Archaeology
Did the flood really take place?
It is very important to note that there is no evidence for a global flood ever taking place on earth. A global flood would have left evidence of changes to the ice cores in Greenland, destroyed the polar ice caps, left traces on the sea floor and we would not have had tree records dating back to more than 10 000 years. Please see here for more information on this. In addition, for all the land mass to be covered by water, we would need three times as much water as there currently resides on earth, including all the oceans and the polar caps.
In order to get around this problem, Christian and Jewish apologetics argue that it was not a global flood but a local flood. If it was a local flood, then surely there has to be some geological or archaeological evidence for such a catastrophic event. So how much evidence is there for this event?
Firstly the Bible dates the flood to 1300 before the building of the first temple. The first temple was build around 950 BCE and as such the flood had to take place around 2500 BCE. The first thing we notice about this event is that none of Israel’s neighbours recorded a flood at this time even though they were producing vast amounts of literature. The pyramids themselves were being built 300 hundred years before the flood took place. There is no evidence for a reduction in the amount of animals or even the human populations in this are at this stage. In fact there is no archaeological evidence at all for this event taking place in this region at this time outside of the Bible.
Norman Cohn in his book “Noah’s Flood: The Genesis story in Western thought” states that over 300 cultures have records of a major flood. The most well known of these is the Epic of Gilgamesh which came from Babylon. In this story Ut-Napishtim is chosen by the Babylonian god Ea (the Babylonian version of El) to build an ark in order to save a select group of humans and animals. There are over twenty similarities between these two stories and they can be viewed here. It is worth noting that it the Epic of Gilgamesh is generally considered to be the first work of literature. It also provides a date between 2500 and 1700 BCE for this flood and it has been proposed that the Israelites adopted this Babylonian story when they were slaves in Babylon in the 6th century BCE. Because there are so many similar flood stories in this region, there must be some origin for this story.
William Ryan and Walter Pitman, both senior scientists at Columbia University, have developed a theory that Noah’s flood was actually based on a catastrophic even in 5600 BCE. They found that the banks of the Black Sea burst and 60 000 square miles of land were covered in water in less than a year. They state that the force of the rushing water would have been 200 times that of the Niagra falls and this would have looked like the wrath of an angry god to the local people. Their theory is further supported by the National Geographic Society who discovered well preserved human artefacts at the bottom of the Black Sea as well as further findings by the Assemblage – Noah Project and Mark Siddall.
They also theorize that the local inhabitants fled the area and went on to settle in various neighbouring regions including Eastern and Western Europe, Egypt and Central Asia, taking with them the story of the flood and an angry god. A few thousand years later this story had been passed on from generation to generation, growing and changing until it became the Epic of Gilgamesh later adopted by the Hebrews in when their religious texts were written between the 8th and 6th BCE.
It’s also worth noting that that it’s not uncommon for flooding to occur and people in the past to have invented religious explanations for natural phenomena. People still do it today. If you take earthquakes for example, we have records of mythical beliefs related to earthquakes dating back thousands of years. These records come from India, South America, East and West Africa, Romania, Scandinavia and New Zealand. Does this mean that there was a single giant earthquake that shook the entire planet? Of course not.
These records include the belief that a giant fish carries a stone on his back. A cow is standing on the stone whilst balancing the planet Earth on one of his horns. After a while the cow’s neck begins to ache and he tosses Earth from one horn to the other and it’s this tossing which causes and earthquake to occur.
This is of course ridiculous, but why is it any more ridiculous than believing that a god instructed a man to build an gigantic boat to save all the animal species on the planet, while it rained so much that the entire planet was under water for forty days and forty nights…
I have heard that Noah’s Ark has been discovered. Is this true?
This a common claim made by overzealous Christians. From time to time a claim is made by some explorer that he has found Noah’s ark. The most famous claim was that of a structure found on Mount Ararat in Dogubayazit, Turkey.
What appeared to be a large, dark man made object was found frozen on top of Mount Ararat. This made headlines across the world and with each newspaper story, the evidence grew stronger and criticism weaker. After all sensationalism sells.
Years later another structure was discovered at the foot of Mount Ararat, which also appeared to be in the shape of a very large boat. Once again this was reported as the real Noah’s Ark. To be honest, it actually does look like a boat. Sometimes clouds look like animals but that is pretty much where the similarities stop.
Initial rudimentary tests indicated that the structure contained numerous iron brackets and possibly even an anchor. Subsequently, archaeologists have done more advanced analysis of the geological nature of the site. Lorence Gene Collins, Dept of Geological Sciences, California State University, came to the following conclusion: Evidence from microscopic studies and photo analyses demonstrates that the supposed Ark near Dogubayazit is a completely natural rock formation. It cannot have been Noah’s Ark nor even a man-made model. You can find his complete report here.
Did Moses really exist?
We have no historical record outside of the Old Testament for a man called Moses leading a large group of Israelites out of Egypt.
This is particularly odd considering the fact that the Egyptians would generally have recorded such a mass exodus of slaves which would have impeded their building efforts. Some Christian apologetics argue that the Egyptians would not have recorded such an event because they would have been embarrassed by this diplomatic defeat. This is highly unlikely considering the fact that there would have been 2.5 – 3 million Israelites leaving Egypt at once based on an extrapolation of Numbers 1:46. During this period there were only 3.5 – 4 million Egyptians in Egypt. Surely such an exodus would have left a huge gap in their economy? They would have had to account for this in some way even if they muddled the facts to make it appear more favourable to their Pharaoh.
In addition as Moses was in essence an Egyptian prince, he would have been mentioned in their royal records. So where did this story come from? According to Hebrew scholars the first five books of the Bible were produced by a scribe (possibly Ezra) around the 5th century BCE. The were redacted from earlier sources which probably dated back to the 7th century BCE. See Richard Friedman’s “Who Wrote the Bible” for more information on this. Thus the story of Moses was first written as it is today following Israel’s enslavement in Babylon which lasted three generations. This is important as we have to account for a certain amount of Babylonian influence on the Israeli culture during this time.
There are two possible sources for the story of Moses and the most probable explanation is a combination of the two:
King Sargon and Moses
Most of us are familiar with the story of Moses’ birth. Moses was born during a time when all the first born males were being killed by Pharaoh’s men to prevent a Jewish revolt. Moses’ mother makes a basket made out of bulrushes as sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She then places the baby in the basket and hides him in the river amongst the reeds. Later the Pharaoh’s daughter finds Moses and adopts him.
Archaeologists have found cuneiform tablets dating back to 1000 BCE which describes the story of neo-Babylonian King Sargon who lived around the third millennium BCE. These tablets also tell the story of how this mighty ruler was saved as a baby when his mother made a basket out of “rushes and sealed it with tar”. He was also placed in a river and found by a princess who later raised him. Thus we have situation where the Israelites enslaved in Babylon adopted this story and possibly merged it to an even earlier legend that we will address later.
It’s worth noting that the cuneiform tablets from Babylon also contained the Epic of Gilgamesh which was an earlier version of Noah’s flood and the Code of Hammurabi which was a prototype of Moses’ law. It even included the famous “eye for an eye” quote. The fact that these Babylonian folk tales are much older than their Hebrew counterparts and the fact that we find no evidence for these stories in Hebrew literature before the Babylonian enslavement, are indications that the Hebrews “borrowed” them from the Babylonians. You can find more information on these tablets here, here and here.
Ah-mose and the Hyksos
Now that we have established that the birth and law of Moses was adopted from earlier Babylonian sources we have to look at how the actual exodus out of Egypt. The actual exodus is discussed here, however we do need to look at Moses’ role in this story.
As we have already stated, there is no evidence for Israelite enslavement in Egypt or any mass exodus out of Egypt. So where did this legend come from?
When leading archaeologists discovered evidence for a large group of people fleeing Egypt through the Sinai desert, they were surprised to find that these were not Israelis crossing the desert, but a group of people called the Hyksos. They were a group of Asiatic and Semitic people who occupied Egypt during the 17th and 16th centuries BCE. An Egyptian leader by the name of Ah-mose (also known as Amosis) was the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty in 1550 BCE.
When he came to power he managed to expel the Hyksos from Egypt and thus liberated the entire Egypt. His men then chased the Hyksos through the Sinai desert and through Canaan. It’s worth noting that archaeologists have found evidence for this large migration by the Hyksos as well as the wanderings of small nomadic groups through the Sinai desert, but no evidence has been found that would support an exodus by the Israelites consisting of 2.5 – 3 million people over a period of 40 years.
Finally Ahmose reasserted Egyptian rule over areas such as Canaan and Nubia to ensure that such an occupation by the Hyksos would never occur again. This enforcement included the setting up of Egyptian military outposts which could be reached within one day in any direction in the Sinai desert. This is interesting considering that the Israelites were supposed to have wandered this small desert for 40 years, however they never stumbled on to these Egyptian military outposts.
This story of Ahmose became legendary and by the time that the Jewish history was written a thousand years later, the story of Ahmose expelling the Hyksos out Egypt and establishing his rule in Canaan was changed to Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and conquering Canaan. This could have resulted from some of the the fleeing Hyksos settling in Canaan. Some Christian Apologetics use the story of the Hyksos as evidence of the Exodus and claim that the Hyksos were in fact the Israelites, however we have shown how the Hyksos could not have been the Israelites below.
Conclusion
So in conclusion our historical and archaeological records show no trace of a Moses character ever existing or leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt. Instead, all of the evidence outside of the Old Testament points to the expulsion of the Hyksos by Ahmose as well as the additional neo-Babylonian folk stories developing into a composite mythical character. This character helped give Israel a new national identity after their enslavement in Babylon.
Is there any evidence for the Israelites being slaves in Egypt?
We have no evidence that the Israelites were ever enslaved in Egypt. In the book the Bible Unearthed, Israel Finkelstein and Neal Asher Silberman state the following:
We have no clue, not even a single word, about the early Israelites in Egypt: neither in monumental inscriptions on the walls of temples, nor in tomb inscriptions, nor in papyri. Israel is absent – as a possible foe of Egypt, as a friend, or as an enslaved nation.
We have an Egyptian monument from 1208 BCE which states that “Israel is laid to waste”, however this simply confirm the existence of Israelites living in Canaan and does not mention the enslavement or the exodus out of Egypt. Finally, Josephus the 1st century Jewish historian wrote that the exodus was connected to the expulsion of the Hyskos out of Egypt. Some Christians use this quote to prove that the Israelites were indeed in Egypt however it is much more likely that the early Canaanites adopted the Hyksos story as their own. You can find more information on why the Hyksos were not the Israelites below..
Who were the Hyksos people?
They were a group of Asiatic and Semetic people who occupied Egypt during the 17th and 16th centuries BCE. An Egyptian leader by the name of Ah-mose (also known as Amosis) was the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty in 1550 BCE. When he came to power he managed to expel the Hyksos from Egypt and thus liberated the entire Egypt. His men then chased the Hyksos through the Sinai desert and through Canaan. Finally he reasserted Egyptian rule over areas such as Canaan and Nubia to ensure that such an occupation by the Hykso would never happen again.
Some Christian apologetics try to claim that the Hyksos were in fact the Israelites, however this is highly improbable. The Hyksos introduced new weapons into Egypt such as the composite bow and the horse drawn chariot. The nation of Israel in the 17th century BCE did not have this type of military technology. It has been suggested by leading archaeologists that if the Israelites existed at all, they were nothing but a small nomadic group at this stage.
Finaly the Hyksos left Egypt in the 16th century BCE whilst the Israelites were supposed to have left Egypt in the 13th century BCE. Thus it’s clear that the Israelites could not have been the Hyksos and that these were two distinct groups. Please click here for more on the Hyksos.
