Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Yigal:

The Egyptian records during the Hyksos period weren't 
exactly the epitome of exactitude. Do the Egyptian records 
list each Hyksos ruler, the years that he reigned, the 
important events that occurred during his reign, his name 
and the names of important people in his court? Or did the 
Egyptians, as a measure of their gratitude, do all in their 
power to erase all record of the Hyksos from their land? 
I was told it was the latter.

If the latter, and the Exodus occurred during the reign of 
a Hyksos king (called "Egyptian" because he ruled Egypt) 
then the probability of finding a record of the Exodus in 
Egypt is very unlikely at best.

As far as the Flood is concerned, the Biblical record is 
that it predated all ancient kingdoms. Which is more 
believable: an ancient record that gives all the indications 
that it is a factual history, or our modern reconstructions 
based on fragmentary surviving records?

Each has to make his own decision. You already know my 
choice, I won't push it. Your choice is yours to make.

All that I am bringing out here is that Torah is written as 
prose, as a factual history. Not as a legend nor folklore. 
This is a stylistic statement. Either it is masterly written 
fiction, or true history as it claims.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
> 
> Karl,
> 
> The story gives so little historical detail (names of kings, reference to
> events that we could identify in Egyptian records etc.) that claiming that
> it "is consistent with it being a history of events with the exodus itself
> being at the end of the Hyksos period" is simply unbased. The fact is that
> the Exodus, whether it "really" happened or not, is totally undocumented in
> Egyptian history.
> I agree that the Exodus story reads like a record of historical events,
> albeit seen through a very biased theological lens. So does the flood
> narrative. But there is no extra-biblical corroboration for either.
> 
> Yigal

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