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I've been fascinated by this argument for a few years. An "ask a historian" thread on Reddit asked an important question: "Would a kingdom, that chased slaves o

I've been fascinated by this argument for a few years. An "ask a historian" thread on Reddit asked an important question: "Would a kingdom, that chased slaves out of Egypt, only to be met with massive defeat, record that history?". I know nothing about Egyptology, so I'd ask, "did Egyptians, as a general rule, record any of their defeats?" From my limited Google searches, they did not. So the question becomes, is there any evidence of semitic people living in Egypt. That seems to be argued a bit more.

netcan 6y ago
There is lots of evidence of semitic people in egypt over various periods. Also egyptian conquests & long lived administrations in these regions. "Semitic," as a language group is pretty big. There are also semitic languages spoken to the south of egypt, who were also interacting a lot with egypt. The Egyptians glorified their history like any political culture does, but massive defeats don't go unrecorded. They just make them seem like wins.^ In the relevant period, egypt (and the whole region) went through extreme instability. Historians don't totally understand it, and people then may not have either. But, there's lots of historical record of chaos and defeat. There are even surviving letters between besieged nobles candidly admitting major losses. I think it's more likely that exodus was just a much bigger deal to the Israelites than it was to Egyptians. To Egypt, it was no big deal. If Pharoah really had witnessed the sea part, and an angry god destroying his army... there would be a relief. Egyptians recorded noteworthy events. That said, it was a declining period and the egyptian record is patchy during these times. ^EG https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seev%C3%B6lker.jpg#/media/File:Seevölker.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seev%C3%B6lker.jpg#/...
- KMag 6y ago
  By "there would be a relief", I presume you mean "they would have created a relief sculpture", rather than "they would have felt emotional relief". As written the sentence is ambiguous, and right at the point where you pivot from evidence supporting the slave escape narrative to evidence contradicting the slave escape narrative, so I can't be certain my reading is correct despite it fitting much better with the following sentence.
  - netcan 6y ago
    Yes. I meant statuary, obviously. I also meant it as a joke.

netcan 6y ago

There is lots of evidence of semitic people in egypt over various periods. Also egyptian conquests & long lived administrations in these regions. "Semitic," as a language group is pretty big. There are also semitic languages spoken to the south of egypt, who were also interacting a lot with egypt. The Egyptians glorified their history like any political culture does, but massive defeats don't go unrecorded. They just make them seem like wins.^ In the relevant period, egypt (and the whole region) went through extreme instability. Historians don't totally understand it, and people then may not have either. But, there's lots of historical record of chaos and defeat. There are even surviving letters between besieged nobles candidly admitting major losses. I think it's more likely that exodus was just a much bigger deal to the Israelites than it was to Egyptians. To Egypt, it was no big deal. If Pharoah really had witnessed the sea part, and an angry god destroying his army... there would be a relief. Egyptians recorded noteworthy events. That said, it was a declining period and the egyptian record is patchy during these times. ^EG https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seev%C3%B6lker.jpg#/media/File:Seevölker.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seev%C3%B6lker.jpg#/...

KMag 6y ago
By "there would be a relief", I presume you mean "they would have created a relief sculpture", rather than "they would have felt emotional relief". As written the sentence is ambiguous, and right at the point where you pivot from evidence supporting the slave escape narrative to evidence contradicting the slave escape narrative, so I can't be certain my reading is correct despite it fitting much better with the following sentence.
- netcan 6y ago
  Yes. I meant statuary, obviously. I also meant it as a joke.