Dennis...if you are Dennis....I like you and you’re a smart guy. But I hope you do a little archeology research before you write about things outside your ‘thang’ in the future. I declare that there is no credible evidence you wrote this narrative. Dennis would have known better.
The OT is full of references to “You were a slave in Egypt.”
“I brought you out of the house of bondage in Egypt.”
There are too many references to Egypt to just be a myth.
Exactly. And the only arguments against this people who were so brutally honest about their own history are nothing more than arguments from silence, most of which have been disproven since:
They told us that there was no evidence that the Hitties ever existed, that the Bible just made them up. Then we found their libraries.
They told us that Ninevah could not possibly have been as big as the Bible claimed. Then we found the ruins, and it indeed matched the Bible's descriptions--it was just so thoroughly destroyed that it took a long time to find it.
They claimed that there was no evidence of the Jews living in the Land before the Babylonian exile. Now we've found numerous stellas and seals that prove the opposite--some of them from David's time.
They told us that Pontius Pilate was never procurer of Judea. Then we found his plaque.
They told us that Acts was full of historical inaccuracies and must have been written in the 2nd-3rd Centuries. Then Sir William Ramsey actually went to Turkey to do the excavations and found out that Luke got every detail right.
Every time they attack the Bible's historocity on a particular point, God provides the evidence needed after stringing the skeptics along for a few decades. I predict that He'll do it again now.
I saw a History Channel show that asserted that the Hebrews were contractors hired to build temples and pyramids, and were chased out after trying to rip off the Pharoah’s stuff.
Every Easter it’s the same thing.
“The Torah,” he continued, “is not a book we turn to for historical accuracy, but rather for truth. The story of the Exodus lives in us.”
This pretty much sums up the attitude of all modern religion, Jewish and chrstian.
No offense intended Rabbi, but that is a load of Horsesh!t. The OT and NT get more archeologists' evidence every year that the stories are accurate.
5.56mm
I actually researched a term paper about it back in college. I tried to tie the events in Exodus with things from historical writings. A lot of what happened in Exodus could be explained by a volcanic eruption in the Med at about the same time.
Somebody should tell Mr. Prager that there is a movie on this subject, “Patterns of Evidence,” coming out later this year. Because the composer of the soundtrack is archaeologist David Rohl, who believes evidence of the Israelites has been found in Egypt (e.g., skeletons of plague victims, the house and tomb of Joseph), I’m expecting the movie will assert the Exodus happened much like the Bible described it.
In the absence of unimpeachable historical evidence, the logic of Mr. Prager’s arguments is compelling to me as a non-Jew.
I don't know WHY this particular history is so important nowadays. Jesus always existed anyway, so it doesn't really matter too much about the exact where, when and how of the people among whom He chose to be born, does it?
HE is the cornerstone, He preached, taught and lived. Then He suffered and died for our sins so that we could be reconciled with our Creator.
Easter: He is risen. Alleluia!
Thank you, Lord.
I don’t see that many Jews in Egypt these days, Dennis. Do you?
My husband and I were camping on Cape Hatteras a few years ago. During the night their was a violent storm with very high winds. When we awoke the bay had receded from the shore several miles and dry sand extended for as far as we could see. Amazing!
The wind had blown the water of this shallow estuary elsewhere. I have seen the same effect, but not so dramatic, on the Laguna Madre by North Padre Island, Texas.
I suspect there were many migratory movements, back and forth, some Jewish, some Egyptian, of varying momentousness, for which a mass movement narrative arose, was transmitted orally through several generations, and was gradually composed into the Exodus narrative.
The struggles of and for such people in its development of the Holy Land make this accreted narrative no less divine and compelling for me.