Patterns of Evidence: Exodus (4 Stars)

This is a subject that's been interesting me for a few months. I read the questions and answers on Quora, and the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt is a frequent topic. Most of the writers who contribute to the site smugly say "There is no evidence that a large slave population ever left Egypt". End of story. I'm not an archaeologist, so I just have to take their word for it. And yet the Biblical narrative of the Exodus is so detailed that it seems unlikely to have been invented merely to justify the existence of the Jews as a racial entity.

I was discussing the subject with a friend last night, and she pushed this DVD into my hand. It's a documentary made by a filmmaker called Timothy Mahoney, who was struggling with the same questions as me. Unlike me, he was able to do his own research on the subject. For 12 years he travelled around the world, not just to Egypt and Israel, but to universities and museums in America and European countries where he could speak to experts and examine old papyri.

The Exodus is supposed to have taken place round about 1250 BC, based on the interpretation of a few Bible verses, correlated with Egyptian records. The problem is that there is no evidence in Egypt that this ever happened. Mahoney's research led him to believe that the Biblical verses have been wrongly interpreted, and the chronology of ancient Egyptian history is faulty. Looking at the records 400 years earlier, he found archaeological evidence of large cities in north west Egypt that were abandoned at short notice. He put together records from the arrival of Joseph in Egypt to the return of the Jews to Canaan.

The problem is that most archaeologists refuse to accept anything that doesn't fit the traditional Egyptian chronology. For instance, the city of Jericho was dug up, and it was discovered that there was no city at that location in 1250 BC. But when the archaeologists dug deeper, they found the remains of a city that suddenly collapsed 400 years earlier. An earthquake? Believe that if you want to, but it coincides with the time when the Israelites attacked Jericho.

Mahoney emphasises that the experts he visited were all non-Christians, either atheists or agnostics. They were scientists, and as scientists they were interested in uncovering the truth. Like Mahoney, they were convinced that there was overwhelming evidence for the departure of a large slave people from Egypt.

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