In his book Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus, Gmirkin “argues that the Hebrew Pentateuch was composed in its entirety about 273–272 BCE by Jewish scholars at Alexandria that in later traditions have been credited with the Septuagint translation of the Pentateuch into Greek.”
As important as the texts claimed to contain germ verses about a supposed “historical” exodus are various records of relevant eras devoid of such tales. For example, along with Psalm 78—which attributes the miracles in the Exodus account to Yahweh himself and never mentions Moses—a peculiar lack of the Exodus in the literary record occurs in the biblical book of Judges, which purports to record the first organized era after the Israelites’ arrival in Canaan.
Current scholarship demonstrating the non-historicity of the Pentateuch includes discussion of the “Song of Moses” at Deuteronomy 32:1–43, a lengthy recitation clearly not composed by a historical Moses.
32 Listen, you heavens, and I will speak; hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.
2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. Deuteronomy 32:1-2
Russell cites Psalm 78 along with several others as influenced by the Song of the Sea at Exodus 15. This psalm has composition date of the late eighth century BCE, a date “following the fall of the Northern Kingdom.” Thus, Psalm 78 may have been reworked during Hezekiah’s reign, based on the Song, created centuries earlier.
“Except for the biblical story there is no literary evidence that there was ever an Egyptian Sojourn and Exodus as described in the Bible. This is true regardless of the date one assumes for the event, if there was such an ‘event’ at all.”
Dr. John C. H. Laughlin, Archaeology and the Bible (87)
This archetypal good-versus-evil conflict is represented in the myths of many cultures, such as:
Apollo and Python
Baal and Yamm
Bel and Thamti
Beowulf and Grendel
Byelobog and Chernobog
Daniel and the Dragon
Dionysus and Pentheus
Enki and the Dragon of Kur
Indra and Vritra
Kronos and Ophion
Marduk and Tiamat
Mithra and Ahriman
Mordecai and Haman
Moses and Pharaoh
Osiris/Horus and Seth
Perseus and Gorgon
Absent in Judges, the earliest that traces of the Exodus story can be discerned is the eighth century, in the writings of the biblical prophets:
The Rabbis will tell you that Moses wrote the Book of Exodus even though it describes events many centuries after the purported life and death of Moses. Exodus is referred to as the First Book of the Law. But Moses also wrote the Second Book of the Law named Deuteronomy, as is plainly stated in the following verses;
24 And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,
Attributing the Pentateuch to a historical lawgiver of the 17th to 13th centuries BCE— represents a wide range of dates given for Moses’s era, reflecting its lack of solid historical foundation. Some scholars support dates for certain books and authors ranging from the 10th to seventh centuries BCE, with parts of it even older. Others consider the majority of the Pentateuch to have been written between the Babylonian exile/captivity (6th century), and the third century BCE. Other OT books, such as Esther (5th–1st centuries BCE) and Daniel (c.
“...Moses, or the compiler of the Book of Genesis, whoever he may have been, manifests a familiar acquaintance with the religious epics of Babylonia, which go back to the twenty-third century B.C., to a date, i.e., about 800 years earlier than the reputed time of Moses. By being worked into these early Hebrew documents, Babylonian ideas were ensured persistence and obtained a worldwide currency.”
Rev. Dr. A. Smythe Palmer, Babylonian Influence on the Bible and Popular Beliefs (3–4)
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