Did the Exodus happen?

Jewish Journal ^ | 04/18/2014 | Dennis Prager

[cloudmountain]

If Exodus is a story of the Israelites being the “winners” over Egypt, then I find it strange that it would record the FAILURES of her people in great detail.
AS Prager observes in the article:
Every other people in the world made up a grand and powerful history for themselves. They were all mighty and courageous. Jews, on the other hand, were slaves, idol worshippers, rebels and ingrates.
In fact, Exodus is the story not only of the defeat of the Egyptian Pharoah but also of the FAILURE and DISOBEDIENCE of the people who left Egypt.
Also, the historicity of Exodus is important to Christians because Christ IS the ultimate passover lamb who was sacrificed to satisfy the wrath of God.

In the end, it's ALL about Jesus. At least, it is to Christians.
SOME people do, however, focus on the history of Christianity, the Old Testament. It is important but only marginally so (my opinion only, of course) since Christianity is ALL about our savior, our Christ, Messiah--Jesus. Prager knows that too.

To some folks the past is more important than anything. I always think that is rather sad. Our history is part of us, but our present, what we do NOW is who we are. We are products of our upbringing and we CAN always change for the better. That is part of being human.
For some folks, however, the past is WAY too important. I think it always shows a lacuna in their life. That is a part of their personality--what happened in the past:
when they were children
in their school life, especially high school,
last Christmas,
with other folks.

I tend NOT to be that way. I don't even think of the future much, because WHO knows...
I TRY to focus on NOW. That, really, is all I have, isn't it?

Thanks for the thoughtful Prager-post, SeekAndFind.
A blessed Easter to you and yours.

[onedoug]

Also, it seems important to ask that of all the crossings of Sinai, demonstrable strictly from the meetings of one group with another on the desert's either side, and the commerce that ensued say between 4000-2500 years ago, how many physical traces of this activity have been recovered by the same set of standards criticized here for the Exodus material?

[LadyDoc]

pyramids predate Abraham, so I doubt it.

The “hebiru” were part of the workforce impounded to build the cities of Pitom and Ramses. Lots of labor unrest at that time, and apparantly some of them absconded.

since these cities are in the north, where it is swampy, evidence may never be found. Mudbrick doesn’t last long in watery areas...

But 600 thousand? I doubt it.

The best explanation of the exodus was when some military guys examined the evidence and explained how a good general would use flame and smoke to guide people and also to fool the pharoah’s army to wander into a tidal flat, where their wheels would get stuck when the tide came in...

[gleeaikin]

The Giza pyramids predate Abraham. In the Bible there is a figure of 400+ years from Abraham to the exodus, and then another 400+ years from exodus to David. That would put exodus earlier than Ramases II and later than the Hyksus and Thera. In -1500 +/-50 years there was a major eruption of Mt. Etna whose ash cloud I think could have caused many of the “plagues” listed. Since strong volcanoe periods tend to have events in more than one place, and since western Saudi Arabia has considerable evidence of volcanic/magmatic activity, my theory is that the pillar of smoke by day and fire by night was volcanic. Underground magma could have caused “inflation” of the land, which with a good strong wind could have created a temporary land bridge. At any rate I think the Exodus was an 18th dynasty event and probably at or right after the time of Hatshepsut, who definitely was several centuries too early to have been involved with David.