INTRODUCTION

Laurie Eddie (Investigator 181-183) provided a refutation of the Book of Exodus. The Bible refers to Moses and Exodus as factual, not as myth or entertainment. That's what I'll give evidence in support of, that the events reported in Exodus truly occurred.  We'll consider the miracles first:



Eddie (#181, pp 22-23) claims Exodus attributes "magic" powers to Moses and Aaron and their staffs. Eddie compares the staff(s) to a magician's magic wand, thereby putting Exodus on the same level as fictitious stories about wizards, fairies and magic.

However, Exodus repeatedly states that behind the remarkable events (or alleged events) is God — "Now you will see what I will do to Pharoah..." (6:1) Moses announced not what he (Moses) would do, but what God would do. Exodus does not attribute supernatural properties to the staff itself; the staff was a symbol of authority and functioned to attract the attention of the audience. Consider a traffic policeman who directs traffic with arm signals or with the aid of a baton. It would be wrong to claim that the policeman or his arms or the baton magically make the cars move.  

It is from the perspective of God acting behind the scenes that the purported miracles should be studied and examined for possible natural inputs. Arden (1976) notes that, "Moses abolished idol worship, banned magic and divination from religious worship..."

THE MIRACLES

Modern historians reject ancient reports of supernatural events but don't reject such narratives entirely. When Rameses II awaited the arrival of a Hittite princess as his bride during the winter he prayed to Seth for her safety:

Modern historians would dismiss the alleged action of Seth but regard the princess, the prayer, the marriage and the unseasonal mild weather as probably genuine. 

Many miracles described in Exodus can be explained as rare natural events where the miracle lay in humans being at the right place and right time for nature to change political history.

In the 1950s Greta Hort explained the Ten Plagues as a series of natural events where each event caused the next. Her "ecological domino theory" was updated in 1996 by two American epidemiologists whose work was publicized in a TV documentary The Ten Plagues of Egypt and explained by Ehrenkranz and Sampson (2008) and in Investigator #78.

One hypothesis says that the Israelites fled Egypt along the coast before heading south. Lake Manzala and Lake Bardawil are like huge lagoons each separated from the Mediterranean by a long narrow strip of land. The idea is that after the Israelites crossed the slender strip of sand a tsunami, caused by the Santorini Volcano eruption, washed over it and swept Pharoah's pursuing chariots away.

The Lake Manzala scenario, proposed by Egyptologist Hans Goedicke (Begley 1981), is refuted by the date when Santorini exploded. Goedicke suggested 1475 BCE but current evidence places it 150 years earlier.

Others argue that the "Red Sea crossing" took place at the northern end of the Gulf of Suez near what is now the city of Suez, or slightly further north at the "Bitter Lakes". Meteorologist Allan Brunt explained the Red Sea crossing as a storm surge in this area, based on the biblical information that a "strong east wind" blew all night. (Exodus 14:21) See Investigator #14.

Similar is the account by Doron Nof, professor of oceanography, and Dr. Nathan Paldor an expert in atmospheric science. They suggested that a "strong wind ... along the Gulf of Suez" pushed the water "a considerable distance away from the regular shoreline".

Quail blown by the wind apparently covered the ground two cubits (3 feet) deep for "a day's journey" all around the Israelites' camp, and each Israelite gathered at least "ten homers". (Numbers 11:31-32) Critics have claimed that this amounts to a ridiculous "trillions" of birds.

Quail are edible migratory birds about 18cm in length. Egypt a century ago exported millions every year. Arden (1976) writes:

What happened is that a swarm of quail flying three feet above ground fell down around the Israelites' camp. Some Israelites gathered up the birds spending about 1½ days at it.

A "homer" is a "dry measure" of capacity equaling 6.5 bushels (Strong 2001) and a bushel equals 64 pints. Ten homers amount to over 4100 pints of quail (10 x 6.5 x 64) for each gatherer. Sutherland (2015) estimates at least 1900 birds per gatherer.

Moses raised his hand during a long battle between Israelites and Amalekites: "Whenever Moses held up his hand Israel prevailed; and when he lowered his hand Amalek prevailed." (Exodus 17)

The back and forth nature of the battle can be explained psychologically — the Israelite troops felt inspired and therefore rallied every time they saw their aged leader renew his effort.

Another suggestion is: “Any sand can become quicksand … usually by upwelling water, so that it behaves like a liquid.” (New Scientist, December 21/28, 1996, 27-29) In 1692 Port Royal (Jamaica) stood at the tip of a 16-kilometre extension of loosely packed sand, 20 metres deep, saturated with water. An earthquake vibrated the sand and made it soft like quicksand and the town sank, buildings and people straight down, and 2,000 died. In June 1964 part of the Japanese city of Niigata (population 340,000) similarly sank when an earthquake caused “liquefaction”.

Amos Nur (1991) attributed the stopping of the Jordan River (Joshua 3) and the falling of the walls of Jericho (Joshua 6) to earthquakes.

In 1927 an earthquake caused a mud-slide which damned the Jordan River. This also happened in 1906, 1834, 1546, 1534, 1267 and 1160. 

Over thirty destructive quakes have hit the region since 117 BCE.  Josephus, for example, mentions the destruction of the town of Qumran (of Dead Sea scrolls fame) in 31 BCE. Nur suggests an earthquake leveled the Jericho of Joshua’s time:

Some alleged miracles recorded in the Bible have no known natural component. For example Numbers 17 says that 12 staffs belonging to 12 leaders of Israel were left overnight in the Tabernacle for God to indicate which ancestral house should become the priesthood. Aaron's staff alone, "Put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds."

Alleged miracles that currently lack a known natural component become plausible by two arguments:

FIRST OF FOUR POINTS —  HISTORY DESTROYED

The first is that Egypt’s pharoahs and priests were not objective historians but destroyed whatever history they didn’t like.

History was also destroyed by climate. Miller (1998) quotes Egyptologist James Hoffmeier: "I don't know of any surviving papyrus documents from Egypt's Delta… It's too wet. And papyrus … is where most of the records were kept. The inscriptions that we see on statues and temple facades tend to be propagandistic, what-we-want-you-to-know messages."

The non-corroboration of Exodus on Egypt's temple walls and obelisks is therefore to be expected considering how humiliating many events in Exodus would have been to Egyptians.

SECOND POINT — 99% UNKNOWN

Infrared images taken by NASA satellites indicate that most of ancient Egypt is undiscovered! Amor (2011) reports:

Bonin (2011) writes that Dr Parcak: "Estimates that less than one per cent of ancient Egypt is known."

THIRD POINT — FAILED CRITICISMS

In 1670 Dutch-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) published his hypothesis that writing was unknown prior to the 8th century BC and therefore Moses could not have written the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) including Exodus. Those books, according to Spinoza, were written by Ezra (a leader in Israel) in the 5th century BCE.

A century after Spinoza French theologian Jean Astruc (1684-1766) intensified the attack. Focusing on Genesis he separated passages that referred to God as "Elohim" from passages that called God "Yahweh" i.e. "Jehovah". Publishing in 1753 Astruc suggested that the compiler of Genesis had used two sets of documents or "sources" which he called "Jehovistic" and "Elohistic". Today's scholars call them J and E.

German historian Johann Eichhorn (1752-1827) authored Introduction to the Old Testament (1780-1783), endorsed Spinoza's view, and coined the term "Higher Criticism".

These three men sowed the seed. Subsequent theologians who built on their ideas became known as "Higher Critics" and produced ever more varied explanations of how Moses' books originated. There followed Dutch theologian Abraham Kuenen (1828-1891) and German theologians Edouard Reuss (1804-1891), K.H. Graf (1815-1869) and Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918).

Graf and Wellhausen produced the dominant version of the Documentary Hypothesis. This stated that the Pentateuch had four original authors — Jahwist, Elohist, Priestly, Deuteronomist — and that Moses' Law did not originate at Mount Sinai but 1000 years later from Jews in Babylon.

The Documentary Hypothesis was built on textual speculation not on archaeology and required repeated revision. One debate was that Exodus 34 gets the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) wrong. Dr Bob Potter wrote:

Ch.34 is one of the most difficult chapters in Exodus to analyze… The starting-point for the modern critical debate began with Wellhausen’s analysis [in 1879], which isolated ch.34 as a parallel account to ch.20 of the Sinai covenant … this classic literary solution suffered a gradual erosion… First of all, it became increasingly difficult to defend the view of an actual Decalogue in ch.34...

My response (in Investigator 150) to Dr Potter was: "Exodus 34:12-26 does not recapitulate the Ten Commandments but provides commandments to counteract idolatry."

Documentary-Hypothesis advocates had failed to distinguish the Ten Commandments from additional commands directed against idolatry. Such slipups, when defended for a century, undermines the credibility of building grand theories on textual speculation uncorroborated by archaeology.

In the 1970s Wellhausen's theory began to crack when the biblical text was examined by a new generation of scholars. (See Investigator 153)

Spinoza's late-origin-of-writing hypothesis conflicted with Exodus 17:14 and 24:7. Initially the Moabite Stone and Siloam inscriptions, both 8th-century BCE, seemed to support Spinoza because they were the oldest writings known.  Other arguments were:

1.    The Law code of Moses is too advanced for the 15th century BC.
2.    The rituals in Leviticus are too sophisticated for that era.
3.    Many events in Canaan and Egypt described in the Pentateuch are unhistorical.

In 1887 the Tell-el-Amarna tablets — official correspondence between Egypt and Canaan in cuneiform script on clay tablets — were discovered and dated to c.1400 BCE! In 1907 archaeologist Winckler discovered records of the Hittite Empire in Turkey. Deciphered in 1919 they dated to 1800 BCE.

The idea that Moses' Law Code is too advanced for the 15th century BCE was disproved by the discovery in 1902 of the Laws of Hammurabi dated 1800 BCE, and in 1932 by the discovery of the Ras Shamra tablets which record religious rituals loosely similar to Leviticus (but honoring other gods).

Nations and cities too are being confirmed. The Hittites were in the early 19th century regarded as mythical but archaeological discoveries later changed this "myth" to fact. In 1970 I concluded Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated by an asteroid and mentioned this in Investigator #43 and #62. Support that Sodom and Gomorrah existed and were smashed to "smithereens" came recently — e.g. Hignett (2018).

The third point therefore to keep in mind when judging Exodus, is that the Bible is progressively getting confirmed and criticisms of it refuted.

FOURTH POINT — DATE OF THE EXODUS

One reason critics call Exodus unhistorical is uncertainty over the dates for events it describes.

Exodus does not name any pharaoh. But ancient Egyptians also often spoke of "Pharoah" without specifying his name. The Bible usually leaves nameless the pharaohs whom the Egyptians deleted from history.

In Investigator #157 I calculated "rough biblical dates" back to Abraham. My calculation is close to that of Irish Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656), whose date-list became part of the King James Bible, but disagreed by 46 years with dates supplied in the NRSV Reference Bible (1993). I did not settle this 46-year difference but noted it as follows:

Abraham moves to Canaan:	1922 BCE  or 46 years later
Jacob & family move to Egypt:	1707     "           "
Birth of Moses:	1572     "           "
Ten Plagues and the exodus:	1492     "           "
Solomon's temple construction:	1012     "           "

Below is a page from AIDS TO THE STUDENT OF THE HOLY BIBLE (c.1880) which relies on Ussher's chronology to date the exodus to 1491 BCE. Remember this date, 1491 BCE (or 46 years later), for the ten plagues and the exodus.

Biblical chronology as calculated by James Ussher. Observe 1491BCE for the exodus:

Wikipedia says:

Actually 480 years are literal because they terminate at a literal and specific date — the fourth year and second month of Solomon's reign. (I Kings 6:1) If, however, we add the time-periods mentioned in the book of Judges and add to them the 40 years in the wilderness and the reigns of King Saul and King David, it comes to over 600 years, not 480. The reason is that some periods in Judges are not consecutive but concurrent or overlapping — but that's a separate study.

If 480 years is literal it's necessary to argue for what's called the "early date" or 15th century BCE for the exodus, i.e. 480 years before Solomon's reign, in contrast to a "late date" in the 13th century BCE.

Ahmose I	1550-1525
Amenophis I	1525-1504
Thutmosis I	1504-1492
Thutmosis II	1492-1479
Hatshepsut	1479-1458/57
Thutmosis III	1479-1425
Amenophis II	1428-1397
Thutmosis IV	1397-1388
Amenophis III	1388-1351/50
Amenophis IV/Akhenaten	1351-1334
Smenkhkare	1337-1333
Tutankhamun	1333-1323
Ay	1323-1319
Horemheb	1319-1292

Ramesses I	1292-1290
Seti I	1290-1279
Ramesses II	1279-1213

Comparing these dates with Ussher's chronology suggests Thutmosis I, II or III or Hatshepsut as the pharaoh of the Ten Plagues. But it's not that simple.

David Down, the Adventist editor of Archaeological Diggings, believes that Egypt's 12th dynasty which is dated 1976-1793 BCE experienced turmoil and disruption such as the Ten Plagues might have provoked and he therefore brings the 12th dynasty forward several centuries. James (1991) reduces Egyptian chronology by 250 years; David Rohl (1995), a former pop musician turned Bible-advocate, argues for a 350-year reduction; Furlong (2007) says "the conventional chronology is fundamentally wrong... New Kingdom dates ... should be lowered by 200 years". D.B. Redford in contrast calculates the reign of Ramesses II to be 111 years earlier than currently accepted!

Historians don't accept these revisions to Egyptian dates. However, the adding of 100 years to Egypt's history prior to 1500 BCE might be supported as follows:

The volcanic eruption of Santorini near Crete used to be dated to about 1500 BC by pottery and other objects in the ash.

Large volcanic explosions eject sulphur which makes rainfall acidic and shows up in the snow layers of the Greenland icecap. Danish scientists, in 1987, published their analysis of an ice core from Greenland and found an acid spike dated 1645 BC but none around 1500 BC. In 2006 the carbon dating of an olive branch found in the Santorini pumice and ash supported the new date. (Science Illustrated, 2008)

Smaller disagreements occur also. Wikipedia discusses a possible co-regency of 8 years of Amenophis III and his son Akhenaten, which differs to Schultz & Seidel. Wikipedia also gives the reign of Hatshepsut as 1505-1482 BCE, 23 years earlier than Schultz & Seidel. Every uncertainty makes the identification of the Pharoah of Exodus more problematic.




Pharoah Hatshepsut was a woman. She established trade networks, commissioned construction of temples and obelisks and: "so much statuary ... that almost every major museum with Ancient Egyptian artifacts in the world has Hatshepsut statuary..."

Nevertheless the Egyptians erased Hatshepsut from history, her name forgotten until the 19th century.

Wikipedia says:


Comparison with Ussher's dates makes Hatshepsut a candidate for Pharoah of the exodus. The Ten Plagues and catastrophe at the Red Sea could account for her removal from Egyptian history. Although Exodus refers to Pharoah as "he" not "she" this could reflect Hatshepsut's presentation of herself as a male (on official occasions she often wore a false beard), or is an artifact of grammar where "pharoah" is a masculine noun and required a masculine pronoun.



For over a century the oldest known non-biblical reference to Israel was on the Merneptah Stele dated 1210 BCE, located in Cairo's Egyptian Museum.

Now, another non-biblical mention of Israel may be 200 years older. Egyptologist Manfred Görg found it on a grey granite slab 18 x 15.5 inches in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. A piece of the slab is missing, also half of the word that might spell Israel. The slab also has the hieroglyph for "sh" rather than "s".

Van der Ween et al (2010) argue that the damaged word is an archaic form for “Israel". The names on the left side of the slab refer to Ashkelon and Canaan; the geographical proximity of these to Israel makes the identification of the damaged word as "Israel" probable:


Therefore, archaeological evidence for the Israelites' existence may now extend back to 1400 BCE. That date also is not necessarily final since further discoveries may be made.

An objection is that the Bible teaches "monotheism" i.e. worship of one God referred to as "Yahweh" whereas the first monotheism is often attributed to Pharoah Akhenaton (ruled 1351-1334) who imposed Sun-worship on Egypt.

It is sometimes supposed that Moses got the idea for monotheism from Akhenaton (or even that Moses was Akhenaton)! Arden (1976) writes: "Moses may already have gleaned such an idea from tales he heard about his ancestor Abraham, as well as from stories about Akhenaton, who less than a century earlier had established a brief-lived religion based on a single god  ... the Aten, or sun disk..."  Van Biema (1998) writes:


Deriving Moses' monotheism from Akhenaton postulates a "late date", 13th century BCE, exodus. If the "early" date, 15th century BCE, is accepted then Akhenaton ruled a century after Moses. In that case Akhenaton's so-called monotheism could be a "memory of" Moses.

Wikipedia implies that Yahweh worship preceded Akhenaten: "The earliest putative reference to Yahweh in the historical record occurs in a list of Bedouin tribes of the Transjordan made by Amenhotep III (c. 1391-1353 BC) in the temple of Amon at Soleb." And: "The 'Kenite hypothesis' supposes that the Hebrews adopted the cult of Yahweh from the Midianites via the Kenites." (Wikipedia)

It seems archaeology is starting to support biblical monotheism as the oldest monotheism!



The Hyksos were Middle Easterners of mixed origin who began to migrate into northern Egypt after 1800 BCE. They seized power around 1630 BCE and Hyksos kings ruled Egypt as the 15th dynasty.

The Hyksos spoke a Semitic language but were neither Hebrews (early Israelites) nor slaves. They established their capital city, Avaris, and adopted Egyptian customs and worship. 

The editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica write:


Genesis 40 to 50:21 covers about 30 years of Joseph's life in Goshen (the eastern part of the Nile Delta) including 17 years of his father Jacob. (47:9, 28) Apparently the same pharoah ruled throughout that period. Wikipedia's "List of Pharoahs" names only three between 1800 and 1500 BCE, who ruled 30 years or longer. All three were Hyksos:

If the Hebrews settled in Goshen during the Hyksos period there's a question. Genesis 37-50 portrays a time of peace. People apparently travelled safely and freely between Canaan and Goshen; no wars are mentioned; and Pharoah increases his power not by war but by purchase of land. (Genesis 41:53-57; 47:5-6, 20; 50:7-14) Yet Manetho, a third century B.C.E Egyptian historian, quoted by Josephus in the first-century C.E, portrayed the Hyksos as ruthless, destructive invaders:


Modern historians generally followed Manetho and presented the Hyksos as pillaging invaders. This viewpoint is now challenged by Austrian archaeologist Manfred Bietak who excavated the Hyksos capital Avaris (el-Dab’a) for almost 50 years. Curry (2018) writes:


Wikipedia says: "In recent years the idea of a simple Hyksos migration, with little or no war, has gained support."

The impression of peace in Genesis 40-50 therefore has current support.

Ussher's chronology compared with Genesis, Exodus and archeology suggests the following sequence:

ANACHRONISTIC PHILISTINES?

Critics call references to "Philistines" in Genesis and Exodus "anachronistic" because the Philistines supposedly arrived in the 11th century BCE, several centuries after the exodus.

Genesis reports amiable relations of Abraham and Isaac with Philistines who were neither warlike nor powerful. (Genesis 21:32-34; 26:1, 16) The Bible's initial listings of Canaanite nations which Israel would one day displace do not include Philistines — Genesis 15:18-21; Exodus 3:8; 23:28; Deuteronomy 7:1; 20:17.

This changed by the time of Exodus 13:17 and war with Philistines was something to be avoided. Joshua 13:1-7 and Judges 3:1-6 mention the Philistines including their five cities as still unconquered.

The word "Philistines" in the Old Testament is therefore not an "anachronism" but the name of the local population before the Sea People arrived and mixed with them.

MOUNT SINAI

At least six different mountains in the Sinai Peninsula and two in NW Arabia have been proposed as Mount Sinai. (Van Biema 1998)

The traditional Mount Sinai is in southern Sinai Peninsula near St. Catherine Monastery:

The highest mountain peak is Mount Catherine, rising 2,610 metres (8,550 feet) above the sea and its sister peak, Jebel Musa (2,285 m [7,497 ft]). (Wikipedia)

NW Arabia has several volcanoes and advocates for them refer to the Bible's mention of smoke and fire on Mount Sinai. (Exodus 19:18; Deuteronomy 5:22-26) But "fire" could be a metaphor for lightning and "smoke" for dense clouds. Debates to definitely identify Mount Sinai remain inconclusive.

No archaeological evidence for Israel's encampments in Sinai Peninsula has been confirmed — no rubbish, no skeletons:  "… the Sinai Peninsula shows almost no sign of any occupation for the entire 2nd millennium BCE..." (Wikipedia)

Consider, however, that the Sinai Peninsula was crossed by Bedouin tribes, military forces, miners, and other groups of expellees from Egypt. In Western Asia, Assyrians and Babylonians moved whole populations to new locations. There were also voluntary migrations — in the 530s BCE 50,000 Jews returned to Judah from Babylon. Many other great migrations have occurred such as the Goths and Huns who between them destroyed the Roman Empire. In the 14th century hordes of Mongols conquered Asia. And in 1935 occurred the "Long March" of the Communists (numbering 100,000) led by Mao.

Archaeological evidence for all such movements and encampments is sparse. Perhaps this will change — Hoffmaier et al (2016) reports on "New Archaeological Evidence For Ancient Bedouin on Egypt's Eastern Frontier". Furthermore, if the "wilderness of Sinai" was in Arabia, as some people claim, and not Sinai Peninsula then almost all searching for Israelite camps was done in the wrong place.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

The story of baby Moses set afloat on the Nile River has been compared to a similar story about Sargon who ruled Mesopotamia in the 24th century BCE, and on that basis declared fictitious.

It's unlikely, however, that any writer of Exodus knew about 900-year-old events in distant nations. Even today with widespread literacy and libraries everywhere, who of us know the birth-details of foreign kings who lived 900 years ago? Both Babylon and Egypt were river civilizations. Setting an unwanted baby afloat was probably a regular event similar in recent centuries to leaving it outside a church, orphanage, or hospital.

Moses' sister monitored the floating basket and observed Pharoah's daughter find it. Therefore the incident must have happened close to where the Israelites lived in Goshen. The basket wouldn't have floated upriver, against the current, with the girl following it, hundreds of kilometers to Abydos or Thebes. A date in the Hyksos era, with their capital Avaris within walking distance of the Israelites, is implied.

Eddie comments on God's obsessive need of self-glorification: "I will gain glory for myself over Pharoah and all his army, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD." (14:4)

The Israelites regarded themselves as part of Pharoah's "own people". (5:16) Therefore they required God to prove himself, show himself "glorious", greater than Egypt's gods, before they would uproot their lives and leave Egypt. God's self-glorification is nothing obsessive. It's not God being psychologically defective and needy, but an objective necessity for the people. (15:11)

God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The LORD [YHWH], the God of your ancestors ... has sent me to you':
This is my name forever,
This is my name for all generations. (3:15)

Almost everyone today has heard or read that name. Some Bible translations such The Jerusalem Bible have "Yahweh" or "Jehovah" (instead of "LORD") thousands of times.

"Pharaoh's fear that the Israelites might ally themselves with foreign invaders seems unlikely in the context of the late 2nd millennium, when Canaan was part of an Egyptian empire and Egypt faced no enemies in that direction, but does make sense in a 1st millennium context…" (Wikipedia)

Actually, it does "seem likely" in the 2nd millennium BCE context. For a few years the Hyksos controlled most of Egypt including Thebes. When their retreat began they were the minority compared to native Egyptians, and the proliferating Israelites among them seemed increasingly a threat. (1:8-10)

However, references to domesticated camels in Abraham’s time (c. 2000 B.C.) have been set aside by such writers as T. E. Peet, Egypt and the Old Testament (1924) p. 60 and R. Pheiffer, Intr. to the Old Testament (1941) p. 154, and others. (1983)

This is an ongoing debate — why don't Egyptian records mention domesticated camels in the 2nd millennium BCE whereas the Bible does? Gabrielle (2010) says that the Israelites, after leaving Egypt, defeated the Amalekites because: "the Amalekites were camel cavalry armed with bows. This made them incapable of infantry attack…"

The absence of evidence for disasters such as the Ten Plagues and sudden decline in Egyptian power does not prove no disasters happened.

Deliberate suppression of records may have occurred. Nations also sometimes recover quickly. Rome lost 50,000 troops at Cannae in 216 BCE but went on to defeat Carthage. The Soviet Union suffered 27 million war deaths in WW II, 15% of its population, yet emerged powerful and rivaled America. Egypt could have recovered from the Ten Plagues quickly if the next pharaoh was competent and made economic and political recovery his priority. Therefore, identifying weak pharaohs or powerful ones can neither pinpoint the era of the Plagues nor refute that they happened.

 ... favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And so they plundered the Egyptians. (Exodus 11:3; 12:36)

The plundering of defeated enemies is common throughout history. In 1945 Germany was so intimidated by defeat that the Soviets could confiscate everything they wanted and transport it east! The Egyptians after the traumatic Ten Plagues would have felt similarly accommodating.

The Israelites washed their clothes at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:10) which Eddie, because of the desert environment, considers "bizarre ... at odds with reality".

Uluru [Eyre's Rock] in central Australia has pools of water at its base and waterfalls after rainfall. Mount Sinai is bigger and accompanied by other mountains and similarly disgorges water — see Deuteronomy 9:21. L.J. Sutton writes: "Gebel Um Shomar and Jebel Katherina … are often snow capped in winter." Also the Seventh Plague was Egypt's greatest-ever hail storm and "rain ... poured down". (Exodus 9:23, 33) This may have wetted the Sinai Peninsula, raised water tables, filled wells, and fed flocks through increased vegetation growth. And aside from a one-off Seventh Plague there's recurring:

 ... severe weather ... in arid and semiarid regions especially if it is steep and mountainous ... such as Sinai Peninsula... Short duration of heavy rainfall over a relatively small drainage area can lead to devastating flash flood… (Afandi et al 2013)

Sinai Peninsula … is exposed yearly ... to heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flood… Statistically it is found that, the average number of typical heavy rainfall during the last 15 years is about 2.6 times... (Morsey et al 2017)

When the Israelites reached Mount Sinai it was enveloped in "dense cloud" and "thunder and lightning" (19:9, 16), and: "the heavens poured down rain at the presence of God, the God of Sinai..." (Psalm 68)

Eddie labels as "anachronisms" the location of "Dan" in Genesis 14:14 because Dan received its name centuries later (Judges 18:29), and the sentence "These were the kings who reigned in Edom before any Israelite king reigned" (Genesis 36:31) because Israel's monarchy likewise came centuries later.

However, the Danites took possession of their tribal area shortly after Moses died (Joshua 19:40-48), probably before Moses' five books were finalized, and out-of-date place-names got replaced with the name that was current. Alternatively, "Dan" in Genesis 14:14 was a different Dan than in Joshua/Judges being situated further north near Damascus. (Genesis 14:15) Also not anachronistic is "Before any Israelite king reigned", this being a reminder of the prophecy (Genesis 17:6, 16) that Abraham's descendants would include many kings.

Eddie complains of God's "petty" requirements like not touching Mount Sinai and ignoring the Sabbath, with death for infringements. However, human rulers have ordered executions of people, sometimes of millions, for far less. God's seeming severity was to teach the Israelites respect, coax them away from idolatry, and enforce standards that would later lead to national prosperity. Execution for cohabiting with Moabite women and worshipping their god "Baal" may have stopped the spread of a sexually transmitted disease since we read "the plague was stopped". (Numbers 25:1-9)

Eddie dislikes the "punishing [of] children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." (Deuteronomy 5:9)

The third-and-fourth-generation threat is merely a scientific fact. Bad economics and bad politics obviously affect subsequent generations. And bad health and indiscriminate sex can do so via Mendelian genetics, "epigenetics", and disease transmission.

New Scientist magazine reported: "The sins of the fathers are, indeed, visited on subsequent generations. Nutrition and smoking in early life may influence the health of men's sons and grandsons, a new study has revealed." (Hooper 2006) London geneticist Marcus Pembrey who made this discovery stated: "The Bible says the sins of the fathers are visited upon his children unto the third and fourth generations."

THE NUMBERS

For Israel to have 600,000 troops implies that 2½ million Israelites left Egypt plus vast numbers of domestic animals.

Jacob migrated to Goshen with 70 people (Genesis 46:27); the exodus occurred 215 years later. An increase of 70 to 2½ million in 215 years equates to 5% increase per year. The populations of some nations today are increasing at 3% yearly and in the 20th century several increased at 5% yearly. Israel's apparent population explosion therefore was humanly possible.

But there are other problems. 2½ million people would have needed 3000 tons of food per day; even more tons of water and firewood. If the column of people and animals was, for example, 400 meters wide it could be about 100 kilometers long — much too long to cross the Red Sea between the "morning watch" and "dawn" i.e. 3.a.m. to 6 a.m. (Exodus 14:19-27) Numbers 33 lists over 30 campsite locations including several in Goshen. But Goshen was too small (about 60 km wide) for multiple campsite stops stretching scores of kilometers. Eddie lists additional problems and some websites go into great detail.

About 130 years into the Israelites' 215-year stay in Goshen they had two midwives for all Israel. (Exodus 1:14-22) Today fulltime midwives supervise on average three births per week. Assuming double this for the Hebrew midwives (who were not restricted by modern work-place legislation) comes to 12 births per week or about 600 per year. This suggests an Israelite population, roughly 85 years before the exodus, of 12,000. That's enough to justify Pharoah's fear that, "They will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us..." (Exodus 1:10)

Before the Israelites invaded Canaan they captured 60 fortified "towns" east of the Jordan River (Deuteronomy 3:4-6) which would have required a sizeable military. If not 600,000 how many? Arden (1976) writes:

Gabriel (2010) suggests a population of 25,000 of whom 5,500 were soldiers. And Wenham (1973) calculates 72,000 people including 18,000 soldiers. He explains:

The absence of vowels made it possible to confuse two words which are crucial to this problem: 'eleph and 'alluph. Without vowel points these words look identical: 'lp. 'eleph is the ordinary word for thousand, but it can also be used in a variety of other senses: e.g. 'family' (Judges 6:15, Revised version) or  'clan' (Zechariah 9:7; 12:5, 6, Revised Standard Version) or perhaps a military unit. 'alluph' is used for the 'chieftains' of Edom (Genesis 36:15-43); probably for a commander of a military  'thousand'; and almost certainly for the professional, fully-armed soldier.

Two almost identical words each with several meanings could when writing styles changed lead copyists into error.

CITIES and LOCATIONS

Details point to a 1st millennium date for the composition of the narrative: Ezion-Geber (one of the Stations of the Exodus), for example, dates to a period between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE … and those place-names on the Exodus route which have been identified – Goshen, Pithom, Succoth, Ramesses and Kadesh Barnea – point to the geography of the 1st millennium rather than the 2nd.

•    Various levels have eroded away;
•    A site is mistaken for another nearby site;
•    Objects from one location were transported and reused at another location;
•    Destroyed towns were ploughed up and reverted to farmland upon which another town was later
     founded;
•    A town was destroyed and re-inhabited multiple times;
•    A town was captured without suffering destruction, hence leaving no archaeological evidence of its
     capture;
•    Only part of a site was excavated and premature inferences made.

The Israelites, according to the Bible, captured Dibon east of the Dead Sea and Hebron south of Jerusalem. But archaeology found no trace of these towns in the Late Bronze Age remains — the towns apparently did not exist at the time. 

Numbers 33:45-50 lists consecutive places reached by the invading Israelites east of the Jordan: Iyyim – Dibon – Almon-Diblathaim – Nebo – Abel-shittim – the Jordan River.

Krahmalkov (1994) shows that Dibon, which according to archaeology didn't exist, was mapped by the Egyptians:

Egypt mapped the region thoroughly. Included in these maps were all the main roads of Palestine, among them an important route through Transjordan... The earliest of three maps comes from the reign of Thutmosis III (c. 1504-1450 B.C.E.), inscribed in the temple of Amon at Karnak... The route of the Arabah to the Plains of Moab names, in order from south to north, four stations: Iyyin – Dibon – Abel – Jordan...
In short, the Biblical story of the invasion of Transjordan ... is told against a background that is historically accurate.

The Bible presents Hebron as a significant town conquered twice by the Israelites (Numbers 13:22; Joshua 10:36-37) but archaeology finds this area of central Judah virtually deserted prior to the 10th century BCE. Joshua 15:52-54, however, lists an area of nine towns which include Hebron, Janum and Aphegah, and these same names were carved during the reign of Ramesses II (c. 1279-1212) on a wall at the Temple of Amon. Apparently the Egyptians found central Judah worth noting.

Numbers 21:21-35, Deuteronomy 3, and Joshua 12 record that the Israelites under Moses conquered kingdoms and towns east of the Jordan River. Nelson Glueck (1900-1971), an American archaeologist and discoverer of 1500 ancient sites, did archaeological work there in the 1930s. In his book The Other Side of the Jordan (1940) Glueck claimed that the kingdoms Moses conquered didn't exist because the area from 1900 to 1250 BCE was inhabited only by nomads:

There was at about ±1900 B.C. such a thoroughgoing destruction visited upon all the great fortresses and settlements of the land ... that the particular civilizations they represented never again recovered... Permanent villages and fortresses were no longer to rise ... in this region till the beginning of the Iron Age. (p. 114)

In the 1970s new work proved that towns, fortresses and kingdoms across the Jordan existed with inhabitants in the very centuries denied by Glueck. (Mattingly 1983; Sauer 1986) Mattingly writes:

There are four major arguments used to support the late date for the exodus-conquest: (1) the identification of Pithom and Raamses, (2) the 13th-century destruction of Palestinian towns mentioned in the conquest narratives, (3) the archaeological evidence from Middle Bronze and Late Bronze Age Transjordan, and (4) the military campaigns of Seti I and Ramses II.

Regarding the Transjordan discoveries Mattingly concludes: "This means that one of the four main arguments used to support the late date of the exodus-conquest is no longer valid." (p. 262) The discoveries of course also wreck a major anti-exodus argument of skeptics!

Exodus 1:11 says the Israelites built storage cities, Rameses and Pithom, before the exodus.

Archaeologists for the past century concluded that these cities were built in the 12th century BCE, which would be 300 years after the exodus, by Pharoah Ramesses II. Some commentators suggest that the names were added to Exodus by later scribes because earlier names had gone out of use. Another suggestion is the following:

In Genesis 47:11 "Rameses" is the name of the best part of Goshen, and was apparently where the Hyksos capital city, Avaris, was built. I suggest that "Rameses" therefore was the Israelite name for Avaris. 

Avaris ... was the capital of Egypt under the Hyksos. It was located at modern Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta... It was occupied from about 1783 to 1550 BC ... until its destruction by Ahmose I, the first Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty...

The Eighteenth Dynasty based themselves in Thebes and Avaris was largely abandoned, its former citadel becoming the site first of enormous storage facilities, including numerous silos and then a military camp, until finally a new palatial compound of the 18th Dynasty was constructed on top of the camps and soldier graves. Avaris was absorbed into the new city of Pi-Ramesses constructed by Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC) of the Nineteenth dynasty when he moved the capital back to the Delta.

 
"Rameses" in Exodus 1 therefore has no connection with Pharoah Ramesses or his city of Pi-Ramesses beyond similarity in spelling.

To illustrate the potential for misinterpretation consider that Pi-Ramesses flourished until 1120 BCE after which another city "Tanis" replaced it as the dominant local city. In the early 20th century Tanis was wrongly identified as Pi-Ramesses:

...due to the amount of statuary and other material from Pi-Ramesses found there, but it is now recognized that the Ramesside remains at Tanis were brought there from elsewhere, and the real Pi-Ramesses lies about 30 km south, near modern Qantir. (Wikipedia)

Pithom in Exodus 1 is identified with Tell El Retabeh or Tell El Maskhuta.

Tell El Retabeh, 12km west of Tell El Maskhuta, is the older site. The latest finds suggest that: "the Hyksos occupants played an important role in its history". (http://aigyptos.sk/en/tel-el-retabi.htm)

Tell El Maskhuta had a Hyksos settlement in the 18th-17th centuries BCE. Wikipedia suggests: "the name 'Pithom' was used originally for the earlier site, Tell El Retaba, before it was abandoned. And when the newer city of Tel El Maskhuta was built, the same name was applied to it as well..."  1000 years after the Hyksos period Tell El Maskhuta was reinhabited and monuments from Ramses II were transported there.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pithom)

Bible chronology puts Joshua's destruction of Jericho when "the walls came tumbling down" near 1400 BCE.

John Garstang, British archaeologist, excavated at Jericho in the 1930s and apparently confirmed the Bible, concluding in 1937: "... the walls fell, shaken apparently by an earthquake, and the city was destroyed by fire, about 1400 B.C."

Kathleen Kenyon worked there 1952-1958 and concluded Jericho was destroyed about 1550 BCE in the Middle Bronze Age — over a century too early to fit with Exodus.

Bryant G. Wood (b.1936) found that Garstang could be right. Lemonick (1990) reported in Time magazine:

But archaeologist Bryant Wood, writing in the March/April issue of Biblical Archaeology Review ... claims that Kenyon was wrong. Based on re-evaluation of her research, Wood says that the city's walls could have come tumbling down at just the right time to match the biblical account...

Kenyon's dating of Jericho's destruction was based largely on the fact that she failed to find a type of decorative pottery, imported from Cyprus, that was popular in the region around 1400 B.C. Its absence, she reasoned, meant that the city had long since become uninhabited. But Wood, an ancient-pottery expert ... argues that Kenyon's excavations were made in a poorer part of the city, where the expensive imported pottery would have been absent in any case. And he says that other pottery, dug up in Jericho in the 1930s was common in 1400 B.C.

The debate about Jericho and other towns Moses or Joshua reportedly conquered is ongoing. Consider Heshbon:

Heshbon, another town that existed in the time of Moses according to Numbers 21:21-31, etc. Excavations at Tell Hesban have produced no remains from before about 1200 B.C.; it is possible, however, that the Heshbon of earlier periods should be sought at Tell Jalul, a large unexcavated mound farther to the south, with Middle and Late Bronze Age surface sherds. (Bimson & Livingston (1987)

DATE OF COMPOSITION

The archaeological support of Exodus and Genesis from the Hyksos period, discussed above, and only recently discovered, suggests a 15th century BCE date for the original composition.

The traditions behind the exodus story can be traced in the writings of the 8th century BCE prophets, beyond which their history is obscured by centuries of transmission.... While the exodus story is no older than the Babylonian exile, there are indications that some historical memories underlie it...

However, the Hebrew text of Exodus lacks the Persian, Greek and Aramaic words of the Book of Daniel and other post-exilic Old Testament books. This alone indicates that Exodus was composed earlier.

Two “Silver Scrolls” i.e. rolled up sheets of silver discovered opposite the Temple Mount in 1979 contained the Priestly Benediction of Numbers 6:24-27 often quoted at the end of church services: "The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD [YHWH] make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace."

Lemonick (1990) in Time magazine reported: “The discovery made it clear that parts of the Old Testament were being copied long before some skeptics had believed they were even written.” Computer imaging technology in 1994 revealed letters not previously identified and enabled scholars to estimate a late 7th century BCE date. (Barkay et al, 2000)

But while scientists have unearthed a few examples of bovine idols, they have never found a calf that predates the Exodus... Last week, though, a team of Harvard archaeologists announced they had done just that... Lawrence Stager, the dig director ... dates the figurine to about 1550 B.C. (Lemonick 1990)

Moreover, oaths, which are an important component of the biblical covenant (Exod 19:8; 24:3b, 7b; Josh 24:16–18, 21, 24), only are found in Hittite treaties from 1600–1400 bc, not in the 1400–1200 bc treaties…

CONCLUSION

Up to 99% of ancient Egypt is undiscovered and surviving inscriptions are often propaganda. The Egyptians also deleted a lot of history including kings, dynasties, kingdoms and even empires from their records. And many events still cannot be precisely dated. Nevertheless enough of Exodus is already confirmed to conclude it's not a fairytale but history.

REFERENCES:

https://ed5015.tripod.com/

https://investigatormagazine.net