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In recent years, a question that has been not only debated with increasing intensity, but has also polarised scholarly opinion, is whether the Bible can be regarded as real �history” at least in the modern sense of the word.


With particular reference to The Exodus tradition, analyse how these questions reflected in the way biblical historians and archaeologists of various persuasions relate to the Bible as a source of history.


The story of the Israelites Exodus from Egypt, like many other biblical stories has sparked scholarly debate as to the historicity, i.e. the authenticity of the bible as a historical source. While it is subjective and focused primarily on Israel’s life and development, the information stored in the bible about certain occurrences and the time period should not be dismissed as fiction. In an effort to discuss the authenticity of the bible and the story of the Exodus, I will develop a basis of judgement through discussions of, which is a historian? What is history? And how relevant is the bible in the study of past times? I will also talk about the problems with the bible, with regard to chronology, anachronisms and timing of particular events, geographical position and lack of other historical information. I will look at these issues through the perspectives of the Minimalist, the Maximalist and the Fundamentalist. I will discuss the spectrum of beliefs from these three categories of historians and their relationships to each other, the bible and the idea of Sacred versus Secular History. I will also include some brief examples of elements of these historian’s opinions with regard to the Exodus tradition, which plays host to the three way debate. I will mention some of these elements in addition to the other issues which seem to cast doubt on the validity of the Bible. Finally, included in my essay is the relevance and importance of archaeology and the role it plays in Historical studies and proving or disproving the historicity of the bible.


We must first ask ourselves what is history, who is a historian, and in the most modern terms how does history deal with the bible and the different streams of belief and study? How relevant is the bible in historical study? Most importantly how authentic and factual is the bible to the historian? It is when these questions are asked that one find them in the centre of a ongoing debate.


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A serious historian may believe in a God who has ordered and given meaning to, the course of history as a whole, though he cannot believe in the Old Testament kind of God who intervenes…Nor can he invoke God as an explanation of particular historical events


To be a historian one must practise and study Secular history and cannot confuse one’s studies by embracing theology as an element of one’s works History should be the study of legitimate documents that have been analysed and widely accepted. The study of history is much like a scientific investigation in its use of the hypothesis, and the notion that �‘Proof’ can never, in any ultimate sense be complete.” With all this is mind, one must question the bible’s place in the study of History. Most historians do use the Bible as more then just �great literature, interesting history, or the development of lofty ideas…The old testament is Israel’s witness to its encounter with God.


The old testament presents the story of God’s participation in the history of a particular people. All human history is the sphere of God’s sovereignty, and nature too displays the Creator’s handiwork; but God became particularly involved in the career of a comparatively obscure people, thereby initiating a historical drama that has changed human perspectives and has altered the course of human affairs.


Finally looking at the bible as an historical source is an acceptable procedure, but it must be used only with the knowledge that it approaches history with its own agenda and through a �Sacred history” lens. The Bible adheres to a strict sense of chronology in describing Israel’s Growth as a people. It is ordered historically and tells a story in which Historical awareness is crucial, however it is the historical awareness of Sacred history.





With history and �The modern historian” defined one must look at the different kinds of Biblical historians and archaeologist. These historians fall into three main categories each with a wide spectrum of belief. There are the minimalists who in general deny the bible to be real history or a reliable primary source. Some even say that the bible is a complete fabrication and should be totally dismissed from historical studies. Then there are the Maximalists who feel the bible has a part to play but should not be used as a main or sole source of historical information. These two categories are similar in that they both study secular history and merely acknowledge sacred history as existing. The general Minimalist is thought by Maximalists, such as Miller and Hayes to �have trouble with (accepting) miracles” While these two categories have generally different opinions there wide specxtrum of beliefs overlap to a degree, this overlap is represented, for example in Donald B. Redford. There is a third category known as the Fundamentalist historians, These individuals believe that the bible is the word of God and are strong supporters of sacred history, which is � Committed to meaning and understanding, to a human understanding of God’s meaning.” These professionals are denied by many as being real historians and don’t factor very much in the debate as to whether or not the Bible can be regarded as real �history”, as their views are completely faith based and lack authenticity and more importantly modernity.


With all this in mind, for one to question the validity of the bible, it is essential to specify reasons for doubting it. Using the story of the Exodus alone one major imperfection is the approximate dating of the period. There are three proposed times for when the great exodus took place, assuming, that is, it occurred at all which is what minimalist historian and archaeologists Silberman and Finklestein argue. The first time period is based on the verse I Kings which states that Solomon began building the temple in the fourth year of his reign and the four hundred and eightieth year after the exodus. This date occurs while Pharaoh Thutmose III was in his last few years of ruling in about 146 B.C.E. Accordingly this would see him as the pharaoh of the Exodus. This is supported by the fact that �We know that he was a great builder and employed Asiatic captives on his construction projects.” The problems with this theory as stated by Maximalist historians such as Bronner and Humphreys; occur when we see that Thutmose III building projects were mainly confined to upper Egypt. According to the Bible, Israelites are said to have worked and lived in the Delta region, thus making Thutmose III unlikely to have been Pharaoh during the exodus. The next possible though unlikely Pharaoh is Amenophis IV (later known as Ikhenaton) who preceded Ramses II and ruled from 18-165 B.C.E. This opinion connects with the religious revolution of this Pharaoh who abolished Egyptian Pantheon and devoted himself to the worship of the sun. The few scholars who believe this do so because they maintain that there was a link between the Israelite beliefs and the beliefs of Ikhenaton.


The Final theory in which most scholars and historians believe is that the Exodus occurred in the 1th century during the reign of Ramses II from 18-1 B.C.E. This belief is supported by the notion that Ramses II built more then any king that preceded him and also one of the cities mentioned in the Bible that the Israelites built, was the City of Ramses. �we must conclude that Ramses II was the Pharaoh under whom the oppression of the Hebrews reached its climax” there are other sources such as Psalm 1xxviii which lead us to conclude that due to the position of the Israelites with respect to the kingdom of the ruling Pharaoh, the only Pharaoh that could have ruled during the Exodus (out of the main contenders) is in fact Ramses II. These three theories are all derived from Maximalist scholars simply because many Minimalist scholars deny that the Exodus from Egypt took place at all. We know that the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt in 1570 B.C.E ushered in a period when Egyptians became extremely wary of strangers. In recent years it has become clear that from the time of the New Kingdom onward, the Egyptians tightened their control over the flow of immigrants from Canaan into the Delta and documented all such occurrences. Reports from this time have been found none even mentioning the Hebrew nation entering Egypt or by the same standards a mass exodus. This is a great opportunity for Historian Minimalists to deny the Exodus ever occurring.


Another opportunity Historian minimalists such as Lemche jump at, in an effort to discredit the bible, are the appearance of anachronisms. Anachronisms such as domestication of Camels, Slave prices, names of the period, methods of worship all that seem out of place when mentioned in the story of the exodus. Recent studies however show that Camels, originally assumed only to be domesticated in about 1100 B.C.E were according to the Alalakh (18th Century B.C.E), in old Babylonian lexical lists domesticated in about 000 B.C.E. It’s arguments such as these that fundamentalists such as historian G.P Hugenburger spend years searching for, in an effort to discredit minimalists and prove that so- called anachronisms don’t actually exist. Slave prices, another time period confirming element. If the story of the exodus was really fabricated in about 00 B.C.E as many extreme minimalists assume then the price of Joseph’s sale would have exceeded 0 shekels as is the way of inflation. However old Babylonian records of the time when Joseph lived denote an equivalent price for their slaves at about 0 shekels. Names of the period also come under scrutiny by historian Minimalists however, many names of people (representing timely fashions) and places mentioned in the bible are now found in external sources as well. Maximalists Miller and Hayes even use names such as the well recognised �Moses” to prove the legitimacy of the bible. They did this through proving that in fact Moses is an Egyptian influenced name. The methods of brick-making mentioned in the Bible as well as the conditions the slaves lived under are also documented in reliefs of the 1th and 0th dynasties. Another factor which confirms the story of the Exodus through timely confirmations is the fact that located in the North-eastern delta are the cities of Pithom and Ramses (the two cities mentioned in Exodus 18-11) Egyptian records have also established that the Egyptians employed foreign slaves, some of whom came from Syria- Palestine to escape Famine. So when comparing anachronisms and time confirmations it is evident that there is greater support for the Exodus and the authenticity of the story then there is for the extreme minimalist view of a complete fabrication.


Another area, which often triggers scholarly debate, is archaeology as a science and geographical position of particular elements of the Exodus era. To date, only a tiny fraction of archaeological sites related to the Bible have been excavated. This thin archaeological record means that any conclusions are based on speculation and projection. Archaeology can only prove the existence of artefacts unearthed, not disprove that which hasn’t been found as K.A Kitchen states �absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Before the very start of The Exodus Tradition, the city of Goshen is mentioned as the city of residence for Jacob and his sons. Since the 150’s many excavations have taken place; some that support the fact that Goshen did exist the detailed description of it’s location, in the bible, ringing true for most historians, Kitchen, Redford and Hayes to name a few. The notion that Jacob and his family descended to Egypt at times of warfare and famine are also supported by archaeological findings. In fact according to archaeological studies as well as climate studies from earliest recorded times throughout antiquity, Egypt beckoned as a place of shelter and security for the people of Canaan at times when drought, famine or warfare made life difficult. This historical relationship is based on the basic environmental and climatic contrasts between Egypt and Canaan, which were studied and discovered through an archaeological process.


The Hyksos period for example is supported through archaeological study, fortifications of the Hyksos capitol have been discovered. Reference to this period is not discussed much in Egyptian sources because it was their custom to record only victories and ignore defeats. Keeping this is mind, would the Exodus be mentioned in Egyptian sources, if Egyptians did not acknowledge defeat, would they document having been beaten by a group of Hebrew slaves? Minimalists Lemche tackles the matter and contributes his opinion that Egyptians don’t mention the Hebrew Exodus, not because they wanted to hide a so-called �miracle of the Reed sea” or because they were embarrassed but simple because there was no massive emigration from Egypt under the proposed 18th dynasty. Maximalists however would argue the point that, the little record of the Egyptian loss to the Hyksos rule can be directly parrelled to the embarrassing �loss” against the Hebrews.


The final element, which deems some historical stories unreliable, is found in a lack of support from other sources. What can be located are references to nomadic groups and name free people. There are some accepted records of people entering or exiting Egypt , however the argument that arises with most of these sources is the fact that the Israelites name is not mentioned. Maximalists Bright for one would argue that The bible speaks mainly of the Hebrews, simply because its aim is to document the history of the Israeli people. Thus is it acceptable to assume a connection between the nameless �people” that fill the records and the Hebrew people? Minimalists would clearly say no, as in doing so one is using the Bible to initiate and resolve an issue. Ptolemaic records also support the exodus, more so the period preceding the exodus. They indicate that the �commemoration” discussed in the bible, when Joseph was brought out of prison, to stand before the Pharaoh, was a regular occurrence and happened when a Pharaoh wished to celebrate his birthday. This support of the bible and the information in it helps to establish its credibility as an authentic source.


In conclusion it is apparent that the Bible does have a part to play in the History of the Jewish people. Through looking only at the Hebrew’s Exodus from Egypt it is also clear, that while the Bible has many imperfections, it too offers explanations and mentions occurrences that appear legitimate and authentic. There is no denying that the Bible falls into the category of sacred history, but that is not cause for any modern Historian to totally dismiss it. While the bible is primarily focused on the Saga of the Jewish people, it presents to us also, a description of the times and location of particular happenings, times and locations, which also exist in other less theological sources. Troubles with chronology can be explained to an extent and are not cause to dismiss the story of Exodus tradition altogether. Rather difference of opinions serves to better authenticate the bible through discussion and method of elimination. Evidently one’s position on the Minimalist and Maximalist spectrum insinuates one’s views on the Bible’s authenticity. Once an individual position has been established, their writings and teachings clearly reflect their stance. It is important when trying to establish an opinion on the issue, to take into account a wide range of sources so that one’s view of that matter isn’t entirely from behind a particular bias lens. With this is mind, it is unclear as to which side of the debate is more correct. With reference to the Exodus tradition there are clearly those historians and archaeologists that see the Bible as nothing more then a great piece of literature. There are also those who view the Bible as the key source of Ancient Israel’s History.





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