Archaeologica.org

If the Egyptian point of view is accepted, Thutmoses III, maintained a fairly extensive control over Palestine in the mid-1400's bce. This is problematic for the idea of a 1446 exodus, in addition to the fact, that it requires a very liberal reading the book of Judges in order to compress the chronoloy into the required 480 year time frame. Bottom line, the statement that it was 480 years from the exodus unitl the completion of Solomon's temple ignores the fact, there are over 500 (519 iirc???) years in the book of Judges and Joshua combined.

Ahmose is said to have expelled the Hyksos around 1540 more or less and then campaigned into Palaestine pursuing the Hyksos, but the extent of this invasion is only known by certain egyptian artifacts, and evidence of some destroyed cities. These may have been from Ahmose or the Hyksos themselves. Josephus actually identified the Hyksos as Hebrews but this has never been widely accepted. In any case, the Hebrew invasion of palestine, whenever it occured, was followed by 500 years of on again, off again dominance with no major politcal structure on the part of the hebrews.

Yes, well, there is the problem in a nutshell. In order to accept the bible's version of history one has to reject Egyptian, Hittite, Assyrian and Canaanite history. The problem compounds because there is archaeological evidence to support the latter but not the former.

If you are in the mood for long dissertations, you might find this interesting.

http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/biblewho1.htm

The problem of the lack of outside validation of the existence of Israel as a sovereign nation in the area of Palestine finds reverse correspondence in the Bible itself. The Bible displays absolutely no knowledge of Egypt or the Levant during the 2nd millennium BC. The Bible says nothing about the Egyptian empire spreading over the entire eastern Mediterranean (which it did); there is no mention of the great Egyptian armies on the march (which they were); and no mention of marching Hittites moving against the Egyptians (which they did); and especially no mention of Egyptianized kinglets ruling Canaanite cities (which was the case).

The great and disastrous invasion of the Sea Peoples during the second millennium is not even mentioned in the Bible. In fact, Genesis described the Philistines as already settled in the land of Canaan at the time of Abraham!

This is actually a three-part essay.

As a somewhat student of the Bible, I can say "so what" to the so called problem of it's not mentioning other kingdoms, lands, peoples, etc.

You have to remember that it does not claim to be written as a history book, or a science book, or a medicinal book. It was written as a religious book.

It's internally stated purpose is to show the way God intends to get His human creation back on track. In doing that, it ignores a whole lot of human history.

In the OT, if it didn't lead up to Abraham, or follow a selected group of his decedents, it is ignored. How many Bible students know that Geneses 25 tells us that Abraham got married again and had 7 more sons? They are ignored from that point on because they had nothing to do with the "promised seed“.

You have to remember that it does not claim to be written as a history book, or a science book, or a medicinal book.

Tell that to the Fundies.

Happy Easter to all!

Cheers Monk! And the same to you and all on the forum!
(Even the unbelievers.)

It's some sort of holiday?

Yep Min, it's passover!

Mazel tov.

Cheers Min!

Minimalist wrote:It's some sort of holiday?

Yep. It's The Masters weekend....ditto on the cheers!

Happy Easter to you all. I've really enjoyed the last year or so with you guys. It's been an action packed year.

Here's to the next year!

It's been an action packed year.

It sure has been. We came at the same time Charlie, and the board has seen a lot action.

Happy Easter to you and everyone else.

Yup...and even Frank rose from the dead a couple of days ago!

Whoo-Hoo!!!!

Ahmose is said to have expelled the Hyksos around 1540 more or less and then campaigned into Palaestine pursuing the Hyksos, but the extent of this invasion is only known by certain egyptian artifacts, and evidence of some destroyed cities. These may have been from Ahmose or the Hyksos themselves. Josephus actually identified the Hyksos as Hebrews but this has never been widely accepted.

From what I recall Ahmose expelled the Hyksos at about 1580bce. They were very likely a confederation of Canaanites, Amorites, and a few other Semitic tribes who overran Egypt after Hammurabi pushed the Amorites westward about 1780bce. There is reason to believe that Hebrews were enslaved by Ahmose. The Phoenicians (Canaanites with boats) came out on the wrong side of the fence and their trade sucked afterwards as a result.

By the way ... Happy Easter to All!