Chris Van Allsburg

Chief writer & editor, Ratio Christi blog; Chapter

Director, Lenoir-Rhyne University

Did the Exodus Really

Happen?
A look at Patterns of Evidence: Exodus

Biblical account accepted as true until 1950’s; Reasons for this:

a. Ramesses II understood as Pharaoh of Exodus (1250 BC)
b. Destruction of Jericho understood as having taken place long before 1250
BC.
c. Therefore, the Israelites could not have conquered Canaan during 1250 BC.
d. William Dever (agnostic): Postmodern fallout: nihilism and deconstruction as a
hermeneutic, whereby texts have no meaning.

3 Views on Exodus

Dating Ramesses II as Pharaoh of Exodus No Exodus – Jericho destroyed by time of

Problem: Ramesses II Pharaoh during Egypt’s 19th Dynasty c. 1250 BC
Joshua. All Semites in Egypt too early when
— No evidence of Exodus and Conquest *during 1250 BC period.

--However, there is evidence of Semites arriving in Egypt, of their massive population, of their
compared to biblical dating system
enslavement, of plagues, of sudden abandoned cities, of military destruction of city-states in Canaan,
but not during that time-frame (1250 BC & following).
1250 Exodus – Ramesses II as Pharaoh

1450 Exodus – based upon 1 Kings 6:1

 Patterns required for 1250 BC Exodus (top right)
What evidence do we need? Conventional dating patterns in Archaeology (bottom left)

1. Arrival
2. Multiplication
3. Slavery
4. Judgment
Light Green: Arrival
5. Exodus
Dark Green: Multiplication
6. Conquest
Yellow: Slavery
Red: Exodus & Conquest
Focus of this talk: pts. 1-4 --followed by dark period in Egyptian history

Dating Exodus at 1450 BC &

Moving Egypt’s Timeline Forward

Light Green: Arrival

Dark Green: Multiplication

Yellow: Slavery
Red: Exodus & Conquest

Dating the Exodus 1250 BC Ramesses II date, but…

Based on an “anachronism” from Exodus - referring to something in the past with a term that wasn’t
Biblical Date: 1450 B.C. used in that particular past.

a. Exodus 1:11 “So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built
Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.”
Biblical date for Exodus is 1450 BC: “In the four hundred and
b. Genesis 47: 1,5 Jacob has “come from the land of Canaan; and indeed they are in the land of
eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Goshen,” and “let [Jacob and his sons] dwell in the land of Goshen.”
Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the
--VS.--
month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the
11 “So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part
house of the Lord,” (1 Kings 6:1). Built in 964 BC. Add 480 years = of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed.”

1444 BC.*
c. Modern example: The city of New York was founded in 1625 by Dutch colonists. “New Amsterdam”
*Known from destruction of temple in 587 BC by the Babylonians; also from Assyriology, of a recorded solar eclipse during the 9th
was the actual name at the time.
year of King Ashur-dan III (June 15th 763 BC); inscription of Shalmaneser III (858-824), also Shalmaneser III’s inscription on Black
Oblisk showing Jehu bowing to him (841 BC); among other inscriptions which confirm Solomon’s Temple at 970 BC.
 Ancient City of Tanis - 13th Dynasty17 pyramids, 3,100 settlements in
Egypt alone – “Less than 1% of ancient Egypt is excavated” – Dr.
Sarah Parcak Univ. Alabama, Birmingham.

How Much of Egypt Has

Been Excavated?

Avaris: 3% exc. of 250 hectares (4 sq mi)

Avaris in the Land of Goshen Population: 25-30k

Manfred Beitak Avaris under Ramesses

 Hey Joe

Semites in a tomb painting c. 1897-1878 BC (c.d) during reign of Mittlesaalhaus – Avaris

Knumhotep II, who served under Senuseret II, who preceded Senuseret
III, thought to be the Pharaoh of Joseph. Late 12th Dynasty
Reconstruction of Syrian home

Palace with 12 pillars 12 Tombs

Upper photo, courtyard. With Pyramid Tomb of High Official

Joseph?
Found in 1970’s by Egyptologist
Manfred Bietak - City of Avaris in
Goshen:
1. City full of Semites
2. Additional cities of Semites & Slaves
(Kahun)
3. Syrian Style home.
4. Palace Built on top of home.
5. Robing Room
6. Twelve pillars

Colossal Figure
7. Twelve tombs
8. One pyramid tomb
9. Only 3% of Avaris is excavated after
Syrian High Official 30 years.
 Joseph’s
Tomb?
1. Red hair, yellow skin: Asiatic.
2. Royal figure, honored by Pharaoh.
3. Pyramid tombs only for Pharaohs and kings.
4. Throw stick: sign of authority, common among
Canaanites.
5. No bones in tomb.

Senuseret III 1878-1839 BC Amenemhat III 1860-1814

Father (L) and Son (R), Middle Kingdom Dynasty 12

Evidence of Famine:
Distressed Pharoahs of
the Middle Kingdom, 12th
Dynasty

Worried look, ears widened – listening to

Not lookin’ too happy. Pinched waist.
cries of people
Not enough grub?

Senusert & Amenemhat III

Evidence of Famine

Nile records at Semna/Kumma record disastrous flood

levels. Semna/Kumma were fortresses for Amenemhat III
for viewing the flood levels.* But if the fort was on ground
level, how could there be floods in that area?

*Source: Elsa Ynanez, “Rock Inscriptions from Semna and Kumma: Epigraphic Study.” Sudan National
Museum: National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums. Swiss Embassy, SFDAS, Khartoum, 2010.

Sad Pharaoh Solution: Bar Yousef - The Way of Joseph.

Happy Pharaoh
 A Drainage System to Prevent Flooding

Amenemhat III: Fortress and Labyrinth

Wealth changes from numerous nomarchs
At Hawara near Fayum & the Bahr Yousef
to one, solo Pharaoh
*Seized control over nomarchs.

Brooklyn Papyrus Slave

*13th Dynasty
List Papyrus

Names of Egyptian and Semitic domestic slaves **70% of names

Hebrew: Shiphrah, Asher, Manahem, Issachar (3x)
of approx. 100
names are
Semitic

Signs of Judgment

Ipuwer Papyrus
 Ipuwer Papyrus
Other Findings at Avaris
Egyptian sage, Ipuwer - end of 13th Dynasty. According to Eusebius, this is around 1450 BC.

“Behold, Egypt has fallen to the pouring water. And he who poured water on the ground seizes the mighty in misery.”
Death pits filled with bodies thrown in, and with
“The river is blood! As you drink of it you lose your humanity and thirst for water.”
“Gone is the grain of abundance. Food supplies are running short. The nobles hunger and suffer. Upper Egypt has
become a wasteland. Grain is lacking on every side. The storehouse is bare. Women say, ‘Oh that we had something to
haste. Bodies on top of each other.
eat!”

“What can we do about it? All is ruin!” Archaeologist Manfred Bietak: people died of a
“Those who had shelter are now in the dark of the storm. The whole of the delta cannot be seen.”

“There is fire in their hearts! If only he (Amenemhat?) had perceived their nature in the first generation! Then he would calamity or plague.
have smitten the evil—stretched out his arm against it. He would have destroyed their seed and their heritage.”

“Behold, plague sweeps the land; blood is everywhere with no shortage of the dead. Children are dashed against the
walls. The funeral shroud calls out to you before you come near. Woe is me for the grief of this time. He who buries his Semites of Avaris and other cities are believed
brother in the ground is everywhere…Wailing is throughout the land mingled with lamentations.”

“The slaves takes what he finds. What belongs to the palace has been stripped. Gold, lapis lazuli, silver and turquoise
are strung on the necks of female slaves. See how the poor of the land have become rich whilst the man of property is a
by archaeologists to have up and left the city in
pauper.”
haste.

Graves at Avaris
• Median life expectancy: 18.6 years Death Pits at Avaris
• Anemic diseases – 1/3 pop dcsd.
• Harris lines in bones: hard labor,
malnutrition
• Male population: Canaanite
• Female population: mostly local
• Male life-expectancy 34.4
• Female life-expectancy 29.7

Manfred Beitak, Avaris: the Capitol City of the

Hyksos . Recent Excavations at Tell el-Dab’ a. British
Museum Press, 1996. p.36.

Another Death Pit at Avaris “Tombs found in excavation areas F/I and A/II, areas
which are more than 500 m apart from each other, were
obviously emergency graves. Some of them are merely
pits into which bodies were thrown. Most were without
offerings. We think the
evidence suggests that an epidemic swept through the
town. It may have been the bubonic plague, perhaps the
disease referred to as 'Asiatic disease' in the medical
papyri of the early 18th Dynasty. It is possible that the
plague acquired this name as it raged within this Asiatic
community in the Delta. However, this is speculation as
there is, as yet, no scientific evidence for such a plague.”
Beitak, Avaris, 35.
 Abandonment of Kahun
Abandonement of Kahun
Egyptologist Rosalie David

Documentation of slaves

“Domestic wares, the workmen’s tools, the argricultural equipment,

weaving equipment, children’s toys, the make-up and jewelry of the
women, and the articles associated with their daily religious observances
have all been discovered, lying as they were left, some 4,000 years ago, in
the streets and rooms of the houses…The quantity, range and type of
articles of everyday use which were left behind in the houses may indeed
suggest that the departure was sudden and unpremeditated.”
“But the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they
-A.R. David, The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt (London: Routlege,
multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so 1986, 1996), 246.
numerous that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:7)

Kahun: Pyramid builders’ town Abandonment of Kahun

Enclosed by thick brick wall to confine people
Kahun “seems to have been deserted by its inhabitants in
Isolated, surrounded by hills, easily guarded
such a hurry that some kind of disaster may have
Near Bahr Yusef and Fayum Basin occurred, though this can hardly be plague, which has
been suggested, since no bodies except the baby-
Good water supply not in close proximity burials were found. Whatever happened, the paucity
[lack] of cloth is unusual – if sandals and precious
Text: “May you be plague-stricken!” And, “Come that
needles were left behind, why not unwanted cloths?”
I may see you. Behold, we are passing an evil hour.”
Moses told the Israelites to ask the Egyptians for their
End of Middle Kingdom, 13th Dynasty clothes & jewelry (Exodus 12:35)

Internal Evidence from the Bible: Additional Loanwords in the Exodus and
Hebrew words in Exodus Wilderness Narratives
a. Basket – Hebrew tebat derived from Egyptian db3t; tebat – used twice in Old Testament, once
for Noah’s ark, the other for Moses’ basket. 1. hartom – magician – hr-tp - 7x
b. Papyrus –Hebrew gome’ derived from Egyptian km3 or gmy or kmy.

c. Pitch – Hebrew zepat possibly derived from Egyptian s’ft. Problem: Egyptian s’ not same as
2. phar’oh – Pharaoh – pr-3- 115x
Hebrew z. The two words could have a common root.

d. Other words: sea (suph), Nile, and brink (as in, the brink of the river). 3. ephah - ephah-measure – ip.t – 6x
e. Moses: Hebrew mosheh derived from Egyptian msi/msy, which means “to give birth” – reason
for name moseh in Exodus is “because I drew him out of the water (Exodus 2:5-9). Moseh/msi 4. y’r – Nile river, river – irw (cf. itrw) -
common parts of “theophoric” (god-bearing) names in Egypt during the New Kingdom (1550-1070
B.C.): Amenmose, Thutmose, Ahmose, Ptahmose, Ramose, Ramesses. Moseh – active voice “one who
draws out of the water” – not passive “one who is drawn out” & could be a wordplay on mosia “savior, 5. Exodus & Wilderness Narratives – 27 loan words,
deliverer.” Also corresponds to Egyptian mose, “son, child.” Before he was a deliverer, Moses was a
son of the princess. 381x, 1.72% lexemes, 0.591% of total words
Was Ramesses II the Pharaoh of the
Exodus?

Merneptah Stela

Merneptah succeeded Ramesses II

“Israel is laid waste. His seed is no more.”

The Berlin Pedestal Fragment: c. 1525-1300BC(?)

“If Ramesses II was the Pharaoh of the
Exodus, as has long been held, then how
could his son Merneptah be claiming
victory over a bunch of slaves who had
recently wandered off into the desert for
forty years or so?”
~David Rohl, Egyptologist, in “Exodus: Myth or History?” (St. Louis Park, MN: Thinking Man Media, 2015), 24.

If Israel was already in the land with Ashkelon and Kynanu (Canaan), how
could Ramesses attack a nation that could not have existed so soon after an
Exodus?

Ramesses II as Shishak of
Evidence for Ramesses II as 1 Kings 14:25
Shishak Went to war against Rehoboam during his 5th year. Jerusalem.

Lachish VI Octracon; waw (vav) written as a loop on top of a

a. Shishak, 1 Kings 14:25 & 2 Chronicles 12:1-4; invades
vertical stem (a lollipop). Proto-Sinaitic script - gave rise to
Jerusalem, plunders Temple.
proto-Hebrew (19th Dynasty/ 1250 BC)
b. Hittite version of Ramesses name = Ria-ma-shisha.
Other Egyptian artifacts spell Ramesses name as Ssw. Izbet Sartah Ostracon (10th or 9th c. BC). By this time the
“w” (“waw”) is a vowel maker. In Hebrew it is “v” or “w”. (S^s^), & loop on the vertical stem served not as “waw” but as
“qoph” (q/k)
S=SH (Hebrew sin & shin)
c. Shisha = Hittite nickname for Ramesses (Ria-ma-shisha). Ramesses = Sysw = shisha (Hittite) = Sysw (1250 BC) = Sysq
Q/K (Hebrew ‘qoph’) (10th or 9th BC) = Shishak of 1 Kings 14:25.
 S Y S A

Hebrew letter
Lollipop makes an “ah” sound —>

Lollipop makes a “k” sound—>

‘vav’
or ‘waw’
Hebrew letters “sin” (l)
and “shin” (r) Sh I Sh K

See the difference in spelling?

Dating Exodus at 1450 BC &

The Evidence Moving Egypt’s Timeline Forward

▪ Royal figure much like Joseph found in Avaris

▪
Pharaohs with care-worn faces, during times of record flood levels

▪
Bahr Yousef - still in use today Light Green: Arrival
▪ Evidence of slavery Dark Green: Multiplication

Avaris filled with death pits, and abandoned immediately.

Yellow: Slavery
▪

▪
Ramesses Theory of Exodus in 1250 BC problematic; evidence he is Red: Exodus & Conquest
Shishak (10th c. BC)

Suggested Reading

Patterns of Evidence by Timothy Mahoney

Exodus: Myth or History? By David Rohl

Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith? edited by James K. Hoffmeier and Dennis R. Magary

Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition by James K. Hoffmeier.

Israel in Sinai: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition by James K. Hoffmeier

Did I Not Bring Israel out of Egypt? Biblical, Archaeological, and Egyptological Perspectives on the
Exodus Narratives edited by James K. Hoffmeier, Alan R. Millard, and Gary A. Rendsburg

On the Reliability of the Old Testament by Kenneth Kitchen

The Old Testament Documents: Are They Reliable and Relevant? by Walter Kaiser