# The story of the Jews escaping slavery in Egypt and wandering the desert is fiction, right? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 18, 2026, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800 "2026-01-18T16:14:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![aruvqan\_myers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@aruvqan\_myers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan_myers)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/61 "2026-01-19T17:50:28Z")
I find it difficult to believe the totality number of Israelites in or out of Egypt could be anywhere near 2 million …. fr fucks sake, the _entire_ metropolitan area of Rochester NY [4th largest in NY] is ust over 1 million people. Have you ever seen how much space, food, water and resources 50 000 people can take? [can’t remember offhand but a talking head for a refugee group mentioned ho wmuch space and resources a camp of 50 000 refugees takes up and it is actually pretty impressive on a day to day basis of food/water for consumption and water for cleaning …] ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/62 "2026-01-19T17:50:45Z")
This: > [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > Beyond that, it’s Occam’s Razor. Rather than bend over backwards to assume some historicity from an account that is crammed full of clearly fantastical supernatural events (and where even the non-supernatural elements seem highly implausible, the size of the population departing Egypt, for example, and the length of time spent wandering) and yet curiously applicable to the concerns of its time of authorship, I simply assume that, absent evidence to the contrary, it is an account written for the time in which it was written, not in any respect a reliable history. does not support this: > [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > Third possibility: they did not care what The Truth was. Rather, during a time of national turmoil (occupation for most, exile for certain elites and their families), they wanted to come up with a national myth that would encourage people to obey their national or tribal elites (with god as their avatar) and oppose their Babylonian overlords. Because otherwise, the tribal elites would lose their power and influence and cease to be elites. Thus, they constructed a narrative of an even earlier period of slavery and exile that was actually (as the myth goes) waaaaay worse. And what got them out of it? Obedience to their god (serving as an avatar for the tribal elites, the patriarchy). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/63 "2026-01-19T17:57:20Z")
Where does the 2 million figure come from? ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/64 "2026-01-19T17:58:22Z")
Yes, I don’t think anyone in this thread is claiming that that’s remotely plausible. If any Hebrew slaves came out of Egypt, it would have had to have been a much smaller group in order to have not left obvious archaeological traces. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/65 "2026-01-19T17:59:26Z")
Don’t know chapter and verse offhand, but the Torah states that there were 600,000 men of fighting age. Reasonable extrapolation of the numbers of women, children and elderly gives about 2 million. Some scholars think that the word _elef_, which usually means “thousand”, means something like “platoon” in this context. So, there were 600 groups of about 10 fighting men each, reducing the count by two orders of magnitude and yielding much more plausible numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/66 "2026-01-19T18:06:39Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Richard Eliot Friedman wrote a book recently which proposes that the historical inspiration for the exodus story was a migration of about 3,000 Yahwists from Egypt to Midian and then Israel over the course of several generations, and that upon arriving they assimilated into an already-existing Israelite culture and became the tribe of Levi. He further proposes that they brought Atenist-inspired monotheistic ideas with them and this assimilation was the cause of Yahweh being merged with El and the transition from henotheism to monotheism that occurred during the First Temple era, and that the story of the migration gradually became a national origin story in the same way “the first Thanksgiving” is a national origin story for America even though few Americans are descended from the Mayflower pilgrims. His argument is largely based on linguistics and DNA, along with certain Torah passages (in particular the Song of Miriam) that he proposes predates the end of this migration. That would make sense. We know from archaeology that the Bible’s description of the Israelites conquering the Promised Land in a quick sequence of overwhelming military victories was myth, and that in reality it was a much slower process, with the native populations mostly being slowly assimilated rather than killed or exiled. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/67 "2026-01-19T18:08:55Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > It’s well-established that Exodus was likely developed during the Babylonian exile It’s not “well established” there are some reputable historians who think that. But they represent a minority opinion, it’s definitely not “well established”. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/68 "2026-01-19T18:21:47Z")
Wikipedia says that the text as we have it was likely codified from pre-existing oral and written traditions between 600 and 400 BCE. That time period overlaps with the Babylonian Captivity, which was approximately 597 to 537. So the process might have begun in Babylon, but it continued long after the exiles had returned and no longer had a need for anti-Babylon propaganda, which would seem to undermine ASL’s proposed timeline. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/69 "2026-01-19T20:24:07Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > He further proposes that they brought Atenist-inspired monotheistic ideas with them and this assimilation was the cause of Yahweh being merged with El and the transition from henotheism to monotheism that occurred during the First Temple era, That seems unlikely, as the Bible itself doesn’t really ever transition from henotheism to monotheism. All mentions of other gods seems to treat them as real enemy forces. The merger between El Elyon and Yahweh does seem to have happened while the Bible was being created. There are remnants of them still being separate. Gods becoming conflated happens all the time. Yahweh still seemed to have El’s wife Asherah for quite a while, with her condemnation seeming to get grafted in in places. I don’t find the idea of a small group of slaves who joined the existing tribes of Israel and brought their story with them. There is evidence like in Deborah’s song that there were originally only ten tribes, and the idea of Joseph being added to the Jacob story. Joseph is the one who gets them to Egypt, then you have this big gap before Moses rises up and takes them back where they were. It makes sense for there to have been a tradition where Abraham and his line just stayed in Canaan. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/70 "2026-01-19T20:35:51Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Explain that, if the pyramids had nothing to do with grain storage! 4+3 is seven, and there are seven seas!!! Explain that!!! 🤪 > [@MrDibble](#): > > That’s not accurate. At all. It is pretty damn accurate. Talking about the OT, which is what we are talking about here. The Dead Sea Scrolls have several OT books, they differ from the **Masoretic Text** in only minor items- [https://medium.com/@greyslayer76\_59122/how-the-dead-sea-scrolls-differ-in-its-wording-interpretations-compared-to-todays-bible-torah-493953098005](https://medium.com/@greyslayer76_59122/how-the-dead-sea-scrolls-differ-in-its-wording-interpretations-compared-to-todays-bible-torah-493953098005) “Overall, the scrolls confirm a remarkable stability in the biblical text, but they also reveal that **multiple textual versions** of Scripture existed by the Second Temple period.”… " **Extent of Variants:** The vast majority of DSS biblical fragments agree closely with the MT. For example, the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa) is **about 95% identical** to the MT of Isaiah​. It contains over 2,600 variants compared to MT, but most are extremely minor — single-letter differences, spelling changes, etc.​" And those were written around 2000 years ago, give or take a couple centuries. > [@Gyrate](#): > > Agreed - there have been plenty of changes along the way. But how many of them substantially change what’s in Exodus? Not in the last couple thousand years. Before that- who knows? > [@chappachula](#): > > My take on this is that transmission over centuries of oral history changes easily–like the child’s game of “telephone”. But once it gets written down and treated as sacred–it gets treated seriously. After all, the only people involved in copying the written text were scribes who genuinely believed that it is sacred. Additional books (apocrypha) get written, (sometimes accepted, sometime rejected). But the original text remained accurately copied.. Fairly accurately. [quote=“MrDibble, post:54, topic:1026800”] . [The Samaritan version](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan_Pentateuch#Masoretic_Text), for instance, is shown _by the same Dead Sea scrolls you cite_ to be older. [/quo The oldest _surviving manuscripts_ of that version date no earlier than 1065, almost a thousand years later than the Dead Sea Scrolls. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > He’s readable, reliable, and eye-opening. I disagree. He is opinionated and sometimes wrong. There are also the Hinnom Scrolls – two silver amulets . > **[The Three Oldest Biblical Texts](https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2019/02/06/the-three-oldest-biblical-texts/)** > > The Bible is an ancient text.  Like every other ancient text, the originals have not survived the ravages of time.  What we have are copies of the original which date to hundreds of years after the… _The oldest biblical text is on the Hinnom Scrolls – two silver amulets that date to the seventh century B.C. These rolled-up pieces of silver were discovered in 1979-80, during excavations led by Gabriel Barklay in a series of burial caves at Ketef Hinnom. When the silver scrolls were unrolled and translated, they revealed the priestly Benediction from Num 6:24-26 reading, “May Yahweh bless you and keep you; May Yahweh cause his face to Shine upon you and grant you Peace.”6 The Ketef Hinnom scrolls contain the oldest portion of Scripture ever found outside of the Bible and significantly predate even the earliest Dead Sea Scrolls. They also contain the oldest extra-biblical reference to YHWH. Given their early date, they provide evidence that the books of Moses were not written in the exilic or postexilic period as some critics have suggested._ > [@MrDibble](#): > > But nevertheless they’re not the _same_, That was not the claim. > [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > The Bible has survived with only minor changes/interpretations/translation errors for a little more than 2000 years. And, indeed the Dead Sea Scrolls vs the Masoretic Text have only minor changes, etc. Not exactly the same, which was never the claim. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/71 "2026-01-19T20:57:03Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > This: > > > [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > > > Beyond that, it’s Occam’s Razor. Rather than bend over backwards to assume some historicity from an account that is crammed full of clearly fantastical supernatural events (and where even the non-supernatural elements seem highly implausible, the size of the population departing Egypt, for example, and the length of time spent wandering) and yet curiously applicable to the concerns of its time of authorship, I simply assume that, absent evidence to the contrary, it is an account written for the time in which it was written, not in any respect a reliable history. > > does not support this: > > > [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > > > Third possibility: they did not care what The Truth was. Rather, during a time of national turmoil (occupation for most, exile for certain elites and their families), they wanted to come up with a national myth that would encourage people to obey their national or tribal elites (with god as their avatar) and oppose their Babylonian overlords. Because otherwise, the tribal elites would lose their power and influence and cease to be elites. Thus, they constructed a narrative of an even earlier period of slavery and exile that was actually (as the myth goes) waaaaay worse. And what got them out of it? Obedience to their god (serving as an avatar for the tribal elites, the patriarchy). I thought I was just restating my earlier conclusion. We have evidence of significant aspects of the account being fantastical. We have evidence that it was compiled during a period of turmoil and if not slavery per se, at the very least being “under heel” of a more powerful occupying power. We have mere speculation that it _might_ have been based on a historical kernel. Eliminate the speculation, and what are we left with? A narrative about escaping captivity through obedience to god and his law (as repeated by his prophet through… his prophet’s brother?) written by a people who were themselves in captivity. A just-so story to inspire hope through obedience to the national order (as opposed to obedience to occupiers). That, by itself, stands as a perfectly plausible explanation for we have Exodus as written and why, to @Thing.Fish’s point, it comes to us as a national origin story with the nation (such as there was one) in slavery. Because that was the status quo at the time of the narrative’s development. No need to introduce another variable of a long period of captivity followed by a mass migration that is conspicuously absent from the archeological or extra-biblical record. That’s Occam’s razor in a nutshell. Did some number of semitic people endure slavery in Egypt and migrate to the levant? Sure. Maybe. But I don’t see any reason to believe Exodus is a record of it. Or even a record of an oral tradition of it. I’d need to see some evidence of continuity of sources to believe that. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/72 "2026-01-19T21:04:44Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > It is pretty damn accurate > [@DrDeth](#): > > **multiple textual versions** of Scripture Make up your mind. > [@DrDeth](#): > > The oldest _surviving manuscripts_ of that version date no earlier than 1065 No. One of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments _ **is** _ a manuscript fragment _of the Samaritan version_ of Deuteronomy 27. > [@DrDeth](#): > > That was not the claim. The initial claim _also_ mentioned the whole Bible… ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/73 "2026-01-19T21:12:16Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Make up your mind. I did. The differences, IF you bother to read my cites and quoted bits- are minor. > [@MrDibble](#): > > No. One of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments _ **is** _ a manuscript fragment _of the Samaritan version_ of Deuteronomy 27. Maybe, the fragment is small and just part of one chapter, and yes, it shows similarities. But it is hardly the whole Samaritan version. > **[Charlesworth on a Fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls](https://danielomcclellan.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/charlesworth-on-a-fragment-from-the-dead-sea-scrolls/)** > > Via Jim West. James Charlesworth has the following to say regarding a fragment of Deuteronomy 27: We finally found the original text of Deuteronomy. This is sensationally important. This comes from… _I don’t think it is as black and white as now having the original text, but it definitely adds another piece to the puzzle._ > [@MrDibble](#): > > The initial claim _also_ mentioned the whole Bible… **Context.** We aint talking about the NT here, only the OT specifically Exodus. Bringing in the NT is a threadjack. And the word “whole” wasnt in the quote. So wrong again. Face it- you were wrong. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/74 "2026-01-19T21:27:47Z")
**Moderating:** > [@DrDeth](#): > > **Context.** We aint talking about the NT here, only the OT specifically Exodus. Bringing in the NT is a threadjack. And the word “whole” wasnt in the quote. So wrong again. If you feel a poster is hijacking a thread, flag it, don’t declare it. This is low-level Jr. Modding. You know better, so please don’t do it again. No Warning though. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/75 "2026-01-19T21:33:34Z")
This is fine: > [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > A narrative about escaping captivity through obedience to god and his law (as repeated by his prophet through… his prophet’s brother?) written by a people who were themselves in captivity. The following is speculation without more basis than any other speculation: > [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > they did not care what The Truth was. Rather, during a time of national turmoil (occupation for most, exile for certain elites and their families), they wanted to come up with a national myth that would encourage people to obey their national or tribal elites (with god as their avatar) and oppose their Babylonian overlords. Because otherwise, the tribal elites would lose their power and influence and cease to be elites. Thus, they constructed a narrative of an even earlier period of slavery and exile that was actually (as the myth goes) waaaaay worse. And what got them out of it? Obedience to their god (serving as an avatar for the tribal elites, the patriarchy). The above is speculating on motives and intentions without evidence. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/76 "2026-01-19T21:37:27Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > > [@DrDeth](#): > > > > That was not the claim. > > The initial claim _also_ mentioned the whole Bible… I’ve lost track of which “initial claim” is being discussed, but if we are talking about “the story of Jews escaping Egypt” i can’t think of how anything but Exodus and Deuteronomy could be relevant biblical texts. Maybe Genesis, which tells how Abraham’s descendants got to Egypt. Yes, there are a few random references in the other books to Egypt, but they are either unrelated to the claim (e.g. Solomon married an Egyptian) or brief ref m references to the story told in the Tanach. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/77 "2026-01-19T21:39:03Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > > > You keep saying that. Do you have any cites? > > It’s well-established that Exodus was likely developed during the Babylonian exile. I can give you cites for that if you like. Speaking from our internal sources as a POV (which is, of course, not current with the most recent research and discoveries), I’ll link some old columns, which I feel are worth reading and free to do so without purchasing a scholarly work! > **[Who wrote the Bible? (Part 1)](https://www.straightdope.com/21343123/who-wrote-the-bible-part-1)** > > A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD > **[Who wrote the Bible? (Part 2)](https://www.straightdope.com/21343128/who-wrote-the-bible-part-2)** > > A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD > **[Who wrote the Bible? (Part 3)](https://www.straightdope.com/21343126/who-wrote-the-bible-part-3)** > > A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD > **[Who wrote the Bible? (Part 4)](https://www.straightdope.com/21343131/who-wrote-the-bible-part-4)** > > A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD > **[Who wrote the Bible? (Part 5)](https://www.straightdope.com/21343130/who-wrote-the-bible-part-5)** > > A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/78 "2026-01-19T21:41:37Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I’ve lost track of which “initial claim” is being discussed, but if we are talking about “the story of Jews escaping Egypt” i can’t think of how anything but Exodus and Deuteronomy could be relevant biblical texts. Maybe Genesis, which tells how Abraham’s descendants got to Egypt. I believe it’s based on an unclear statement by @Charlie_Tan upthread: > [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > I’m not a believer. That does not mean I’m not interested in Biblical history. The Bible has survived with only minor changes/interpretations/translation errors for a little more than 2000 years. That in itself is kinda remarkable. I’m sure the 2000 year timing is tying into the belief that the NT is/should be involved, but until that poster comes back to clarify, I wouldn’t make that assumption. After all, from a historical POV 400-600 BCE is _still_ “a little more than 2000 years” ago. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/79 "2026-01-19T21:45:44Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > That seems unlikely, as the Bible itself doesn’t really ever transition from henotheism to monotheism. All mentions of other gods seems to treat them as real enemy forces. The book of Kings (which by and large is more history than it is mythology) does make it clear that “high places” and “Asherah poles” were tolerated by most of the kings of both Judah and Samaria, and at least one of the Samarian kings is accused of having sacrificed one of his children to Moloch. It seems like worship of other gods was tolerated at least up until the reign of Josiah, when worship of Yahweh was centralized in Jerusalem and the lesser temples (like the one at Tel Arad, which interestingly has traces of cannabis residue on its altar) were shut down. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cannabis-found-altar-ancient-israeli-shrine-180975016/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cannabis-found-altar-ancient-israeli-shrine-180975016/) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/80 "2026-01-19T22:09:02Z")
By Samaria, do you mean the ancient kingdom of Israel (to the north of Judah), or do you mean some other political entity? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800.md?page=5)