DID THE EXODUS REALLY HAPPEN?

Notwithstanding the bible, there is no evidence that the Exodus as written in the Bible ever happened.

It couldn’t have happened during the time stated in the bible.

The following information was extracted from a presentation by AfricansArise.


WHEN DID THE EXODUS HAPPEN?

According to 1 Kings 6:1, the Exodus occurred about 480 years before Solomon started work on the first Temple in Jerusalem.

Using the Bible and other sources from Egypt and Assyria, this would place the Exodus at around 1440 BCE.

But there are problems with this chronology.

Exodus 1:11 says that the Pharaoh made the Israelites build a store city called Rameses.

The Egyptians called it Pi Rameses—“House of Rameses”—and it was built by Rameses II (“the Great”). Rameses II reigned from 1279 to 1213 BCE.

Therefore, if the Israelites built this city, they could not have left Egypt before 1279 BCE—over 150 years later than claimed by 1 Kings 6:1.

So the first problem with the Exodus story is that the biblical dates do not match up with the historical and archaeological facts.


IS THERE ANY RECORDS IN EGYPT ABOUT THE EXODUS?

Let’s move on to the actual events that allegedly took place during the Exodus.

The Bible speaks of 10 plagues in Egypt including the death of every single firstborn son in one night.

By any standards, this would be a colossal loss of life. Then, well over a million Israelites left Egypt (“600,000 men—not counting women and children”) on the same night.

The estimated population of Egypt at that time was about 5 million people. The sudden loss of a fifth of the population would have been noteworthy. Since the Egyptians kept extensive records, it seems quite strange that not a word is mentioned about this massive event.

The Bible then says that Moses parted the Red Sea with his staff and led this massive group through it on foot. The pharaoh pursued them but he and his army were drowned in the Red Sea (Exodus 14:27, Psalm 136:15).

These events were large-scale, spectacular and miraculous. They also all took place in the world superpower of the day, Egypt. So if they really happened, there should be an abundance of historical and archaeological evidence. But, we have no clue, not even a word about early Israelites in Egypt. Neither in monumental inscriptions, on walls of temples, nor in papyri are any of these events mentioned. Moses, Aaron, the plagues, and the defeat of the Egyptian army at the sea are completely absent from the extensive documentation we have for ancient Egypt.

So, if these events really happened, they passed by without even a single comment from anybody in Egypt!


DID THEY LIVE IN THE SINAI DESERT FOR FORTY YEARS?
What about the 40 years in which more than a million Israelites camped in the Sinai desert? (Numbers 14:33)

Except for the Egyptian forts along the northern coast, not a single campsite or sign of occupation from the time of Ramses II and his immediate predecessors and successors has ever been identified in Sinai. And it has not been for lack of trying. Repeated archaeological surveys in all regions of the peninsula have yielded only negative evidence: not even a single sherd, no structure, not a single house, no trace of an ancient encampment.

So, no evidence has been found for the forty years’ wondering either.


WHAT ABOUT THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN?

At the time the Israelites allegedly conquered Canaan, Canaan was a tightly controlled colony of Egypt with colonial forts and garrisons stationed at strategic points around the country. It would make no sense to escape out of Egypt and then go into a country that was itself an Egyptian colony. It is highly unlikely that the Egyptian garrisons throughout the country would have remained on the sidelines as a group of refugees (from Egypt) wreaked havoc throughout the province of Canaan. And it is inconceivable that the destruction of so many loyal vassal states by the invaders would have left absolutely no trace in the extensive records of the Egyptian empire.


DID THE WALLS OF JERICHO COME TUMBLING DOWN?

There were no walls! Excavations show that at that time, Jericho was small and unwalled, and other ‘conquered’ towns such as Ai and Arad were not even inhabited. Plus, historical texts show that in reality, these Canaanite provinces were weak and insignificant and depended on Egypt for security.


IN SUMMARY, as far as I can see, there is no hard evidence to support the biblical story of the Exodus. The most reasonable and logical conclusion to draw from this is that the Exodus just didn’t happen (at least the way described in the Bible).