Talk:Book of Exodus

Historicity of the Exodus being "dead"
I don't regard the Exodus to be "historical" but I find it somewhat improbable that the story of the Exodus was simply conjured up out of thin air as this article suggests. The time the Exodus is supposed to have taken place is during the late bronze age and early iron age. The eastern Mediterranean was a complete mess during this time period. The bronze age collapse saw the end of every regional power except for Egypt and Assyria. There had been evidence of Chaos even before the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses III defeated the Sea people. Furthermore the Exodus is not the only legendary story from this time period. The Iliad takes place at around the same time, which is something that the Jew and the Greeks both realized when they read each others stories. Don't talk to me about chronology, because the Chronology of this era makes no sense in the first place. For instance: The Dorians DID invade (or migrate) Greece sometime around this time, and the Mycecaeans DID flee to Cyprus when they did. We know this because the linguistic evidence of both the Dorian and the Arcadocypriot dialects shows it happened. It is entirely believable that the Exodus took place in some form (minus the mythical stuff). The fact that archaeologists believe the god of the Hebrews was of Edomite origins as Rationalwiki points out simply strengthens the case that the Exodus wasn't conjured out of thin air because not only does the bible maintain that the Edomites were related to the Jews, but the Edomites inhabited the Negev where the Jews supposedly wondered around in circles. Basically, saying that the Hebrews adopted an Edomite god suggests a relationship between the Hebrews and the Edomites and puts the Hebrews in the Negev. In addition Greek and Roman writers like Strabo and Tacitus seemed to believe the basic story of the Exodus took place. Tacitus lends the most to the story's credibility in recounting a minor historical event because he offers different far more believable versions of what he thought happened. I would venture to say that the reason why you won't find much in the way of archaeological evidence is because the Exodus wasn't nearly as giant as the Bible claims it was, it certainly wouldn't be the only time the Bible exaggerates its numerical values.

About a (possible) YEC claim of Exodus confirming a Young Earth
It's safe to say most people here do not believe in Creationism in general, but I've been looking into whether the History and (ahem) genesis of Judaism is in parallel to the history of Israel, regardless of the accuracy of the Bible.

Many Young Earth Creationists consider any other view to be non-negotiable. While looking into the above I end up finding this: Mainstream scholarship no longer accepts the biblical Exodus account as history for a number of reasons. Most scholars agree that the Exodus stories reached the current form centuries after the apparent setting of the stories.[51] The Book of Exodus itself attempts to ground the event firmly in history, dating the exodus to the 2666th year after creation (Exodus 12:40-41), the construction of the tabernacle to year 2667 (Exodus 40:1-2, 17), stating that the Israelites dwelled in Egypt for 430 years (Exodus 12:40-41).

My question is whether this lines up with the Book of genesis and the founding of Israel. Essentially, "is this true?". The Seder Olam Rabbah seems to date Moses and The Exodus from Egypt at 1312 BCE, or Jewish year 2448 Anno Mundi. The fact that the Jews even dated from the creation of the world leads me to wonder if the Young Earth idea is older than we thought and that Old Earth/day age creationism is a very, very new idea, not a Western Christianity invention.--2friedeggs (talk) 22:21, 19 June 2022 (UTC)