patterns of evidence: exodus, part one (synopsis) 2015 jan 26
patterns of evidence: exodus, part two (analysis) 2015 jan 27
patterns of evidence: exodus, part three (thinking man films’ first objection) 2015 feb 23
patterns of evidence: exodus, part four (thinking man films’ second objection) 2015 apr 08
I am concluding the three objections Thinking Man Films (who produced the Patterns of Evidence: Exodus documentary) left in a comment on my analysis of the film, which I thought deserved a fuller treatment. You can read their comment and my reply here (scroll down). I answered their first objection here and their second objection here.
Thinking Man Films, who produced the Patterns of Evidence: Exodus documentary, wrote that
“As covered in the film, the use of the term “Rameses” in Exodus 1:11 does not mandate that the events of Exodus 1:11 happened during the reign of Ramesses II, since Rameses is also mentioned in Genesis 47:11 for the land that Jacob’s family moved to.”
Exo 1:11 records that the enslaved Hebrews built Pharaoh’s supply cities of Pithom and Rameses.
Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. Exo 1:11
I looked it up in Hebrew, and sure enough, it says Rameses – not a translation error.
Of course, the next logical question is, How did the name of Pharaoh’s supply city, which the Hebrews built, become named with the name of Pharaoh Ramesses, if he was not the pharaoh who had them built?
I was told that the name of Ramesses was edited in later.
But there is a simple proof that dispels this assertion. Of course, the Torah scrolls used in synagogues today are not the original scroll written by Moses. That original scroll was copied by priests and Levites, and kept in the Tabernacle, and Temple, even up to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, and on their return.
We know this, because the book of the Law, that is, the Torah scroll, was found by priests who read it to King Josiah (2 Kin 22), so we know it existed in the Temple prior to the Babylonian captivity.
And, Ezra the scribe led a delegation of Jews back to Judea from the Babylonian captivity when it was ended (Ezr 7:6). He was a scribe, a copyist, of the book of the Law, that is, the Torah scroll, so we know it existed after the Babylonian captivity.
Torah copyists today work in the same manner that they have for generations, no, for millennia: their work is so exact, that if even a minor mistake is made concerning a misplaced jot or tittle in the Torah scroll, the entire scroll – the whole thing, mind – is taken away and burned, and the scribe must begin over at Genesis 1:1.
These are the people the modernists would have us believe actually changed the scroll from the original Hebrew as Moses wrote it. But, it never happened. In fact, Torah scrolls still render the tetragrammaton in the paleo Hebrew of Moses’ original hand, so seriously do they take the command to not add to or take away from the words of YHVH (Deu 12:32).
So if Moses wrote the Five Books of Moses ascribed to him, he would have to have been familiar with the names which appear in the Torah scroll, including the name of Ramesses. As the Ramesses dynasty was a new one which knew not Joseph (Exo 1:8) the name could not have been known to him two centuries prior.
And as far as this name appearing in Genesis, Moses compiled Genesis from written records first kept by Adam, which were then handed down from father to son, and added to. He supplied modern place names for the ancient ones original to the text (see Gen 14:2, 14:3, 14:7, 14:8, 14:17 for evidence of this trend, among others).
But leaving the tradition of Torah copyists, there is the extra-biblical support to consider:
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.
Ramesses II, Wikipedia
The city was built, in part, to be a supply city for military campaigns into Canaan and Syria – exactly as it is described in Exodus.
Thinking Man Films has just released a brand-new Patterns of Evidence documentary: The Moses Controversy. I can’t wait to see this!
Leave a Reply