Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

To Walter and the moderators:

I appreciate links to such articles, though at the moment I don't have time
or inclination to go into these matters in detail.

But I do think that the list is being abused if a member is allowed to post
a highly controversial and provocative assertion like "Archaeology has
established that the Exodus as presented in the Bible never happened" which
is outside the scope of this list, and is also a direct attack on the faith
of many list members. It is of course less objectionable when accompanied by
supporting evidence. And I understand that this is part of the publicity
teaser for the articles, which is rather good I think.

Now I don't want to get into arguing the substance of this issue, and I am
glad that such an argument is outside the scope of this list, but if it
cannot be argued it should not even be asserted.

Peter Kirk

-----Original Message-----
From: Walter Mattfeld [mailto:mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com]
Sent: 13 April 2001 14:45
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Exodus Articles


Available at my website are TWO ARTICLES (click on the url in my signature
line if interested)-

THE EXODUS TRADITIONS (THEIR PRE-BIBLICAL BACKGROUNDS)

Archaeology has established that the Exodus as presented in the Bible never
happened, it is a Myth. Some of cities, towns and hamlets mentioned in the
Pentateuchal narratives about the Exodus and Joshua's Conquest of Canaan
have been attested as being either abandoned or not existing till much later
times. The question remains, if archaeology has demonstrated the biblical
account to be fictious, how did the notion arise that the Israelites
understood that their Hebrew ancestors had once been slaves in an Egyptian
bondage, who fled from their captor with God's help and later conquered
Canaan ?

This brief article attempts to answer such a question. My research suggests
that the "historical kernel" behind this notion lies in events arising in
the transition period from Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age times in
Canaan.  (Navigate to the OT menu for this article)

DATING THE PENTATEUCH AND THE BOOK OF EXODUS VIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANOMALIES
AND ANACHRONISMS

The Pentateuchal narratives mention several cities, towns and villages, some
of which have been identified and excavated by archaeologists. Archaeology
has revealed that some of these places were either abandoned or not in
existence in the historical time frames of the biblical narratives. This
brief article will note what archaeologists found and conclusions are drawn
regarding not only the historicity of the biblical texts, but also when they
were composed. I am not attempting to account for every site mentioned in
the book of Exodus, I am focusing in on the "archaeological anomalies" which
are useful in the dating of the text.

Tradition claims the Pentateuch, which includes the Book of Exodus, was
written by Moses ca. 1446 BCE (cf. 1 Kings 6:1 for the date of the Exodus,
favored by some Conservative Scholars). The archaeological evidence suggests
otherwise, the text appears to be no earlier than the 6th-5th centuries BCE,
as the rest of this article will attempt to demonstrate.

A serious problem exists in extracting archaeological evidence to date the
Book of Exodus by, in that there is no agreement on any of the sites
mentioned.  (Navigate to the Archaeology menu for this article)


All the best,  Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany
http://bibleorigins.homestead.com/index.html

All the best,  Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany
http://bibleorigins.homestead.com/index.html