# The mythology/historicity of the Hebrew exodus **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 15, 2009, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349 "2009-12-15T13:41:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/21 "2009-12-15T21:27:05Z")
Hebraic law demanded that droppings be picked up and flung as far as possible from the campsite. Thus, the ancient originis of scat slinging… ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/22 "2009-12-15T21:44:18Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > This is a common misconception, but the Bible says they stayed at Kadesh Barnea for 38 years. Assuming that you’re talking about Deuteronomy 2:14, it says [QUOTE=NIV] Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them. [/QUOTE] I don’t see a translation that says that they stayed at Kadesh Barnea for 38 years. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/23 "2009-12-15T22:11:56Z")
> [@coffeecat](#): > > Why would people make up that they were descended from slaves, though? It’s like falsely putting on your resume that you spent the last five years in prison. Does the original Hebrew word translated as “slaves” really mean _slave_ slaves, as in chattel sold at auction, beaten with whips, etc.? Could it mean something less absolute, like being a subject population with no rights, having to pay a tribute in drafted labor, something like that? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/24 "2009-12-15T22:39:40Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Assuming that you’re talking about Deuteronomy 2:14, it says > I don’t see a translation that says that they stayed at Kadesh Barnea for 38 years. No, you misunderstand that quote (you didn’t actually read the whole chapter, did you?), and that’s not the relevant quote anyway. The relevant quote is Deut. 1:2-3: ([There are] eleven days’ [journey] from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.) And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first [day] of the month, [that] Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them; The Israelites arrived Kadesh Barnea two years after they left Egypt (nearly a year of which was spent at Mt. Horeb. Moses then spoke to the Israelites at KB “on the 40th year.” Moses then narrates that he had taken a group of 12 men (one from each tribe) on a series of scouting expeditions while the rest of the Israelites stayed at KB. In the verse you quoted, Moses was only talking about his own little scouting detail which had left KB 38 years before, and during which time the “fighting men” had all died at the KB base camp. The “we” in Deut. 2:14 does not refer to the bulk of the base camp, only to Moses and the guys he took with him to scout ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/25 "2009-12-15T23:40:35Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > No, you misunderstand that quote (you didn’t actually read the whole chapter, did you?), and that’s not the relevant quote anyway. The relevant quote is Deut. 1:2-3: > > ([There are] eleven days’ [journey] from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.) > > And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first [day] of the month, [that] Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them; > The Israelites arrived Kadesh Barnea two years after they left Egypt (nearly a year of which was spent at Mt. Horeb. Moses then spoke to the Israelites at KB “on the 40th year.” Moses then narrates that he had taken a group of 12 men (one from each tribe) on a series of scouting expeditions while the rest of the Israelites stayed at KB. In the verse you quoted, Moses was only talking about his own little scouting detail which had left KB 38 years before, and during which time the “fighting men” had all died at the KB base camp. The “we” in Deut. 2:14 does not refer to the bulk of the base camp, only to Moses and the guys he took with him to scout ahead. I’ve read it and reread it and I can’t come up with that interpretation. Moses does send out spies in 1:23 although from the text it doesn’t seem that Moses went with them. The spies return in 1:25 with fruits from the land and report that the land is good but giants live there. The Israelites are afraid and don’t want to go. God tells them that only Joshua and Caleb will live to see the promised land. The Israelites try to make amends by fighting the Amorites but since God isn’t with them, they are chased back to Hormah (wherever that is) and then they retreat to Kadesh where they stay for “many days”. That’s the end of chapter 1. No where (that I’m aware of) are spies sent out again. In chapter 2, [QUOTE=NIV] Then we turned back and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea, as the Lord had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir. 2Then the Lord said to me, 3“You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. 4Give the people these orders: ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. 5Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. 6You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’” [/QUOTE] I see no indication that this is referencing the 12 spies. It would have been pretty ballsy of 12 people to provoke the descendants of Esau to war. God gives the same instructions regarding the Moabites in verse 9. In 13, God tells them to cross the Zered valley. Then in 2:14 [QUOTE=NIV] Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. [/QUOTE] Then God gives a similar warning about leaving the Ammonites alone. It certainly seems to me that he is telling the whole camp, not just a band of spies. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/26 "2009-12-15T23:45:46Z")
Read it again. You’re still misunderstanding it. I am not giving you my “interpretation.” I’m telling you how the text is understood by basically everyone. You’re also glossing over the fact that Moses is narrating all this stuff to the Israelites AT Kadesh Barnea in “the 40th year.” KB was that base camp. Moses is talking about people he took out scouting with him. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/27 "2009-12-15T23:47:28Z")
The chapter divisions are artificial, by the way. They didn’t exist in the original text. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/28 "2009-12-16T00:07:37Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Read it again. You’re still misunderstanding it. I am not giving you my “interpretation.” I’m telling you how the text is understood by basically everyone. > > You’re also glossing over the fact that Moses is narrating all this stuff to the Israelites AT Kadesh Barnea in “the 40th year.” > > KB was that base camp. Moses is talking about people he took out scouting with him. I’m not glossing over “the 40th year”. That’s the whole point to the story. It was only an 11 day journey but it took the Israelites 40 years. Moses is retelling the story to the people because all of those that lived throught it were now dead. Please explain 1:24-25 which says > [@](#): > > 24 And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. 25 They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a good land which the LORD our God is giving us.’ It seems obvious to me that Moses wasn’t on the spy mission your appeal to authority notwithstanding. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/29 "2009-12-16T00:15:58Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > No, you misunderstand that quote (you didn’t actually read the whole chapter, did you?), and that’s not the relevant quote anyway. The relevant quote is Deut. 1:2-3: > > ([There are] eleven days’ [journey] from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.) > > And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first [day] of the month, [that] Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them; > The Israelites arrived Kadesh Barnea two years after they left Egypt (nearly a year of which was spent at Mt. Horeb. Moses then spoke to the Israelites at KB “on the 40th year.” Moses then narrates that he had taken a group of 12 men (one from each tribe) on a series of scouting expeditions while the rest of the Israelites stayed at KB. In the verse you quoted, Moses was only talking about his own little scouting detail which had left KB 38 years before, and during which time the “fighting men” had all died at the KB base camp. The “we” in Deut. 2:14 does not refer to the bulk of the base camp, only to Moses and the guys he took with him to scout ahead. I am confused. Here is the English Standard Version: > [@](#): > > 1These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in(A) the Arabah opposite(B) Suph, between(C) Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to(D) Kadesh-barnea. 3(E) In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them, 4after(F) he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and(G) Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in(H) Edrei. The first sentence appears to indicate that Moses is speaking, not at KB as you allege, but “…beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel …”. The King James Version: > [@](#): > > 1These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. > > 2(There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.) > > 3And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them; Wherever Moses was speaking to the Israelites from in the 40th year, it appears on first reading at least to be somewhere other than KB. Is there some scholarly source that explains this whole spending 38 years at KB thing? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/30 "2009-12-16T00:27:22Z")
The 11 day journey was from Mt. Horeb to KB. Deuteronomy 2:14 refers to how long it took them to able to get from KB to the Zered Valley, in the Trans-Jordan. Now, your interpretation is not the traditional one, but if you want to argue that the 38 years is how long it took them all to travel _en masse_ the approximately 105 miles between KB and Zered, that’s fine, but it still just leaves a very slight reiteration of the same problem, which is that 2 million people slowly dragging themselves 100 miles over a period of 38 years would still leave gobs and gobs of archaeological evidence, and there isn’t any. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/31 "2009-12-16T00:29:32Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I am confused. > > Here is the English Standard Version: > > The first sentence appears to indicate that Moses is speaking, not at KB as you allege, but “…beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel …”. > > The King James Version: > > Wherever Moses was speaking to the Israelites from in the 40th year, it appears on first reading at least to be somewhere other than KB. > > Is there some scholarly source that explains this whole spending 38 years at KB thing? Yes, my bad on that one. He was speaking to them at Zered, 100 miles away from KB, 38 years after they had arrived at KB and started sending out emissary missions. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/32 "2009-12-16T00:34:08Z")
On the irish side of my family history, myth says that at roughly that time, my ancestors went from Syria to Spain, then to Ireland. Interestingly, genetic testing and analysis suggests this to be true. (Source, Bryan Sykes, Vikings and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland.) While this has little direct relevance to the question, it does suggest that perhaps there were multiple peoples scarpering out of Dodge at about that time. There is the ‘not slaves, but conquerers’ theory of the Israelites. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/33 "2009-12-16T00:34:48Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The 11 day journey was from Mt. Horeb to KB. Deuteronomy 2:14 refers to how long it took them to able to get from KB to the Zered Valley, in the Trans-Jordan. > > Now, your interpretation is not the traditional one, but if you want to argue that the 38 years is how long it took them all to travel _en masse_ the approximately 105 miles between KB and Zered, that’s fine, but it still just leaves a very slight reiteration of the same problem, which is that 2 million people slowly dragging themselves 100 miles over a period of 38 years would still leave gobs and gobs of archaeological evidence, and there isn’t any. My own view is that there is no way that the exodus account is historical. It may be a mythologized re-working based loosely on some real events, but the real events in issue, absent archaeological proof, are unknowable. I have no trouble believing in the escape from Egypt of a small group of followers of a prophet figure who goes on to create a mass movement among the nomads dwelling in the wilderness surrounding the cities of Caanan. The huge numbers and lengthy dates (the stereotypical use of “40 years” for example) would then simply be figments of the storyteller’s art. ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/34 "2009-12-16T00:58:00Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Does the original Hebrew word translated as “slaves” really mean _slave_ slaves, as in chattel sold at auction, beaten with whips, etc.? Could it mean something less absolute, like being a subject population with no rights, having to pay a tribute in drafted labor, something like that? Some of what the Bible describes as slavery strikes me as more like enlisting in the army; you can’t just leave before your time’s up, but you’re not a slave, either. But the treatment of the Children of Israel in Exodus was pretty awful. There’s no indication they were sold, but they were beaten, and it’s hard to get too much worse than having your newborn children drowned in the river. Putting all that to one side, being a subject population with no rights isn’t prestigious, either. The story is very much at odds with the usual practice of saying that your tribe is descended from the gods, or even, “Great-great-grandma was an Indian princess.” ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/35 "2009-12-16T01:27:38Z")
The exodus included such things as food provided by heaven that would only be for that day, none could be saved more then 2 days. This was made so God can get His people home, what makes you think that any conventional sign would remain? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/36 "2009-12-16T01:50:20Z")
I have no problem believing that a nomadic tribe of Semitic ancestry sojourned in Egypt for a time and later settled in what’s now Israel. I seriously doubt it was numbered in the hundreds of thousands, probably more like a few clans, but it’s easy enough to imagine the tale growing with every retelling. This bears on the mythology rather than the historicity of the event, but Freud had a very interesting take on the topic in his book [Moses and Monotheism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_and_Monotheism)(published in his exile in London). Freud believed that Moses (_mosah_- son of\*, possibly [this according to Freud] 'Thoth-mosa] > [@](#): > > In Moses and Monotheism, Freud contradicts the Biblical story of Moses with his own retelling of events claiming that Moses only led his close followers into freedom during an unstable period in Egyptian history after Akhenaten and that they subsequently killed Moses in rebellion and later combined with another monotheistic tribe in Midian based on a volcanic God. Freud explains that years after the murder of Moses, the rebels regretted their action thus forming the concept of the Messiah as a hope for the return of Moses as the Saviour of the Israelites. Freud said that the guilt from the murder of Moses is inherited through the generations; this guilt then drives the Jews to religion to make them feel better. Freud was not a professional historian, though he did have more knowledge of Egyptian history than most. (He was a passionate collector of Egyptian antiquities.) If I were writing a novel it’d go thusly: > [@](#): > > One of the many daughters of Akhenaton is sentenced to a comfortable house arrest following the death of her father, King Tut, and the fall of their dynasy and religion. As a former princess she is treated well but forbidden to marry as it would upset the usurpers (who have enough blood on their hands and do not want more but neither do they want an heir to the heretic pharaoh). She receives the foundling whom she names Aton-mosah and raises in the monotheistic beliefs of her father. He is later discovered, but as he is clearly not of royal blood he is perceived as no threat and allowed to live. > > Events follow similarly to the OT except that the Habiru he discovers he is born to are not a major population, only an underclass of former nomads who due to starvation became laborers in Egypt. They revere him for his education and bearing and his ability to speak the language. A very minor revolt at a building site that leads to the death of a foreman forces him into exile. > > A series of naturally explicable but seemingly supernatural events and dreams cause him to believe he is of special destiny and returns and becomes a monotheistic cult leader. He is a nuisance to the priests but of little notice until the eruption of[Thera (Santorini)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_eruption) when the omens are seen as holy. (Santorini could conceivably have blackened the skies of Egypt, polluted the waters, rained ‘hail’ [actually ash] and other of the Twelve Plagues; the rest would be things that grew with retellings. The tribes are paid to leave the land, and also help themselves in some looting during the chaos (mentioned in Exodus). The pursuit from Egypt is not so much due to Pharaoh being furious at losing his slaves but more because of the looting. > > In his desert the Moses character would convene with his god on a vision quest. Enraged to discover upon his return that his people are re-worshiping their previous gods (including a calf to symbolize the nascent bull cult tied in to [Osarapis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serapis) [formerly a bull who was an avatar of Osiris]) a civil war erupts twixt the monotheistic faction and the polytheistic factions with the monos ultimately victorious (and condensed and symbolized into the Sinai legend). > > After a generation of wandering and serving as mercenaries and occasional raiders, they come into the land of Canaan and realize they are now powerful enough to take a city-state. Moses is opposed to this, and is killed by his most trusted lieutenants prior to entering the land. \*Most famously Ramses the Great, before his name was Hellenized/Latinized and the adjective added, was ‘son of Ra’, or ‘Ra-mosah’. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/37 "2009-12-16T01:56:31Z")
James Cameron produced a documentary for the History Channel called \*Exodus Decoded \*([wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_Decoded) and [official site](http://exodusdecoded.com/index1.jsp) and a [debunking article](http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2006/09/debunking-the-exodus-decoded.aspx)). It’s mainly memorable for having superb CGI and a much higher budget than other History Channel fare and an odd absence of Nostradamus being referenced. Otherwise it made some interesting arguments for an exodus type event having occurred during the reign of Ahmose I ca. 1500 but nothing remotely conclusive. One of the main problems with the documentary is his trying to give rational explanations to completely miraculous things like the death of the first born (and only the first born) or the Ark of the Covenant. There are stories in my own family that are fantastically interesting but when I did genealogy research turned out to be majorly overblown- a sand of truth and the rest secretion to make a pearl. I can only think that to a people where literacy is a novelty and something only the priests possess and who exist in a land where elaborate mythology is in no short supply, it’s ridiculous to assume everything happened as recorded. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/38 "2009-12-16T01:59:04Z")
Absolutely no historians or archaeolgists give Freud’s theory any credence. The most prevailing opinion by far is that the Exodus myth was loosely based on Canaanite memories of the Hyksos rebellion. Egypt actually controlled Canaan at the alleged time of the Exodus, by the way, so it was no escape at all to go there fromEgypt. It was essentially just moving from one part of Egypt to another. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/39 "2009-12-16T02:01:00Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > The exodus included such things as food provided by heaven that would only be for that day, none could be saved more then 2 days. This was made so God can get His people home, what makes you think that any conventional sign would remain? Remember all except a few of the original escapees died before entering Canaan. What happened to the skeletons? They were all buried, as is custom, and it is a wonderful climate for preservation. In addition there would be clothing, shoes, tools, fires, and many other things, many of which would get worn out and discarded or lost. That many people would leave quite a trace, food or no food, poop or no poop. Where are the signs? Or did God send the angelic maid service in? ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349/40 "2009-12-16T02:07:12Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The 11 day journey was from Mt. Horeb to KB. Deuteronomy 2:14 refers to how long it took them to able to get from KB to the Zered Valley, in the Trans-Jordan. > > Now, your interpretation is not the traditional one, but if you want to argue that the 38 years is how long it took them all to travel _en masse_ the approximately 105 miles between KB and Zered, that’s fine, but it still just leaves a very slight reiteration of the same problem, which is that 2 million people slowly dragging themselves 100 miles over a period of 38 years would still leave gobs and gobs of archaeological evidence, and there isn’t any. Yes, in the final analysis, it doesn’t make much sense to argue about the historically accurate view of an event that almost certainly didn’t happen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mythology-historicity-of-the-hebrew-exodus/521349.md?page=3)