Israel in Egypt, Moses, the Exodus

Objectives

• Explains the difficulties of establishing the historicity of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt and the exodus from Egypt under Moses.
• Illustrates how the sojourn and the exodus from Egypt is historically plausible in light of Egyptian texts and archaeology.

Pre-work

• Watch:
  • The Qualcomm Institute video, Brad C. Sparks - Egyptian Text Parallels to the Exodus: The Egyptology Literature (47:07)

Additional Resources

• Articles:
  • Jonathan Chaves, Soul and reason in literary criticism: Deconstructing the deconstructionists, from the Journal of the American Oriental Society
• Books:
  • James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt: Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition:
    • Chapter 3
    • Chapter 4
    • Chapter 5
    • Chapter 6
  • Brad C. Sparks, Egyptian Texts relating to the Exodus: Discussions of Exodus Parallels in the Egyptology Literature, from Israel’s Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective
• Videos:
  • Alexandria School Foundation video, Lecture 4: The Exodus and Crossing the Sea Myth or Reality (36:25)

Discussion

The Rational Wiki page “Evidence for the Exodus” cites Israeli archaeologist Ze’ev Herzog as saying:

The Israelites never were in Egypt. They never came from abroad. This whole chain is broken. It is not a historical one. It is a later legendary reconstruction — made in the seventh century BCE — of a history that never happened.

Considering the readings and the lectures, assess the claim. How might it be reworded to be improved? Are there any logical flaws in the claim?