# The story of the Jews escaping slavery in Egypt and wandering the desert is fiction, right?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800>\
**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")\
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**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:** [April 29, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-of-the-jews-escaping-slavery-in-egypt-and-wandering-the-desert-is-fiction-right/1026800/359 "2026-04-29T18:44:14Z")

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When talking about the Jewish (or pre-Moses semitic tribes building the Pyramids):

> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#):
>
> That goes back as least as far as Flavius Josephus’s _Antiquities of the Jews_.

> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> I didn’t know that, either. Josephus must have been an interesting man. He seems to have made up an awful lot of pseudohistory that stuck.

I think the conversation has lapped itself:

> [@Smapti](#):
>
> IIRC, it was Josephus who claimed the Hebrews built the pyramids, but then he also claimed one of Abraham’s granddaughters was married to Hercules.

(from near the beginning of the thread back in January!)

But I’m amused that we’re right back to the same argument from a recent thread -

> [@When teaching Religion, Myth and Legend as Literature should it be labeled as Fiction?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-teaching-religion-myth-and-legend-as-literature-should-it-be-labeled-as-fiction/1029156):
>
> Continuing the discussion from [They are trying it again- Ten Commandments](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-are-trying-it-again-ten-commandments/1003134/188): Rather than Hijack the above thread, I wanted to reply to @DrDeth in a separate thread where we can argue a more general question than the specific. For context, in the above thread, Texas was attempting to require pieces of the Christian Bible to be taught as literature in public schools. I gave my (admittedly dark and snarky) opinion that IF it were to be allowed, I would want to require a disclaimer that it be speci…

Because there too (and explicit in @Moriarty’s OP ) we are arguing what may be considered “Myth” as distinct from the binary of fact (if any) and fiction - a distinction that many seem to find uncomfortable.

As for archeological records, I find the argument that the lack of evidence is “proof” of it being mythological unconvincing. As said upthread, Egyptian written records seem to be predominantly pro-state/ruler propaganda. And unsettled societies are going to leave _less_ evidence, given the likely historical exaggeration of the population in question.

Still, as I said upthread, still consider it at _most_ a functional, society building origin story that is based off individual grains of oral _history_. So, TBH, not much different than any of the _modern_ myths of the founding of peoples and nations still being told and embroidered upon today.

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