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Archaeology does not deal in certainties. Archaeology deals in probabilities. You are making absolute statements when any archaeologist will tell you that archaeology doesn't deal in absolutes.And has nothing whatsoever to do with what we are discussing. Which is your silly claim that there is no archaeological evidence that the Israelites were ever in Egypt.I just explained why. Didn't you read it?There's too much accurate detail in the textual evidence about ancient Egypt for the texts to be based upon nothing. Merneptah Stele tells us that the Egyptians exaggerated their victories - Israel continues to exists despite the claim that their seed does not. So the exodus would have had to have occurred before that time. The Hyksos were Semitic people who migrated to Egypt during the late middle kingdom and founded the 15th dynasty at the start of the second intermediate period. The Hyksos would rule Egypt for about a century until they were over thrown by the 17th dynasty coming out of Memphis and later expelled from Egypt by the 18th dynasty. The names of the Hyksos rulers were hardly recorded in Egyptian history. So even if the new Pharaoh had known about Joseph his contributions to Egypt would have not been recorded. The Egyptians downplay any reversals in their history and contributions by foreigners. So while there is little information regarding the Hyksos in Egyptian history there are a lot Semitic names recorded among the government ministers. On top of that the Hyksos moved the capital to Avaris in the Nile delta which is near the land of Goshen which was a region the Isralites were said to have settled. Historians have postulated that the Israelites were part of the Hyksos expulsion.
Yep.. the Stele identifies them as one of the peoples living in Canaan.
Merneptah Stele - Wikipedia
Merneptah Stele - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
The Merneptah Stele – also known as the Israel Stele or the Victory Stele of Merneptah – is an inscription by the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah (reign: 1213–1203 BCE) discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1896 at Thebes, and now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The text is largely an account of Merneptah's victory over the Libyans and their allies, but the last 3 of the 28 lines deal with a se…
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The earliest reference to Israel (the people who later in time would be called the Jews) can be dated to 1206 BCE where the term is found in an Egyptian inscription on the Merneptah Stele. In the inscription, the term Israel is used to identify one of the peoples living in the land of Canaan.
Hyksos - Wikipedia
Were you thinking the Hyksos were Hebrews? they weren't.
My point of all of this is that your claim that there is no archaeological evidence that the Israelites were ever in Egypt is inaccurate. There was a lot of migration that occurred back then. To and from Egypt. There's just too much textually accurate detail for those texts to have been based upon nothing. Something occurred. You are arguing nothing occurred. And I think you have an ax to grind.
Of course, everytime there was famine and drought everyone headed for the Nile Delta.. They walked there and back.
Why are you bringing up the Hyksos? There were apparently highly skilled with bows on horseback and from fast, lightweight chariots.
Historians have postulated that the Israelites were part of the Hyksos expulsion.
Menetho (sp) wrote about the Expulsion of the Lepers, but that may have been propaganda so I don't put much stock in that.
Most scholars today think the Hebrews emerged from the North Coast Canaanites. They have found thousands of clay tablets in 5 languages at Ras Shamra which correspond to the tablets found in Sumer and Dilmun. .. all predate the Hebrews.
in fact much of Psalms comes from Ras Shamra poetry.
I haven't even gotten to Ramesses II yet. But let me state again... There's too much textually accurate detail for those texts to have been based upon nothing. Something occurred. You are arguing nothing occurred.
Archaelogists say there is NO evidence that the Jews were a presence in Egypt. Even the Israelis say that Exodus is a myth.
Dr Hawass said Exodus is a myth. David Wolpe was rated by Newsweek as the number 1 pulpit rabbi in America. Below is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on Wolpe dealing with his views on Exodus.
On Passover 2001, Wolpe told his congregation that "the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way it happened, if it happened at all."
Today In Religion: David Wolpe
lDavid Wolpe
Go back to Todayinreligion.com David Wolpe Who says you can't get a Jew and an Arab to agree on anything? Here a link to the NY Times artic...todayinreligion.blogspot.com
That's true. They know that in times of famine and drought everyone in the region headed for the Nile Delta. That does NOT in any way support a grandiose presence of Jews or that they ruled Egypt via Joseph.
