Hey Guys!
Not sure where this is suppose to go, and I didn't find it in Search, but where is that archaeological evidence for the Egyptian slavery of the jews and evidence of the Jews wandering 40 years in the Desert? What does the OC believe about this? Thanks!
No, not a lot. That might suprise people, but remember whole civilizations (the Hittites and their extensive empire, for example), disappeared without much of a trace (only the reference in the Bible) until archaeologists stumbled on the Hittite capital in central Anatolia and dug it out.
There was a Discovery show "the Exodos Code," or some such thing by the same guy who did the Jesus tomb thing a while back. It summarizes some bits we have about the Exodus (for instance, Israel is named only once in all of Egyptian records).
One thing though, Manetho, the father of Egyptian history (he wrote in Greek during the last dynasty of Ancient Egypt, and as a high priest, had access to all the records) dealt with Moses whom he identified with certain events during the time of Ramses, so instead of dismissing the Exodus, he felt he had to deal with it. Btw, no one in the Ancient World can compare to the historiography of the Hebrews until the Greeks came along.
One thing to remember is that the Egyptians were not interested in defeats, and only recorded victories, and systematic (and ritualistic) destruction of records were a part of daily life. We do have records of Semites such as the Hebrews, invasions of Canaan by someone called "Apiru," but nothing like the detail the OT provides us on the times.
