The Exodus: Fact or Fiction, a Passover post

Below are two recent e-mails I sent to some of my group concerning current archaeologic support for the exodus story.

In addition to what is written below, the most significant current digs going on in Egypt surround the Pyramids. It seems that about 10 or so years ago, a snadstorm revealed what would eventually be excavated and shown to be the living quarters of work force that built the Pyramids.

What seems to be indicated is that, like most ancient empires, the Egyptians employed the non citizen residents of it's empires, not slaves but sort of indentured servants, to build their great structures.

These people were fed, given medical treatment and housed immediately next to whatever structure they were building. Were these Jews? We don't know, but it is an interesting development.

Below some more:

Hey everyone,

In light of recent discussions I thought that this was a fascinating coincidence.

I was watching one of my "shows" on History International.

It was the story of the development of the alphabet.

Interestingly, the archaeology is clear that the alphabet as we know it, began to develop in Egypt approximately 1300-1400 years BC.
It was invented by Northern Semitic peoples in order to have their own form of communication private from the Egyptians and their hieroglyphs.
Is this sounding familiar? hint, hint!!

The earliest known alphabetic writings were found in the "Valley of Terror" in Egypt, written by a "force" of Semites. There is a dispute as to whether this
"force" was a work force or a force of mercenary soldiers.

However, there is a clear "L" referencing the biblical G-d which is not disputed.

The archaeologic evidence now shows that the alphabet traveled through the Sinai into ancient Israel.

In fact, in mines in the Northern Sinai, there were discovered just a few years ago, clear writings, ancient graffiti, so to speak, of SLAVES, writing on the wall
of the mine, asking their G-d for freedom from their slavery!!

Seeing these inscriptions were truly fascinating.

The finds are so detailed that they actually traced the development of each letter. For example, the "A" was originally a picture of an ox, which in ancient Semitic language was pronounced
with an "A" sound at it's beginning. Over the millenia, the drawing of the letter evolved to what we know today.

So, as I have been saying recently, the more that we uncover, the more there seems to be evidence of the Exodus.

[B]AND NEXT:[/B]


OK - I have discussed this with a few of you,

It is my belief that the Egyptian Pharoah, Akhenatan, may well be the biblical Abram.

The translations of the names in hieroglyphs are strikingly similar, but more important for those that don't know,

Akhenatan was a Pharaoh dating to about 1350 bc (there is dispute as to the Pharaonic timetables so it can be anywhere from roughly 1320 to 1380 or earlier).
He was originally Amenhotop IV.

He may well be best known as husband to Nefertiri and father of Tuthankhoten, later Tuthankamen, or as we call him, King Tut.

During his reign, for the only time in the Pharoanic period, he and his family were depicted realistically, previously, and after, all Pharaohs and royals were depicted idealistically.

He changed his name early in his reign in honor of his changing the Egyptian religion to the earliest known form of mono-theism worshiping ATEN, or more commonly known
as Ra, the sun god.

Akhenaten destroyed all of the Amun temples around Egypt and BANNED THE PRODUCTION OF IDOLS.

He moved the capital of Egypt to a new city Akhetaten, built specifically to celebrate the new monotheistic religion of the land.

At the time, Egypt covered most of Northern Africa and into Palestine.

They cooperated with the Hittites and other powers of the region.

At his death, a few years later, when Tut became ruler, all evidence of the monotheistic practices of Akhenaten were destroyed.

The old practices were resumed. Akhenaten's temples were disassembled and the stones used as building materials for a resumption of the old style temples.


Most fascinating to me, and unknown until today, was that I am far from the first person to seriously consider this.

In fact, Freud, in /Moses and Monotheism/, apparently makes this claim (I have not read it, but plan to now!!). He postulates that Moses was an Aten priest and he and his followers were forced to leave Egypt at the death of Akhenaten.

An Egyptian Egyptologist, Ahmed Osman has conjectured that Akhenaten WAS Moses and that his father in law was Joseph. Interestingly, Akhenaten's actual father in law was in fact, a Vizer named Yuya.

Akhenaten was not rediscovered until the archaeologic finds of the 19th century.

Now to the scrolls:

In 1959 one of the only dead sea scrolls discovered by archaeologists (remember the original finds were by shepherds) was found in Qumran in 1959 and has become known as the
"copper scroll". So know because it is, in fact, written on copper.

For 2 decades this scroll was unread because the scientists simply did not know how to unroll it without destroying it. Finally, it was cut into small sections and photographed. For some time it was considered a fake, but now it's progeny is not disputed. It was written by the Essenes, like all of the other scrolls.

It is FAR different than any other of the dead sea scrolls in that it is written in a naturalistic style and is a treasure map, for lack of a better description.

It is an extensive description of how to find a biblical treasure.

For those that don't know, the Essenes were know as the "SONS OF LIGHT" (getting interesting, huh?). And yes, there is a great deal of scholarly speculation that both John the Baptist and Jesus were Essenes (hmmmm, sons of light; Aten-sun god; Jesus -son of G-d)

Strangely, the essenes lived a monastic life, shunning materialism, and yet, they wrote a treasure map.

There is a belief that this scroll is the key to finding the treasures of the First Temple.

I won't discuss that here.

What I will discuss is this:

At the end of each sentence of the copper scroll giving detailed directions to find the treasure, there are Greek letters.

When put together, these letters spell.... drum roll please...

AKHENATEN.

Hmmmm, are we starting to think maybe there is something to this Egypt.... Exodus story??

As another interesting note. During this period of Egyptian history there was an outbreak of black PLAGUE!! This is also an undisputed fact, well known and supported by the chief Archeology of Egypt, Zahi Hawass, who you see on all of the shows about Egypt.

As a side note, this coming Monday's episode of "Digging for the Truth" on the History channel, starring our favorite Jewish heartthrob, Josh Bernstein, I believe is going to be an examination of the Copper Scrolls.

A good starting point for those who don't know about these things is Wikepedia which sports fairly detailed and well footnoted entries on all of these subjects.

The archaeologist who is digging in Qumran and has been leading the research on the copper scroll has a website.