W.F. Albright is the father of biblical archaeology. His goal was to dig into the past to confirm biblical narratives. Things have changed. Today, scholars fall into the categories of minimalist and maximalist. The former hold that biblical accounts lacking archaeological confirmation are assumed unhistorical. This mindset can lead to the absence of evidence fallacy. James Hoffmeier writes:
The problem with historical reconstructions based on the absence of archaeological data is that when new discoveries are made, old theories can collapse in an instant.1
Maximalists believe the Bible to be generally reliable. This can be a problem when valid extra-biblical data are ignored or downplayed. We must be willing to follow the evidence wherever it leads. For people of faith, this can be difficult. It’s not easy to let go of pet interpretations. Biblical hermeneutics is hard. It requires humility to be able to reevaluate scripture in the context of the cultural waters in which it was written. As the Old Testament scholar John Walton repeatedly states in his lectures: “The Bible was written for us; it was not written to us.”
When it comes to the Exodus, there is no consensus as to when or if it occurred. Scholars argue over dates. Some reject the accuracy of biblical accounts but concede the possibility of a number of smaller exodoi. Others see the biblical texts as a collection of cultural memories, similar to the way Americans recall the legend of Davy Crockett. The book Five Views on the Exodus: Historicity, Chronology, and Theological Implications provides a sampling of these various positions.
As we start, it’s important to manage expectations. There is no smoking gun that will prove or disprove the historicity of the Exodus. The best we can do is see if the conditions in ancient Egypt are consistent with what the Bible has to say.
The Merneptah (Israel) Stele
The year is 1208 BCE. It is the fifth year of Merneptah’s reign, the fourth Pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt. Things are not good. For hundreds of years, Egypt forced local Canaanite city states to supply slaves and pay tribute. No more. Their control has steadily diminished over the past seventy-five years. There are other issues. Attacks continue from the sea peoples. Resources are thin.
The Libyans to the west are experiencing a severe famine. Sensing weakness, clan chief Meryey convinces local tribes to follow him and launch an offensive. The sea peoples agree to keep up the pressure from the north. The time seems right. Egyptian reinforcements are hundreds of miles to the south. But what if raiders come to plunder livestock and families while the men are fighting? A simple solution. Bring them along. A base camp is established at the Farafra oasis in western Egypt. Everything is in place.
The surprise attack commences on the second month of the season of harvest. Tens of thousands of light infantry forces quickly move through large swaths of Egyptian territory. The invasion reaches the major city of Heliopolis cutting off northern lower Egypt from the capital city of Thebes, hundreds of miles to the south. Egyptian city gates close to forestall the conquest. Citizens are terrified.
Pharaoh Merneptah doesn’t immediately react. He sends a spy to investigate. The report comes back: “The Libyans want to fill their stomachs.” Apparently, the invasion is nothing more than a large-scale raid. Libyans see Egypt as a huge Grocery Outlet. Fourteen days after the attack, Egyptians retaliate. The unexpected happens. The battle is short, lasting only six hours. At the first sign of trouble, the Libyan leader Meryey turns and runs. He doesn’t even take time to gather his family and his possessions. He even leaves his crown and shoes. Barefoot he goes. The other clans are furious at his cowardice. All is in disarray. It’s a complete route. Meryey eventually makes his way home. From then on, he’s a joke.
The Egyptians can’t let something like this pass. So, they fabricate a ten-foot black granite slab known as the Merneptah Victory Stele (shown below along with my paraphrase of the final lines).2 The monument serves two purposes. It contains a narrative documenting the event. It concludes with a poem giving glory to Pharaoh Merneptah, the great leader who defeats all his enemies.
Prolog: The great Pharaoh Merneptah, son of the Sun god, is blessed; order restored
The actual translation3 of the poem follows including parenthesized bolded comments.
The King of Upper (Southern half) and Lower (Northern half) Egypt,(Beloved of Ptah (patron deity of craftsmen and architects), Joyous is Truth) ,(Sun god) , Merneptah (Pharaoh 1213–1203 BCE) ,(truth, balance, order, harmony, justice) (peace) !”(Egypt’s traditional enemies) lifts his head:(Libya) is vanquished, Khatti (Hittites) at peace (treaty) ,(coastal city) is conquered, Gezer (Gaza – coastal city) seized,(inland Jordan Valley city) made nonexistent.(tribes seeking to establish themselves) is wasted, bare of seed,(or Hurru, Kharu, Hivites – tribal remnants of the Mitani Empire) 4 is become a widow for Egypt.
You might be thinking: “What has this to do with the Exodus?” Good question! The Merneptah stele contains the earliest known extrabiblical mention of the name Israel. The stele inscribes its creation date (the fifth year of Merneptah’s reign 1208 BCE). This is strong evidence. The Exodus, if the Bible account is accurate, had to occur before this date.
There is another clue in the stele. It mentions the Khor, which the Bible calls Hivite (Josh 9:7). They (remnants of the Mitani Empire) and Israel (twelve tribal clans descending from Jacob) are both known to Egypt at 1208 BCE as those who are roaming about. This is evidence that Israel has recently entered Canaan. The Hivites haven’t yet been subdued. We are early into the time of Joshua. We can certainly affirm that the Merneptah stele is one of the most important extrabiblical discoveries of all time.
Avaris and Goshen
It’s a period of climate change. During the neolithic (stone) age (10,000 to 2,200 BCE), North Africa, and the Sinai were grassy savannas marked by plenty of game and trees. But then, century long drying led to frequent multi-year famines and less hunting opportunities. What are the Semitic peoples of Asia to do? They began to migrate to Egypt. All of the biblical patriarchs endured famine. Abraham5 and Jacob6 found their way to the moist Nile Delta region near the Mediterranean Sea. Lower Egypt is a perfect place to settle.
Initial excavations at archaeological site at tell el-Dab’a begin in 1885 (See the map below). Numerous excavations follow. Scholars agree. These digs uncover the remains of the ancient city of Avaris. It was founded by Amenemhat I who reigned over Middle Kingdom Egypt from 1991 to 1962 BCE. It was a Semitic city that grew substantially over time and over many famines. The land of Goshen surrounds Avaris. That is where Jacob’s family settled during the severe seven-year famine.7 To this day, this region is among the most fertile of Egypt.
The immigrants Egyptianized but retained many of their traditions. The style of homes, pottery, weaponry, and burials remained Semitic. They continued to worship Canaanite deities including the storm god Baal. In time, the Egyptians came to recognize Baal to be equivalent to their god Seth. Cross-cultural sharing goes both ways.
Abandonment of Avaris8
The city of Avaris has a long history with largely continuous occupation. One short break happened during the New Kingdom reign of Amenhotep II when the palace district was temporarily abandoned. The rest of Avaris (245 of 250 hectares) was unaffected. The city continued to thrive, especially around the Semitic district near the Temple of Baal.
Everything changed during the reign of Ramesses II. Suddenly, it evacuates. Shortly after, it becomes a cemetery for the city Pi-Ramesses two kilometers away. Only the port remained active. That is, until the end of dynasty twenty when the path of the Nile changed course.
All the Semites left; where did they go? What does this tell us? Perhaps we now have a date for when the Exodus could have occurred. Sometime early in the reign of Ramesses II (1279–1213 BCE). But wait, is there more evidence to consider? Let’s see.
Escape Route9,10
The Bible describes the path that the children of Israel take as they leave Egypt (note the solid red line in the picture below).11 The major route from Egypt to the promised land is the Way of Horus (or the Way of the Philistines ) that hugs the Mediterranean coast. Unfortunately that path is heavily garrisoned. So, God tells the children of Israel to go south. Otherwise, they would anticipate war, give up, and turn back.12 So, they go south. But then, an unexpected turn. They turn back to the north toward the very area they previously avoided. No wonder the Egyptians thought they were lost.13
When we look at the map below, we get confused. Where is the Red Sea crossing? Actually, the Hebrew doesn’t say Red Sea. Yam Suph correctly translates to Sea of Reeds. But I still don’t see a crossing. That’s because the Nile changed course and the whole landscape is different than it was more than three thousand years past.
The cities shown on the map below that are mentioned in the Bible have been found by archaeological digs. They date to the thirteenth century BCE. This provides important extrabiblical evidence suggesting that the Exodus date most likely falls somewhere between 1300 and 1200 BCE. Let’s investigate further.
Pi-Ramesses
Exodus 1:11 states that the Israelites built the storage cities of Raamses14 and Pithon. This verse does not claim that they built the entire cities. Storage cities are mud brick silos for stockpiling grain within a larger metropolis (See picture below). I can envision Jacob’s descendants fabricating these very bricks thousands of years ago.
Piramesses was originally built by Seti I (1290–1279 BCE) as a palace. Ramses II expanded it to become the capital of Egypt (from 1279–1077 BCE). It is located 1.2 miles from Avaris. By 1070, this city was abandoned. Much of the infrastructure was then transferred to the nearby city of Tanis. The bible refers to the site as Zoan.15 By the time of Saul, Ramesses was gone. If it were not for the book of Exodus, the place name Ramesses would be long forgotten.
There is more to say about Piramesses. The Bible account indicates that it was a short journey for Moses to go back and forth between Pharaoh and the tribal elders.16 Moses goes to Pharaoh; Pharaoh calls Moses; Pharaoh instructs the taskmasters. After the last plague, Pharaoh immediately knows his son died, agrees to let Israel go, and they depart within a few hours.17 All this would not be possible if the imperial capital of Egypt was far away. It turns out that for all of Egyptian history except for the time of the Hyksos and the time of Ramesses, the Egyptian capital was hundreds of miles apart from Avaris. It seems that this limits the time of the Exodus to the Ramesside period (thirteenth century BCE).
Summing Up
The majority of biblical scholars who accept the historicity of an Exodus favor the date of around 1260 BCE. This article presents much of the evidence. The task is not done. There are lots of evangelical scholars (e.g., Joel Cramer, Titus Kennedy, Douglas Petrovich, Scott Stripling) who strongly disagree. In the next article we’ll consider their pushback.
References
James Hoffmeier and James Rendsburg, “Pithom and Remeses (Exodus 1:11): Historical, Archaeological, and Linguistics Issues (Part 1),” Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, 33 (March 2022) 8.
Flinders Petrie, Discovered Merneptah Victory Stele (or Israel Stele), (1896) Thebes, Egypt.
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume II, Berkeley Press (1976).
Claude Mariottini, “The Mitani Empire and the Bible.”
Gen 5:10.
Gen 47:1.
Gen 45:10; 46:28–29, 34; 47:1, 4, 6, 27;; Exod 8:22; 9:26.
David Falk, “Evidence for the Exodus (Part 5).”
David Falk, “What We Know About the Egyptian Places Mentioned in Exodus.”
James Hoffmeier and James Rendsburg, “Pithom and Remeses (Exodus 1:11): Historical, Archaeological, and Linguistics Issues (Part 1),” Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, 33 (March 2022).
Exod 13:17–14:5.
Exod 13:17–18.
Exod 14:3.
Pi-Ramesses literally means House of Ramesses. The Bible drops the PI. The spelling of Ramesses is considered correct as long as there are two ‘s’ characters. Ramses, Raamses, Ramsses are all correct.
Num 13:22; Ps 78:12, 43; Isa 19:11, 13; 30:4, 14.
Exod 4:29; 5:1; 5:6’ 5:10; 7:10; 8:24–25.
Exod 12:29–32; Num 33:3.
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Dan, this article is very thorough; it is one that can be read and each section clearly understood.
You have created an article that establishes this detailed history very understandable and fascinating information!