010

The Biblical Exodus has been linked by some with the time of the destruction of Atlantis. J. G. Bennett has firmly identified the 2^nd millennium BC eruption of Thera with the destruction of Atlantis^(f) and in turn, the effect of the volcanic fallout on the Egyptian nation generating the Plagues of Egypt recorded in Exodus.

The fixing of the date of the biblical Exodus is still debated, compounding the broader problem of synchronising the Bronze Age chronologies of the eastern Mediterranean. The early arguments were usually the preserve of biblical scholars^(t). However, a wider audience became aware of some of the difficulties when Immanuel Velikovsky published Ages in Chaos ^[039] and offered some solutions. Since then further revisions have been proposed by Peter James and David Rohl, but the Exodus date is still not definitively fixed^(m)(y)(z). On top of all that, other events that should provide reliable chronological ‘anchors’, such as the Trojan War or the eruption of Thera continue to generate dispute as well.

Dr Hans Goedicke, a leading Austrian Egyptologist, expressed a similar view regarding an Exodus link in a 1981 lecture, leading to quite a media stir^(c). Ian Wilson, best known for The Turin Shroud, has calculated that the volcanic plume from the Theran eruption would have been clearly visible from the Nile Delta ^[979.112].

Film-makers Simcha Jacobvici and James Cameron collaborated on the 2006 two-hour documentary The Exodus Decoded, in which, among other matters, it claims that the biblical Exodus took place a couple of hundred years before the generally accepted date^(aa). A review in The Jerusalem Post^(ab)noted that none of the arguments made in the film were accepted by mainstream archaeology and that Jacobovici freely admitted his lack of academic credentials.

Riaan Booysen believes^(b) that two Exodus events can be linked with three possible Theran eruptions and has identified the Israelites as the Hyksos. Ralph Ellis has also linked the biblical Exodus with the expulsion of the Hyksos and devoted a short book^[0656] to the idea.

Russell Jacquet-Acea, an American researcher, has written a three-part paper on dating the biblical Exodus, that includes the radical suggestion that there were three exoduses from Egypt^(m)⁽ⁿ⁾^(o).

Immanuel Velikovsky and others believed that the controversial Ipuwer Papyrus provides evidence in support of the biblical Exodus as well as the ‘Plagues of Egypt’^(d). In 2018, Anne Habermehl delivered a paper to a creationist conference in which she concluded: “that the Ipuwer Papyrus displays strong extra-biblical evidence for the historicity of the Exodus in its description of a chaotic Egypt that would have resulted from the biblical 10 plagues.”⁽ⁱ⁾.

Emilio Spedicato links the biblical Exodus with the explosion of Phaëton in 1447 BC, without any reference to the destruction of Atlantis, which, based on his interpretation of Plato’s text, he associates with a much earlier catastrophe^(a). He also associates these events with the Flood of Deucalion as well as some people migrations that “took place essentially at the same time”^(x).

Alfred de Grazia offers a radical interpretation of the Exodus in God’s Fire ^[1538], in which he saw the Exodus as a highly organised, rather than an opportunistic event. He also attributed some level of electrical knowledge to Moses, whom he credits with the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, if not the ‘invention’ of Yahweh himself!

Perhaps the most extreme Exodus theory has been presented by Finkelstein & Silberman, who have claimed that “the saga of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt is neither historical truth nor literary fiction” ^[280.70]. However, the same disbelieving Finkelstein is now going on a search for the Ark of the Covenant^(e)!

Flavio Barbiero has now produced an extensive paper^(g) in which he precisely dates the Exodus to the night between the 14th and 15th of July of 1208 B.C. (2/3 July of today).

It is important to point out that the historical reality of the Exodus is now being scrutinised as never before, generating growing scepticism. Both Jewish and Christian scholars have expressed serious doubts^(s).

Walter R. Mattfeld wrote in a 2021 paper “My research on the Exodus has concluded that it is fiction, but a myth or fiction which has behind it real events which can be recovered via archaeological findings. My research endeavors are to identify the possible real events that came to be recast or reinterpreted as the Bible’s fictional Exodus. In other words, What’s behind these events that is recoverable via archaeological findings? Basically, I see two historical events, grounded in archaeological data, as behind the Exodus: (1) The Hyksos Expulsion of circa 1530 BC (2) The Iron Age I settlements that suddenly appear in Edom, Moab and Canaan 1200 BC to 1100 BC.These two events are separated in time by roughly 300 years.“ ^(w)

William Austin is just one of many who have devoted years to a study of the Exodus dating controversy. The result of his labours is Before the Exodus, a 500-page offering and a condensed version of From Noah to Moses now available on the academia.edu website^(u) together with a number of other papers.

“If and when the Exodus occurred is one of the most controversial topics in biblical scholarship. Religious fundamentalists believe it is absolutely true. Skeptics doubt it occurred at all, and neither has any means to prove their case! My approach to the problem has been to assume that much of the controversy is due to an erasure of factual Israelite history in the Old Testament account. It is very difficult to read the Old Testament, then to scroll through Egyptian history and say, “Aha! There’s the Exodus. Read the Bible here; read the papyrus there… See, it all matches. Case closed.” It is very difficult, or it would have been done. This is not to say that the Exodus didn’t occur, it just didn’t occur exactly as recorded in the Old Testament of Christian Bibles.”

Gérard Gertoux noted that estimates for the date of the Exodus ranged from 2150 to 650 BC and so to narrow such an extensive range, he embarked on a forensic study of the problem. In a book^(p), The Pharaoh of the Exodus: Fairy tale or real history? ^[1890]and a 22-page paper^(h)(h2) he identified Pharoah Seqenenre Taa, who died on 10 May 1533 BC, as the Pharoah of the Exodus.

Unfortunately, the biblical Exodus has generated several controversies; was it a historical reality, its precise date, the route taken and the identity of the pharaoh of the Exodus? Regarding the last, Rameses II is linked by many with the Exodus, while others have nominated Tutankhamun (Collins & Ogilvie-Herald ^[1898]), Dudimose (Velikovsky^(j), Rohl ^[229]), Amenemhat IV (Habermehl^(k)) Ramesess V (Aboulfotouh^(l)) and to these, we may add many others who have been proposed^(k). This debate has a long way to go yet.

A more recent (April 2022) article by Jonah Cohen highlights the range of individuals proposed as the pharaoh of the Exodus and suggests that the mystery may not be solvable!^(q) Another 2022 article by Gerald Eising opted firmly for Amenhotep II^(r).

As you can see the actual date of the Exodus is disputed, but the difficulties don’t end there. Moses the charismatic leader of the Israelites has generated a separate set of problems. Ahmed Osman is just one commentator who has has identified Moses as the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten ^[1849]. Graham Phillips, among others, claims that Moses was two different people, living at different times ^[0034]! Immanuel Velikovsky has linked Akhenaten with Oedipus in Greek mythology ^[2041]. D.M.Murdock concluded ^[2058] that Moses cannot be discovered in history, whether as Akhenaten or another historical personage. Compounding all this confusion is the idea that Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch and yet, in it, he managed to describe his own death and burial!!

(See: Red Sea)

^(a)https://interval.louisiana.edu/conferences/2007_Stenger/Slides_of_talks/mose8-6.pdf

^(b)https://riaanbooysen.com/misc/167-book-announcement (link broken) See (v)

^(c)Archive 2490 | (atlantipedia.ie)

^(d) https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-writings/does-ipuwer-papyrus-provide-evidence-events-exodus-006951?utm_source=Ancient-Origins+Newsletter&utm_campaign=7295e85219-Top_Trending_Stories_Nov_No3_REAL_11_14_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2dcd13de15-7295e85219-85158329

^(e) https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/02/new-search-begins-for-the-ark-of-the-covenant/

^(f) https://www.systematics.org/journal/vol1-2/geophysics/systematics-vol1-no2-127-156.htm

^(g) https://www.q-mag.org/a-precise-chronology-of-exodus.html

^(h) (99+) (PDF) Absolute chronology of Exodus | Gerard GERTOUX – Academia.edu

^(h2)https://www.academia.edu/30200722/The_Pharaoh_of_the_Exodus_Fairy_tale_or_real_history_Outcome_of_the_investigation

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329770320_The_Ipuwer_Papyrus_and_the_Exodus

^(j) The True Story of Moses and the Pharaoh According to Velikovsky (hermetics.org)