Part 6: Problems with the Exodus Story and its Events:

  • Egypt owned, ruled, mined, and otherwise controlled the entire Sinai Peninsula from the time that Pharaoh Djoser conquered it around 2670 BCE.
  •  This control by Egypt lasted until sometime after the end of the New Kingdom during the widespread and general collapse of all the major empires in the Middle East Region at the end of the Late Bronze Age after 1077 BCE. It is ludicrous to think that the Israelites “escaped” slavery in Egypt only to wander in the Egyptian controlled Sinai Peninsula for 40 years. (Refer to the map of the borders of the Egyptian New Kingdom under the rule of Hatshepsut & Thutmose III, the latter of which we have determined to have been the only possible pharaoh of the Exodus according to the biblical timeline).

Map of the Possible Routes of the Israelites in the Exodus

https://i0.wp.com/www.bible.ca/archeology/maps-bible-archeology-exodus-route.jpg

  • Assyria was the empire least affected by the Late Bronze Age Collapse and quickly expanded its regional control. The Egyptians still controlled Canaan as late as 1215 BCE and the Neo-Assyrian Empire began its expansion starting about 911 BCE and culminating with the conquest of all of the previous Egyptian territory, 240 years later by 671 BCE. This 544 year window of time between the beginning of the end of complete Egyptian control of Canaan in 1215 BCE and the complete conquest of Israel/Judah by the Neo-Assyrian expansion in 671 BCE is the ONLY window of time in which the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, the rise and existence of the Israelites as a kingdom, and the split into two kingdoms COULD have occurred.

Read More About the Assyrian Empire Here

Map of the Assyrian Empire

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Map_of_Assyria.png

Ancient Egyptian Mines in the Sinai Peninsula

https://i0.wp.com/www.bible.ca/archeology/maps-bible-archeology-timna-serabit-khadim-jezirat-faraun-egyptian-mining-copper-turquoise.jpg

  • The problem there is that the length of the biblically claimed timeline for those things is nearly a thousand years, almost double the actual amount of available years. (Exodus 40 years, Rule of the Judges 350-600 years, Samuel the Prophet unknown number of years, Reign of Saul and David 80 years, reign of Solomon 61 years, Split of the United Monarchy under Rehoboam into Israel and Judah and length of time between then and the Neo-Assyrian conquest 238 years. Minimum total number of years = 719-1029.
  • In the 165 year window between 1215-1050 BCE, Moses had to escape into the desert with the Israelites, wander for 40 years, and then finally approach, reconnoiter, enter, and, under the command of Joshua, conquer the “Promised Land” over a 7 year period, then establish and live under the rule of the Judges for 400-500+ years, and then finally anoint King Saul. I’m not a mathematician, but even I can see that 165 does not equal 447-547 years.
  • Supposedly, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh just so God could show off his power. The sheer level of illogic that is required to swallow this hilarious assertion is staggering. If God has the power to “harden” the heart (meaning to make stubborn ) of any specific human, he would be equally capable of softening the very same heart and forcing pharaoh to change his mind and just let the Israelites go free. The assertion that the God of the Old Testament chose to harden Pharaoh’s heart rather than soften it, leading to the Ten Plagues and supposed death of multiple hundreds of thousands of persons makes that god a vindictive genocidal maniac.
  • The last point in this section before we move on to the plagues is a math problem. The Israelites under Joseph were just his extended family and households. The Bible gives us a number of about 66-75 persons in this entourage, not including Joseph himself (see Genesis 46:26-27, Exodus 1:5, Deuteronomy 10:22, & Acts 7:14). Later, in Exodus 12:37 the number of Israelites claimed to flee Egypt is 600,000 men alone. This number does not include women or children. Let’s use the population ration numbers of  47% men to 53% women to establish adult numbers for the Exodus. That would give us 1,276,596 adult Israelites. Let’s figure an average of JUST 2 children per couple (unlike the Egyptian societal population demographic of 5 children per household they just left). This doubles our Israelite population. We are now leading, feeding, watering and herding nearly 3 million humans plus all their animals through a huge desert. Totally legit.
  • AND, that isn’t even the problem with this ridiculously ludicrous claim. Here’s a link to a human population growth calculator so you can play with the math yourself: Human Population Growth Calculator. With the stabilized growth rate the human population has consistently demonstrated over thousands of years (about 1.2% yearly) and knowing the entry level population at the time of Joseph (66-71 persons) we can easily calculate the possible size of the Israelite Exodus contingent. Here are the results:
    • Starting with 66 persons in Year 0, after 400 years we have 7,793 Israelites.
    • Starting with 66 persons in Year 0, after 430 years we have 11,147 Israelites.
    • Starting with 71 persons in Year 0, after 400 years we have 8,384 Israelites.
    • Starting with 71 persons in Year 0, after 430 years we have 11,191 Israelites.
  • So, as we can see it would be physically IMPOSSIBLE to get nearly 3 million persons from a starting population of only 71 after barely 430 years. In fact, it would take 895 years to have a population of 3 million persons starting from a 71 person seed population, and even longer starting from a 66 person seed population. Another fact: it would actually take a population of 17,800 persons to produce a population of 3 million persons only 430 years later. So again, we see yet more bullshit impossible claims by the authors of the bullshit Bible fantasy. And that isn’t even addressing the difficulty, bordering on impossible, no, I correct myself, literally impossible task, of feeding these supposed 3 million Israelites in a FUCKING DESERT for 40 FUCKING years. Give me a fucking break. No human can possibly be so stupid as to believe THAT bullshit.
  • A human needs a MINIMUM of 2.64 gallons of water (10 Liters) per day in a hot desert environment. This number is for RESTING persons NOT for persons doing significant amounts of labor (like long distance walking of 5 miles or more per day) This would require the Israelites to either never be more than 3 day’s travel time from ANY significant water source OR carry the necessary water for all the humans and animals. Walking speed of large groups of humans with attendant animals is about 13 miles per day. So the Israelites could never be more than 39 miles from ANY MAJOR water source. ANY water source they could use would have needed to supply a MINIMUM of nearly 8 million gallons of water in less than 12 hours for JUST the Israelites. That is a flow rate of more than 11,111 gallons per minute of flow for a spring, creek, or river. This flow rate would probably need to be about triple to account for watering the animals also.