Is there any evidence of the exodus?

123 Take Herodotus, and you will find that he has no nations with a history to tell you of but such as were in connection with the Jews — the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Babylonians, and such like — I name only the earliest. All the rest is vague and dark. Outside this we have some Chinese dynasties and some dark Hindu traditions, which tend to confirm the early Mosaic accounts; and in monuments which no fraud could have reached. In Egypt, we have pictures of Jews making bricks under the lash; and, what is remarkable, we have evidently Jewish overseers, and besides them Egyptian directors, or head-overseers — exactly what is stated in the book of Exodus. For if infidelity can find doubts to stumble and fall upon, God has given to a simple faith what even externally confirms its confidence, and confounds the folly of the false science that will not believe. Such proofs are never the foundation of faith; they cheer and confirm it.

The stronghold Pithom (Ex. 1:11) has been sufficiently uncovered from its long burial in the sand to tell in our day, that Israel laboured in Egypt as the Bible declares. The monuments and papyri show that in it we have "Pi-tom," that is, "the town of the sun-god Tom." God allows discovery to follow discovery in these times of incredulity about Bible history, till bricks and stones lift up their voices and declare that His Word is true. As man evolves scientific theories out of his brains and demonstrates to his own satisfaction that the Bible is unreliable, the arguments are met by the spade beneath his foot! For from the earth he digs up evidences of the truth of Moses' words. But we have more than the testimony of the spade to witness to the city of Rameses. Of this city a scribe contemporary with Moses thus wrote, "So I arrived at the city of Ramses-Miamun. … Here is the seat of the court. It is pleasant to live in. Its fields are full of good things… its canals are rich in fish, its lakes swarm with birds, its meadows are green with vegetables, there is no end of the lentils; melons with a taste like honey grow in the irrigated fields." He also describes the almond and the fig tree, the fish in the canals and ponds, and is eloquent over the contentment of the inhabitants. "The sweet song of women resounded to the tunes of Memphis. So they sat there with joyful hearts." "This city Ramses is the very same which is named in Holy Scripture as one of the two places which Pharaoh had built for him — 'arei-miskenoth,' 'treasure cities,' as the translators understand it. It would be better, having regard to the actual Egyptian word 'mesket, meskenet,' 'temple, holy place'… to translate it 'temple cities.'" As to the hardships of the builders, the "Egyptian documents furnish details so precise and specific on this sort of work, that it is impossible not to recognize in them the most evident connection with the 'hard bondage' and 'rigorous service' of the Hebrews, on the occasion of building certain edifices at Pitom and Ramses." "It may be considered absolutely certain," says Mr. Renouf, "that no place in Egypt ever had the name Rameses till the appearance of the celebrated hero of the name." "The name of Rameses is a very peculiar one… and I do not believe any instance of it will ever be found more ancient than that of Rameses I., the grandfather of the great conqueror."

THE TELL AMARNA TABLETS. Comparatively lately a number of clay tablets have been discovered in Upper Egypt. Many of them are despatches from persons in authority in Palestine to the kings of Egypt, showing that Egypt had held more or less sway over portions of the land. The inscriptions are in cuneiform characters, but in the Aramaic language, which resembles Assyrian. The writers were Phoenicians, Philistines, and Amorites, but not Hittites, though these are mentioned on the tablets. The date for some of these despatches has been fixed as from about B.C. 1480, and they were addressed to the two Pharaohs known as Amenophis 3 and 4. They show that Egypt had withdrawn its troops from Palestine, and was evidently losing all power in the country, the northern part of which was being invaded by the Hittites. The governors mention this in their despatches, and urge Egypt to send troops to stop the invasion. Some of the tablets are from Southern Palestine, and witness of troubles in that region also. The name Abiri occurs, describing a people invading from the desert: these are supposed to be the Hebrews. It is recorded that they had taken the fortress of Jericho, and were plundering 'all the king's lands.' The translator (Major Conder) believes he has identified the names of three of the kings smitten by Joshua: Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem; Japhia, king of Lachish; and Jabin, king of Hazor. Joshua 10:3; Joshua 11:1. He also believes that the dates coinciding, with the above-named kings agree with the common chronology of scripture for the book of Joshua. If he is correct in this the Exodus can no longer be placed under the nineteenth dynasty. It may be remarked, however, that not one of the tablets from the South bears any king's name, being merely addressed 'To the King, my Lord,' etc.

These specimens (and more might be furnished) are sufficient to prove that both the contents and the language of the Pentateuch, as we possess it, were familiar to Solomon. And as from the history it is certain that a written Book of the Law existed in his days, this agreement in substance and diction proves beyond a doubt that our Pentateuch was extant in the days of the wise king; and if in the days of Solomon, then undoubtedly in the days of David and Samuel. Let us, then, see if there be traces in the books of Samuel and the Psalms of David. But here the references are so many, that we can only select a few. In the first place, there are several references to the coming up out of Egypt. In 1 Sam. 15:2, we find in Samuel's address to Saul, "Thus saith the Lord, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came out of Egypt;" and again, in the message of Saul to the Kenites (1 Sam. 15:6), "Go, depart you, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt," the exodus is distinctly mentioned; and the command to Saul, and Saul's message to the Kenites, are necessary parts of the narrative. The extirpation of the Amalekites is accounted for by the history of their ancient enmity and cruelty; and the preservation of the Kenites by their former kindness. Both are connected with the coming up out of Egypt, and the historic narrative of the Pentateuch.

In the Sinai peninsula there are many inscriptions cut in the rocks, which have never yet been satisfactorily explained. Some of them have been taken to be of Israelitish origin when Israel 'wandered' in those parts; others judge them to be simply the greetings and names of travellers; and others are of the opinion that Christian pilgrims wrote them, while some believe them to be of an earlier date than this and assign them to Pagan pilgrims to Serbal. Many of the inscriptions are in an Arabic dialect, but interspersed with rude engravings of horses, asses, dogs, and ibexes.

Let us suppose these events had never occurred. Suppose the children of Israel had never been in bondage in Egypt, had never crossed the Red Sea, had never wandered in the Sinaitic desert for forty years. We are then faced with the alternative, viz., that they were somewhere else. Suppose they were, as would be most natural, in Palestine, the country which for many centuries was their home. Is it possible that any person could arise, able to persuade a whole nation to adopt a history of such a miraculous nature, a history that did not belong to them, and to start a number of memorials of the nature we have been considering? No reasonable man but would admit this were an absolutely impossible feat.

b) Date of Exodus out of Egypt

Most of today's scholars date the exodus of Israel in the 13th century BC, that is in the time of the 19th Dynasty (Ramses I. to Merenphthah, under whose reign the name of Israel is first mentioned in Egypt). This late date leaves much too little time for the period of conquest of the land and for the time of the judges. The different indications of time in the Bible also would be untrustworthy (see Jud. 11:26; 1 Kings 6:1; Acts 13:20). But if we take the Biblical indications the time of the exodus can be dated to the year 1446 BC approximately.

The Pharaoh of the oppression has been thought to be RAMESES II of the nineteenth dynasty, and the Pharaoh of the Exodus to be MENEPHTHAH his son. The latter had one son, SETI II, who must have been slain in the last plague on Egypt, if his father was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. The monuments record the death of the son, and the mummy of the father has not been found, but he is spoken of as living and reigning after the death of his son. This would not agree with his perishing in the Red Sea. Scripture does not state positively that he fell under that judgement, but it does say that God "overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea." Ps. 136:15. God also instructed Moses to say to Pharaoh, "Thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power." Ex. 9:15. Menephthah has been described as "weak, irresolute, and wanting in physical courage," and it is thought he would never have ventured into the Red Sea. The monuments depict him as "one whose mind was turned almost exclusively towards sorcery and magic." It is no wonder therefore that he was so slow to learn the power of Jehovah. As scripture does not give the names of the Pharaohs in the Pentateuch, there is really no definite link between those mentioned therein and any particular kings as found on the monuments. Some Egyptologers consider other kings more probable than the above, placing the time of Joseph before the period of the Hyksos, while others place it after their exit.

After the Exodus scripture is silent as to Egypt for about 500 years, until the days of Solomon. The Tell Amarna Tablets (to be spoken of presently) reveal that Canaan was subject to Egypt before the Israelites entered the land. Pinetem 2, of the twenty-first dynasty, is supposed to be the Pharaoh who was allied to Solomon.

The judgment here has raised an historical question of which the critics have naturally not been slow to avail themselves. We must remember, in thinking of it, that the reckoning of Scripture is not that in respect to time with which we are familiar. That the words here do not necessitate that the desolation must be complete, after the manner spoken here, for the whole forty years, is easily to be proved by what is undeniable elsewhere. In Genesis 15:13, God speaks to Abraham of his seed being strangers in a land that is not theirs, serving them, and to be afflicted by them 400 years. And again we have in Exodus 12:40-41, the time more precisely stated: "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years and it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, even the self-same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt." Thus complete accuracy is asserted. Yet, when we turn to the epistle to the Galatians, we find from the pen of one who certainly could not be ignorant or mistaken in what he asserted, that the law came just 430 years after the promise which God had given (Gal. 3:17).

It is plain, therefore, that the 430 years are to be taken as from the promise, and that they define the time to which the captivity in Egypt lasted. Thus in the 15th of Genesis we must read this as meaning that the people should be captives to the Egyptians until 400 years from that time; the captivity is defined as to the end of it, instead of as we at first would naturally think, as to both ends. The forty years from the time of the prophecy here would reach to about the time of the overthrow of the Babylonian empire, the power of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, until the Persian overthrew his city and his dynasty. That it is Nebuchadnezzar's hand which God uses to inflict this upon Egypt is plain from what follows almost immediately and while the critics have doubted whether Nebuchadnezzar himself ever was in Egypt, we have now the proof from Egyptian and from Babylonian records together, that he was there twice; and it is even stated that the land was scourged by him as far as to Syene. It was completely in his hand.

As to the question of the increase of population during the sojourn of Israel in Egypt, it has been discussed and re-discussed a hundred times; and it must require overweening self-confidence in Dr. C. to bring it forward, as he does, as an argumentum crucis. He says the doubts he has "raised will be confirmed into a certain conviction, by its appearing plainly from the data of the Pentateuch that there could not have been any such population itself to come out of Egypt." (Page 148.) I suppose he must be ignorant of what has been said of it; if not, such language is simply overweening impertinence to men far better versed in such inquiries than himself. If the Israelites doubled in fifteen years, they would have been 1,146,880 in two hundred and fifteen years; in two hundred and thirty years, 2,293,760. But the statement of scripture is, that "the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them"; and the new king said, "Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we" … and they persecuted them. Very probably they were all removed to Goshen, giving rise to Manetho's story of Avaris. "But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew"; so that their increase was not such as makes any difficulty. In England the increase in ten years was more than 23 per cent., where town and manufacturing habits largely impede; so that 35 per cent. in fifteen years is reached in the actual state of England. Thus doubling, in the circumstances of Israel, with extraordinary blessing in this respect was nothing incredible, though we have no proof of their numbers more than six hundred thousand males above twenty, and no proof that the majority of women were Egyptian or other strangers. If this fact be taken into account, the increase presents no kind of difficulty.

105 But the duration of the sojourn is a very obscure point; Josephus gives it both as two hundred and fifteen and as four hundred and thirty. The reader may see Fynes Clinton's investigation of the point, if he have access to it. He reckons two hundred and fifteen years, taking the shorter or Hebrew chronology. Many able chronologists doubt of this, as Hales. At first sight Galatians 3:17 seems to decide the question, but when examined it does not, I think, necessarily do so. The apostle takes the time of promise as a general fact: "To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed." Now the confirmation to the Seed does not come in for some forty years after the promise. It is of this confirmation the apostle speaks, if we take the letter of what he says. But his object was not the date, save as shewing the law coming long after the promise. He refers to Exodus 12:40, which was sufficient for him and is ambiguous. He may refer to patriarchal times as those of promise, and take the Egyptian state as four hundred and thirty years. The length of the sojourn in Egypt is an unsettled question.