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By Jewish tradition, the Exodus took place on Thursday, the fifteenth of Nissan in the year 2448 after Creation (variously identified as 1313, 1308, 1306, and 1280 B.C.E.). Working with stated time spans in the Bible books I Kings and Judges and excavations in Israel, archaeologists and historians generally place it at the latter date.
Although there are no Egyptian records corroborating the Torah's story which is not unusual in a culture that erased any evidence of weakness we are able to find various aspects of Egypt's history that provide neat correspondences to the Torah's account. Historians look back to Amenophis IV, also known as Akhenaton (1383-1365 B.C.E.), as a starting point. Many scholars today believe him to be the Biblical Moses of the Hebrew Scriptures. You might read that he abolished multiple idol worship in favor of monotheism of the sun but sad to say without much study on your part such an oversimplification does him and his movement within Egypt a terrible injustice for he was not a "sun worshipper" and although Egypt is known to have representations of various gods and goddesses these were all "attributes" personified that revealed the One true Creator; in other words these were but various pictures and representations of the "All in the One". In truth I have found upon my years of Egyptian study that at the core Egypt was an Ethical Monotheism.While he, by other's standards today, erroneously objectified his deity, he may have gotten the right idea through however in the fact that we find today this same influence of Akhenaton within the Israelites who were one of the foreign groups allowed to sojourn in the rich graze-land of Goshen on the edge of the kingdom. It is because of his influence in Egypt which no doubt affected these Israelites we find the same Ethical Monotheism in Judaism today. When his short-lived religious revolution was reversed and the Thebian priests were reinstated by his son, the Israelites that remained in Egypt who did not follow Moses in this Second of 4 Exoduses became victims of persecution at the hands of these reinstated Priests of Egypt. This is the story behind the story and if you want a fuller understanding of the events that lie beneath the pages of your Old Testaments in this regard then I highly recommend our Egyptian-Christian Website where the facts are there for your inspection.
Ramses 11 (1300-1234 or 1347-1280 B.C.E.), known for his ego, massive building program, and use of foreign slaves, gets the most votes as the Pharaoh who initially pressed the Israelites into forced labor following Akhenaton's departure (Moses). Many believe that it is he who was the adversary of Moses and date the Exodus under his son, Merneptah, who ruled a declining Egypt at the close of the thirteenth century B.C.E. It is interesting to note that the Torah specifies that two pharaohs were involved in the oppression [Exodus 1:8-10; 2:23].
This timing coincides with the four hundred thirty years Israel spent in Egyptian exile (Exodus 13:40), counted from the time the patriarch Abraham began his wandering in Egypt-dominated Canaan around the age of seventy. The Jewish midrash resolves the discrepancy between these 430 years and the 400 years told to Abraham: the four centuries began with the birth of Isaac. The covenant God made with Abraham, at the beginning of the Egyptian period, occurred three decades earlier. According to Jewish tradition, Israel sojourned in Egypt only two hundred ten years, beginning when Jacob settled there. That period is said to have been equivalent to four hundred years of suffering.
The search for artifacts and documents that can verify the Bible's account continues today, and archaeologists and historians still debate its veracity. Scholars (Winston Churchill among them) do not doubt that Israel was in Egypt. Many conclude, using evidence drawn from the political and social situation of the time, and the logic of human psychology, that the Exodus story is based on fact. For one thing, they point out, no other people in the history of the world has ever conceived a national myth that gives itself such a disgraceful past. It could only be a reflection of an actual occurrence. Besides that we have Manetho's writings, or what is left of them, that detail this as well. Manetho was an author and an Egyptian priest who was offered the patronage of the Ptolemaic court, the result of which was an orderly account, written in Greek, of the history of the Egyptian Pharaohs, which is still the basis of our conventional numbering of the dynasties.
While not denying that an unusual departure from Egypt took place, some secular scholars, contrary to classic Jewish tradition, claim that the Exodus account is the result of history mixed with fragments of folklore and legend influenced by other nations. They cite, for instance, a common myth of a child hidden at birth, often rescued from a watery death, who grows up to be a great leader and threat to the existing power structure. They also note that the particular rites by which Israel commemorated the event were borrowed from two distinct preexisting seasonal festivals observed by the Israelites themselves, long before the Exodus occurred and combined with new meaning into Khag Hapesakh/Khag Hamatzot (Passover and Unleavened Bread).
Answer for yourself: Why is this important in our search for the recovery of the "Pattern of Worship" to know that we find the rudiments of what we call today "the Jewish Passover" in Egypt long before Moses?
Simply because it takes us further back into time to where we find the earliest records of mankind's sanctification of "times and seasons" which were given to man in the beginning by the Creator Himself. It is from such evidence we can trace down through history these "appointed times" with God whereby man worshiped the Creator in ways that are connected uniquely with these special times (Spring Equinoxes, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox, Winter Solstice, etc.). The good news for us to day is that the Jewish nation, as children of these earlier Egyptians, carry the heritage of their "spiritual" and "physical" fathers and the framework of the worship of these same "fathers" which comes down to us as the earliest records of mankind's worship of God on this planet. The parallels in the worship of God, as connected to these "special times and seasons" as found in the earliest Egyptian records which can be also found in Judaism today are simply astounding and we have them available at our fingertips today if we only know to "look". We see from such comparisons that there is truly nothing "new" under the sun but that is not enough; we must regather the original meanings of these "parallels" in worship if we hope to ever understand the true message connected with the worship of God at these special "appointed times" since down through history they have become heavy laden with false interpretations which has been affixed to them by Rome and others.
One of these "appointed times" was celebrated by shepherd families at the time of the spring full moon, when the flocks produced new lambs. It involved rituals similar to the paschal sacrifice designed to elicit good luck and protect the sheep and goats before the tribe left their winter quarters for spring grazing. This festival was supposedly brought with the Israelite shepherds following the Exodus when they settled in the rural areas of Canaan (predominantly the south).
The peasants in the land (the northern farmers) recognized the arrival of spring (the Spring Equinox) with a festival related to new grain. Prior to harvesting the barley, the Jews would get rid of all their sour (fermented) dough (used instead of yeast as a leavening agent) and old bread, perhaps to protect against an unproductive year. The first sheaf of the newly cut grain was offered as a sacrifice (First Fruits Offering).
Answer for yourself: Do you see the parallels from above with the later Jewish Passover and Unleavened Bread and even First Fruits? What do these ceremonies and times of "sanctification" mean to these ancients and have we heard this message today? Is within these "times and seasons" a message from the Divine about His true salvation offered to mankind? Does this message of the Divine found in these early ceremonies overlap with the message we find in Judaism today and does this message contradict the message of Rome and the Council of Nicea when they overturned Biblical Judaism and started a new official religion called Christianity? Our continued study will show us for certain the answer to these above questions.
Over time, say many scholars, Israel gave the rites deeper meaning based on their experiences, which included religious persecution, slavery and liberation from it. Even so behind it all remains the simple "gospel" given to all mankind which they don't hear today as Christians; unless of course they have studied Biblical Judaism and know it inside out for after all it was the faith of the Jesus depicted in the New Testament. For a deeper understanding of these events that led up to Akhenaton's religious revolution in Egypt and how this involved not only him but his ancestors as well such as Abraham, Pharaoh Jocoba (Jacob), and other Patriarchs (historically Pharaohs as archeology teaches us today) and even Joseph (chief vizier to Pharaoh) then you need to study in detail our Egyptian-Christian website to find out that God's image in the Heavens above was at the core of these 4 Exoduses from Egypt of which Moses' was the Second. It all has to do with the precession of the Equinoxes and the movement of the Constellations above; in particular Taurus and Aries (the bull and the lamb).
Answer for yourself: Does this not sound somewhat familiar in light of the various "sacrifices" of "bulls" and "lambs" we read about in the Old Testament? It sure does but you have to read the website to find out what this is all about. Let us move on in our study.
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