The Evidence for the Exodus

The book of Exodus records how my God YHVH saved his people from slavery at the hands of the Egyptians.

This historic narrative starts in Genesis where Joseph, a Hebrew, who was most loved by his father Jacob but was hated by his brothers because of his prophetic dreams, was sold as a slave to Midian traders who then sold Joseph to an Egyptian Official called Potiphar.

Joseph was then wrongly accused of a crime by Potiphar’s wife and ended up in prison. While in prison, Joseph accurately interprets two other prisoners’ dreams, the dreams came to pass, one man (the baker) was sentenced to death and the other man (the cup bearer) was restored to his position serving the Pharaoh.

Two years later Pharaoh has two disturbing dreams and seeks an interpretation. The cupbearer, who had forgotten about Joseph, remembered what Joseph had done and had Joseph interpret Pharaoh’s dream. Not only did Joseph interpret the dream as meaning there will be 7 years of plenty in the land followed by 7 years of famine, he provided the solution.

Pharaoh was so impressed he made Joseph prime minister of Egypt (Mizraim). Joseph later reunited with his brothers and father, and Pharaoh gave his family the best fertile land in Egypt (Goshen) for his family to live. [Genesis 37-50]

The Archaeological evidence for Joseph

Let’s examine some of the archaeological finds confirming the biblical record of Joseph.

The biblical account and Egyptology often clash when it comes to dating historical artifacts and events. When Israel was required to give the Greeks a history of their nation, 72 elders translated the bible into Koine Greek (the Septuagint). The Egyptians on the other hand employed a pagan priest to write Egypt’s history. What was written was along the lines of… For thousands of years god’s ruled the earth and then for thousands of years men ruled the earth. Stretching the history to make their rulers appear grander resulted in the artificial expansion of the historical timescale.

In Egyptian history there is a strikingly similar event recorded to that of the Biblical account:

There was a Pharaoh called Djoser and a man called Imhotep who was considered first after the king just as Joseph was.

Both Joseph and Imhotep were recorded as having the ability to interperet dreams. Imhotep lived to the same age as Joseph, 110 years. Both Joseph and Imhotep where considered skilled architects. Joseph and Imhotep both stored 7 years of crops and faced 7 years of famine. Both men implemented a tax of 20%. These men even had similar families being one of 12 siblings.

Charles Wilbour discovered this stone in 1890 on the island of Sahal at the Nile near Aswan.

The inscription records King Tcheser speaking of Imhotep delivering the Egyptians from famine as historical fact. The inscriptions also position these events in the eighteenth year of Djoser.

Imhotep is credited with building the first pyramid at Saqqara.

Ron Wyatt has demonstrated the machine that could lift the hewn stone.

The perimeter of the complex was surrounded by a wall with 13 false entrances and 1 true entrance, a narrow entrance for security reasons as there was a famine.

Next to the Pyramid we find a ruined building used for trade.

Pillars on each side, tables would have been positioned in between for money collection in exchange for grain.

Deep underground silos where discovered within the complex. Enough grain to survive the 7 year famine was stored.

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The Exodus

The historic narrative continues in Exodus around 400 years after the events of Joseph when there arose a new Pharaoh who knew not Joseph and his deeds.

The Pharaoh was afraid that these Hebrews because of their growing population would rise up as a rival nation against Egypt. Pharaoh didn’t want to kill the Hebrews because they where skilled workers so instead he enslaved the people. Pharaoh then ordered the massacre of every male infant.

Moses was an infant at the time so his mother put him in a basket and put the basket in the river. The distraught mother followed her baby as he sailed along the river and was discovered by the Pharaoh’s daughter who decided to raise Moses as her own. When Moses was grown up he saw an Egyptian horrifically bashing a Hebrew slave, so Moses killed the Egyptian and saved one of his people.

Moses then left Egypt for fear Pharaoh will find out what he had done so he fled to Midian where he was confronted by the Angel of YHVH appearing as a fire dwelling in the midst of a bush. This bush was on fire yet did not burn. Moses heard God’s voice coming from the flame. God introduced himself to Moses and told Moses that he has heard the cries of his people and will deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians to a land flowing of milk and honey.

God sent Moses back to pharaoh to demand his people be set free. Pharaoh refuses to comply so God delivers ten disasters upon the Egyptians.

The Ten Plagues |

1. Moses put his staff in the Nile and the river turned into blood [Exodus7:19], Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.
2. God sent frogs abundantly, coming into the Egyptians houses and onto beds [Exodus 8:2-4], Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.
3. Aaron smote the dust with his rod and it became lice [Exodus 8:16], Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.
4. God filled the Egyptians houses with swarms of flies [Exodus 8:21], Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.
5. God caused the Egyptians livestock to fall ill [Exodus 9:3], Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.
6. Moses sprinkled ash toward heaven and boils broke out on the Egyptians and upon their beasts throughout the Land [Exodus 9:8-9], Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.
7. God rained down grievous hail [Exodus 9:18], Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.
8. God sent swarms of locusts to eat the Egyptians crops [Exodus 10:4-5], Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.
9. Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and darkness fell over the land of Egypt for 3 days [Exodus 10:21-22], Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.
10. Moses tells his people to sacrifice a lamb and paint the two posts of their doors and the upper door post with the blood of the lamb so that the Lord YHVH will Passover their house leaving them safe. That night the Lord YHVH passed over the Hebrews houses and smote all the firstborns of Egypt, including the Pharaoh’s son [Exodus 10-12]. Pharaoh finally allows Moses take his people for 3 days to worship their God.

A painting of the Exodus

There are tribes living in China today who continue a tradition of striking resemblance to the Passover. They place red signs on the sides and on top of the door so that a spirit will not eat them at night.

A hostile witness to the Exodus | The Ipuwer Papyrus

The Ipuwer Papyrus is a manuscript dating to the 13^th century BCE and no later than the 19^th dynasty, not too distant from the time period of the Exodus around 1500 BCE during the 18^th dynasty. This manuscript is a copy of the original manuscript that would have most likely been written soon after the Exodus whilst the memory was fresh. This manuscript provides extra-biblical evidence that corroborates the biblical record.

The Ipuwer Papyrus speaks of a tumultuous time where slaves are rebelling.

Here is a list of the astounding similarities between the biblical record and the Egyptian record:

“He who is placing his brother in the ground is everywhere” would be referring to the Passover when every male first born died. There was not a house where there was not one dead. [Exodus 12:30]

Some more interesting points found within this manuscript:

The desert dwellers are skilled in the crafts of the Delta [Section 4]. The Hebrews where seen as desert dwellers and they where skilled craftsmen who lived in the fertile delta called Goshen.

Noblewomen now suffer as made servants… and all the female slaves are free [Section 4]. We would expect that once Egypt has lost its slaves, the work force must be replaced by those who once lived in luxury.

The hot tempered man says: “If I knew where God is, then I would serve Him.” [Section 5]. This seems to indicate the Egyptians understood that their misfortune was the result of God’s will.

Writings like these are consistent with what we would expect to find if the biblical account is true. These writings provide a hostile witness to the Exodus.

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The Route of the Exodus

The Israelites marched day and night as God YHVH wanted to create as much distance between his people and the Egyptians possible. By day a cloud of smoke would lead the Israelites, by night a pillar of fire. After the agreed 3 days and 3 nights the Israelites kept moving and the Egyptian scouts where signaling their location back to pharaoh. God didn’t just lead his people straight through Philishtim territory into Israel; he had something far more spectacular planned. God led his people through a long passage surrounded by mountains (the Wadi Watir) to a beach with no apparent escape (Nuweiba).

To the north was blocked by a military fortress and the south was blocked by mountains leading to the beach. The middle path was taken by the Israelites. The other path to the south did not exist and was created recently for military purposes.

Pharaoh went after the Israelites and was confident they where entangled in the land. The pillar of fire then blocked the entrance to the beach.

God then parted the Red Sea and the Israelites entered in. The Flame moved from the entrance to the beach, allowing the Egyptians to chase after the Israelites. God then caused the wheels to fall off the chariots [Exodus 14], leaving the Egyptians stuck whilst the Israelites escaped on to the opposite beach. The walls of water came crashing down, drowning the Egyptians and leaving a testimony to YHVH’s infinite power.

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The Crossing site

The crossing site has been discovered at Nuweiba, a beach on the Gulf of Aquaba. The full name for this crossing site is Nuwayba’al Muzayyinah and means the ‘waters of Moses opening’. The location of the Red Sea crossing site is here on the edge of the Gulf of Aquaba, previously known as the Red Sea. This beach is large enough for 2 million Israelites.

The Gulf is bigger than the Grand Canyon and is in places 1,850m (6070ft) deep. Beneath is found an underwater land bridge between the Elat Deep and the Aragonese Deep. The underwater land bridge slopes at a 6 degree declination, leveling out at a depth of 274m (900ft) and then gradually rises to meet the western shore of Midian, now Saudi Arabia.

With underwater robotic submarines, exploration of the land bridge revealed it to be relatively flat, obstruction free, whilst maintaining its smooth gradual decline. The floor of the underwater land bridge is not mud as it is in the Suez and other places. The floor is a thin layer of sand or silt and could easily have been walked on once our God YHVH has removed the water. The evidence indicates the under water land bridge could handle a lot of people passing through it at once.

 

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Archaeological Evidence for the Red Sea Crossing

Two pillars where found on each side of the crossing site, commemorating the event of the Red Sea Crossing. These pillars are Phoenician in design and where placed there by King Solomon 500 years after the Exodus. Words where found inscribed in paleo Hebrew on the Saudi sides pillar, reading; Pharaoh, death, Mizraim (Egypt), King Solomon, and YHVH.

Pharaoh’s chariot wheels discovered

Dr Lennart Moller, a scientist with the Karolinska Institute Stockholm Sweden, the institute that awards the Nobel Prize in the field of science, along with Viveka Pontén and her international team of research biologists investigated the Red Sea crossing site with state of the art equipment.

What they found was astounding; Egyptian chariots sprawled for a mile and a half across the bottom of the Red Sea, chariots found with same dimensions as the Egyptian armies. The wheels are dated by their spokes; wheels with 4, 6 and 8 spokes have been found correlating with the 18^th dynasty and no later than about 1400 BCE, the time period when these designs where used simultaneously. 6 spoke wheels where most widely used among Egyptians however, the 8 spoke wheel was used only in the 18^th dynasty, around the time of the exodus. A 6 spoke wheel was excavated before the territory was handed back to the Egyptians in 1982 and the Department of Antiquities in Cairo dated it to the 18^th dynasty.

A property of salt water coral is that it can attach itself to artifacts and derive nutrients from the decay, growing in a way that takes the form of the artifact itself. In the absence of nutrition the coral dies and leaves a mineral deposit.

Egyptians used metal hubs in the center of wheels. Metal detector tests of the wreckage prove these are not ordinary coral formations.

Chariots found with same dimensions as Egyptian armies. Circular patterns where detected by metal detectors indicating a wheel. The other coral formations also tested positive for metal as well.

A Gold 4 spoke chariot wheel was discovered, indicating the Pharaoh himself died during these events as the book of Exodus records.

Gold wheel found at depth of 200feet.

The evidence is consistent with the inscriptions on the shrine of El Arish found in 1860. The inscriptions tell of how the Pharaoh pursued fleeing slaves as far as Pi-Kharoti {Pi-Ha-Hiroth [Exodus 14:9] meaning mouth of hole or canyon} and vanished when his majesty leaped into the place of the whirlpool during a battle against a god, exactly where and how the scriptures report.

God demonstrated his infinite power to his people. The Israelites agreed to follow God and God began speaking his Commandments to the people at the base of Mount Sinai. The hundreds of thousands of people at Sinai heard his voice and heard the thunderings, and saw the lightnings, and heard the noise of the trumpet, and saw the mountain smoking [Exodus 20].

The Instructions God gave [Torah] where recorded, protected and passed down throughout the generations so that you may know…

His name is Ye-Ho-VaH

His name is to be glorified and his ways are to be taught to all the nations.

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Hallelu YeHoVaH

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