Read Exodus 1 here or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraphs:
1:1-7 {p} The increase of the children of Israel
1:8-22 {p} The enemy tries to stop their increase
My bias is, that I believe that Moses wrote Exodus through Deuteronomy by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He recorded the events that he witnessed and lived through. I also believe that he compiled Genesis, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, from written records first kept by Adam, which were then handed down from father to son, and added to.
Many scholars believe that the Torah was compiled later than the events they describe, by several different editors (this theory is called the Documentary Hypothesis and it is widely held today). If this were true, then Torah is just a book written by men. We have plenty of those, and this one can be dismissed just as easily also if that were the case!
Why don’t scholars accept what the Bible says about itself? The Teaching Tool of the Plain Reading of the Scripture leads us to believe that Moses wrote Exodus at the time that he lived–there is a reason the first five books of the Bible have been known as The Books of Moses for millennia.
In today’s reading, and in the reading we just finished of the history of Joseph, there is much information given of specific events in a well- known and researched part of the ancient world–ancient Egypt. It shouldn’t be too hard to corroborate such detailed history with archaeology. But instead, scholars use archaeology to claim either that the history of Moses is an outright fabrication, or that it must be attributed to the Documentary Theory mentioned earlier. Why is that?
Most of the trouble comes from the standard dating of Egyptian chronology, which does not align with biblical chronology.
For example, Exo 1:11 records that the enslaved Hebrews built Pharaoh’s supply cities of Pithom and Raameses. I looked it up in Hebrew, and sure enough, it says Raameses – not a translation error. Well, is there a pharaoh who had those supply cities built? Yes, it turns out:
“The early part of his [Ramesses II or the Great] reign was focused on building cities, temples and monuments. He established the city of Pi-Ramesses in the Nile Delta as his new capital and main base for his campaigns in Syria. This city was built on the remains of the city of Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos when they took over, and was the location of the main Temple of Set.” – Wikipedia entry on Ramesses II
Sounds like the city was built, in part, to be a supply city for military campaigns into Canaan and Syria! Does he fit the rest of the criteria of Scripture?
The Pharaoh who Knew Not Joseph – Christine Miller
However, many scholars do not accept the logical conclusions, because standard Egyptian chronology does not align with biblical chronology. Ramesses was supposed to have reigned in the 12th century BC, while the Exodus was to have occurred in 1491 BC, several hundred years earlier. So, man reasons, since the details of the Hebrews’ enslavement really fit details that were not known until the time of Ramesses, the whole thing was written hundreds of years later, and not by Moses at all.
So, man reasons, we have a book written by men, which can then be dismissed.
The Bible-believing scholars, in an effort to honor the Bible’s historicity in its chronology, have put forth various pharaohs no one has ever heard of, from earlier periods, as the pharaohs of Exodus. Their logic does not fit the biblical account–God devastated Egypt so completely, that it soon recovered itself and became the most powerful nation in the world under Ramesses? I think not.
Here is my question: What if the standard Egyptian chronology that they have all worked out, is wrong? Off, by just a couple hundred of years? Or inflated? That is my belief. I do not believe the pharaoh of the Exodus is someone no one ever heard of, and that Egypt grew to even greater glory soon afterward. I do not believe that Exodus was written hundreds of years after the fact by committee. I believe that when we stack the truth of biblical history against ‘secular’ history, biblical history will reveal itself to be true in every instance.
Just thought you should know my bias.
(I am currently working on a paper aligning Biblical and Egyptian Chronology. I will let you know when it is finished.)
If there are questions, these are good resources:
Ramesses II – Wikipedia
Pharaohs and Kings: A Biblical Quest – David Rohl
The Egyptian Problem – James B. Jordan, Biblical Chronology Newsletter (On Manetho and standard Egyptian chronology)
Searching for Moses – Answers in Genesis
I love AiG, but this particular case is a good example of trying to make the biblical history fit the accepted Egyptian chronology, and I think we need to just admit – the Scripture is true, truth does not contradict, and we can trust the history recorded in the unchanged and unaltered record of Torah.
This documentary explores the archaeological evidence for the biblical history, but they differ with me on the pharaoh of the Exodus. It is worth watching!
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