Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

On the Historicity of the Exodus: What Egyptology Today Can Contribute to Assessing the Biblical Account of the Sojourn in Egypt

2015; Springer International Publishing; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-319-04768-3_2

2199-0956

Manfred Bietak,

Archaeology and Historical Studies

The storyline of the Exodus, of a people fleeing from a humiliating slavery, suggests elements that are historically credible. Normally, it is tales of glory and victory that are preserved in narratives from one generation to the next. The salvation from this servitude and misery created a bond among this people of Israel. This chapter attempts to use knowledge of Egyptian historical geography and new archaeological data from Ancient Egypt to identify some of the layers of the biblical Exodus tradition. This study reviews the available evidence from Egypt on the settlement of "Proto-Israelites" during the later Ramesside period. Such groups are proposed to have settled in Egypt simultaneously with the Proto-Israelites in Canaan. The collective memory of the Proto-Israelites suffering in Canaan under Egyptian oppression and those suffering in Egypt merged in the genesis of Israel's story of origin from the transformation of oral tradition into written text. The later belief in a stay of the Israelites at Tanis/Zoan was inspired by the transfer of archaeological remains from Pi-Ramesse to Tanis and Bubastis.