Top 10 Artifacts Show Biblical Exodus Was Real History

2/17/2021 Top 10 Artifacts Show Biblical Exodus was Real History | Israel
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TOP 10 ARTIFACTS SHOW BIBLICAL EXODUS WAS REAL HISTORY

Steve Law | June 1, 2019 | Evidence
SYNOPSIS: The Bible’s exodus account is foundational to biblical history, yet viewed as mostly ctional by mainstream scholars. Could this skepticism be the result of
looking for the exodus in the wrong time period? This list of ten remarkable pieces of evidence supporting the biblical account suggest the exodus happened centuries
earlier than the standard date.
Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the LORD brought you out
from this place… – Exodus 13:3 (ESV)
Challenges to the Biblical Exodus from Mainstream Academia

Few topics produce as much controversy as the question of whether or not the biblical account of the Israelite exodus from Egypt was an actual historical event.
Widespread skepticism about the exodus pervades the eld archaeology, but might this view be the result of looking for evidence in entirely the wrong time period?
A recent article by Ariel David in Haaretz (considered by some to be the most in uential and respected daily newspaper in Israel) ran with the headline: “For You Were
(Not) Slaves in Egypt: The Ancient Memories Behind the Exodus Myth.” The article then goes on to give the views of leading archaeologists on how this foundational
account in the Bible never happened. One of its lead paragraphs reads:
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“For decades now, most researchers have agreed that there is no evidence to suggest that the Exodus narrative re ects a speci c historical event. Rather, it is an origin
myth for the Jewish people that has been constructed, redacted, written and rewritten over centuries to include multiple layers of traditions, experiences, and memories
from a host of di erent sources and periods.”
This common assessment is due to a perceived lack of evidence for the entire range of events in the Exodus Period from the Bible’s portrayal of the Israelites arrival in
Egypt, to their enslavement as their population exploded, to their departure en masse from a land devastated by plagues, to nally conquering the Promised Land of
Canaan 40 years after their departure.
It is true that evidence for these events looks bleak when adopting the conventional thinking of an exodus during the days of Egypt’s greatest New Kingdom pharaoh,
Ramesses II (typically dated to the 13th century BC). However, as pro led in the lm Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus, when looking in earlier periods, a powerful
pattern of evidence tting the Bible’s account emerges. If the exodus occurred in this older period, it demonstrates that the majority view’s understanding of the Bible’s
timeline is o , or the dates assigned to ancient history and the archaeological levels in this region is o , or some combination of the two.
10 Artifacts Pointing to the Historicity of Exodus Events

Here Is a List of Ten Supportive Artifacts; Countless Millions of Facts and Artifacts Support Genuine
Biblical History.
Merneptah Stele
Mittelsaal House at Avaris
The Bahr Yussef
Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions
Brooklyn Papyrus
Shasu of YHWH Name Ring
Berlin Pedestal Stone Inscription
Palace, Tomb and Statue of a Semitic High O cial
Ipuwer Papyrus
Walls of Jericho
1. Merneptah Stele
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The section of the Merneptah Stele highlighting where “Israel” is mentioned. (© 2014, Patterns of Evidence LLC
Discovered in 1896 by pioneering Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, the Merneptah Stele (also pictured at the top of the article) has long been the most famous artifact
related to biblical history in the era of the exodus. Conventionally dated to 1208 BC, it was erected in the 5th year of Pharaoh Merneptah who was the son of Ramesses
II. The monument pronounces military victories over a series of enemies including the people of Israel living to the north of Egypt.
For more than a century, this was the oldest known inscription mentioning Israel. It shows that the Israelites were already in Canaan at this point, at least 40 years after
leaving Egypt according to biblical chronology. Scholars holding to a Ramesses exodus see this as evidence of an Egyptian attack shortly after the Israelites arrived in
Canaan. However, there is no record in the Bible of con ict with Egypt during the successful conquest of Canaan. Additionally, the fact that the stele depicts Israel as
an established power in the land suggests that this was actually long after the time of the exodus and conquest.
2. Mittelsaal House at Avaris
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Reconstruction of the Syrian style house at Avaris. (© 2014, Patterns of Evidence LLC.)
At least 650 years before the Merneptah Stele was erected, a Syrian-styled house was built in Egypt’s Nile Delta at the site of Avaris. Its remains were unearthed by a
team of Austrian excavators led by Manfred Bietak who recognized it as a “mittelsaalhaus” or “middle-room house.” It was part of a Semitic community that settled on
virgin grassland near one of the branches of the Nile River. By examining the cultural materials left behind, the excavators concluded that the people had come from the
Canaan area and settled with the permission of the Egyptian state – no walls surrounded this prosperous community.
In the Bible, Abraham had come from Haran in north Syria, his son Isaac got his bride from there as well, and his son Jacob had lived in Haran for 20 years where his rst
11 sons were born. When Jacob moved to Egypt during a drought with his family and ocks, Pharaoh freely gave him the best land in Egypt for grazing ocks. The Syrian-
styled house would have been just the type of structure one would expect the leader of this clan would build for himself.
3. The Joseph Canal (the Bahr Yussef)
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The Joseph Canal (Bahr Yusef) in Egypt runs parallel to the Nile River. (© David Down, used with permission)
In the same Middle Kingdom period as the mittelsaal house (Egypt’s 12th Dynasty), a canal was developed that ran parallel to the central portion of the Nile River for
about 100 miles before dumping into a large lake called the Fayum. We don’t have any record of what its name was at that time, but the Arabic name for it that goes
back over a thousand years is the “Bahr Yusef” or the Waterway (Canal) of Joseph.
Joseph was made second in command over all of Egypt for interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams of a coming 7-year terrible famine. Could this name be based on an older
tradition of a canal built by Joseph as part of the relief e orts for the great famine mentioned in the Bible? In Egypt, famine would occur with either extremely low or
extremely high levels of the annual Nile ood. A diversion canal leading to a reservoir would help combat either of those possibilities.
4. Proto-sinaitic Inscriptions
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Mine L at Serabit el-Khadim where ancient Semitic writing was discovered. (© David Rohl, used with permission)
Another discovery by Flinders Petrie and his wife Hilda was made on the Sinai Peninsula where ancient Egypt worked copper and turquoise mines. At the site of Serabit
el-Khadim, they found inscriptions made with a previously unknown writing system that became known as Proto-Sinaitic. As seen in the lm Patterns of Evidence: The
Moses Controversy it turned out that the writing used the world’s oldest alphabet, which was the father of all modern alphabets.
Intriguingly, the inscriptions were found to be in a Semitic language. Not only this, but the inscriptions rst showed up in Sinai and in Egypt-proper during the same
Middle Kingdom era as Joseph and his family, and they stopped being used in Egypt around the time of the exodus. Inscriptions in this same style (called Proto-
Canaanite when found in Canaan) then showed up later in the land of Israel. Some scholars have proposed that these writings were actually an early form of Hebrew and
that they have identi ed Hebrew words and messages.
5. Brooklyn Papyrus
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The Brooklyn Papyrus plates IX and VIII with the names Shiphrah, Asher, Menahem and Issachar highlighted. (© Images from the Brooklyn Museum, used with permission from book, A Papyrus of the
Late Middle Kingdom)
One of the most common charges against the Bible’s exodus account is that there is no evidence of a massive Semitic slave population in Egypt in the era of Pharaoh
Ramesses. However, in the earlier Middle Kingdom (13th Dynasty) there is evidence of Semitic settlements all across the northeast Nile Delta. A document from further
south at this time lists nearly a hundred slaves from a single estate – the majority of whom were Semitic.
The Bible says the Israelites became so numerous that they spread across Egypt. All the documents from the Nile Delta have rotted away because of the Nile oods that
covered the area annually for thousands of years. So, we have no written records from the Delta Egypt. But this slave list from the south has dozens of slaves including
the biblical forms of names like “Shiphrah” (the same name as the Hebrew midwife in the Exodus account), “Asher” and “Issachar.”
6. Shasu of Yhwh Name Ring
A portion of the remains of the ancient temple of Soleb (© Justin Ames, used with permission) and a reconstruction of the pillar bearing an inscription of the name ring “shasu of YHWH.” (© Benny
Bonte, used with permission)
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The Exodus account makes it clear (in Exodus 5:2) that Pharaoh had never heard of Israel’s God YHWH. Yet at the ancient temple of Soleb in modern Sudan, an
inscription from Pharaoh Amenhotep III (more than a hundred years before Ramesses II) lists enemies of Egypt. One of those enemies is the Shasu (nomads) of YHWH.
This is the oldest known inscription to use the name “YHWH,” showing that after the Exodus Israel’s God was no longer unknown to the pharaohs.
7. Berlin Pedestal Stone Inscription
The Berlin Pedestal with the name ring on the right mentioning “Israel.” (© Peter van der Veen, used with permission)
The Merneptah Stele no longer contains the oldest known mention of “Israel” in an ancient inscription. The Berlin Pedestal includes a set of name rings (each associated
with a depiction of a bound prisoner) of enemies in the Canaan area with damage to the right-hand ring in the image. A reconstruction of the name ring by German
Egyptologists Manfred Gorg, Peter van der Veen and Christo er Theis has shown that it names Israel. The date of the artifact is disputed, but most put it somewhere
around a century prior to Ramesses. If the Israelites were established in the Canaan area at that time, the Exodus would have happened at least 40 years before this
point.
8. Palace, Tomb and Statue of a Semitic High O cial
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Reconstruction of the statue of a Semitic High O cial found in the pyramid tomb at Avaris. (© 2014, Patterns of Evidence LLC.)
After the Mittelsaal house was demolished at Avaris, a new palace was constructed for a Semitic high o cial. The Bible states that Joseph was highly rewarded for his
saving Egypt from the famine. Could this palace have been part of that reward? Behind the palace was a set of 12 principal tombs with chapels associated with each.
One of these tombs was unique because it was in the form of a small pyramid with a statue of its occupant in the chapel. The statue had all the motifs designating a
Semitic gure from the Canaan area. This included a coat of many colors.
9. Ipuwer Papyrus
The Ipuwer Papyrus. (© National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, The Netherlands, used with permission)
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This common assessment is due to a perceived lack of evidence for the entire range of events in the Exodus Period from the Bible’s portrayal of the Israelites arrival in
Egypt, to their enslavement as their population exploded, to their departure en masse from a land devastated by plagues, to the feasibility of a journey across dry
wilderness areas like the Sinai and Negev, to nally conquering the Promised Land of Canaan 40 years after their departure.
Another common charge made against a biblical exodus is that no hint of anything like the disaster of the exodus is recorded in Egyptian documents from the time of
Ramesses. The calamities experienced by Egypt were so severe that their society would have collapsed. In fact, every one of the images of the Exodus plagues (from
locusts to frogs, hail, and waters turning to blood) is used in the Book of Revelation to describe events during the end times judgments.
A papyrus housed in the Leiden Museum in the Netherlands records a time of great calamities in Egypt and the resulting chaos that occurred when society had broken
down. Known as the Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage and also as the Ipuwer Papyrus, it uses several phrases early on that bear an uncanny similarity to the Exodus
account. These include the river turning to blood, darkness, all is ruin, wailing throughout the land with no shortage of the dead and the slave taking what he nds,
while gold, silver, and precious stones are strung on the necks of female slaves. The Bible recounts that the Israelites asked for silver and gold jewelry as they exited
Egypt, and the Egyptians gave them what they requested. More information on this and the other artifacts on the list can be found in the book Patterns of Evidence: The
Exodus.
While some scholars focus on the date of the copy of the Ipuwer Papyrus in the Leiden Museum (19th Dynasty – New Kingdom) and others speculate on what events the
document might be speaking of (most think it may refer to the collapse at the end of the Old Kingdom), the rst concern is to determine when the original story was
composed. The consensus of modern specialists is that what we have is a copy of an account originally composed very late in the Middle Kingdom – in line with the era
of the other pieces of evidence matching the Bible. For instance, the account mentions pyramid builders in the present tense, and the building of pyramids ceased at
the close of the 13th Dynasty.
10. Walls of Jericho
The revetment wall found during the excavations of Jericho. (public domain)
The Conquest of Canaan 40 Years after the Exodus:

Perhaps the biggest claim made against the Bible’s account exodus events is the lack of evidence matching the conquest of Canaan 40 years after the Exodus. However,
once again the evidence matching the Bible can be found, only centuries before the time of Ramesses.
The starkest example of this is the walls of Jericho. The Bible says the walls came tumbling down as the Israelites marched around the city, blew their trumpets and
shouted. They then burned the city. Archaeologists found that the high walls of the city did fall outward and down the slope that the city was built on. This would have
provided a convenient ramp for the Israelites to travel up to take the city. A very thick burn layer that took place after the walls came down and evidenced extremely high
temperatures convinced the excavators that the city was intentionally burned by an enemy. Other evidence such as uneaten and abundant grain stores show that the
city was taken after a very short siege, and after the spring grain harvest had come in – are evidence exactly matching the biblical account of a short siege soon after
Passover.
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The debate about the exact date of the nal city destruction at Jericho will continue, but there can be no doubt that the evidence matches the Bible in numerous,
speci c and unique ways. And it all happened centuries earlier than expected for one using the standard Ramesses view.
Final Thoughts on Biblical Paradigms and Presuppositions

Questioning entrenched paradigms and presuppositions can lead to seeing new alternatives and patterns that have been there all along, but not recognized for what they
may be. Having this mindset might even allow most scholars to view the Exodus account as being real history. – Keep Thinking!
TOP PHOTO: David Rohl and Timothy Mahoney visit a replica of the Merneptah Stele at Thebes where the original was found. (© 2014, Patterns of Evidence LLC.)
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2/17/2021 Top 10 Artifacts Show Biblical Exodus was Real History | Israel

BACK All Search

Challenges to the Biblical Exodus from Mainstream Academia

10 Artifacts Pointing to the Historicity of Exodus Events

2. Mittelsaal House at Avaris

3. The Joseph Canal (the Bahr Yussef)

6. Shasu of Yhwh Name Ring

7. Berlin Pedestal Stone Inscription

8. Palace, Tomb and Statue of a Semitic High O cial

10. Walls of Jericho

The Conquest of Canaan 40 Years after the Exodus:

Final Thoughts on Biblical Paradigms and Presuppositions

Newer Posts Older Posts

Sherds in the “Dirt” – part 2

Sherds in the “Word” – Part 1

TWENTY YEARS. FOUR FILMS. ONE MAN'S INVESTIGATIVE JOURNEY.

FILMS & PRODUCTS VISIT STORE

Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy

Curriculum Combo Pack-Patterns of Evidence: Young Explorers Season 1

The David Rohl Lectures (2 DVD Set)

The Lost Sea of the Exodus (Hardcover Book)

Directors Choice Edition (Blue-Ray)

JOIN OUR THINKER BLOG

I'm not a robot

CONTACT PASTOR’S PORTAL PRESS STORE

Thinking Man Films,

Copyright © 2021 Patterns of Evidence

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