PruePhillip
Well-Known Member
Have you read the source presented on the thread? If not, I'll make a TL;DR version: There are no archeological or primary source material that tells of such event in either Egypt, the Sinai desert or Palestine. I would also like to add that the Torah was compiled after the exile in Babylon and that most of Hebrew's mythology and theological thoughts was greatly influenced by the Persian civilisation. A minority of scholar place the Torah has a product of hellenistic influence. it's probable that the Torah wasn't fixed and widely used before the rise of the Hasmonean dynasty since the Elephantine Papyri don't make any mention of such compilation of Hebrew myths and history.
The key word here is "compiled."
Now we don't know if the Torah WAS "compiled" at this time
but one thing is for sure - the post Babylonian Torah was no
different than the late Bronze Age Torah in its content.
Proof? 1 Samuel tells the story of the cultic center of Shiloh.
It was overrun by the Philistines and the Ark of Covenant
was taken. Remember the Ark? It was THE central part of
the 40 year Exodus from Egypt.
Well archaeologists have excavated Shiloh. They found
one of the "horns of the altar". They found sacrificial animal
bones - cut on the right side as Moses told them to. And
they found the destruction, just as Samuel said.
So how did Babylonian Jews make up this story if it didn't
happen a thousand years earlier?
And you see this sort of thing all through the Old Testament.
Strange cultural happenings that didn't make any sense to
the Jews of Babylonian times, but which turned up in modern
excavations.