Exodus
Is there any evidence that the events that are laid out in the Book of Exodus have a place in reality and if so, has there been a suppression of truth?
How telling if there's suppressed documentation and archaeology and conflicting bathymetric maps and ancient landmarks that have been removed and stuff that's been blocked off with barbwire fencing?
Let's use Biblical genealogy and then see where that falls within general secular history and then see if there is any evidence linking the two.
The Masoretic Text suggests that the world was Created approximately. 6,000 years ago. You can see several dates fairly close to that referenced here. The Talmud (see around a 39th footnote for Sanhedrin 97a here) suggests that there was a 7,000 year plan and that a Messianic era was expected to begin 4,000 years after Creation. With this in mind, let us start with a simple concept that Creation occurred 4,000 years before Christ was born and that Christ was born in 2 BCE.
Now, when was the Exodus? Well if we add up geneaology from Adam to the Exodus and we take Exodus 12:40 literally and start a 430 year count from a 17 year old Joseph being sold into slavery, we end up around 1356 BCE from 4002 BCE.
Adam 4002 BCE
Adam Ages 130 Years --> Shayth 3872 BCE Shayth Ages 105 Years --> Enos 3767 BCE Enos Ages 90 Years --> Cainan 3677 BCE Cainan Ages 70 Years --> Mahaleel 3607 BCE Mahaleel Ages 65 Years --> Jared 3542 BCE Jared Ages 162 Years --> Enoch 3380 BCE Enoch Ages 65 Years --> Mathuselah 3315 BCE Mathuselah Ages 187 Years --> Lamech 3128 BCE Lamech Ages 182 Years --> Noah 2946 BCE Noah Ages 500 Years --> Shem 2446 BCE Shem Ages 102 Years --> Arphaxad 2344 BCE Arphaxad Ages 35 Years --> |
Salah 2309 BCE
Salah Ages 30 Years --> Eber 2279 BCE Eber Ages 34 Years --> Peleg 2245 BCE Peleg Ages 30 Years --> Reu 2279 BCE Reu Ages 32 Years --> Serug 2183 BCE Serug Ages 30 Years --> Nahor 2153 BCE Nahor Ages 29 Years --> Terah 2124 BCE Terah Ages 70 Years --> Abraham 2054 BCE Abraham Ages 100 Years --> Isaac 1954 BCE Isaac Ages 60 Years --> Jacob 1894 BCE Jacob Ages 91 Years --> Joseph 1803 BCE Joseph Ages 17 Years --> Slavery 1786 BCE Exodus After 430 Years --> 1356 BCE |
But if it's flawed to think that men always had kids born to them on their own birthday, is there any Pharoah transition said to be just beyond 1356 BCE? Yes there is. See 1352 BCE mentioned here. Let's just call these two Pharaoh X and Pharaoh Y out of respect for Exodus 23:13. Pharaoh Z is relevant here as well. Regardless of how much conflicting information there is within academia and regardless of who exactly is referred to in Exodus 1:8 and in Exodus 5:2, there is also a multitude of evidence for the Exodus having occurred around 1350 BCE or the mid 18th dynasty.
Notice in the links above that it's claimed Pharaoh X died in 1352 BCE. However, if you go back to earlier Wikipedia entries you can see that this was changed and another recent line of thought points toward Pharaoh Y having died around this year. See earlier entries for Pharaoh Y with one here informing us that he died in 1350 BCE and see two methods of dating mentioned along side each other here. Add to all this sites like encyclopedia.com and biography.com and others (see here and here for two more examples) informing us that Pharaoh Z died in 1352 BCE and we have quite a mess on our hands with three separate pharaohs all allegedly having died between 1352 BCE and 1350 BCE. Or a time that fits in with them being the Pharaoh or a first born son of the first born plague.
But before we get too deep into the 18th dynasty and trying to figure out who the actual Pharaoh of the Exodus was, let's look into how much evidence there is for Israelites having came to live in Egypt about 430 years prior. First, remember the year we linked to Joseph being sold into slavery above (1786 BCE) and then consider what the WIkipedia article on a group known as the Hyksos tells us. "Canaanites first appeared in Egypt at the end of the 12th Dynasty c. 1800 BC or c. 1720 BC and established an independent realm in the eastern Nile Delta." Now consider what Josephus pointed out concerning the Hyksos in an ancient work called Against Apion here.
Josephus lived around the end of the first century CE and pointed at some things said by an Ancient Egyptian priest and historian who had lived a few centuries or so prior. "Now this [Ancient Egyptian priest and historian], in the second book of his Egyptian History, writes concerning us in the following manner. I will [put] down his very words, as if I were to bring the very man himself into a court for a witness: 'There was a king of ours.... Under him it came to pass, I know not how, that [Elohim] was averse to us, and there came, after a surprising manner, men of ignoble birth out of the eastern parts, and had boldness enough to make an expedition into our country, and with ease subdued it by force, yet without our hazarding a battle with them."
"This whole nation was styled HYCSOS, that is, Shepherd-kings: for the first syllable HYC, according to the sacred dialect, denotes a king, as is SOS a shepherd; but this according to the ordinary dialect; and of these is compounded HYCSOS: but some say that these people were Arabians.' Now in another copy it is said that this word does not denote Kings, but, on the contrary, denotes Captive Shepherds, and this on account of the particle HYC; for that HYC, with the aspiration, in the Egyptian tongue again denotes Shepherds, and that expressly also; and this to me seems the more probable opinion, and more agreeable to ancient history." "'These people, whom we have before named kings, and called shepherds also, and their descendants,' as he says, 'kept possession of Egypt five hundred and eleven years.'"
Artwork above is (allegedly?) from the tomb of a Pharaoh who reigned around the early 1200s BCE. Notice tzitzit or tassels and then think about what we are informed of in Numbers 15:37-41 and Deuteronomy 22:12.
"He says further, 'That under a king, whose name was Alisphragmuthosis, the shepherds were subdued by him, and were indeed driven out of other parts of Egypt, but were shut up in a place that contained ten thousand acres; this place was named Avaris.' [He] says, 'That the shepherds built a wall round all this place, which was a large and a strong wall, and this in order to keep all their possessions and their prey within a place of strength, but that [someone] made an attempt to take them by force and by siege, with four hundred and eighty thousand men to lie rotund about them, but that, upon his despair of taking the place by that siege, they came to a composition with them, that they should leave Egypt, and go, without any harm to be done to them, whithersoever they would; and that, after this composition was made, they went away with their whole families and effects, not fewer in number than two hundred and forty thousand, and took their journey from Egypt, through the wilderness, for Syria; but that as they were in fear of the Assyrians, who had then the dominion over Asia, they built a city in that country which is now called Judea, and that large enough to contain this great number of men, and called it Jerusalem. (9)"
"Now [he], in another book of his, says, 'That this nation, thus called Shepherds, were also called Captives, in their sacred books.' And this account of his is the truth; for feeding of sheep was the employment of our forefathers in the most ancient ages (10) and as they led such a wandering life in feeding sheep, they were called Shepherds. Nor was it without reason that they were called Captives by the Egyptians, since one of our ancestors, Joseph, told the king of Egypt that he was a captive, and afterward sent for his brethren into Egypt by the king's permission. But as for these matters, I shall make a more exact inquiry about them elsewhere. (11)"
"In 1969 a scarab of Jacob-El was found in the Middle Bronze II tomb at Shiqmona, a suburb of Haifa, that was from a mid-18th century deposit..." "The Jacob-El of Shiqmona must have been a local Palestinian ruler, possibly the same Jacob of the Bible."
So were the Hyksos actually Israel/Jacob and his family like Josephus suggests? Whether or not that scarab is referring to him, consider someone I will called the Possible Egyptian Jacob. "In Exodus Decoded, filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici suggested that [the Possible Egyptian Jacob] was the Patriarch Jacob, on the basis of a signet ring found in the Hyksos capital Avaris that read 'Yakov/Yakub'...similar to the Hebrew name of the Biblical patriarch Jacob (Ya'aqov)."
Even if Wikipedia (obviously?) toes the standard secular line and tries to cast doubt over what Simcha Jacobovici proposes by using faulty logic built around an assumption that the signet seals had to have been used by his son as opposed to embraced by various Israelites over the centuries for various reasons, how interesting if Wikipedia itself plainly informs us that the Possible Egyptian Jacob was around in the 17th or 16th century BCE and goes on to say... "The dynasty to which [the Possible Egyptian Jacob] belongs is debated, with [him] being seen variously as a 14th Dynasty king, an early Hyksos ruler of the 15th Dynasty or a vassal of the Hyksos kings. [He] is attested by no less than 27 scarab seals. Three are from Canaan, four from Egypt, one from Nubia and the remaining 19 are of unknown provenance.[2] The wide geographic repartition of these scarabs indicate the existence of trade relations among the Nile Delta, Canaan, and Nubia during the Second Intermediate Period.[2]"
Now consider here and notice wikipedia itself telling us that the Hyksos came to have power over Lower/Northern Egypt in the 15th dynasty or about 1650 BCE? This fits in very well with our timeline and suggests that the height of Israelite power in Egypt occurred not very long after the death of Joseph. Also notice mention of Avaris above like this was the center of Hyksos power and then compare it to Goshen as that is the land given to Israel in the Book of Genesis.
"Statue head of an Asiatic official with a mushroom-shaped hairstyle, from Avaris" :
"Prof Manfred Bietak has been digging at Tell el-Dab’a in Egypt for over 40 years. He has identified it as 'Avaris', the ancient Hyksos capital. Avaris is smack dab in the middle of the area the Bible calls 'Goshen' i.e., the area that the Israelites lived in prior to the Exodus. The word 'Avaris' means nothing in Egyptian. But, in the Torah, Joseph is repeatedly called a 'Hebrew'; 'Ivri' in the Hebrew language. He is also repeatedly and curiously called 'Ha Ish'; 'The Man'. In other words, the word 'Avaris' [might] very well be related to Joseph, the 'Ish Ivri', or the 'Hebrew Man' (Genesis 39:14). All this is lost in translation when Joseph is simply called a 'Hebrew'. Put differently, the so-called Hyksos capital seems to be named after Joseph the 'Ish Ivri' i.e., Avar-Ish."
"Between 1986 and 1988, Prof. Bietak found the remains of a monumental statue that seems to have belonged to a non-Egyptian ruler of Avaris. Although only fragments remain, the archeologists estimate the original size of the seated figure to be 2 meters high and 1.5 meters in depth i.e., about one and a half times life size. Over the statue’s right shoulder you can still see his 'throw stick' i.e., the symbol of his rule. On the back – remarkably, as with the Biblical Joseph – you can still see evidence that this ruler was wearing a striped garment, made up of at least three colors: black, red and white. He was found in a tomb. The tomb was empty. This [might] be as a result of looting, but one can’t help but recall that the Biblical narrative explicitly tells us that when the Israelites left on the Exodus, they took Joseph’s bones with them (Exodus 13:19). In other words, in order to fit with the Biblical narrative, any tomb of Joseph in Egypt would have to be empty."
"They call the statue the 'Asiatic' i.e., he is not Egyptian, rather he is a man who comes from the area of Canaan/Israel. They might as well call him the 'Ish Ivri'. Not much is left of his face because after his rule, as with the Biblical Joseph, his people seem to have experienced a downfall. Put differently, someone in ancient times took a hammer to his face. But his hairdo is still intact. They call it a 'mushroom' hairdo and it’s specifically related to non-Egyptians from the area of ancient Canaan/Israel. Interestingly, it’s quite the 'do', and the Talmud goes out of its way to tell us that Joseph was quite the fashionista (Genesis Rabbah, 87:3)." "The statue was found in a layer corresponding to the year c. 1,700 BCE."
Now consider the Famine Stele. There is a large stone inscription that was found in Egypt and that describes a seven-year famine in vivid detail. While there are a number of inconsistencies with the Genesis narrative, "the inscription does show that famines of long duration were known in Egypt and the description gives a vivid account of the suffering of the people affected by such a famine. Although the inscription is not proof of the Bible story, it is evidence that the story of Joseph is historical." "The similarity between the famine described on the stele and the famine described in Genesis is substantial. The Genesis account describes a severe shortage of food that lasted for seven years, probably the result of a drought brought on by reduced flow of the Nile river."
This stela bears an inscription containing a legend about a famine lasting seven years during the reign of Djoser. The chancellor to the Pharaoh Djoser or simply the Chancellor is credited with having been instrumental in ending it.
And although the mainstream dating places the Chancellor about 1,000 farther back than when the famine actually took place, consider that would have been before the flood and notice what we are told on that link if it plainly suggests that he was not even mentioned until 1,200 years after he allegedly lived. Are we supposed to believe a figure that was literally deified was not mentioned for 1,200 years after his death or are we given shady timelines in an attempt to hide what really happened in the past? I guess you can decide for yourself and there are some interesting comparisons below tat can help. Add to it that the Chancellor is claimed to be only one of two commoners who were ever deified in the history of ancient Egypt.
I personally suspect that some pyramids are preflood and I don't agree that the stepped pyramid was the first one ever, but consider what we are told here: "The first pyramid to be built was the Stepped Pyramid of Djoser (Netjerikhet) which is part of a complex in Saqqara Egypt that appears to be a grain storage and distribution center. The Step Pyramid itself was built on top of a shaft that was originally used as a grain silo but then converted into a tomb for the Pharaoh." "The Step Pyramid was designed by...the Chancellor of King Zoser..."
"A grain silo in the Step Pyramid complex. Access to the bottom of the silo is from the steps in the pit next to it.":
Compare with modern automatic pet feeders if it's confusing how this would work.
How curious if the pyramid itself has one main silo in the heart of it and there are eleven other silos off to the side?
There is also quite a bit of evidence that this place was well fortified. And that would make sense if there was a severe famine and this place had massive amounts of grain?
A Painting on the tomb wall at Beni Hassan shows "the invading Hyksos" and dates to 1700 BCE. How interesting if Genesis suggests that Joseph was sold into slavery in the 1700s BCE and his father and brothers joined him shortly thereafter as a result of famine in the same century?
Some interesting notes concerned with he time of Pharaoh X: "In a temple (Soleb) in northern Sudan today, built by [Pharaoh X], was found an inscription reading, 'The house of Yahu in Shasu land.'" "Regarding the name yhw3, [M.] Astour observed that the 'hieroglyphic rendering corresponds very precisely to the Hebrew tetragrammaton YHWH, or [Yahuwah], and antedates the hitherto oldest occurrence of that divine name – on the Moabite Stone – by over five hundred years.'^[7] How telling if Yahu is a transliteration of the first three letters of the Tetragrammaton and the Shasu are known as Semitic-speaking cattle nomads from the Southern Levant? Were Israelites generally known as Shasu followers of Yahu by some and as Hyksos in a more derogatory way by others? Consider below if we have an alleged Shasu who was portrayed bound like a slave on a mural in the tomb of a priest during the reign of Pharaoh X.
Compare with floor art from the palace of Pharaoh Y at Armana as well.
Now we have another portrayal of a Shasu from about 200 years later, but notice the tzitzit or tassels and then think about what we are informed of in Numbers 15:37-41 and Deuteronomy 22:12.
Now are there any clues in regards to when Israelites generally became slaves and were removed from Avaris? Yes there are. "[Orthodox Jewish?] commentators estimate that the Israelites were first enslaved sometime between 116 and 86 years prior to the Exodus." And there was a female pharaoh named Hatshepsut who ruled about 100 years before our Exodus date and she left us with a very interesting note that mentions Asiatics and Avaris specifically. "In the inscription of the Speos…Queen Hatshepsut describes the restoration of temples that were desolated by the Hyksos. Queen Hatshepsut says: I have restored that which was ruins, I have raised up that which was unfinished since the Asiatics (Hyksos) were in the midst of Avaris of the Northland, and the barbarians were in the midst of them, overthrowing that which was made, while they ruled in ignorance of [Egyptian false deity?] (Breasted 1988, Vol. 2, 125)."
"In her [archaelogical site grotto] inscription, Hatshepsut seems to boast that she expelled the Hyksos. We know that to be untrue. The late Egyptologist Hans Goedicke, however, understood the inscription to be claiming that she rid Egypt of the Israelites, who may have been the last remnant of the Hyksos. Goedicke took the last phrase in the relevant passage – the earth has swallowed their footsteps – to indicate that Hatshepsut was writing of the Exodus itself. However, that phrase may have been a common pharaonic exaggeration, leaving open the possibility that she was boasting of having 'rid' Egypt of the Israelites by enslaving them."
Does Pharaoh X fit in as the Pharaoh of the oppression and are there any signs that he was a rich and powerful ruler who had hundreds of thousands of slaves and completed a great multiple of impressive works? "According to the official history – as written by the British – the great pharaoh, [Pharaoh X] was succeeded by his son, [Pharaoh Y]. The former...having ruled over Egypt at the height of its power and prosperity. More statues of him remain today than of any other pharaoh."
"[Pharaoh X] was estimated to have taken the throne at the age of 12. He was a prolific builder in his time, as many of his monuments still stand today, such as the Luxor and the Colossi of Memnon." ""His time as a king was known for peace and prosperity due to international trade and a strong gold supply.Over the span of his reign, he helped Egypt reach its peak of international power. In the 38-39 year of reign, [he] died."
"Slave labor on construction projects under [Pharaoh X's] rule inspired the famous scene in the tomb chapel of his vizier...showing mainly foreign slaves making bricks for the workshop/store places of the temple...at Karnak in Thebes, very much the same work asthe Israelites were forced to do (Ex. 1:14; 5:7-8) (Kitchen, Reliability of the Old Testament, p.247)."
"The consensus among scholars is that the time frame of the Exodus story, whether it is real or not, takes place during the Eighteenth Dynasty It is interesting to note that there is no record of foreign labor being conscripted prior to the Eighteenth Dynasty.[19] Before the Eighteenth Dynasty, foreign slaves were either purchased in the slave market or were captives of war. In addition, those slaves were only used for domestic purposes or to serve in temples. Having the Israelites, who were not captives nor purchased, serve as brick-makers was unique to the Eighteenth Dynasty.[20]"
And compare the expression mose in Egyption (born?) with the expression mose in Hebrew (drawn out?) and then consider how many names ended in-mose in 17th or 18th dynasty Egypt with people like Ahmose and Kamose and at least a few others I would rather not mention as a result of Exodus 23:13. "Another piece of evidence that would argue for the 18th dynasty is the name 'Moses.' Moses is an unusual name in Hebrew, and in reading Exodus its explanation as meaning 'drawn out' strikes one as an ex post facto etymology. The name is given Moses by Pharaoh’s daughter, and it seems unlikely that her first instinct would have been to give him a name with a Hebrew significance, if she knew Hebrew at all. Instead, Hebrew Moshe very likely conceals an Egyptian name ending in -mose or -moses…" "If Moses was indeed raised in the royal household then we might expect that he would be given a name fitting a child of the royal household, a name that would be shortened and given Hebrew significance later in life. It is extremely interesting to me to note that Egyptian royal names ending in -mose are pretty much found only in the 17th and 18th dynasties, not before and not after. This detail indirectly argues for an Exodus sometime during the 18th dynasty."
And remember words concerning Tel ed Daba above that link it to Avaris or a major city of Israelites in ancient Egyptian? Consider this in light of what we are told the Egyptians did to Israelite newborns: "65% of the graves in Tel ed Daba where the Israelites lived were for infants and many coffins containing babies were found in Kahun which was also an Israelite village."
"[Pharaoh Y] and his family moved from Thebes to Amarna..." "At its peak, Amarna boasted 10,000 citizens. These citizens were priests, traders, artisans, boatmen and their families. Amarna spanned many miles across the desert. Elegant palaces, statues of [Pharaoh Y], decent housing and the widest road the ancient world had ever known made up Amarna. The road was built to accommodate chariot processions." [Bold emphasis lost in quote]
"It was said to have employed thousands of slaves working under military taskmasters. It was the largest mudbrick project in Egyptian history and it required thousands of bricklayers and millions of bricks. It employed the army to supervise the slave workers and force them to work as fast as the Pharaoh demanded." "...the Children of Israel were unskilled or semi-skilled makers of, and workers in, mudbrick. They could well have made millions of bricks out of the Nile mud, but then, what is it that they built with them? They did not build the pyramids, or any temples or palaces as these were all built with stone. And the peasants’ houses, which were made of mudbrick, were built by the fellahin themselves. So what project needed millions of bricks and thousands of mudbrick-layers? The Bible tells us that there were six hundred thousand Israelite adult males at the Exodus, but even if there were only 6,000 or 600, what project needed so many mudbrick-layers? There was indeed only one project that we know of that was so large and built in mudbrick, and that was [Armana]."
"Stephen G. Rosenberg, writing in an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post, noted some similarities between the time of [Pharaoh Y] and [Pharaoh Z] and the scenario of the Exodus. According to the Old Testament, the Israelites were slave workers in mudbrick; and, we now know from archaeology, [Pharaoh Y's] capital city of Amarna was hastily constructed of mudbrick. After [his] death, there must have been a departure or exodus of some sort from the newly built city."
"Unfortunately, there is hardly anything left of [Pharaoh Y's] beautiful city. After his death it was abandoned..." "The stones of the city were pillaged for buildings by later pharaohs, and little remains of the palaces of [Pharaoh Y] and Nefertiti for tourists to see."
"Recent research at the site has focused on Amarna’s cemeteries; not the flashy rock-cut tombs of the royal family and its courtiers, but the simple desert graves of the ordinary Egyptians who lived and worked in [Pharaoh Y's] city and never got to leave." "'They paint a picture of poverty, hard work, poor diet, ill-health, frequent injury and relatively early death,' [Archaeologist Shepperson] wrote, describing two main workmen’s burial grounds: the South Tombs Cemetery, which is filled with the remains of a mix of genders and ages, and the North Tombs Cemetery, which held surprises." "'As we started to get the first skeletons out of the ground it was immediately clear that the burials were even simpler than at the South Tombs Cemetery, with almost no grave goods provided for the dead and only rough matting used to wrap the bodies,' Shepperson said of the excavation, which began in 2015." "'As the season progressed, an even weirder trend started to become clear to the excavators. Almost all the skeletons we exhumed were immature; children, teenagers and young adults, but we weren’t really finding any infants or older adults… This certainly was unusual and not a little bit creepy,' she continued."
"Initial analysis concluded that the remains were of youths aged 7-25, the bulk of whom are thought to have been under 15 when they died. Additionally, wrote Shepperson, the majority of 15- to 25-year-olds had suffered some kind of traumatic injury, and 16 percent of the under-15-year-olds were found to have spinal fractures and other injuries usually associated with heavy workloads." "The physical trauma, the proliferation of multiple burials in a single grave, and the lack of grave goods buried with them all indicate the children were of extremely low status or slaves. Who they were, however, remains a mystery." Below is a juvenile burial that has been under excavation at the North Tombs Cemetery of Amarna:
"The most obvious explanation is not a pleasant one: This population seems to have been a workforce of children and teenagers who had to perform frequent heavy labour. Seven years old is about the earliest age that children might be expected to carry a load and follow instructions, hence the absence of younger skeletons. The absence of older adults suggests two possibilities; either workers were released or re-assigned when they reached full adulthood, or the nature of the work and living conditions meant that none of the workers lived much past twenty-five. Indeed, it seems they were lucky to make it to fifteen." "The implication of the North Tombs multiple burials [might] be that bodies were expected and a grave was dug at the cemetery without knowing how many bodies there would be. Sometimes there was just one body, but if more were delivered the same grave would do for all of them. Whether this collection of casualties was a daily, weekly or monthly occurrence is a matter for bleak speculation, but the cemetery is large, probably containing at least a couple of thousand burials." Below a multiple burial from the North Tombs Cemetery with two juvenile skeletons who are laid one on top of the other with their heads at opposite ends:
Artapanus of Alexandria was a Jewish historian living in Egypt in the late third or second century B.C.E. We read relevant excerpts of his work On/Concerning the Jews in another work by Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica (= Preparation of the Gospel).
Moses and Aaron are spoken of in detail and we are given important clues regarding the identity of what Pharaohs lived with Moses in Egypt. We are told of his adoptive mother being barren and taking a supposititious child from one of the Jews. What is said also supports Josephus and suggests that Moses was a man of war before fleeing Egypt. We are also told that Moses invented many things and interpreted hieroglyphics. We are also told of Moses fleeing to Arabia and given many details concerned with the Biblical plagues. And compare what Artapanus tells us about an Egyptian king & Moses with what Wikipedia tells us regarding Pharaoh X & his son (ironically or not an example of one of the Egyptian -Mose figures).
ARTIPANUS: "And when [Chenephres] was come with Moses to Memphis, [Chenephres] asked him whether there was anything else useful for mankind, and he said the breed of oxen, because by means of them the land is plowed: and Chenephres having given [a false deity name] to a bull, commanded the troops to found a temple for him, and bade them bring and bury there the animals which had been consecrated by Moses, because he wished to bury the inventions of Moses in oblivion."
WIKIPEDIA: "[This] is [a temple or other religious institution?] located north west of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, a necropolis near Memphis in Lower Egypt. It was a burial place of [false deity] bulls..." "The most ancient burials found at this site date back to the reign of [Pharaoh X]..." "By the New Kingdom period, the remains of the sacred bulls were interred at the cemetery of Saqqara. The earliest known burial in Saqqara was performed in the reign of [Pharaoh X] by his son [the -Moses figure I referenced using Wikipedia above]; afterward, seven more bulls were buried nearby." [Hyperlinks inserted into source quotations by me].
WIKIPEDIA: "[This] is [a temple or other religious institution?] located north west of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, a necropolis near Memphis in Lower Egypt. It was a burial place of [false deity] bulls..." "The most ancient burials found at this site date back to the reign of [Pharaoh X]..." "By the New Kingdom period, the remains of the sacred bulls were interred at the cemetery of Saqqara. The earliest known burial in Saqqara was performed in the reign of [Pharaoh X] by his son [the -Moses figure I referenced using Wikipedia above]; afterward, seven more bulls were buried nearby." [Hyperlinks inserted into source quotations by me].
Also, the following allegedly refers to a king who was in place after Moses learned of a plot to kill him from Aaron and went on to move to Arabia. Notice the disease mentioned here and then think about Pharaoh Y's appearance. "‘About the same time Chenephres died, having been the very first person attacked by elephantiasis; and he is said to have incurred this misfortune because he ordered the Jews to wear linen garments and not to wear woollen clothing, in order that they might be conspicuous, and be punished by him."
"...researchers claim that [Pharaoh Y's] strange appearance was the result of an illness called Marfan’s Syndrome while others indicate that he suffered from elephantiasis and Froelich’s Syndrome."
Now you might be thinking this can't be the Pharaoh of the Exodus because this Pharaoh apparently died of the disease referred to before Moses even returned from Arabia. I suppose that Pharaoh X could have got whatever Pharaoh Y had and simply chose not to be willingly portrayed in any artwork like that before he died and that Pharaoh Y ended up having the same issue despite not being "the very first person attacked by elephantiasis" himself or that Artapanus simply got details confused between two prominent Pharaohs in the life of Moses over 1,000 years after the events.
Compare with what Tacitus (56 CE – 117 CE) said as well. In his treatise entitled Histories, he details stuff related to the history of the Exodus. He helps collaborate that the Pharaoh of the Exodus had a disfigured body even if he is coming at things with a local pagan Italian Peninsula flavor. "Most writers, however, agree in stating that once a disease, which horribly disfigured the body, broke out over Egypt; that king Bocchoris, seeking a remedy, consulted the oracle of Hammon, and was bidden to cleanse his realm, and to convey into some foreign land this race [The ancient Israelites] detested by the [false deities?]."
While I personally suspect that Pharaoh Y's appearance had something to do with nephilim, it's a logical line of thought to suppose that Egyptians around 2,200 years ago were generally led to believe that he had elephantiasis or ancient historians in general saw artwork associated with him and figured it was the result of him having it or some kind of bodily disfigurment.
Touching more on the Nephilim angle, consider: "The king wrote about being visited by beings that came from the sky, and the ancient Egyptians worshiped him as a [deity]", believing he was a direct descendant of..., the disc of the sun."
It is said that Egypt's power and prosperity began to decline in Pharaoh Y's reign. "A priceless cache of diplomatic letters written on clay tablets was discovered in the city of [Pharaoh Y]. The 'Amarna Letters' were written in cuniform, the lingua-franca of the ancient world, and arrived from imperial outposts and foreign allies. The letters suggest that he had withdrawn from the world and that Egypt was no longer taking her part in world events. There are a number of letters from governors and kings of subject nations begging for help, usually money. The authors seem to feel abandoned by their powerful friend and left to the wolves."
"An Egyptian eye-witness testified to the plagues which [Yahuwah Elohim] sent upon ancient Egypt -- a sage by the name of Ipuwer who lived during the terminal phase of the Middle Kingdom." "The Ipuwer papyrus was acquired by the Museum of Leiden in the Netherlands in 1828. The text is now folded into a book of 17 pages, written in hieratic signs. Portions of it are poorly preserved, but of the portions which has been translated by Alan H. Gardiner in 1909 we have an amazing corroboration of the dramatic plagues [Yahuwah Elohim] Almighty sent upon ancient Egypt!"
Note: See here or here if you want to comb through a direct translation for yourself. Some index references below are from online and some are missing an indexed chapter/verse as a result of me using a direct source that's only broken down into chapters or pages.
Note: See here or here if you want to comb through a direct translation for yourself. Some index references below are from online and some are missing an indexed chapter/verse as a result of me using a direct source that's only broken down into chapters or pages.
Ipuwer describes an incredible story of lamentations, ruin, and horror. His story is an Egyptian version of a great national calamity.
PAPYRUS 2:8 "Forsooth, the land turns round as does a potter's wheel."
PAPYRUS 2:11 "The towns are destroyed. Upper Egypt has become dry (wastes?)."
PAPYRUS 3:13 "All is ruin!"
PAPYRUS 7:4 "The residence is overturned in a minute."
PAPYRUS 4:2 "...Years of noise. There is no end to noise."
PAPYRUS 6:1 "Oh, that the earth would cease from noise, and tumult (uproar) be no more."
"Indeed, the hot-tempered man says: "If I knew where [Elohim] is, then I would serve Him."
PAPYRUS 2:8 "Forsooth, the land turns round as does a potter's wheel."
PAPYRUS 2:11 "The towns are destroyed. Upper Egypt has become dry (wastes?)."
PAPYRUS 3:13 "All is ruin!"
PAPYRUS 7:4 "The residence is overturned in a minute."
PAPYRUS 4:2 "...Years of noise. There is no end to noise."
PAPYRUS 6:1 "Oh, that the earth would cease from noise, and tumult (uproar) be no more."
"Indeed, the hot-tempered man says: "If I knew where [Elohim] is, then I would serve Him."
Now notice this amazing parallel between the Bible account of the plagues on Egypt and the Papyrus Ipuwer:
PAPYRUS 2:5-6 "Plague is throughout the land. Blood is everywhere."
PAPYRUS 2:10 "Men shrink from tasting -- human beings and thirst after water."
PAPYRUS 3:10-13 "That is our water! That is our happiness! What shall we do in respect thereof? All is ruin!"
"Indeed, the river is blood, yet men drink of it."
"[II/2] Indeed, the river is blood, yet men drink of it. Men shrink from human beings and thirst after water: Why really, the River is blood. If one drinks of it, one rejects (it) as human and thirsts for water. (Wilson)"
PAPYRUS 2:5-6 "Plague is throughout the land. Blood is everywhere."
PAPYRUS 2:10 "Men shrink from tasting -- human beings and thirst after water."
PAPYRUS 3:10-13 "That is our water! That is our happiness! What shall we do in respect thereof? All is ruin!"
"Indeed, the river is blood, yet men drink of it."
"[II/2] Indeed, the river is blood, yet men drink of it. Men shrink from human beings and thirst after water: Why really, the River is blood. If one drinks of it, one rejects (it) as human and thirsts for water. (Wilson)"
7:20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as YHWH commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
7:21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exodus 7:20-21
7:21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exodus 7:20-21
PAPYRUS 5:5 "All animals, their hearts weep. Cattle moan."
9:3 Behold, the hand of YHWH is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.
Exodus 9:3
Exodus 9:3
"After plagues of frogs, lice, flies, and the disease of murrain on the cattle, [Yahuwah] brought on Egypt the destruction of a massive hailstorm which destroyed crops everywhere. This also was recorded by the Egyptian Ipuwer."
PAPYRUS 2:10 "Forsooth, gates, columns and walls are consumed by fire."
PAPYRUS 10:3-6 "Lower Egypt weeps...The entire palace is without its revenues. To it belong (by right) wheat and barley, geese and fish."
PAPYRUS 6:3 "Forsooth, grain has perished on every side."
PAPYRUS 5:12 "Forsooth, that has perished which yesterday was seen. The land is left over to its weariness like the cutting of flax."
"This last statement shows clearly these plagues on Egypt were not the consequence of long-lasting drought. Rather, this was a sudden onslaught of disaster, virtually overnight! What was visible yesterday was perished today! The produce of Egypt was cut down, like the cutting of flax -- a sudden, incisive event!"
"Indeed, everywhere barley has perished and men are stripped of clothes, spice, and oil; everyone says: "There is none." The storehouse is empty and its keeper is stretched on the ground; a happy state of affairs! . ."
PAPYRUS 2:10 "Forsooth, gates, columns and walls are consumed by fire."
PAPYRUS 10:3-6 "Lower Egypt weeps...The entire palace is without its revenues. To it belong (by right) wheat and barley, geese and fish."
PAPYRUS 6:3 "Forsooth, grain has perished on every side."
PAPYRUS 5:12 "Forsooth, that has perished which yesterday was seen. The land is left over to its weariness like the cutting of flax."
"This last statement shows clearly these plagues on Egypt were not the consequence of long-lasting drought. Rather, this was a sudden onslaught of disaster, virtually overnight! What was visible yesterday was perished today! The produce of Egypt was cut down, like the cutting of flax -- a sudden, incisive event!"
"Indeed, everywhere barley has perished and men are stripped of clothes, spice, and oil; everyone says: "There is none." The storehouse is empty and its keeper is stretched on the ground; a happy state of affairs! . ."
9:23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and YHWH sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and YHWH rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
9:24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
9:25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.
-Exodus 9:23-25
9:24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
9:25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.
-Exodus 9:23-25
Sidenote: "Much of the art and building infrastructure that was created during" [Pharaoh Y's] reign was defaced or destroyed in the period immediately following his death. Stone building blocks from his construction projects were later used as foundation stones for subsequent rulers temples and tombs."
PAPYRUS 4:14 "Trees are destroyed."
PAPYRUS 6:1 "No fruit nor herbs are found...hunger."
"Indeed, trees are felled and branches are stripped off [IV/4]."
"Indeed, magnates are hungry and perishing, followers are followed [. . .] because of complaints."
"Indeed, [men eat] herbage and wash [it] down with water; neither fruit nor herbage can be found [for] the birds, and [. . .] is taken away from the mouth of the pig. No face is bright which you have [. . .] for me through hunger."
PAPYRUS 6:1 "No fruit nor herbs are found...hunger."
"Indeed, trees are felled and branches are stripped off [IV/4]."
"Indeed, magnates are hungry and perishing, followers are followed [. . .] because of complaints."
"Indeed, [men eat] herbage and wash [it] down with water; neither fruit nor herbage can be found [for] the birds, and [. . .] is taken away from the mouth of the pig. No face is bright which you have [. . .] for me through hunger."
10:14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
10:15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
-Exodus 10:14-15
10:15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
-Exodus 10:14-15
Consider the following in light of what we are told in Genesis/Exodus regarding who had cattle and what was considered an abomination to the Egyptians. Were priests so hungry that they ate cattle of Israelite slaves? Something considered an abomination?
"Behold, priests transgress with the cattle of the poor [. . .]."
"Behold, priests transgress with the cattle of the poor [. . .]."
46:33 And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation?
46:34 That ye shall say, Thy servants' trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.
Genesis 46:33-34
8:25 And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your Elohim in the land.
8:26 And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to YHWH our Elohim: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?
Exodus 8:25-26
46:34 That ye shall say, Thy servants' trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.
Genesis 46:33-34
8:25 And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your Elohim in the land.
8:26 And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to YHWH our Elohim: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?
Exodus 8:25-26
PAPYRUS 9:11 "The land is not light..."
10:22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
10:23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
-Exodus 10:22-23
10:23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
-Exodus 10:22-23
"The final, culminating plague upon ancient Egypt has not been fully understood. The last night before the Exodus, we know, the death angel slew the firstborn of the Egyptians, but the Israelites who had the blood of a lamb over their front doorposts were spared. But let us notice this account more fully." "The Hebrew word for 'smote' is nogaf and is used for a violent blow, such as the thrusting with horns by an ox. Now notice the Papyrus Ipuwer account of this traumatic event."
PAPYRUS 4:3, 5:6 "Forsooth, the children of princes are dashed against the walls."
PAPYRUS 6:12 "Forsooth, the children of princes are cast out in the streets."
PAPYRUS 6:3 "The prison is ruined."
PAPYRUS 2:13 "He who places his brother in the ground is everywhere."
PAPYRUS 3:14 "It is groaning that is throughout the land, mingled with lamentations."
"Indeed, the children of princes are dashed against walls, and the children of the neck are laid out on the high ground."
"Behold, he who was buried as a falcon [VII/1] [is devoid] of biers, and what the pyramid concealed has become empty."
PAPYRUS 4:3, 5:6 "Forsooth, the children of princes are dashed against the walls."
PAPYRUS 6:12 "Forsooth, the children of princes are cast out in the streets."
PAPYRUS 6:3 "The prison is ruined."
PAPYRUS 2:13 "He who places his brother in the ground is everywhere."
PAPYRUS 3:14 "It is groaning that is throughout the land, mingled with lamentations."
"Indeed, the children of princes are dashed against walls, and the children of the neck are laid out on the high ground."
"Behold, he who was buried as a falcon [VII/1] [is devoid] of biers, and what the pyramid concealed has become empty."
12:23 For YHWH will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, YHWH will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
Exodus 12:23
12:29 And it came to pass, that at midnight YHWH smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharoah that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
12:30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
Exodus 12:29-30
Exodus 12:23
12:29 And it came to pass, that at midnight YHWH smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharoah that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
12:30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
Exodus 12:29-30
PAPYRUS 4:2 "Forsooth, great and small say: I wish I might die."
PAPYRUS 5:14f. "Would that there might be an end of men, no conception, no birth! Oh, that the earth would cease from noise, and tumult be no more!"
"Those who used never to see the day have gone out unhindered; those who were on their husbands' beds, let them lie on rafts."
"Indeed, all female slaves are free with their tongues, and when their mistress speaks, it is irksome to the maidservants."
"I have separated him and his household slaves, and men will say when they hear it: "Cakes are lacking for most children; there is no food [. . .]. What is the taste of it like today?"
"Indeed, slaves . . . throughout the land, and the strong man sends to everyone; a man strikes his maternal brother."
"Indeed, public offices are opened and their inventories are taken away; the serf has become an owner of serfs."
"Indeed, the laws of the council chamber are thrown out; indeed, men walk on them in public places, and poor men break them up in the streets."
"Indeed, the poor man has attained to the state of the Nine [false deities?], and the erstwhile procedure of the House of the Thirty [VI/5] is divulged."
"Indeed, the great council-chamber is a popular resort, and poor men come and go to the Great Mansions."
PAPYRUS 5:14f. "Would that there might be an end of men, no conception, no birth! Oh, that the earth would cease from noise, and tumult be no more!"
"Those who used never to see the day have gone out unhindered; those who were on their husbands' beds, let them lie on rafts."
"Indeed, all female slaves are free with their tongues, and when their mistress speaks, it is irksome to the maidservants."
"I have separated him and his household slaves, and men will say when they hear it: "Cakes are lacking for most children; there is no food [. . .]. What is the taste of it like today?"
"Indeed, slaves . . . throughout the land, and the strong man sends to everyone; a man strikes his maternal brother."
"Indeed, public offices are opened and their inventories are taken away; the serf has become an owner of serfs."
"Indeed, the laws of the council chamber are thrown out; indeed, men walk on them in public places, and poor men break them up in the streets."
"Indeed, the poor man has attained to the state of the Nine [false deities?], and the erstwhile procedure of the House of the Thirty [VI/5] is divulged."
"Indeed, the great council-chamber is a popular resort, and poor men come and go to the Great Mansions."
12:33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men.
Exodus 12:33
Exodus 12:33
PAPYRUS 3:2-3 "(gold and jewels) are fastened on the neck of female slaves."
"Indeed, the plunderer [. . .] everywhere, and the servant takes what he finds."
"Indeed, poor men have become owners of wealth, and he who could not make sandals for himself is now a possessor of riches."
"Indeed, the land turns around as does a potter's wheel; the robber is a possessor of riches and [the rich man is become] a plunderer."
"Indeed, gold and lapis lazuli, silver and turquoise, carnelian and amethyst, Ibhet-stone and [. . .] are strung on the necks of maidservants."
"Behold, the possessors of tombs are ejected on to the high ground, while he who could not make a coffin for himself is now [the possessor] of a treasury."
"Behold, the possessor of wealth now spends the night thirsty, while he who once begged his dregs for himself is now the possessor of overflowing bowls."
"Behold, the possessors of robes are now in rags, while he who could not weave for himself is now a possessor of fine linen."
"Behold, he who had no property is now a possessor of wealth, and the magnate praises him."
"Behold, the poor of the land have become rich, and the [erstwhile owner] of property is one who has nothing."
"Behold, she who had no box is now the owner of a coffer, and she who had to look at her face in the water is now the owner of a mirror."
"Indeed, the plunderer [. . .] everywhere, and the servant takes what he finds."
"Indeed, poor men have become owners of wealth, and he who could not make sandals for himself is now a possessor of riches."
"Indeed, the land turns around as does a potter's wheel; the robber is a possessor of riches and [the rich man is become] a plunderer."
"Indeed, gold and lapis lazuli, silver and turquoise, carnelian and amethyst, Ibhet-stone and [. . .] are strung on the necks of maidservants."
"Behold, the possessors of tombs are ejected on to the high ground, while he who could not make a coffin for himself is now [the possessor] of a treasury."
"Behold, the possessor of wealth now spends the night thirsty, while he who once begged his dregs for himself is now the possessor of overflowing bowls."
"Behold, the possessors of robes are now in rags, while he who could not weave for himself is now a possessor of fine linen."
"Behold, he who had no property is now a possessor of wealth, and the magnate praises him."
"Behold, the poor of the land have become rich, and the [erstwhile owner] of property is one who has nothing."
"Behold, she who had no box is now the owner of a coffer, and she who had to look at her face in the water is now the owner of a mirror."
3:21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty:
3:22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.
Exodus 3:21-22
12:35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment:
12:36 And YHWH gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.
Exodus 12:35-36
3:22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.
Exodus 3:21-22
12:35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment:
12:36 And YHWH gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.
Exodus 12:35-36
PAPYRUS 7:1 "Behold, the fire has mounted up on high. Its burning goes forth against the enemies of the land."
"Behold, the fire has gone up on high, and its burning goes forth against the enemies of the land."
"Behold, the fire has gone up on high, and its burning goes forth against the enemies of the land."
13:21 And YHWH went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
13:22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
-Exodus 13:21-22
13:22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
-Exodus 13:21-22
"But as Israel left Egypt with a high hand, what happened to the Pharaoh? The Ipuwer Papyrus only records that the Pharaoh was lost under unusual circumstances 'that have never happened before.' The Egyptian eye-witness to the plagues lamented his fate, in the broken lines which are still discernible:"
PAPYRUS 7:1-2 "...weep...the earth is...on every side...weep..."
"Behold, things have been done which have not happened for a long time past; the king has been deposed by the rabble."
"Behold, it has befallen that the land has been deprived of the kingship by a few lawless men."
PAPYRUS 7:1-2 "...weep...the earth is...on every side...weep..."
"Behold, things have been done which have not happened for a long time past; the king has been deposed by the rabble."
"Behold, it has befallen that the land has been deprived of the kingship by a few lawless men."
15:19 For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and YHWH brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.
Exodus 15:19
Exodus 15:19
"The Papyrus describes men fleeing the cities in tents, even as Israel fled Egypt and abode in tents as they journeyed." [Bold emphasis lost in quote] "The Scriptures show that a 'mixed multitude' of Egyptians fled Egypt with the Israelites (Exo. 12:38). Their first brief stopover was at a place called ;Succoth,' which, in Hebrew, means 'tents' or 'huts.'"
PAPYRUS 10:2 "Men flee. . . . Tents are what they make like the dwellers of the hills."
"The desert dwellers are skilled in the crafts [IV/3] of the Delta."
"It is the common man who will be vigilant, the day having dawned on him without his dreading it. Men run because of [. . . for] the temple of the head, strained through a woven cloth within the house. What they make are tents, just like the desert folk."
"It is indeed good when fine linen is spread out on New Year's Day [. . .] on the bank; when fine linen is spread out and cloaks are on the ground. The overseer of [. . .] the trees, the poor [. . . / . . .] in their midst like Asiatics [. . .]. Men [. . .] the state thereof; they have come to an end of themselves; none can be found to stand up and protect themselves [. . .]."
PAPYRUS 10:2 "Men flee. . . . Tents are what they make like the dwellers of the hills."
"The desert dwellers are skilled in the crafts [IV/3] of the Delta."
"It is the common man who will be vigilant, the day having dawned on him without his dreading it. Men run because of [. . . for] the temple of the head, strained through a woven cloth within the house. What they make are tents, just like the desert folk."
"It is indeed good when fine linen is spread out on New Year's Day [. . .] on the bank; when fine linen is spread out and cloaks are on the ground. The overseer of [. . .] the trees, the poor [. . . / . . .] in their midst like Asiatics [. . .]. Men [. . .] the state thereof; they have come to an end of themselves; none can be found to stand up and protect themselves [. . .]."
12:38 And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.
Exodus 12:38
23:43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am YHWH your Elohim.
Leviticus 23:43
Exodus 12:38
23:43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am YHWH your Elohim.
Leviticus 23:43
"After this destruction, chaos reigned in Egypt. There was no longer any authority in the land. Mob rule prevailed. Brigands and thugs seized what they could carry. Plunderers looted the royal storehouses. Ipuwer records:"
PAPYRUS 6:9 "Forsooth, the laws of the judgment-hall are cast forth. Men walk upon (them) in the public places."
PAPYRUS 10:3 "The storehouse of the king is the common property of everyone."
PAPYRUS 8:14 "Behold, the chiefs of the land flee."
PAPYRUS 9:2 "Behold, no offices are in their (right) place, like a frightened herd without a herdsman."
PAPYRUS 6:7 "Forsooth, public offices are opened and their census-lists are taken away."
PAPYRUS 3:1 "Forsooth, the Desert is throughout the land. The nomes are laid waste. A foreign tribe from abroad has come to Egypt."
PAPYRUS 15:1 "What has happened? -- through it is to cause the Asiatics to know the condition of the land."
PAPYRUS 14:11 "Men -- They have come to an end for them selves. There are none found to stand and protect themselves."
PAPYRUS 12:6ff. "Today fear -- more than a million of people. No seen -- enemies -- enter into the temples -- weep."
"Indeed, men arrive [. . .] and indeed, there are no Egyptians [III/3] anywhere."
"Indeed, runners are fighting over the spoil [of ] the robber, and all his property is carried off."
PAPYRUS 6:9 "Forsooth, the laws of the judgment-hall are cast forth. Men walk upon (them) in the public places."
PAPYRUS 10:3 "The storehouse of the king is the common property of everyone."
PAPYRUS 8:14 "Behold, the chiefs of the land flee."
PAPYRUS 9:2 "Behold, no offices are in their (right) place, like a frightened herd without a herdsman."
PAPYRUS 6:7 "Forsooth, public offices are opened and their census-lists are taken away."
PAPYRUS 3:1 "Forsooth, the Desert is throughout the land. The nomes are laid waste. A foreign tribe from abroad has come to Egypt."
PAPYRUS 15:1 "What has happened? -- through it is to cause the Asiatics to know the condition of the land."
PAPYRUS 14:11 "Men -- They have come to an end for them selves. There are none found to stand and protect themselves."
PAPYRUS 12:6ff. "Today fear -- more than a million of people. No seen -- enemies -- enter into the temples -- weep."
"Indeed, men arrive [. . .] and indeed, there are no Egyptians [III/3] anywhere."
"Indeed, runners are fighting over the spoil [of ] the robber, and all his property is carried off."
Although I'm not sure what was simple disease and what was more than that, how interesting if even secular academia informs us that there was a plague that spread throughout Egypt around the mid 18th dynasty? "During the Amarna times, plague spread through Egypt that brought famine and disease. It killed thousands and was the first ever recorded instance of an influenza epidemic." "The prevalence of disease [might] help explain the rapidity with which the site of [Pharaoh Y] was subsequently abandoned. It [might] also explain why later generations considered the [false deities?] to have turned against the Amarna monarchs."
There's also an ancient historian who I will call Siculus and he helps collaborate that the Exodus occurred around a time of Egypt turning from ancient religious customs (Armana times?) and around the time of a great plague. "[He] was a Greek Historian whose treatise Bibliotheca historica, which is mostly extant today, was written between 60-30BC." Consider: "Once we are about to give an account of the war against the Jews, we consider it appropriate, before we proceed further, in the first place to relate the origin of this nation, and their customs. In ancient times a great plague occurred in Egypt, and many ascribed the cause of it to the [false deities?], who were offended with them. For since the multitudes of strangers of different nationalities, who lived there, made use of their foreign rites in religious ceremonies and sacrifices, the ancient manner of worshipping the [false deities?], practised by the ancestors of the Egyptians, had been quite lost and forgotten. Therefore the native inhabitants concluded that, unless all the foreigners were driven out, they would never be free from their miseries. .."
And of a very important note: We are also told that the royal tomb of Pharaoh Y was found in the late 19th century and yet his mummy was not found inside and his remains are still a mystery. What could have happened to his body? Could it have been lost in the Red Sea? "No mummy has yet been identified as being that of [Pharaoh Y], and so the controversy continues."
The Tempest Stela also helps collaborate that there was a time of an extremely destructive hailstorm and supernatural darkness. "The text speaks of a tremendous storm that involved both upper and lower Egypt. It states that this storm displayed the 'wrath' of a 'great [Deity]'. Notice it speaks of '[Deity]' in the singular. It also states that this [Deity] was 'greater' than the '[deities]' of Egypt. According to the Storm Stela, the tempest plunged Egypt into total 'darkness' for a period of several days. The darkness was unusual because it made it impossible to even light torches: 'no torch could be lit in the two lands.' The aftermath of the inundation was such that the temples of the gods were flooded, the roofs had 'collapsed' and the holy places 'had been made/rendered nonexistent'. The Nile was literally full of human bodies, 'floating' like papyrus 'skiffs' in the water. According to the Stela, 'every house' was affected and the whole 'wonder'-provoking event was accompanied by 'voices' louder than anything that had been heard earlier in Egypt." And consider here. "The Biblical text also states that the 7th plague of 'hail' was accompanied by 'voices' (Exodus 9:29)…"
...And there's more. "Almost forgotten, in the tiny museum of Isma’ilya, some 125 km northeast of Cairo, is an artifact that corroborates the Biblical Exodus and provides us with the inside story from an Egyptian point of view." "It was found in 1887 on a farm at El Arish, lying on its side. At the time, it was being used as a water trough for cattle." "It is covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, some of which describe historical events in that area. Velikovsky used parts of the inscription to help validate the biblical Book of Exodus."
"One line seems to be referencing Moses: he is referred to as the 'Prince of the Desert' and his Israelite followers are called the 'evil ones' or 'evil-doers'. The Egyptian text also tells about how Pharaoh chased the Queen Mother...presumably the royal princess that once raised Moses, as she was leaving with the departing Israelites. This corroborates the Talmud (Sotah 12a) which states that the princess left on the Exodus, marrying the Israelite leader, Caleb son of Yefuneh."
"The stone also seems to be reporting some of the Biblical plagues, including prolonged darkness and a terrible tempest." "The land was in great affliction. Evil fell on this earth...It was a great upheaval in the residence....Nobody left the palace during nine days, and during these nine days of upheaval there was such a tempest that neither the men nor the [false deities?] could see the faces of their next." "With the plague of locusts covering the skies and earth proceeding the plague of darkness, of three days, undoubtedly the Egyptians counted nine days as the total length of the time of impaired vision and light. Even the Jewish Midrash books explain the plague lasted seven days -- during the first three days one could still change his position, but during the next three (the three of the Bible) one could not stir from his place!"
"Furthermore, it mentions a specific location next to where the sea parted. The place is called 'Pekharti'. Remarkably, this exact place is mentioned in Exodus 14:2,9 as the location where the Israelites camped just prior to the parting of the sea. In the Book of Exodus, it is called 'Pi-hahiroth'. If all this is not enough the Torah states that, as he was dying, the Biblical patriarch Jacob/Israel blessed his son Joseph wishing for Joseph’s children to 'fishify' i.e., that they 'increase in the land like fish'. For this blessing, he made up a new word; 'fishify', 'Idgu' in Hebrew (Genesis 48:16). Later, when the Israelites are leaving on the Exodus they take the bones of Joseph with them to the Promised Land (Exodus 13:19). Shockingly, the El Arish stone says that when the 'evildoers' left Egypt, they took 'Dagai' with them. The exact nickname given by the Torah to Joseph!"
"The Egyptian El-Arish inscription goes on to tell how the Pharaoh perished in a 'whirlpool' while fighting against 'evil-doers.' It says 'His majesty leapt into the so-called Place of the Whirlpool.'" [Bold emphasis lost in quote] "The black granite inscription corroborates the story of the parting of the sea, as told in Exodus 14. There is a unique hieroglyph on it: three waves and two knives." "Searching for a way to translate this symbol, [archaeologist Frances Llewellyn] Griffith rendered it as 'whirlpool'. But Egyptologist James Hoffmeier has suggested that we look at the hieroglyphic literally. Seen in this way, the obvious translation is the 'parting of the sea' or the 'parted sea'."
Also, consider that we have another pharaoh who dates about 50 years after the Exodus according to our timeline and he has a tomb with a mural that portrays something like a snake within parted waters. I don't know if this is meaning to demonize Israelites or demonize the reign of the pharaoh of the exodus or memorilize soldiers who died in the Red Sea or some combo, but it seems relevant one way or another.
Now think about it if it's said that during Pharaoh Y's reign much of Egypt's imperial glory started to decline and that he slowed Egypt's military defenses and stopped foreign military campaigns. What should we expect his reign to be known for if the bulk of the Egyptian military was wiped out by waters of the Red Sea at the end of his reign?
It's one thing to reject and overturn religious changes by someone in a previous regime, but what went so wrong to have led people to remove reference to Pharaoh Y from official king's lists and to abandon a new elaborate and costly city in which he lived? "When the Amarna Period ended, the temples to the [false deity] were demolished. Thousands of blocks of stone called talatat have been collected by archaeologists who are trying to put them together again." We are further informed that "all traces of [him] and his heretic religion were erased. The king's name was even removed from all official king lists. His many temples were taken apart, and the stone re-used for other projects. The once great city of Amarna was left to lie in ruins in the desert." [Bold emphasis lost in quote] I take issue with what we are told here however. I'm not sure that there is any pharaoh with more artwork portraying them that remains in the 21st century, but I guess that history associated with his reign has been suppressed.
"[Pharaoh Z] had the onerous task of restoring the old order, the old religion, the old [false deities] and their priests, and he was under threat if he did not do so. The restitution stele says that the old [false deities] would punish him if they were not given back their old rights and positions." "[One] the androgynous [false deity] of the Nile, would make its waters undrinkable; [another], the [female false deity] of fertility, would release her frogspawn to swarm over the land; [another], the [false deity] of corn, would not prevent the locusts from consuming his cereals, and [another], the [solar false deity], would refuse to shine. Sound familiar?"
"On a stela...in the Karnak temple (now in the Cairo museum) [Pharaoh Z?] describes the mood of the traditional [false deities] at the excesses of [Pharaoh Y]:" "'. . . the temples of the [false deities] . . . were in ruins. Their shrines were deserted and overgrown. Their shrines were deserted and overgrown. Their sanctuaries were as non-existent and their courts were used as roads . . . the [false deities] turned their back upon this land . . . If anyone made a prayer to a [deity] for advice he would never respond - and the same applied to a [female false deity]. Their hearts ached inside them and they inflicted damage left right and centre." It's unclear to me if Pharaoh Y had truly turned away from previous false deities or if that's just the narrative we are given by mainstream academia as a result of talk like old false deities had turned on the people.
Now also compare some items found in Pharaoh Z's tomb with what the Israelites constructed in the Book of Exodus. "And finally, Rosenberg says that the design of the Israelite tabernacle described in the Old Testament is similar to the portable war shrines built by the Pharaohs of that time." "As the Sabbah brothers also noted, [Pharaoh Z's] tomb contained a chest of sculpted wood, with carrying poles, covered in gold leaf."
"Another container was sealed with gold panels depicting winged angels or cherubim. And the tomb was within a wooden frame covered with a large linen cloth. The entire scenario evokes the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant as described in the book of Exodus." "Putting these elements together, Rosenberg suggests that the Israelites were [Pharaoh Y's] slaves at Amarna."
Consider also that a silver trumpet was found among the treasures of Pharaoh Z and think about it in light of Numbers 10 if Moses was commanded to make two trumpets of silver in there. I guess it should make sense if Moses would have been told to make something he would have been familiar with in Egypt. There is actually one or more trumpet of Pharaoh Z that is associated with magic or a war curse when it is played as well.
There's an alternative theory concerned with Pharaoh Z that could help tie up a number of things. Even if there are a number of issues that come along with it in terms of dates and things, what should we expect if we have enemies in high places who have desperately tried to cover up truth concerned with the Exodus? We do already have sources linked above that claim he died around 1352 BCE himself. Original picture of his tomb allegedly showing the unusual way items were placed here. Was he quickly buried and if so, why?
This is from a simple reply comment on a website and I still think it's worth leaving here. Please excuse grammar. "Queen Tiye was Moses step mother her son [Pharaoh Y] was the pharaoh of the exodus, his son [Pharaoh Z's] was the first born son that died. His wife was Nefertti. His half brother [the -Moses figure I referenced using Wikipedia above?] (prince of egypt) Moses. Prince [-Moses figure?] disappears (erase) from the public records and appears to have died (fled into Cush) some time during the third decade of [Pharoah X's] kingship, fairly late In his place, his younger brother [Pharaoh Y]…succeeded to the throne.The mystery of what happened to a young heir to the Egyptian throne has baffled historians for generations." "Archaeologists have struggled to determine what happened to the heir to the Crown [the -Mose figure?], who ruled Ancient Egypt around 3500 years ago."
Another note before getting into the Red Sea itself. Although this refers to a location on the Sinai Peninsula and it's apparent that the Israelites left it as they crossed the Red Sea, I suppose it could refer to something that happened beforehand or was inscribed years or centuries after Israel camped before Mount Sinai: "Sinai 361, the Proto-Sinaitic (P-S) inscription near the entrance to Mine N at Serabit el-Khadim, appears to be a message in pure, archaic Hebrew by a single author. It begins with an opening statement that appears to note the removal of an enslaving tyrant, followed by another Divine act: the early demise of those who had strayed (נע-n`) to [an Egyptian female cow false deity]."
Now did Josephus give us one or more very pertinent clue regarding a true location for a Red Sea crossing here in the Antiquities of the Jews? "Now when the Egyptians had overtaken the Hebrews, they prepared to fight them, and by their multitude they drove them into a narrow place; for the number that pursued after them was six hundred chariots, with fifty thousand horsemen, and two hundred thousand foot-men, all armed. They also seized on the passages by which they imagined the Hebrews might fly, shutting them up (29) between inaccessible precipices and the sea; for there was [on each side] a [ridge of] mountains that terminated at the sea, which were impassable by reason of their roughness, and obstructed their flight; wherefore they there pressed upon the Hebrews with their army, where [the ridges of] the mountains were closed with the sea; which army they placed at the chops of the mountains, that so they might deprive them of any passage into the plain."
But is there a place that really seems to fit in with what Exodus and Josephus tell us? Yes there is.
"When arriving at the beach, the children of Israel felt trapped, as they could not turn back, nor head north because at the northern end of the beach was a three story, Egyptian military fortress which is still standing today undergoing restoration."
"To the south the mountains came down to the sea, as mentioned by Josephus..." "You can see the mountains at the beach today. The people were about to turn against Moses because he had led them to an area where they were trapped and would surely die, or so they thought."
See reference to Pi-Hahiroth in Exodus 14:2? "Pi-Hahiroth means, mouth of the hole, which we would apply to the mouth of the canyon above." Notice also that the beach is called Nuweiba Beach (or more fully?) Nuwayba' al Muzayyinah/Waters of Moses Opening? "If one looks on a map for a beach area large enough for 2 million people to encamp on the gulf there is only one candidate: Nuweiba Egypt. The beach at Nuweiba is extremely large and could have accommodated a large number of people at the time of Moses."
"...we see the crossing site at the large beach, and we see the real Mt. Sinai in the lower right in Saudi Arabia, in Midian, named Jebel el Lawz."
There is also an underwater land bridge running from this beach that's approximately 10 miles or 15 kilometers long.
"[Elohim] caused a strong east wind to blow the waters back so the people could walk 13 miles through the Red Sea to safety in Arabia. The crossing path is about a quarter to a half mile wide and is on a gradual slope down to the bottom of the Red Sea and then up to the Saudi beach. On either side of this path are the depths of the Red Sea, the Eilat Deep and the Aragonese Deep, each 5000 and 6000 feet deep respectively." Notice that all four of these just below point to an underwater land bridge even if some make it more obvious than others.
Regardless of the actual depth, there's a gradual slope revealed below using even a deep measurement of 765 meters as opposed to a more shallow one pointing at a depth something closer to 100 meters.
Are we supposed to think that ancient Israelite scribes just somehow knew that there was a tunnel between mountains that terminated at a beach that's connected to the Arabian Peninsula by an underwater land bridge? An under water land bridge flanked by two steep depths and with scattered chariot remains as well as human & horse remains?
"There are numerous chariot wheels, plus human and horse bones at the crossing site...on right, is a human femur bone that is covered by coral, and was tested at Stockholm University. It is from the right leg of a man 165-170cm tall. It is basically mineralized by resting in the Red Sea for 3500 years."
"...a horse's hoof that is shrunken since drying out. Horses are not found in the Sinai Peninsula today"
"The Bible said all the chariots of Egypt and 600 choice chariots, or gold veneered models, were in the army pursuing ]Elohim's] people. It is speculated there were 20,000 chariots destroyed that day." "Four, six and eight spoke wheels are found here in the gulf..."
"...a coral covered chariot wheel on a vertical axle at is buried in the sand. Although this is atypical, Bill Fry found this within 10 minutes of searching at Nuweiba."
More chariot remains and this time fixed to axels standing at attention on the seabed?
Consider this below if we have a chariot wheel from Pharaoh Z's tomb compared to similar found in the Red Sea:
"...round chariot wheel found off the Gulf of Aqaba coast of Saudi Arabia, opposite of Nuweiba, Egypt. (photo Viveka Ponten)"
"Ron Wyatt found this wheel with the raised center hub. A common marker is the raised center hub that will give a metal reading when tested."
Chariot cab remains as well?:
"This a piece of a chariot axle made of iron covered in coral"
"This column matches one on the other side of the gulf in Saudi Arabia which had the inscriptions intact. The Hebrew words Mizram (Egypt), death, water, pharaoh, Edom, [Yahuwah?], and Solomon were on that column. Apparently one can conclude King Solomon had these columns erected 400 years after the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea on dry land. Solomon's sea port was at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba at Eilat (I Kings 9:26) and he was very familiar with the Red Sea crossing site, as it was in his neighborhood."
How suspicious if this is the site of the Saudi side column and it was recently removed and replaced with a marker by Saudi authorities?:
"From Nuweiba we can see the real Mt. Sinai with its blackened peak over in Saudi Arabia."
15:27 And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.
Exodus 15:27
Exodus 15:27
"On the way to Mt. Sinai, Moses was in Elim in Saudi Arabia in the Midian Region, with 12 wells as mentioned in the Bible. On the pathway to Mt. Sinai in Arabia."
"Elim with the 12 wells. Photo Scott Parvi"
"Josephus said that Mt. Sinai 'was the highest of mountains in the city of Madian' which is just outside the town of Al Bad. Jebel el Lawz is the highest mountain in the upper two thirds of the country. Also, Philo said Mt. Sinai was located east of the Sinai Peninsula and south of Palestine." [Bold emphasis lost in quote]
19:17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with Elohim; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
19:18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because YHWH descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
Exodus 19:17-18
19:18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because YHWH descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
Exodus 19:17-18
"The upper 200 feet of Jebel el Lawz is burned black..." "The Saudi Government will confiscate any photographs of the mountain and will not allow any tourists into the country, but U.S. Government satellite photos and a few private photos smuggled out of the country reveal the secret mountain by its unique blackened peak. Unlike the traditional site, there are thousands of acres in which to encamp at the base of this mountain, while clearly being visible from the mountain top."
19:8 And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of Elohim.
19:9 And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of YHWH came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, EliYah?
19:10 And he said, I have been very jealous for YHWH Elohim of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
1 Kings 19:8-10
19:9 And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of YHWH came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, EliYah?
19:10 And he said, I have been very jealous for YHWH Elohim of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
1 Kings 19:8-10
"Elijah's cave is circled. Blackened peak on far left. Photo Scott Parvi"
"Elijah's cave which faces toward the golden calf altar in the distance. Photo Scott Parvi"
"Guard house, government sign, and fence around the front of Jebel el Lawz"
"Aaron Sen stands next to government sign at base of Mt. Sinai acknowledging this archaeological area. Photo Aaron Sen" "After...Wyatt found this site in 1984, and visited it again a year later, the Saudi government erected a fence and a guard house preventing access to the Holy Precinct area at the foot of the mountain on the eastern side. The sign above states, 'Archaeological area...unlawful to trespass, subject to penalty.' When Ron and his two sons made their fist trip into Saudi Arabia, they were accused of being spies and were held prisoner for two months, awaiting execution. After Ron helped to heal many sick prisoners, the authorities listened to his story and accompanied him to the column at the Saudi beach, then to Mt. Sinai. It was then they believed him, but they had to confiscate his photographs before letting him go."
32:7 And YHWH said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy elohim, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Exodus 32:8-9
32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy elohim, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Exodus 32:8-9
"The base of which the golden calf altar was placed atop. Notice inscriptions of bulls. This is located in the encampment area at Mt. Sinai in Arabia and in Midian."
"Some of the images drawn of [false deity bulls] on the altar stones of the golden calf. A dozen giant boulders are stacked in the encampment area and reveal 12 ancient Egyptian petroglyphs of bulls. It is believed the golden calf was placed upon these rocks. Large altars are found on the east and west sides of the mountain. Photo Scott Parvi"
"In the encampment area, Dr. Kim pointing to the oldest image of the golden oil lamp stand ever found. This was where the golden lamp stand was first made."
"The amazing collection of artifacts found by Dr. Kim from his 12 trips out to Jebel el Lawz."
17:5 And YHWH said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
17:6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Exodus 17:5-6
17:6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Exodus 17:5-6
"Giant split rock which [Elohim] provided for the Children of Israel."
"On the western or back side of the mountain is Rephidim where Moses and the Children of Israel first encamped before reaching Mt. Sinai. It was here that Moses struck the rock...which gushed forth large quantities of water. The giant 60 foot rock is on a 300 foot tall hill, and has obvious signs of water erosion, yet it is located in this desert region. The fissure in the rock is so large that you can walk easily through it. A square 20 foot altar is also at this site, which was built after the Children of Israel defeated the Amalakites. The Amalakite territory covered "south of Judah and probably extended into northern Arabia" Britanica."
"Aaron Sen stands in the split of this giant rock. Notice the obvious signs of erosion, in this desert region."
But did Israel ever actually make it to the Promised Land after wandering for 40 years? "Also, late-Egyptian texts and inscriptions from the time of [the first 19th dynasty Pharaoh] (1294-1279 B.C.) and [the second 19th dynasty Pharaoh] (1279-1213 B.C.), speak of the Western portion of Galilee as }Isr, a seeming reference to territory settled by the Hebrew tribe of Asher. In Papyrus Anastasi I (the so-called 'Satirical Letter'), composed during the reign of [the latter], the Asherites evidently were long enough in Canaan to have given rise to a folk-tale about a 'chief of Aser' who escaped from an angry bear by climbing a tree somewhere near the region of Megiddo." [Quote minus footnotes found at source].
"That the Israelites had been in Canaan from as early as the beginning of the 13th century B.C. [might] also be indicated by the smaller Beth-shan stela of [a 19th dynasty Pharaoh who allegedly reigned around the beginning of the 13th century or about 70 years after our Exodus estimate]. The stela commemorates a military campaign in which Pharaoh’s forces encountered a band of warriors whom [his] scribe called 'Apiru.' (the Egyptian equivalent to cuneiform 'Habiru'). What helps to identify these Apiru warriors is the place they came from. According to the hieroglyphic inscription, their homeland was Yarmuta, a Galilean hill known in Scripture as the Yarmuth heights, within the territory of the Hebrew tribe of Issachar (Josh 21:29)." [Quote minus footnotes found at source].
"The fact that these Apiru lived in the hill-country rather than in the plains and the low hill-country of Western Palestine, accords well with what we know from the biblical records. For when the Israelites came into Canaan, they found the Canaanites in possession of chariots (Josh 17:16, 18; Judg 1:19; 4:3) which could more easily be maneuvered on the level, lowland plain. Utilizing these frightening war-vehicles, covered with protective metal (Josh 17:16, 18), the Canaanites successfully pushed the early Hebrews off the plains, so that they remained pressed back into the interior highlands (Judg 1:19, 34). Possibly, this was one of the reasons why the important Canaanite fortress of Beth-shan, located in the wide valley of Jezreel, long remained a Canaanite city among those allotted to the tribe of Manasseh by Joshua (Judg 1:27)." [Quote minus footnote found at source] Note: The Habiru are also spoken of like they were around in Canaan to some degree around and before our Exodus year estimate, but if Habiru is a reference to Hebrew and Hebrew stems from Eber, think about what people like Esau and the descendants of Lot and the descendants of Keturah were up to at this time.
2:18 Thou art to pass over through Ar, the coast of Moab, this day:
2:19 And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession.
2:20 (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;
2:21 A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but YHWH destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead:
2:22 As he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day:
2:23 And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.)
Deuteronomy 2:18-23
2:19 And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession.
2:20 (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;
2:21 A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but YHWH destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead:
2:22 As he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day:
2:23 And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.)
Deuteronomy 2:18-23
"The existence of Apiru on Mount Yarmuta, probably to be identified as 13th century Hebrews of the tribe of Issachar, lend an added witness to later information concerning Israel’s whereabouts. As is well known, the so-called 'Israel Stela,' the famous hieroglyphic monument erected in 1207 B.C. by [a 19th dynasty Pharaoh who allegedly reigned around the end of the 13th century or about 150 years after our Exodus estimate], boasts of a victory in battle over a people called Israel. Not only is the defeat of Israel considered a major achievement, but the name 'Israel,' within the poetic internal structure of the stela’s coda section, is considered significant enough to serve as a people-entity, in complementary tandem to city-states in Canaan. The stela thus testifies to the fact that Israel was a well-known ethnic establishment which had been in existence long enough to enjoy a prominent position within the land of Canaan." [Quote minus footnotes found at source].
"Revealingly, Joseph is called a Hebrew (Gen 39:14) who came from the land of the Hebrews (Gen 40:15). In the ancient world, all Israelites were Hebrews, but not all Hebrews were Israelites. All Hebrews were Habiru, but not all Habiru were of the stock of Jacob." "The point at which Israel must have been in Canaan according to Egyptian records is during the reign of [this Pharaoh who allegedly reigned around the end of the 1200s BCE], because of the mention of Israel on [this stele]. The way Israel is written, with a determinative that seems to indicate they are not entirely settled or established in a governmental way, fits very well with what we would expect during the time of the Judges and especially early on after the initial military incursions under Joshua. So if the Amarna letters provide a terminus post quem [a point after which it must have happened] the stele establishes a terminus ad quem (a point by which it must have happened)."
So back to the original question. Has there been a suppression of truth? I guess there has been and that there is still a multitude of evidence to be found by looking though. Consider a comment from a commentary section here that helps support this: "My high school art teacher was one of the people who helped organize [this Pharaoh's] exhibit in the 1980s (I’m in Memphis, Tn. My art teacher had her master’s from U of M in Egyptology). While they were in Egypt an obelisk was discovered detailing the plagues. She saw it with her own two eyes. The Egyptian government came in and covered it all up much to their surprise. It’s all true. Everything about Moses and the plagues is true." Also note this book and what is said regarding what was found in Pharaoh Z's tomb? "The tomb of [Pharaoh Z] was undoubtedly the greatest archaeological discovery of all time. What is not so well known is that among the wonderful treasures were rumored to be papyri that held the 'true account' of the biblical Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt." "Its claimed, and I believe it, that an account of Israel leaving Egypt was in the tomb and that it was announced in 2 newspapers and then never mentioned, ever again."
Note: All verses outside quotes from the Restored Name King James Version unless otherwise noted. I might be a simple man and be saying some stuff that is wrong. I expect to be surprised by one thing or another and welcome input with hope that I will be corrected where I'm in error. Both myself and this website are a work in process.