Did the Exodus occur? This question has been asked in biblical
scholarship since its origin as a modern science. The desire to resolve
the question scientifically was a key component in the funding of
archaeological excavations in the nineteenth century. Egyptian
archaeologists routinely equated sites with their presumed biblical
counterpart. Initially, it was taken for granted that the Exodus had
occurred. It was simply a matter of finding the archaeological data to
prove it. So far, those results have been for naught.
*
The Exodus: An Egyptian Story* takes a very real-world approach to
understanding the Exodus. It is not a story of cosmic spectaculars that
miraculously or coincidentally occurred when a people prepared to leave
Egypt. There are no special effects in the telling of this story.
Instead, the story is told with real people in the real world doing what
real people do.
Peter Feinman does not rely on the biblical text and is not trying to
prove that the Bible is true. He places the Exodus within Egyptian
history based on the Egyptian archaeological record. It is a story of
the rejection of the Egyptian cultural construct and defiance of Ramses
II. Egyptologists, not biblical scholars, are the guides to telling the
Exodus story. What would you expect Ramses II to say after he had been
humiliated? If there is an Egyptian smoking gun for the Exodus, how
would you recognize it? To answer these questions requires us to take
the Exodus seriously as a major event at the royal level in Egyptian
history.
